Appoquinimink School Board approved a split tax rate at its special meeting Thursday, relieving residential property owners’ tax burden by 9% compared to post-reassessment numbers.
Commercial property owners were responsible for 13.9% of the tax burden pre-reassessment, but that dropped to 10.5% after reassessment. The new tax split pushed the commercial burden to 19%.
Appoquinimink residents will still see a 10% tax rate increase following reassessment, largely to make up for a $1.2 million accounting error. That increase is only allowed without a referendum in reassessment years.
Board member Tim Higgins said he hasn’t been able to respond to calls yet because he was out of town.
“With all the emails, phone calls, stopping at Sprouts, wherever,” Higgins said. “We do feel it, and we're part of the community, and we hear you. And we are trying to do our best to be the best stewards with the funds of our community.”
The Delaware Auditor’s Office is conducting a special inquiry into the school district and said it expects to publish in the next month. The district and schools are also still subject to annual audits.
Board vice president Tashiba Graham said a comment from last week’s meeting stuck with her. The commenter said they were losing confidence in the Board.
“We are committed to restoring that confidence,” Graham said. “We certainly own what has happened as an entire leadership team.… We own this entire process from beginning to end. We are looking forward to the external audits that are happening next month.”
Another commenter last week said they thought Board members were taking the situation too lightly and being dismissive.
“I think we have demonstrated that we are taking active steps to mitigate this,” Graham said. “We have a new financial leader sitting here to my left. We're working on our Financial Advisory Committee group and then we as a Board are committed to just continuing to learn and support each other in this and being able to kind of sit here before all of you and take the necessary steps.”
Graham added Board members will continue to work toward sound practices going forward.
