Starting next year, several New Castle County residents will see a small increase on their property tax bill, while others will see a decrease or no change as part of a realignment on how residents pay for county services.
Most of these changes relate to how taxpayers pay for New Castle County police services.
Around two years ago the county reevaluated how tax rates were set, which led to new laws dictating how to “equitably distribute” fire protection services. Following this change, a task force was created to reevaluate how to best set rates for the remaining local services provided by the county. The upcoming 2023 fiscal year will be the first time these new rates will be put into effect.
Newark and Wilmington are exempt from this because their police force and local services are not provided by the county, but are managed within each respective city.
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The areas with the highest local service tax on police operations are Arden, Ardencroft, Ardentown, Bellefonte, and unincorporated areas of New Castle County. New Castle County CFO Michael Smith explained the reasoning behind some of these increases.
“Up until this year, if you’re in an unincorporated area, the three Ardens, or Bellefonte, 100% of police operations were paid in the tax base,” Smith said. “Now if you’re in a municipality and you’re receiving some of these services – police support, police patrol, 911 dispatch – you now have to pay your fair share for that.”
The areas with the lowest median taxable assessed values are Wilmington, Elsmere, Newport, and Delaware City. These areas are estimated to experience the greatest increase in taxes for the 2023 fiscal year, with the exception of Wilmington, whose rate has not changed.
Delaware City residents are seeing the highest increase to cover the new costs of New Castle County patrols supplementing their part-time police force.
The areas estimated to experience the largest tax decreases in New Castle County for the 2023 fiscal year are Arden (-$10 for a median assessed property), Townsend (-$10), and Ardentown (-$9).
Where will the money from the tax increase go?
Out of all local services, police operations will experience the most real property tax revenue, an estimated $62.9 million for the 2023 fiscal year. The second-most financed local service, 911 communications, is around 10 times less at an estimated $6.2 million.
Other local services financed by tax revenues include recreation ($5.2 million), fire protection ($3.4 million), local parks ($2.6 million), code enforcement ($2.4 million), planning services ($1.7 million) and dog control services ($1.7 million).
Not all towns in New Castle County pay for all of these services. For example, unincorporated areas finance all of the above categories with their taxes, but property tax revenue in Middletown only goes toward dog control services and 911 communications.
New Castle County is also in the data collection stage of the property reassessment process, meaning the tax rates will eventually go through another change. According to Smith, the reassessment should be completed and reflected in tax bills by around 2025. The results of this assessment have the potential to change the property taxes in the county in the future. However, the recent change in taxes do not have to do with this process.
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Calculate your property tax change
If you want to calculate the change to your tax bill, below are the increases or decreases per $100 of your assessed property value:
- Delaware City, 19.73 cents
- Elsmere, 7.58 cents
- Middletown, 1.95 cents
- New Castle, 3.56 cents
- Newport, 11.94 cents
- Unincorporated areas of New Castle County, -45 cents
- Arden, -1.80 cents
- Ardencroft, -1.18 cents
- Bellefonte, -0.13 cents
- Odessa, -0.52 cents
- Townsend, -1.01 cents
