FY 2026 Budget
FY2026 General Operating Budget Presentation
At the November, 2025, Regular Meeting of the Mayor and Commissioners, the FY2026 General Operating Budget was introduced. Also presented was information on obtaining our new property tax rate based on New Castle County’s new property assessment amounts.
To obtain a new rate, we first had to calculate to a net zero, meaning that our calculation had to be revenue-neutral – our revenue had to be exactly the same as it has been for the several years since the last property tax increase. Calculations were done using a single rate – the same tax rate for both residential and commercial properties – and using a split rate – a rate for residential and a different rate for commercial. Council voted on using a split rate. Commercial properties make up the majority of tax revenue for the town. Keeping a single rate would have shown significant increases on residential properties while the commercial properties would have remained somewhat the same.
The net zero tax rate is $.20 per $100 of assessed value for residential properties and $.37 per $100 of assessed value for commercial properties.
As with the New Castle County taxes, there will be properties that will see a decrease in taxes and some that will see an increase in taxes at the net zero and that is based on the assessment.
It was recommended that a property tax increase take place. Taxes were last increased prior to Covid in 2019, and since the pandemic, we have seen costs increase for supplies, utilities, benefits, liability insurance – practically everything – while keeping a strict expense budget. The total revenue increase will amount to $158,000 overall. The proposed increase will be $.07 for both residential ($.27 per $100 of assessed value) and commercial ($.44 per $100 of assessed value).
FY2026 General Operating Budget Adoption
At the December, 2025, Regular Meeting of the Mayor and Commissioners, the FY2026 General Operating Budget Second Reading occurred. The budget was adopted by Ordinance 2025-003.
