Updated: - Henry: Gov. Meyer delayed reassessment data until after election

The assertion, made during an extraordinary committee hearing held in Dover to investigate Delaware’s first statewide reassessment in more than three decades, could mean that northern Delaware residents had less time to examine and appeal what many have described as unreasonably high property valuations.  

Henry’s comments have already sparked a bipartisan backlash against the first-term governor. 

“Our Governor decided to hurt the very people he was asking to vote for him. Now, I understand why he didn’t show up for [the] Special Session,” wrote Republican Rep. Michael Smith on a social media post, referring to the one-day August session of the legislature where he asked Meyer to testify but the governor never showed up.

Henry said that the county’s assessment contractor, Tyler Technologies, was prepared to release tentative valuation notices to the public in the summer of 2024 – right in the middle of a heated gubernatorial primary between Meyer and former Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long.

“It is also our understanding that the former Administration said no to those recommendations,” Henry said. “Instead, the assessment office was advised that tentative value notices couldn’t go out until mid-November. Accordingly, in mid-November 2024, Tyler mailed those notices of tentative value to property owners, the school districts, and to the municipalities.”

Meyer won a three-way race for the Democratic nomination in early September 2024 by a margin of about 9,000 votes, primarily coming from New Castle County. Like all Democrats for three decades, he easily won the statewide General Election.

While his critics have long accused Meyer of burying the reassessment results past their originally scheduled timeline, it was notable that Henry, who previously worked for Meyer, so publicly backed those claims. It is also the first time that anyone in county government has questioned the roll-out of information.

But the public turmoil over the reassessment has dictated Henry’s first months in office. He noted Tuesday that the county still fields more than 100 phone calls a day from impacted residents.

A request for comment from the governor’s office was not returned as of Tuesday night.

In a written statement to Spotlight Delaware, Henry said the reason for the delay in releasing tentative valuation notices is not documented in any county records.

Lawmakers react

During the legislator question-and-answer portion of Tuesday’s committee hearing, State Sen. Eric Buckson (R-South Dover) asked representatives from New Castle County to explain the purpose of the tentative valuation notices. 

New Castle County Attorney Aaron Goldstein explained that the notice gave residents an opportunity to file an informal appeal of their property assessment, the first chance they would have had to lower any impending increases to their tax bill. 

That informal appeals process, Buckson said, was a key part of the success of Kent County’s property reassessment process. Delaying the release of New Castle tentative valuations, he said, created a backlog of problems leading to the public outcry that spurred Tuesday’s committee hearing.

“Everything that was critical to the success of Kent County and, I suspect, Sussex County, is not what happened in New Castle County,” Buckson said. “And it didn’t happen because of the decision to delay until November, which is the only reason that we’re here right now.”

Sussex County officials, however, also released tentative property valuations in November, mailing out notices on Nov. 20, and Nov. 27.

After Tuesday’s hearing, State Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend (D-Bear), a co-chair of the joint legislative committee, called Meyer’s decision to not release tentative valuations until November “unacceptable.”

Even if the November release resulted in a similar timeline for residents to appeal their tax bills as is common in other jurisdictions, Townsend said, the extra time could have helped Delawareans adjust to the sticker shock of their tax bill increases.

“It’s really unfortunate that the decision was made in a way that seemed to line up absolutely with an election,” he added. “It shouldn’t be the way that government operates.”

Townsend’s remarks amount to the latest in nearly a year of tension between Meyer and Senate leadership. 

Speaker of the House Melissa Minor-Brown (D-Delaware City) held off on casting judgement Tuesday, saying she first would have to speak to Meyer before commenting on Henry’s claim.

Finger pointing over missing Wilmington data

Also at Tuesday’s hearing, Wilmington Mayor John Carney’s Chief of Staff Cerron Cade testified that shortcomings in Tyler Technologies assessment methods led to a disproportionate impact of the updated property tax burden falling to residents in the city’s low-income neighborhoods.

Data from Wilmington’s permitting department was not factored into Tyler’s calculations, Cade said. This led to assessments that lacked necessary context about Wilmington’s housing market. 

Since Tyler Technologies was hired by New Castle County, all of the data it used to conduct appraisals in Wilmington came through county channels, Tyler’s Director of Consulting Services Mike McFarlane said.

Cerron Cade (right), chief of staff to Wilmington Mayor John Carney, speaks before a joint committee of the Delaware General Assembly investigating the first statewide property reassessment in more than three decades. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY TIM CARLIN

McFarlane, who oversaw the New Castle reassessment, said he expressed concerns to the county throughout the course of the project about gaps in the data that was shared.

Despite the previous data sharing breakdown, there should have been a conversation between city and county officials about collecting the necessary data to complete an accurate reassessment, Cade added. 

Goldstein, the county attorney, explained that permitting data from the city had routinely been shared with county officials in the past, but that information sharing ended during the COVID pandemic. 

Litigation impacts, next steps

An ongoing lawsuit filed by a group of New Castle County landlords against Delaware, New Castle County and six school districts challenging the county’s property tax system that now charges businesses a higher rate than homeowners loomed large over Tuesday’s committee hearing. 

County officials at times said they could not answer lawmakers’ questions, and Henry included in his presentation a laundry list of topics he said the county could not currently discuss because of the lawsuit. 

Townsend also mentioned the lawsuit from the dais, saying it could impact the scheduling and scope of upcoming hearings. There are currently three more scheduled throughout the fall. 

A judge from the Delaware Court of Chancery said it could take until the end of October to fast-track a resolution to the lawsuit.

The committee’s next hearing is scheduled for next week – 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 7 at Legislative Hall – though a press release from the Senate Majority Caucus notes the meeting is subject to change. 

Multiple committee members, Townsend said, are calling on the Governor to speak with them, but it remains unclear if Meyer plans to do so.