Delaware County increases property taxes 23% despite community outrage

Delaware County property owners will be paying nearly 25% more in the county share of their real estate taxes in the new year.

By a 4-1 margin, the five-member all-Democratic county Council approved the increase Wednesday night, citing a need to maintain county services as federal COVID-19 relief dollars run dry, even as dozens of residents accused them of financial mismanagement.

The 23% tax increase, county officials say, equates to roughly $185 in additional taxes annually for the average Delaware County property owner. The county portion represents the smallest fraction of most county resident’s property tax bill. But officials faced steep blowback from residents during more than an hour of public comment.

“You’re reaching into the pocket of the hardworking people of this county,” said resident Daniel Murphy. “They’re trying to figure out how to pay for your budget while you guys are spending like it doesn’t matter.”

The increase comes as county governments across Philadelphia’s suburbs seek higher taxes. Montgomery County’s proposed 2025 budget has a 9% tax increase while Chester county has proposed a 13% tax increase. Delaware County, however, is seeking the largest increase and, based on state data, already taxes its residents at the highest rate of the four collar counties.

In Delaware County, much of the increase in the county’s overall budget is attributed to hikes in salaries for public employees. Council members said those increases are key to maintain a workforce in a competitive environment. Other expenditures, they said, were important to the long term well being of the county.

“Investing in our county’s success requires financial resources,” said Council Chair Monica Taylor. “We have and will continue to cut costs.”

Council Vice Chair Richard Womack, the one no vote, said he wanted the county to form a commission to study the budget before voting for an increase.

“At least we could say we went through a process, that we had other eyes on it,” Womack, who is up for reelection next year, said.

Taylor said the county would create such a commission to study next year’s budget. She also announced the county would develop a program to allow residents to defer the tax increase and seek to offer tax rebates to first responders.

County officials contended the increase was necessary to ensure continuity of county services as federal pandemic aid is depleted. When Democrats took control of the county Council in 2020, they said they encountered a slew of underfunded agencies and buildings with significant structural concerns.

Democrats on the Council said that until now, they were able to manage these issues using federal COVID-19 relief dollars and, until last year, avoided raising taxes. But as high inflation continued, Delaware County was staring down the potential of a budget deficit if they did not increase taxes.

Last year, the county increased taxes 5% but before Democrats took over, past Republican-controlled Councils did not raise taxes for more than a decade.

“We did not get here overnight, this did not just happen overnight, this is the result of 12 years of no tax increases to be capped off with an explosion of costs and inflation and a realignment of the labor force after the pandemic,” Councilwoman Elaine Schaefer said.

The Council faced a barrage of opposition from county residents who noted some pandemic relief dollars still included in the 2025 budget would likely result in yet another tax increase next year.

The Media Republican Party posted an event on Facebook earlier this week urging members to attend the meeting and speak against the hike. Another resident circulated a change.org petition calling for the Council to halt the increase. The petition garnered more than 1,000 signatures by Wednesday afternoon.

“It’s unfair to county residents that we have to foot the bill for this mismanagement, and furthermore, I would say that they can’t go back and point at previous Republican Councils and say that they’re at fault for not raising their taxes previously to fill this hole,” Michael Straw, the chair of the Media GOP, said before the vote.

As inflation continues to impact residents in their daily lives, many insisted the county Democratic party had failed to responsibly manage its finances and needed to make more cuts to the county’s spending rather than pass the cost onto the taxpayers.

They argued that Democrats had overspent since taking office through actions including creating a health department for the county, deprivatizing the prison and making large expenditures to purchase public land and county vehicles.

“We’d rather keep the money and not have this wide swath of county programs,” said Nick Weston from Wallingford.

One resident, Mike Hoppus of Upper Providence, sided with the Council, insisting the expenditures were worthy investments in the county and that the Council had been transparent throughout the process.

“This Council has been focused on investment in the community, you’ve been very open and detailed about all of your programs and I’m in full support of everything you’ve done,” he said.

Some Republicans insisted the county’s Democratic Party would be punished at the polls for the hike next year when two of the five Council seats will be on the ballot.

“People are seeing through it,” said Delaware County GOP Chair Frank Agovino before the Council meeting. “And I totally expect next year to be a mandate on this tax increase.”