Dewey considering change to beach assessment tax

Dewey Beach officials are considering changes to the town’s beach assessment tax rate following the Sussex County property tax reassessment. 

The goal is to update the rate, not to add any additional revenue, said Mayor Bill Stevens at council’s Nov. 21 meeting. 

“I want to make sure there’s no misconception or misperception of what we’re trying to do,” Stevens said. “We’re not trying to increase the beach tax for everybody. We’re just trying to bring us into the current rate.”

Current town code says the tax rate shall be $0.40 per $100 of the 1992 assessed value as determined by Sussex County. The proposed amendments would update this to align with today’s property value rates, instead of those from 33 years ago.

The new proposed rate would be $0.0110164 per $100 of property value.

“Some people win, some people lose, but it really puts everybody into a current level playing field regardless of what’s happened to the property,” Stevens said.

According to Commissioner Gary Persinger, with the amendment, about 80% of properties would stay within plus or minus $50 of what they paid last year, and 95% of properties would be within plus or minus $100 of what they paid last year.

The council will vote on the amendment at a later date.

Fund policy 

In a unanimous vote, council approved an amended General Fund Balance Policy, as recommended by the town’s finance committee. 

The change makes it so the town’s Rainy Day Fund and Unassigned Fund balances must equal 50% and 15%, respectively, of the previous fiscal year’s operating budget, rather than that of the current year, which is what the original policy required.

The policy’s core balance requirements, tying the Rainy Day Fund balance to 50% of the operating budget and the Unassigned Fund balance to 15%, have not changed. 

Tying the fund balances to the previous year’s operating budget allows for more predictable budgeting. Read more about the amended policy at https://tinyurl.com/we5e9yrb. 

In other news

During the meeting, council referred the town hall fundraising projects to the marketing committee.

Additionally, council members voted to appoint Tara Keplinger to the marketing committee and to reappoint Julie Johnson, Donna Alexander, Bernie Krauss and David Vogt to the audit committee.

At the council’s next meeting, set for Friday, Dec. 19, there will be presentations by George, Miles & Buhr and Straughan Environmental, two potential contractors for the town’s resiliency plan that is currently being developed by the resiliency and sustainability committee.