Colonial School District CFO outlines tax-rate reset, warns half-billion in assessed value at risk

Emily Falcon, chief operating financial officer for the Colonial School District, told the board at its June meeting that Delaware law requires the district to reset its tax rate after county reassessments and recommended the board set a new rate at its July meeting.

Falcon said the statutory reset must be done so a district— oes not realize more than a 10% increase in revenue from the previous year. "Delaware law requires that when there is a reassessment, we reset our rate in a way that will generate no more at its maximum as and this that's a quote from the statute, at its maximum would realize no more than a 10% increase in actual revenue from the previous year," she said.

The nut graf: Falcon said New Castle County provided a data file with new assessed values but the formal appeals process and exemption adjustments remain incomplete, leaving a large, uncertain portion of the new base potentially reducible. She said, based on current assumptions, "about a half a billion dollars of assessed value that…