Smyrna Town Council hears more about a proposal to use assessment data from Kent and New Castle Counties for its property tax bills, but doesn’t take action.
The town hasn’t undertaken its own property reassessment since 2006, and to update the values of all of the town’s taxable property would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. By contrast, New Castle County would give its assessment data to Smyrna at no cost, while Kent might charge a small fee.
Council members discussed using county numbers at a meeting earlier this month, but hesitated to move ahead. One council member, Ken Olson, pushed back against the idea on a number of fronts, like the effects on a mobile home community that is home to a number of senior citizens.
During public comment, council members heard from Vicky Blair, who suggested that holding off using county data would be “shortsighted.”
“The town needs to look at what's best for everybody, not just a small group,” Blair said. “Because if you pull out a small group and you save them money, you have to make up the money somewhere else, which is going to affect everybody else that lives in this town.”
If Smyrna officials opt to use assessment data from Kent and New Castle Counties, property valuations would likely increase dramatically for most properties, since the town's last full reassessment is more than 20 years old.
But, if Smyrna uses county data to recalculate their property tax bills, the result would have to be revenue neutral. That means the town can’t raise more revenue with the new numbers than it did in the previous year. As a result, the actual tax rate would drop, also dramatically.
The town’s finance director, Kathleen Acevedo, gave council members a rundown of the current numbers.
“Current tax revenue is $10.2 million, current tax rate is 94 cents per $100,” she explained.
One proposal suggested by Acevedo would drop the tax rate from 94 cents per $100 of assessed value to just 59 cents, a 37% decrease to offset the projected higher valuations.
But revenue neutrality doesn’t mean that individual property tax bills would stay the same. Some would go up and others would go down.
One complication facing Smyrna is that it spans two counties. That might give the town the option of using different rates in Kent and New Castle County. But that possibility raised concerns from the town’s solicitor, Acevedo said.
“He's requested us look into the single tax rate just for potential litigation purposes,” she told council members “It also makes billing a lot easier to just have the one tax rate.”
Council members had few questions and no comments to offer. The town must decide before February 1st if they want to use county assessment data.
