Wilmington extends property tax deadline, announces effort to reappraise poor neighborhoods

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The city of Wilmington has extended the deadline for residents to pay their property taxes and has a new plan to help residents struggling with high property tax bills.

Wilmington has moved the due date for taxpayers to submit payments from Sept. 30 to Oct. 31. The original deadline was in August.

Wilmington Mayor John Carney said Thursday at a news conference that the city will introduce a $500,000 budget amendment next week to fund interior reassessments of residential properties, an internal review of the methodology used to determine commercial property values by Tyler Technologies and financial support for low-income homeowners during New Castle County’s appeals process.

Tyler Technologies was the contractor who did the property reassessments for New Castle, Kent and Sussex counties.

The poorest areas of the city are seeing the highest tax increases. Carney said the city will focus on neighborhoods hardest hit by home values spikes, then ask New Castle County to adjust the appraisals on a block-by-block basis. The county currently hears appeals of property values on an individual basis.

The reappraisals could likely focus on areas that include the East Side and the upper and lower Hilltop neighborhoods.

City officials believe home values in some low-income areas could be inaccurate because Tyler did not conduct interior assessments and used sales data, which tend to only be available for houses that have been renovated.

“And so they have that market data which drives up the value for the whole neighborhood,” he said.

Tyler Technologies has stood by its work on the county’s property reassessments.

Carney said they hope to overcome people’s hesitancy to let inspectors inside their houses.

“We’re not going to cite any code violations in the process of doing that, so we need to get that information out there,” he said. “But we need that data to get better values in neighborhoods we think are assessed too high.”

Carney’s chief of staff Cerron Cade said New Castle County officials have been receptive to the idea.

City Council members James Spadola and Christian Willauer said they  support the plan to make sure people are being treated fairly.

“A lot of people cannot afford a $3,000 increase to their taxes, which is what residents in the city of Wilmington and these neighborhoods are facing.” Willauer said.

All three Delaware counties recently did reassessments after not updating property appraisals for 40 years. Much of the tax burden fell on homeowners, especially in New Castle County.

Gov. Matt Meyer signed a law in August that allowed school districts to split their residential and commercial property rates. A lawsuit over the constitutionality of the law is pending.

“I believe it is constitutional,” Meyer said Thursday night on WHYY’s “Ask Gov. Meyer.” “We respect the independence of the judiciary and we’ll see how that plays out.”

The city and county both split their rates.

Lawmakers will start hearings on the state’s property assessment process next week.

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