House Republicans Respond
In response to a proposal from House Republicans calling for New Castle County to redo reassessment and revert to old valuations and tax rates for the 2025-2026 tax year, House Democratic Leadership – including Speaker Melissa Minor-Brown, Majority Leader Kerri Evelyn Harris, and Majority Whip Ed Osienski – issued the following joint statement Friday:
“Almost three months ago, the General Assembly reconvened in a special session to begin addressing what went wrong in New Castle County’s property reassessment and to deliver property tax relief to residents.
“When we became aware of the problem, we did what Delaware leaders have always done. We immediately got to work meeting with stakeholders, working across the aisle, and passing legislation that brought fairness and stability to homeowners. Yesterday’s court ruling confirmed the legality of the measure passed during the special session and provided long-awaited clarity for counties, schools, and taxpayers alike.
“Yet even with that outcome, some in the Republican caucus are now calling for a “do-over” to throw out the reassessment and go back to 1980s-era valuations.
“Let’s be very clear about what that would mean for the state, for our schools, and for residents: rolling back to pre-2025 values would violate a court-approved settlement in the public school funding case, reopen Delaware to more litigation, and destabilize school district and county budgets already planned around the new rates. It would turn back the clock on decades of neglect and reinstate assessments that the courts already found fundamentally broken and unlawful.
“It’s also worth remembering that during the hours-long special session this summer, not a single New Castle County Republican voted against the split-rate plan that was ultimately adopted. The only rollback proposal, introduced by members of our caucus, was not pursued after legal and practical concerns made clear it wasn’t a viable option.
“This isn’t about fixing the process. It’s about politics. We all want this process to be better in the future, and we’re ready to work with Republicans to keep improving it. However, the responsible path forward is through continued oversight and improvement, not by reopening wounds and defying the courts.”
Delawareans expect and deserve stability, fairness, and leadership, not another round of DC-style chaos dressed up as a quick fix.”
Joseph Fulgham
Director of Policy & Communications
Republican Caucus
Delaware House of Representatives
The recent call by members of our House Republican Caucus to redo the reassessment process in New Castle County included no criticism of House or Senate Democrats. (Click here to see the complete news release.) Yet, the first reaction from their leadership was to engage in partisan finger-pointing.Perhaps that’s because they feel threatened. Democrats hold nearly every state legislative seat in New Castle County, and of the 19 members on the General Assembly’s Joint Reassessment Committee, 14 are Democrats.
This has been their approach from the beginning: ‘We’ve got this and we don’t need your input.’ During the special session in August, Majority Leader Kerri Evelyn Harris acknowledged that House Democratic leaders held closed-door discussions with New Castle County officials and the superintendents of the state’s school districts. The bills we later considered were the product of these secret meetings. Those deliberations excluded House and Senate Republicans, lacked transparency, and shut out many key stakeholders.
General Assembly Republicans requested a single day of committee hearings to provide at least some vetting of the bills, but their request was denied. Rep. Harris said there wasn’t time, even for that minimal level of openness.
We can and should redo this process in New Castle County and get it right. Instead of a Band-Aid, we can craft a permanent fix that recognizes and avoids the mistakes made thus far. The General Assembly has the power to legislate a fair solution and resolve the court settlement issue.
Remember that the settlement stemmed from a lawsuit against all three counties challenging inequitable property tax systems. Regardless of whether property taxes are structured in one or two tiers, flawed property valuations will lead to a poor outcome that could be the subject of another lawsuit. The adage “junk in, junk out” applies.
For good reason, New Castle County residents have little faith in this process. Instead of realizing that we’re all in the same boat and working together to fix the problem, House and Senate Democrats are doubling down on their unilateral decision-making and accelerating toward a looming iceberg. Their attitude seems to be, maybe it’ll move.
