New Castle County gets the overwhelming majority of its revenue from one place – your property taxes.

As costs for personnel, healthcare, equipment, and services continue to increase, the county is forced into a never-ending cycle of pulling from reserves to cover shortfalls, then raising property taxes to close the deficit and restore reserves.

New Castle County has already entered a hiring freeze to try and curtail costs, but this measure won’t do nearly enough to cover the county’s shortfalls.

The county must diversify its revenue streams to break this cycle, and that will require collaboration with the state legislature and governor’s office.

I’ll continue the push for the state to permanently restore its share of paramedic funding and return more of the Real Estate Transfer Tax for property sales in New Castle County, to New Castle County.

I’ll also push for alternative measures to fund major capital projects to reduce the county’s reliance on borrowing and decrease debt and interest obligations that continue to grow as we fund the construction of new libraries and sewer system upgrades and repairs.

Our leadership can’t remain silent while major development drives up the cost of electricity, threatens our water resources and strains public services.

I’ll support regulations on major development projects, like data centers, that threaten to drive up energy costs for county residents.

I’ll support changes to senior property tax exemptions to remove arbitrary restrictions and make income the primary determinant for qualification. Seniors on a fixed income shouldn’t worry about losing the home they worked for because reassessment increased their home value.

I’ll support measures to incentivize increased access to childcare and early education opportunities to meet the childcare crisis head on – parents shouldn’t have to work full-time only to cover the cost of day care.

Our district can be uniquely impacted by over-development.

Our hillsides and waterways are susceptible to erosion, run-off and high flood potential during the strong storms that are becoming increasingly more common in the summer. Increased development threatens to exacerbate those risks.

I’ve worked to protect our county’s water, supporting efforts to cap the Minquadale landfill, and I’ll continue to protect it by supporting regulations on large development projects, like data centers and warehouses, that would drain our aquifer, increase runoff into our waterways, and drive up energy prices.

I’ll support efforts to increase affordable housing, while ensuring we take a smart-growth approach to new construction and revitalization efforts to ensure infrastructure and services can support new development without negatively impacting the environment and quality of life for residents.

Any new development in our district should match the historic character of our community.

New Castle County’s sustainability plan has been abandoned.

That plan lowered costs for county residents by transitioning county operations to cleaner energy, protecting open space, promoting smart growth and development and improving public and energy efficient transportation alternatives.

I’ll push to move this plan from a recommended guideline into county code, so we stop burning our tax dollars.

I spent years documenting the most violent period in Wilmington’s history when it earned the infamous nickname, “Murdertown, USA,” and I witnessed first hand the impact gun violence can have.

A focus on community policing, early intervention, and improved emergency response has led to a decline in crime county-wide over the last decade.

I’ll support measures to make the county’s mental health support specialists permanent members of the Department of Public Safety to de-escalate calls for service driven by mental health crises.

I’ll support the full funding of the county’s Emergency Vehicle Operations Course (EVOC) and training center to ensure response times for calls remain ahead of national standards and our first responders arrive to calls for service safely.

I’ll support improving access to mental health and support services for members of our Department of Public Safety to help 911 telecommunicators, paramedics and police officers cope with the trauma they experience while carrying out their duties.

I’ll support innovative approaches to outreach to help our cold case investigators bring closure to families who have waited far too long for justice.

It’s no secret our district suffers from some of the worst cell coverage in the county, but you may not know how bad it really is.

Once construction of new towers in Middletown and Odessa are complete, our district overall will have the worst connectivity in the county.

While the construction of the Hockessin cell tower has improved connectivity for Verizon customers, other carriers are yet to utilize the tower and large dead zones still exist near Newark, throughout White Clay Creek State Park and near Yorklyn.

I’ll push for additional towers to address this critical public safety issue and support the Yorklyn tower proposal if it comes before council, because if your power is out or you’re stranded on the side of the road, you shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not you can reach 911.

I’ll also work to expand public WiFi access points across the district to improve access to high-speed internet.

Throughout my career in County Government, I’ve worked across departments and worked collaboratively with state, municipal and community stakeholders to improve outcomes and efficiency.

We need a strong relationship with partner agencies at the state in DNREC, DelDOT and the legislature to advance meaningful change for our district and our county.

I’ll work to improve collaboration and communication between the county, state and municipal governments to increase transparency, responsiveness, lower costs and improve services.

Nearly a year after 5,700 formal property tax appeals were filed, too many property owners – residents and businesses alike – are waiting for a resolution with little to no communication from the county.

That’s unacceptable.

Businesses are operating in the dark and residents are struggling to budget for increased property tax payments as costs for everything else continue to rise.

I’ll propose new guardrails to prevent this kind of delay in resolving future appeals, and push to clear the backlog on hand immediately.