Red Clay board approves split tax rates to blunt reassessment impact on homeowners

Red Clay Consolidated School District trustees voted unanimously on Aug. 20 to adopt split FY26 school tax rates that lower the residential tax rate and increase the rate for nonresidential property, aiming to restore the district—s pre-reassessment distribution of tax burden.

The district—s chief operating officer, Dr. Ted Ammon, presented background on recent state legislation enacted during a special session and the mathematics used to set the new rates, then answered board questions before the vote.

Ammon said the district—s previous single rate approved in July was 0.6719 per $100 of assessed value. Under the board—s split-rate action, the residential/farm rate will drop to about 0.5918 per $100 (a roughly 12% reduction from the July single-rate figure), while the apartment/commercial/industrial/utility rate will rise to about 0.99237 per $100 (about a 48% increase). Ammon said the change preserves the pre-reassessment share of district revenue, assigning roughly 74% of the district—s tax revenue to residential parcels and 26% to nonresidential parcels, matching the proportion that existed before the recent county reassessment.

Why it matters: property reassessments performed by New Castle County produced large, uneven changes in assessed values across parcels, shifting a larger share of the school tax burden onto residential parcels. State bills enacted in the special session (HB240, HB241, HB242 and SB202, as described to the board) created several tools: refunds for proven overpayments, county-required payment plans for large increases, lower penalty interest, and a temporary allowance that permits school districts to split rates by property class. Ammon told the board HB242 is time-limited and the district had to act within the statutory window to use the split-rate option.

Ammon said the district cannot raise overall revenue through the split; the change merely reallocates who pays the same total amount. He told the board the split will move about $16 million of the district—s FY26 levy from the residential bucket to nonresidential parcels. He also said approximately 17,000 parcels will pay less than they would have under July—s single rate (even accounting for the referendum-driven revenue change), while roughly 35,000 parcels will still see increases greater than 10% compared with last year because reassessed values for some parcels rose more than the districtwide average.

Public comment at the meeting included strong reactions to reassessment and the draft rate plan. Mike Matthews, a Red Clay resident and Cab Calloway educator, described the broader policy context and called the overall result "one of the largest transfers of wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich in Delaware's history," urging audits and legislative action. Ammon and Superintendent Dr. Darnell Green answered board members— technical questions about the data source (New Castle County valuation files), parcel counts (roughly 52,000 residential parcels and about 70 farm parcels within Red Clay), and the timeline for billing and appeals.

Implementation and next steps: if the board action stands, the district will submit updated tax warrants to New Castle County within the statutory window; the county will issue supplemental bills showing the difference from the original bills rather than replacing the entire bill. The statutory payment deadline was extended by recent legislation from Sept. 30 to Nov. 30, and HB241 requires the county to offer payment plans for taxpayers whose bills increased by $300 or more due to reassessment. Ammon also described a statutory requirement that nonrefunded overpayments be returned to taxpayers rather than only credited to future bills.

Board reaction and vote: board members spoke in favor of providing immediate relief to residential taxpayers while noting the imperfect nature of the statutory remedy and the risk that some small businesses may face higher bills. Vice President Susan Sander moved the FY26 split tax rates; the motion was seconded and carried on a unanimous roll call.

Context and limits: Ammon cautioned that splitting the rate does not eliminate parcel-level increases caused by reassessment. He emphasized the distinction between being revenue-neutral at the district level and unequal impacts at the parcel level: "revenue neutral" means the district expects to collect roughly the same total amount as last year (plus referendum-authorized funds), not that each taxpayer—s bill will remain unchanged.

The board—s action applies only to FY26 and uses the statutory window created during the special session. Officials and legislators in attendance said they expect further legislative work to address long-term policy and reassessment timing.

Ending: The board submitted the updated warrant to New Castle County following the vote; taxpayers who believe they overpaid will be able to seek refunds or payment-plan relief through the county under the new statutes. The district and county will publish updated billing information and instructions as supplemental bills are issued and as the state and county finalize implementation details.