New Castle County Executive Marcus Henry’s FY 2027 budget plan has a substantial tax increase and spending cuts, but why are those fixes needed?
Henry says the county’s $42 million deficit stems from issues like using one-time federal relief funds to cover recurring operating expenses, while using reserves to fund permanent costs.
Henry offers one example of how that played out.
"There was an increase back in 2024 where the police salary compensation that was paid for out of tax stabilization reserve funds, which is not something you typically do to pay for operational expenses. So that was like $8.5-9 million that came on to the operational budget, when I took office, along with all the other increases that we've seen," said Henry.
Other issues include Former County Exec and current Gov. Matt Meyer’s 2024 one time five percent property tax credit which cost the county $6 million and $2.5 million to pay for issues, appeals, and litigation costs associated with the reassessment process.
Henry is proposing a series of moves to close the budget gap including the 17.2% property tax increase and defunding 56 vacant non-essential jobs.
Those vacant jobs not being filled creates a savings of $5.7 million for the county.
While he proposed defunding vacant jobs, one thing Henry did not think about is layoffs or salary cuts.
"I was against that. Because one, we're collectively bargained by 84% of our workforce is unionized, and these contracts are negotiated. And I feel that there was a way to do this without layoffs, and I want to be fair to our county employees. They did not ask for this. They've been hard-working. I did not want to do this on the back of our employees," said Henry.
The county will also close libraries one day per week to help save money and some projects have been delayed a year including the Glasgow Library and Southern Paramedic Station.
Henry also proposes cuts to community services programs and will cancel some special events like “Sleep under the Stars.”
Additional information:
Henry will hold five town hall meetings on his budget proposal. The first is this Tuesday April 7th at the Appoquinimink Library at 5 p.m.
The others are :
- Monday, April 13 - 6 p.m.
Claymont Library
400 Lenape Way, Claymont, DE - Tuesday, April 28 - 6 p.m.
Route 9 Library
3022 New Castle Ave, New Castle, DE - Monday, May 4th - 6 p.m.
Delaware Tech - Wilmington Campus
300 Orange St. Wilmington, DE 19801 - Tuesday, May 19 - 6 p.m.
Hockessin Library
1023 Valley Road, Hockessin, DE
