New Castle County residents will get a slight break on next year’s property tax bill according to County Executive Matt Meyer’s budget proposal for the 2024 fiscal year, unveiled Tuesday evening.
Meyer is proposing a one-time 5% tax credit for New Castle County residential property owners for the 2024 fiscal year to help offset the rise in inflation.
During the address, Meyer ensured that the state of county finances was strong in spite of inflationary pressures. New Castle County had over $150 million in tax reserves, from which Meyer proposes to use around $4.6 million to give back to the county’s residential property owners.
No tax or fee increases were announced.
“Even with additional investments in county core functions, we simply do not need to collect as much money from our residents this year,” Meyer said during his address.
The proposed total operating budget for 2024 is $331.4 million, around a 6% increase from last year. Further investments will be made to address public safety, affordable housing, libraries and parks.
The County Council will debate the proposals outlined in the address over the next few months before it votes on a final spending plan before the July 1 start of the next fiscal year.
Here are some of the highlights of Meyer’s budget:
How will the tax credit work?
The 5% tax credit will be applied to 2024 annual property tax bills and is only applicable to owners of residential property.
The median property tax for homes outside of incorporated areas is about $530 a year. If this tax credit is approved, the average unincorporated property owner would save around $26.
Residents in incorporated New Castle County (Wilmington, Newark, etc.) would save less.
For homeowners paying property taxes through their mortgage companies, the savings would be seen in your escrow account.
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Public safety
Hiring and retaining employees in the public safety sector has been a concern for New Castle County. Meyer wants to increase compensation for paramedics, police officers and sewer workers to help retain workers and recruit new ones.
Meyer also announced a $200,000 proposed fire service study to help understand the root causes for decreased volunteer numbers, increased costs and decreased revenues.
And construction will begin this year on a multimillion-dollar emergency vehicle operations facility to train public safety officers statewide on safe emergency driving.
Parks, recreation and open space
As a part of the county’s “NCC at 2050” comprehensive plan initiative to preserve at least 30% of land as open space, Meyer proposed a $1 million investment in open space preservation and an additional $1.5 million in farmland preservation.
In 2023, the county allocated $2.5 million to preservation efforts and partnered with Delaware Wildlands to preserve over 240 acres of wildlife habitat and fertile farmland in southern New Castle County.
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Investments in new and existing parks include a new park south of the canal that will open in the Middletown area this summer. Additional funds will be set aside to maintain this new park and Meyer spoke about setting future sights on a second park in the area.
Further investments were proposed for maintaining existing parks. Delcastle Park will also undergo an overhaul of its softball fields, improving Surratte Park in New Castle, installing a second turf soccer field at Banning Park and build 25 new pickleball courts across the county.
Meyer also mentioned that the master planning process for Prest Park in the Red Lion area should kick off soon, after the initial announcement around six years ago.
New facilities
Last year’s budget address introduced the $24 million Appoquinimink Library project in Middletown, which has generated over 83,000 visits.
In response to the success of the renovated library, Meyer proposed a project to refurbish the Newark Library in a multimillion-dollar renovation with hopes to kick off the design phase in the coming months.
Around a million dollars has also been proposed to help fund an indoor track facility. There is no other professional grade indoor track in the state, and the demand from local high school teams has remained high. Meyer mentioned that this investment would hopefully drive up tourism from visitors using nearby hotels and restaurants. Additional funders for this project are still being gauged.
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Contact Molly McVety at mmcvety@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @mollymcvety
