Council sets revenue-neutral 2025 tax rate after county reassessment

City Council voted unanimously on July 14 to change the 2025 real-estate tax rate to $0.2385 per $100 of assessed value to reflect New Castle County’s court-ordered reassessment and keep city revenue essentially revenue-neutral.

Finance Director Jill Hollander summarized the county’s reassessment: a chancery-court-ordered countywide reassessment found that assessments from 1983 no longer reflected market values; reappraisals produced a roughly 4.5-fold increase in taxable assessed value in aggregate. As a result, the city’s nominal tax rate falls to maintain the same overall revenue. Under the prior assessment, Newark’s rate was $1.08 per $100 of assessed value; the county reassessment requires a lower rate so the city’s total tax take remains stable.

Hollander told council that the change is revenue-neutral for the city but that individual taxpayer bills will vary depending on a parcel’s newly reassessed value. The finance director also reminded council the revised rate will be reflected in the current tax bills issued later this summer; councilmembers asked staff to prepare more detailed analyses for the 2026 budget process showing distributional impacts — including which properties move from very-low to more typical shares of city costs.

Councilman Lawhorn and others noted the council could have elected to increase revenue but chose to maintain neutrality for this tax year. The motion to set the new rate passed 6–0.

Hollander said the tax bills will be mailed in August under the new rate; council will set the 2026 rate in next year’s budget discussions.