New Castle County extended its sewer bill due date to March 31, one month later than the original date Feb. 28.
County officials expect to mail sewer bills to residents in the last week of January.
New Castle County CFO Dave Del Grande said he recognizes the usual timeline is a quick turnaround for most people.
“Christmas came around, holidays and so forth,” Del Grande said. “So we didn't want to necessarily send out a sewer bill that had a short window on it when we can easily extend the timeline another 30 days to help everyone work through the tax and sewer process together.”
New Castle County has about 100 thousand sewer customers, and County staff are still working on processing property tax payments from many of the same people that were due Dec. 31.
County Executive Marcus Henry says the change is meant to account for changes in property taxes over the last few months.
The move will also help Treasury staff, according to Del Grande.
“I have the same people in my treasury unit who are processing both the tax bills and the sewer bills,” Del Grande said. “So it does give us a break – I don’t want to say a break – but it gives us a little bit of relief, about a couple extra week’s window internally to help stage the bills and get those things ready.”
Del Grande added the County wants to give residents some leniency.
“The Henry Administration is doing everything they can to ensure that those who were impacted with the change in the tax bill deadlines are given a little bit more assistance with covering their sewer obligation.”
Residents who overpaid their property taxes will have a credit on their tax account, giving them the option to use credits for the sewer bill.
Del Grande invited anyone with questions or concerns over their bill to reach out via email at treasury@newcastlede.gov or to call at 302-395-5340.
