A new working group will suggest statewide standards for property reassessment, per a piece of legislation passed in June.
Local officials and state lawmakers held their first meeting to examine a path forward for property reassessment in the First State after the state's three counties conducted the first reassessments done in decades between 2023 to 2024.
State Rep. Cyndie Romer (D-Newark), who chairs the group, said its goal is to improve the process now that counties must conduct reassessments every five years. The legislation that created the task force says standards going forward need to follow those set by the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO).
"We're going to have to figure out as a group is where do we want this state oversight to lie," she said.
Some states have assessment departments, while some house oversight in the division of revenue or land use, she said. "This is for us to create. It's for us to figure out where it makes sense."
Romer said standards also need to preserve county autonomy to conduct assessments. The group will meet once every two weeks.
State Rep. Jeff Spiegelman (R-Clayton), a property appraiser, said if the group recommends changes to Delaware’s property and deed recording, it should get feedback from people who operate those systems, such as deed recorders.
"We just want to make sure if we're heading in that direction that we get to it early before we have something that we're married to," he said.
New Castle County still has up to 55 hundred appeals to work through from its property reassessment, which resulted in unequal increases for homeowners and businesses. The task force plans to incorporate feedback on issues there and lessons learned, including the city of Wilmington’s perspective.
A separate working group created this year plans to address broader tax policy reforms and relief measures and offer recommendations. That group, led by State Rep. Eric Morrison (D-Glasgow), has yet to meet.
In the most recent reassessment, each county had a separate contract with Tyler Technology. Romer said the International Association of Assessing Officers will review the assessments and data Tyler Technology provided and offer input to help inform the working group’s legislative recommendations.
