This year, County Council passed a budget that cut $18.5M, eliminated 56 positions, cut library hours and community programs and included a 17.2% property tax increase.

Even with all of those moves, the County still has an $18M deficit to contend with in 2027.

On top of the impacts many property owners have faced from reassessment and school tax increases, the strain on budgets is real.

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

Costs for personnel, healthcare, equipment, and services continue to increase. While the average American has experienced inflation of 28% since 2020, because of the unique things the County spends money on, it’s experienced a rate closer to 37%.

With limited options to raise revenue, 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.

The County must diversify its revenue streams to break this cycle, but cannot do that without approval from the State Legislature.

At the same time, the State Legislature imposes several unfunded mandates on New Castle County while forcing County officials to find the money.

I’ll continue the push for the State to permanently restore its share of paramedic funding, to reimburse the County for re-billing of property taxes for School Districts, to return more of the Real Estate Transfer Tax revenue for property sales in New Castle County, to New Castle County, and to enable the County to adjust its tax code to lower the burden on homeowners.

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.

It’s also critically important that New Castle County maintains it’s AAA bond rating as one of less than 60 counties (out of 3,155 counties) nationwide to hold that rating. Doing so ensures we incur the lowest possible costs for capital infrastructure projects and keeps our debt obligations as low as possible as well.

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

These facilities must produce their own power without polluting the surrounding environment, utilize truly closed-loop cooling systems that don’t discharge waste into local waterways or draw on them for water, and should not be located anywhere near existing neighborhoods where the impact from noise, light, heat and exhaust can have negative health impacts.

Studies are already showing these facilities are creating their own micro-climates where they’re constructed and our summers are hot and humid enough without them.

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 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.

I’ll support new clean energy projects and work to make New Castle County part of the solution to lowering our energy bills by bringing new clean power projects online.

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, 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’ve also seen first hand what can happen when local officials turn a blind eye to industry, having covered the struggles of residents in Pavillion, Wyoming after oil and gas companies poisoned their drinking water in 2012.

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 and build on the quality of life our residents deserve.

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.

Our paramedics have saved countless lives with their whole blood in the field program and became the first department in the nation to deliver two whole units in the field, successfully saving the life of a driver trapped for hours in their vehicle.

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 familieswho have waited far too long for justice.

And I’ll support the continuation and expansion of early intervention programs like Project S.E.E.D. to help prevent crime before it happens and improve underserved neighborhoods.

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 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.

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 State 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.

I’ll hold regular community outreach meetings and events to ensure our District’s residents can put a face to the name of their member of County Council.

And I’ll commit to holding events in both the morning, and evening hours across our District to accommodate the busy schedules of residents no matter where they live.

I’ll make sure I’m communicating regularly with District residents on social media, with regular newsletters, and town halls so our residents know what’s happening and can offer direct feedback.