On Aug. 12, the Delaware General Assembly will hold a special session to discuss concern surrounding property reassessments that many legislators say have hiked property taxes for landowners. How do you feel about your assessment? Do you think the results of the process need to be addressed by lawmakers? How should the state proceed?
If anything, Rep. Mike Smith’s bill promotes and preserves the most basic form of local control: the referendum system, whereby the taxpayers vote for or against a tax increase. — Sherry Long
Smith’s bill will never pass. We have a representative form of government, and if you don’t like that representation because they raised your taxes, vote them out. The ability to shut down government services should never be in question. — Jody Sweeney
And what if communities, time after time, fail referenda? Is it OK that there are districts in Delaware that pay teachers $10,000 to $20,000 less than other school districts, all because the residents like to keep their property taxes artificially low? — Mike Matthews
We have a rare opportunity to actually get the legislative body to listen at this point. I’m very hopeful that all other sidebars can be just that. Those should be put aside, with a focus on a change to put our students’ education first, with funds actually going to the classroom! — Sherry Long
Yes. The reassessments should be delayed for one year, at minimum, to fully review the flawed process that created them. But it is also important to hold elected officials accountable for their previous actions and not let them act like we don’t remember what they did in the past. In January 2023, the Democrats on the House of Representatives’ Education Committee tabled Rep. Mike Smith’s bill (House Bill 42), which would’ve addressed this issue before it came and harmed homeowners. The special session wouldn’t have to deal with the 10% increase if he and his allies had allowed the commonsense legislation to move forward. — Robert Geist
The assessed values for many properties are inflated. If you can’t sell a property for its assessed value, that’s a problem! When is an assessed value almost double the appraised value? In Delifornia! — KL DiSabatino
It’s the school taxes that are the problem! — Kim Patterson Luton
If they step in, they are still going to have to find a way to fund the schools, one way or another. The same prices that have gone up for us have gone up for all businesses and organizations. — Larry Josefowski
Keep them there until it’s fixed. Why should they get a vacation?! — Dorothy Owens-Sciarra
One issue is that assessments used to be a percentage of value. Now, they are what they think market value is. Markets fluctuate. They should have used local appraisers if they wanted anything close to market value. Then, there are these city and town taxes. I bet they didn’t lower their rates and are cleaning up with the new assessments. I hope town residents hold officials’ feet to the fire and demand to see where their tax dollars go. We need to know where all our tax dollars are going. — Karen Evans
All counties and districts should be legally empowered to set separate commercial, residential and agricultural tax rates. They must be required to show that any increases reflect the unique increased costs of serving each of those three segments. Or eliminate all school taxes paid by property owners and replace them with a 2% gross receipts tax to fund education, with a threat of public amputation for any legislator who suggests moving that money to other purposes. — Greg Doyle
New Castle County overrode a vote by Sussex, so windmills, which no one wants or voted for, could get permitted. The only answer is to vote them all out. They couldn’t care less about the effect it has on you or anyone else. The special meeting is all show. You have the power to correct the problems Delaware is having at the voting booth. Please use it. If you don’t, you, your children and grandchildren will live with your decision, and nothing changes, and it will get worse. — Eileen Stroik
You need to see what happens when you ask the county to come out and reassess if you don’t agree. They have the craziest rules, and it’s all based on fiction. They come out with a tape measure and measure around the outside of the bottom floor. They don’t come in and look or measure anything. They can’t measure height; they just estimate. Here’s the kicker: They will not nor are they allowed to use any documentation about the house to determine square footage. They can’t use permit information from the past, original blueprints, nothing that documents concretely what the dimensions of the house are. It’s straight fiction, with a tape measure and an estimate. It is insane! I wish someone would do an article on that. It should be titled, “Your original blueprints and approved and completed permit documents don’t matter when deciding the dimensions of your Delaware home.” It’s all about one person’s tape measure, some written guidelines and their “professional judgment,” even though they aren’t engineers, builders, contractors or building professionals. The inspectors are seasoned government employees. — Karen Maurer
Make them work without pay until they get it settled. — Howard Brobst
