Sussex County will settle with litigants in a yearslong debate over real estate assessments used by Delaware’s counties to calculate annual tax bills, paving the way for a new valuation of all county properties by mid-2024. At its weekly meeting last week, County Council voted to enter into a settlement agreement with plaintiffs — Delawareans for Educational Opportunity and the NAACP Delaware Conference of Branches — in the education-funding lawsuit brought against Sussex, as well as the state and its other counties, in the Court of Chancery in 2018. The suit alleges that an inadequate and outdated model for valuing property shortchanges Delaware students and public schools. Despite the county’s challenge to the litigants’ claims, the court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs last year, then ordered all parties to work toward a remedy. Council’s action brings to a close the legal wrangling over the issue and lays the groundwork for Sussex County to move forward on a general reassessment of all properties, to be completed in time for tax bills to be issued in the latter half of 2024. Sussex County has joined Kent and New Castle counties, as well as the state, in settling their respective portions of the litigation.
