Why did my New Castle County tax bill go up?

Two separate things happened, one after the other. It helps to keep them apart.

First, the reassessment. New Castle County had not done a general property reassessment in more than forty years. A 2021 Court of Chancery settlement required one. The county hired Tyler Technologies to put a current value on every property, and tentative values went out in November 2024. Every property is now assessed at 100 percent of its fair market value as of July 1, 2024.

Second, the tax increase. That’s separate, and it came later. On May 26, 2026, county council raised the county property tax rate by 17.2 percent and sewer consumption rates by 5 percent.

Most households felt both, back to back.

Why did homes go up while big commercial properties went down?

Because home values had risen far more since 1983 than the county’s books ever reflected. When every property was finally re-priced at once, the shift was dramatic. County Executive Marcus Henry told a special legislative committee that average residential assessments rose 477 percent, while average non-residential assessments rose 233 percent.

The practical effect: homeowners went from carrying roughly two thirds of the property tax burden to roughly three quarters of it. Some well known commercial properties saw their assessments go down.

One point in fairness to the county. A reassessment is not supposed to be a tax increase, and for 2025 the county did adopt what it called a revenue neutral strategy. It did not collect more property tax revenue in 2025 than in 2024. The problem was never that the county collected more. It’s that the same total got redistributed onto homeowners in a single year, and nobody at the county saw it coming or warned anybody.

What was the emergency special session about?

The first bills went out in July 2025 and the reaction was immediate. On August 12, 2025 the General Assembly held a special session and passed House Bill 242, letting New Castle County school districts charge different rates for residential and non-residential property.

School districts then had to redo rates they had already mailed. All five adopted split rates. A group of apartment and mobile home operators sued to overturn the law. The Court of Chancery upheld it in October 2025 and the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed in November. The county had to reissue bills, and Senate Bill 206 pushed the payment deadline all the way to December 31, 2025.

At legislative hearings, Kent and Sussex counties were praised for how they communicated with residents. New Castle County was criticized for a lack of transparency.

What is the 17 percent county tax increase?

In his March 2026 budget address, the county executive announced a $42 million structural deficit. It came from years of covering permanent, every year costs with one time federal pandemic money. When that money ran out, the costs stayed. In his own words, the deficit turned out to be “much, much larger than what I was shown.”

His fix was a 17.2 percent property tax increase, raising about $23 million toward the $42 million gap. On May 26, 2026, council passed it 11 to 2. It was the first county property tax increase since 2019. For the median county home, assessed around $378,100, that is about $102 more per year, roughly $8.50 a month, on top of whatever the reassessment did.

To close the rest of the gap, the county also cut about 10 percent from library budgets, $2.5 million from open space and Agricultural Preservation, and $2.8 million from Community Services, and left 56 positions unfunded.

One of the two members who voted no, a Democrat, said the deficit came from “kicking the can down the road,” and that the vote told residents they had to foot the bill for a government that had been incompetent. His words: “Eventually this charade has to stop.”

And the sewer increase?

The same budget raised sewer consumption rates by 5 percent, effective July 1, 2026. The county puts the average impact at about $13.70 a year. Like the property tax, it was the first sewer rate increase since 2019.

On its own that is a small number, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. It matters because of the timing. Property taxes and sewer rates went up in the same vote, on the same night, on top of a reassessment year. For a household on a fixed income in Brandywine Hundred, those don’t arrive as separate line items. They arrive as one bill that is bigger than last year’s.

Who actually controls what

This part matters, and most campaign literature won’t tell you straight. Your total property tax bill has several pieces and the county controls only one of them.

  • County property tax rate, sewer rates, and the county budget. Set by county council. That is the job on this ballot.
  • School taxes. The largest share of most bills, and not the county’s decision. Rates are set by school boards. The county’s own bill explainer tells residents to contact their school district or NCC Vo-Tech with questions, because “New Castle County is only the billing administrator for school taxes.”
  • Your assessed value. Produced by the county’s reassessment process and its vendor, which county council is responsible for overseeing. That is where the oversight failed.
  • Roads. DelDOT maintains 89 percent of Delaware’s roadways. We’re one of only about three states where the state maintains essentially the entire public road network. Your county councilman doesn’t pave your street.

