As Promised, No Increase In New Castle County's Property Taxes This Year

New Castle County Property Tax Bills Are On Their Way

Residents should receive their County Property and State School Tax bills over the next week

NEW CASTLE, Del. – New Castle County residents receiving their property tax bills in the mail over the next week will notice that their property taxes did not increase, consistent with New Castle County Executive Tom Gordon’s pledge.

“The last thing people need in this economy is a tax increase,” Gordon said. “We want people investing their money the way they want to. They don’t need another governmental entity dipping into their wallets.”

NCC Chief Administrative Officer David Grimaldi said this was yet another promise kept by the Executive, who was elected to an unprecedented third term in November.
Residential property owners in the unincorporated areas of New Castle County will pay $0.7006 per $100 of assessed property value, which amounts to $511.92 for this year’s average tax bill, Accounting and Fiscal Manager Denny Hardman said. Property taxes are based on the average assessed property value of $73,069.

Assessment of properties was last conducted in the early 1980s, causing the discrepancy with the average market price of homes in today’s real estate market.

The tax bills, which are being mailed Tuesday, July 23, are due September 30.

New Castle County property taxes and local school district taxes are combined into one billing statement.  State school tax rates are set by the local school districts; New Castle County simply collects the taxes and passes them on to the districts.
Property owners may pay both amounts with a single check or money order payable to “New Castle County” using the return envelope provided. Taxpayers can also send payments by mail to: New Castle County Property, P.O. Box 15358, Wilmington, DE  19886-5358.

Cash, check, money order, Discover Card, and PIN debit card payments are also accepted at the New Castle County Government Center, 87 Reads Way, New Castle. The payment window is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. A drop box is available for check and money order payments 24 hours a day at the main entrance of the Government Center. 
In addition to paying by mail or in person, residents can pay their tax bill with a Discover Card by calling the New Castle County Office of Finance at (302) 323-2600. Other major credit cards are accepted through Paymentus, a third-party company that accepts Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express and electronic check. Paymentus can be reached on the Internet through the link on the New Castle County site (www.nccde.org), or by calling at 1-877-225-7351. Paymentus charges users a service fee equal to 2.5% of the total payment. 
Residents with questions concerning making payments through Paymentus may call its Customer Contact Center at 1-800-420-1663.
Taxpayers can access their property tax information and payment status on-line at the county’s website:www.nccde.org.  Those who misplace or who do not receive their bills can download a printable version via the site, which also provides detailed account information including payment history and a breakout of specific charges for property, school, light, and crossing guard taxes.
Property owners should receive their bills no later than Aug. 10. Those who do not, or who need more information, should call the New Castle County billing information line at (302) 323-2600.

 Meanwhile, (News Journal) Adam Taylor reports ~ New Castle County slow to correct sewer bill overcharges, auditor says 

New Castle County overcharged some Artesian Water customers on their sewer bills for 2012, and the county auditor said Tuesday that the county’s finance officials didn’t act fast enough to correct the problem.

Accounting and Fiscal Manager Denny Hardman knew about the billing errors since last December and Chief Finance Officer Michael Coupe knew about them since February, county Auditor Bob Wasserbach said. Customers received the bills in January. Yet both officials concluded the errors were isolated incidents and agreed the county should wait until a customer complained before examining a bill, Wasserbach said.........Wasserbach said Hardman and Coupe should have immediately alerted County Executive Tom Gordon or county Chief Administrative Officer David Grimaldi about the billing errors. Wasserbach said Gordon and Grimaldi first learned of the problem when he told them about it in May. “The decision about whether to handle this thing on a customer-complaint-basis only really should have been made at a higher level,” Wasserbach said.

The county calculates sewer bills based on taxpayers’ water consumption. The county gets that information from private water companies, including Artesian, which has 70,000 county customers. The problem arose after Artesian switched from a quarterly to a monthly billing system in April 2012, Wasserbach said. The decades-old program used to calculate the bills was thrown off by the change, Hardman said.

~*~