‘Window dressing’: Delaware Republicans question bipartisan nature of hearings into property tax hikes

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Turmoil continues over New Castle County’s once-in-40-years property reassessments, as council members reject ordering an audit of the process and Delaware state lawmakers announce hearings on the issue.

State House and Senate Democrats laid out a schedule Wednesday of public hearings on the property reassessment process that took place in all three counties over the past few years. The meetings of bipartisan special committees are scheduled to begin in late September and run through November.

Lawmakers passed a resolution during a special session earlier this month that called for a statewide review of the reassessment process to make sure future reassessments are conducted fairly, transparently and equitably. The frustration expressed by New Castle County residents, who received their bills last month, moved legislators to meet.

Homeowners throughout the state are facing increases of up to thousands of dollars in county and school taxes after property values were reassessed for the first time in decades. Public outcry over the spikes was particularly fervent in New Castle County — where the tax burden shifted to homeowners — as commercial property values decreased on average while home values increased.

Lawmakers passed several bills during the one-day special session, including allowing all school districts to issue split rates for residential and commercial properties. School taxes make up the majority of county tax bills.

All of the public school districts in New Castle County have since split their rates: one for residential and another for commercial, industrial and utilities. Appoquinimink, Christina and Red Clay school districts kept the additional revenue they raised through tax increases districts are allowed to do under state law after property reassessments.

In a news release, Democratic leaders said they would examine several topics, including the property valuation methodologies used by Tyler Technologies during Delaware’s first-in-two-generations reassessments.

Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend, D-Newark, said they will be looking to do a deep dive into the process.

“We’re going to be digging into exactly what happened and in certain instances what appears to have gone wrong,” he said.

Tyler Technologies used two different methods for evaluating residential and nonresidential properties. It determined the values for residential properties based on sales comparison data and the physical inspection of buildings and land, a requirement set forth in the Delaware Constitution. Tyler used income information for commercial, utilities and industrial facilities.

When asked by WHYY News if the company would cooperate with the legislative probe, Tyler said they will be available as needed to support New Castle County as it provides information on its recent reassessment to lawmakers. It has defended its methodology for commercial properties, saying it used industry best practices.

The resolution, which lawmakers passed during the special session, has been criticized by Republican lawmakers as being vague. House GOP members said the announcement of the hearings and the formation of the committees lacked transparency.

Even members of House Democrats voiced concern during the Aug. 12 special session that the resolution lacked specificity.

“Where I do feel this resolution is coming up short is on specifics about who, when, where, how the public will be involved and able to weigh in, and what actual deliverable is going to come out of that,” said state Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton, D-Newark, that day.

Townsend said it’s unclear at the moment what will be the end result of the hearings, whether it be a report, recommendations, future legislation or simply a collection of meeting minutes. He said his constituents want action.

“We’re not looking to sort of do a report that sits on a shelf, nor are we looking to delay any action on this whatsoever,” he said. “We want to move as quickly as we can based on learning exactly what happened, what could have been done differently, what should have been done differently, what other states do on a lot of these issues, and then implement, you know, the proper models as quickly as possible.”

Democratic leaders said they would be appointing members of both chambers in the coming days. House Republicans rebuked the hearings, saying they were not consulted by Democratic leadership before the announcement.

House Minority Leader Tim Dukes, R-Laurel, said a lack of communication between opposing party leaders has been an issue since the regular session ended.

“There hasn’t been efficient communication that is substantial enough that we feel like we’re part of the process,” he said. “I’m kind of at a loss. This has not been how it has been this session. We finished June 30, and I thought we finished on a pretty good note, but the special session and dealing with reassessment, and now here we are with these new meetings and we know nothing about it.”

State Rep. Bryan Shupe, R-Milford, disputes the assertion that the committees will be bipartisan, without Republicans being “window dressing.”

“I don’t think there’s much confidence that there’s going to be much of a bipartisan effort, especially now after leaving us out of the discussions of when these meetings will take place, and exactly how these efforts will move forward,” he said.

New Castle County vetoes resolution for an audit

Meanwhile, New Castle County Council voted 6-7 this week against a resolution by three council members that its auditor conduct a review of how Tyler Technologies valued properties in the county and the city of Wilmington.

Supporters of the resolution on the council said County Auditor Robert Wasserbach was already conducting a review, but formalizing the request would show property owners their concerns were being taken seriously.

Council members who opposed the resolution said residents who supported it had bought into conspiracy theories and called it political theater.

The discussion spanned about two hours as members of the public gave comments on the resolution. Some council members complained about the public comments after they were given, including one who laughed during a resident’s comments. Several residents expressed outrage at their treatment during the meeting.

New Castle County Executive Marcus Henry said in a statement Thursday that Wasserbach and his staff were in the process of gathering information and reviewing materials related to the mass appraisal process. He also pledged to work with state lawmakers during their inquiry.

“This process is complex, but my commitment is simple: to be transparent, responsive and focused on real solutions for the people of New Castle County,” he said.

This story was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.