Editor’s note: The following was also sent to several elected officials, school board members and state education leaders Aug. 5.
I am writing as a Middletown and Millsboro homeowner, as well as a lifelong Delaware taxpayer, to express outrage over the flawed property reassessments carried out by Tyler Technologies and the 10% school tax hike that followed without adequate notice, justification or public input.
The reassessment process was not only unfair; it was insulting. My homes, like many in my communities, were assigned a sharply increased value that doesn’t reflect the market nor the condition of the property. There was no transparency, no clear formula and no realistic appeals process.
What’s even more disturbing is the pattern that’s now emerged: Prominent figures in Delaware, including former President Joe Biden and Sen. Sarah McBride, D-Del., received shockingly low assessments on their high-value properties. Major corporations like Amazon and Costco also appear to have benefited from disproportionately favorable valuations.
Meanwhile, everyday working families like mine are shouldering the burden.
This reeks of insider favoritism and systemic abuse. It undermines trust in every level of government and widens the gap between public servants and the people they supposedly serve.
I am formally demanding:
We are not going away. We are organizing. We are watching. And we will not be silent while government agencies continue to penalize the middle class and pad the portfolios of the politically protected.
Cynthia F. Blevins
Middletown
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
