Smyrna Town Council puts the brakes on a move to use reassessment data from Kent and New Castle County to determine its property tax rates.
Smyrna is one of many towns and cities across the state pondering whether to use county property assessment data, and like many of those municipalities, Smyrna’s current validations are significantly out of date. The last town property assessments were done in 2006, using data from 2004 and 2005. The town’s data is updated regularly, but only for new buildings. Kathleen Acevedo, Smyrna’s finance director, says that leads to serious inequities, with most property still valued as it was more than 20 years ago and other properties reflecting more recent conditions.
If Smyrna was to undertake its own reassessment, the cost would take a large chunk out of the town’s budget.
“A new town-wide assessment would cost us a minimum of $500,000 with a yearly cost of $20,000 to maintain it,” Acevedo said. “That would be all of the new reassessments on new properties, any completed permits and such.”
New Castle County offers its data to cities and towns for free, while Kent County charges a nominal fee.
Making the switch to county data would also have an effect on Smyrna’s borrowing limit. By law, the town can only carry long-term debt to an amount no more than 4.5% of the value of all the property in the town. Right now, that limits the town’s debt to about $56 million without going to the voters for a referendum. Moving to county assessments would raise the total value of the town’s taxable property, and along with it, the amount of debt Smyrna can take on.
That is especially important because the city has two major projects in the works - a substation already approved by town council members, and a PFAS water treatment plant required by state regulations. Those two projects would likely swallow up all the debt the town can carry under its current assessments, leaving it little or no room to borrow for emergencies and continuing infrastructure needs.
Much of the opposition to the proposal to use Kent and New Castle County data came from Councilman Ken Olson. He defended the status quo.
“I don't see the urgency of doing it right now anyway,” he said. “It's just so we don't have to have referendums for assuming more debt.”
But Town Solicitor D. Barrett Edwards pushed back on that assertion. Raising the town’s debt ceiling would be an effect, he noted, but the decision in front of town council had different stakes.
“We have to do a reassessment one way or the other,” he said. “We can do it ourself, or we can adopt Kent County and New Castle County, but right now our property tax assessments are based on 2005 values, and we need to bring those into 2026 values.”
And, he said, not doing so could create legal problems for Smyrna.
"Someone could come along and try to challenge our assessment process,” Edwards said.
Council members also had concerns about how much property tax bills could jump for some property owners, with Olson and others specifically mentioning Bon Ayre, a manufactured home community for seniors.
Councilman Nick Miles suggested postponing a vote until early November and using the time before that vote to communicate with and educate the public. That motion was passed easily.
