House lawmakers made changes to a bill aimed at fixing property assessment inequalities in Delaware’s three counties.
SB 230 requires businesses to share requested financial information with appropriate county authorities, if the county uses income the property generates to determine its fair market value.
The bill, sponsored by State Sen. Spiros Mantzavinos (D-Elsmere), gives counties power to subpoena a business, meaning compel it to provide information.
The Senate passed the bill with only Democratic support in January.
House Amendment 1
Its co-sponsor in the House Frank Burns (D-Newark) offered an amendment that he said "now directly states" application, enforcement and limitations that were "implicit" or "implied" in the bill before.
Burns told the house chamber that his amendment clarifies the process to object or request exception to a county's property assessment subpoena.
These will be handled under the Delaware court's rules for administrative subpoenas.
"Before it just said that enforcement would be through superior court," Burns said. "But House Amendment 1 explicitly says how you can go about, basically quashing the subpoena if you so desired."
The amendment also calls for SB 230 to expire after two years, unless lawmakers vote to extend it.
County authorities can only use financial information to determine fair market value for nonresidential properties. And any records produced under this process for property assessment are "explicitly" removed from definition of public records under the Freedom of Information Act.
The bill with the amendment passed 37 yes and 4 absent. It heads back to the state Senate with the House amendment for approval.
Minority Whip Jeff Spiegelman: "doing the process the right way"
Another bill related to property assessment, specific to New Castle County, passed without Governor Matt Meyer’s signature or republican approval last month, before the General Assembly recessed for Joint Finance Committee hearings.
House Minority Whip Jeff Spiegelman (R- Clayton) said he's glad SB 230 didn't go the same way, and that the House took time to add Burns' amendment.
He thanked House Speaker Melissa Minor-Brown (D-New Castle) and House Majority Leader Kerri Evelyn Harris (D-Dover) for responding to concerns he and other house republicans raised.
"I'd like to publicly thank you for doing the process the right way," he said..."this bill was pulled from the agenda and was not run in order to get it right over the Joint Finance break," he said, which resulted in HA 1.
The bill with the amendment passed 37 yes and 4 absent in the house Tuesday. It heads back to the state Senate with the House amendment for approval.
Each county is slated to conduct their next property assessment in 2029-2030. For Kent that will be in 2029. For NCC and Sussex that will be in 2030.