Any candidate who promises to fix all of it is either confused or counting on you being confused. What a councilman can actually do is vote on the county’s own rates and budget, demand real oversight of county spending and county vendors, insist the next reassessment is handled competently, and help you get an answer when the county owes you one.

How do I appeal my assessment?

Where things stand right now · July 2026

The 2026 appeal window has closed. It ended March 14, 2026. Appeals filed after the deadline get held over to the next year, with no retroactive relief.

The next window opens January 1, 2027, with a deadline of March 14, 2027 at 4:00 p.m.

But a factual error on your property record can be fixed any time. No deadline, no appeal required. See below.

Fix a factual error. Any time, no deadline.

This is the part most people miss. If the county’s record of your property is simply wrong, wrong square footage, wrong number of bedrooms, wrong condition, a finished basement you don’t have, New Castle County says you can ask for a correction by contacting the Assessment Office directly, whether or not you filed an appeal on time.

Start there before anything else. A factual error is the easiest thing to get fixed and it doesn’t require a hearing.

File a formal appeal. January 1 to March 14.

Formal appeals go to the Board of Assessment Review, which is independent of the Assessment Division. The Board can lower an assessment. By rule it cannot raise one. There is no cost to appeal.

  • Deadline. March 14 each year, received by 4:00 p.m. A postmark doesn’t count. It has to actually get there.
  • Where to send it. Email BOARAppeals@newcastlede.gov, or deliver by hand or mail to the Office of Finance, Assessment Division, New Castle County Government Center, 87 Reads Way, New Castle, DE 19720.
  • Forms. Residential Appeal Application (PDF) and Non-Residential Appeal Application (PDF).
  • Bring your evidence up front. Only evidence submitted with your original appeal form can be discussed at the hearing. Comparable sales, photographs, repair estimates, an appraisal. Assemble it before you file, not after.
  • Know the standard. Your assessment is meant to reflect 100 percent of fair market value as of July 1, 2024. That’s the number you’re arguing about. Not what your house is worth today, and not what your tax bill says.
  • One form per parcel, filled out completely. An incomplete form can be denied as deficient without a hearing on the merits.

If the Board rules against you, its decision can be appealed to Delaware Superior Court within 30 days.

If you’re 65 or older

Delaware offers a Senior School Property Tax Credit, and House Bill 159 expanded school tax relief. The county executive reported that more than 7,000 New Castle County seniors qualified. Eligibility and application deadlines are separate from the appeal process. Check the county’s exemptions page or call Assessment at (302) 395-5520.

Official pages. Go straight to the source.

Deadlines and forms are set by the county and they change. Always confirm on the county’s own pages before you file. Official information beats a campaign website, including this one. And if you’re stuck finding the right office, get in touch. That’s constituent service, and it shouldn’t require an election.

What happens next, and what I’d do

By law, reassessment now comes around every five years. The next one lands about 2030. The question isn’t whether it happens. It’s whether anyone is watching this time.

In 2022 I ran for this same seat and said the county needed an independent group to analyze the budget and forecast our financial health, specifically to prevent future property and sewer tax increases. That was before the reassessment bills, before the special session, before the lawsuits, before the 17 percent and the 5 percent. I lost, and none of it got done.

So here’s the plan, and the order matters:

  • Audit the waste. A full public performance audit of county government.
  • Collect what’s already owed. Unpaid fees, fines, and licensing obligations.
  • Make public assets earn. Grants, leases, and land that costs less to keep.
  • Grow the tax base, not the tax rate. More taxpayers, not higher taxes on the ones already here.

All four come before anyone reaches into your pocket again.

Read the full plan How to vote