DE HB 462

died on adjournment

AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SCHOOL TAXES.

Delaware · 2025-2026 Regular Session (153rd General Assembly) · lower

Description

In 2025, the General Assembly passed House Bill No. 242 (now found at Chapter 135, Volume 85 of the Laws of Delaware), allowing school districts located entirely in New Castle County to use different tax rates for residential and non-residential properties. This Act amends the Delaware Code to continue the authority for non-vocational technical school districts in New Castle County to utilize a residential and non-residential tax rate for school tax purposes. Such a split rate may be established or adjusted in the year after a general reassessment or as part of a referendum. The rate must be uniform for each class of property. Under this Act, the non-residential rate must be at least equal to the residential rate and may be no more than 1.85 times the residential rate. For purposes of the split tax rate, a school district must follow the classifications of the county in which the district is located. Under the transition provisions of this Act, a district that initially established split tax rates under the authority of House Bill No. 242, may continue to use those split rates at the same or a lower ratio between residential and non-residential tax rates established in the 2025-2026 tax year. But if a district’s non-residential tax rate for the 2025-2026 tax year was more than 1.85 times the residential tax rate, it must adjust its rates to meet the 1.85 maximum ratio permitted under this Act. The New Castle County Vocational Technical District may not continue the use of different tax rates past the 2025-2026 tax year. The Act also changes the amount a school district must add to its tax rate to account for delinquencies and late payments to “up to 10%” rather than requiring that a school district must add exactly 10% to its tax rate for this purpose. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform this chapter of the Delaware Code to the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual and strikes references to the City of Wilmington School District, which no longer exists. It also revises § 1913 of Title 14 to reflect current practice. It strikes an outdated requirement in § 1918 of Title 14 that the school districts deliver a copy of the assessment list to the County along with their tax warrant. This is inconsistent with the role of the school districts and with current practice.

Introduced: 2026-06-04
Status date: —
Latest action: 2026-06-30 — Passed By Senate. Votes: 14 YES 4 NO 2 NOT VOTING 1 ABSENT
Bill type: bill
Last updated: —

Committees

Not provided by source.

Action timeline

2026-06-04
Introduced and Assigned to Administration Committee in House
introduction,referral-committee
2026-06-10
Reported Out of Committee (Administration) in House with 3 Favorable, 1 On Its Merits
committee-passage,committee-passage-favorable
2026-06-12
Assigned to Appropriations Committee in House
introduction,referral-committee
2026-06-16
Reported Out of Committee (Appropriations) in House with 6 On Its Merits
committee-passage
2026-06-16
Reported Out of Committee (Appropriations) in House with 6 On Its Merits
committee-passage
2026-06-18
Passed By House. Votes: 33 YES 6 NO 2 ABSENT
passage
2026-06-18
Assigned to Executive Committee in Senate
introduction,referral-committee
2026-06-24
Reported Out of Committee (Executive) in Senate with 5 On Its Merits
committee-passage
2026-06-24
Assigned to Finance Committee in Senate
introduction,referral-committee
2026-06-25
Reported Out of Committee (Finance) in Senate with 4 On Its Merits
committee-passage
2026-06-30
Passed By Senate. Votes: 14 YES 4 NO 2 NOT VOTING 1 ABSENT
passage

Versions

(document, no version)Compare

Documents

application/pdf

Votes

SM
2026-06-18 · pass · 33-6
Member-level votes (41)
- Alonna Berry: yes
- Stephanie T. Bolden: yes
- Frank Burns: yes
- William Bush: yes
- William J. Carson: yes
- Nnamdi O. Chukwuocha: yes
- Richard G. Collins: no
- Franklin D. Cooke: yes
- Daniel B. Short: yes
- Timothy D. Dukes: yes
- Mara Gorman: yes
- Ronald E. Gray: yes
- Krista Griffith: yes
- Kerri Evelyn Harris: yes
- Debra Heffernan: yes
- Kevin S Hensley: other
- Jeff Hilovsky: no
- Valerie Jones Giltner: yes
- Kendra Johnson: yes
- Kimberly Williams: yes
- Kamela T Smith: yes
- Larry Lambert: yes
- Sean M. Lynn: yes
- Michael F. Smith: yes
- Melissa Minor-Brown: yes
- Shannon Morris: other
- Eric Morrison: yes
- DeShanna U Neal: yes
- Josue O Ortega: yes
- Edward S. Osienski: yes
- Sophie Phillips: yes
- Charles S Postles Jr.: yes
- Cyndie Romer: yes
- Melanie Ross Levin: yes
- Sherae'a Moore: yes
- Bryan W. Shupe: no
- Claire Snyder-Hall: yes
- Jeffrey N. Spiegelman: no
- Jesse R. Vanderwende: no
- Madinah Wilson-Anton: no
- Lyndon D. Yearick: yes
SM
2026-06-30 · pass · 14-4
Member-level votes (21)
- Darius J. Brown: yes
- Eric Buckson: other
- Daniel Cruce: yes
- Stephanie L. Hansen: yes
- Gerald W. Hocker: no
- Kyra L. Hoffner: yes
- Russell Huxtable: other
- Dave G. Lawson: no
- S. Elizabeth Lockman: yes
- Spiros Mantzavinos: yes
- Trey Paradee: yes
- Brian Pettyjohn: no
- Marie Pinkney: yes
- Nicole Poore: yes
- Bryant L. Richardson: other
- Ray Seigfried: yes
- David P. Sokola: yes
- Laura V. Sturgeon: yes
- Bryan Townsend: yes
- John "Jack" Walsh: yes
- David L. Wilson: no

Related bills

No related bills recorded for this bill.

Official source

https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=143439

Attribution

Data from openstates_bulk_csv, retrieved 2026-07-24T03:53:51.443619Z

Use this data

Every field on this page is available from the free public API — no key or licence required. Fetch this bill as JSON: GET /api/v1/bills?jurisdiction=DE&identifier=HB 462. See the API docs or the MCP server for AI assistants.

Known limitations

Sponsor party and chamber affiliation are not yet captured by this API.
Committee referrals are not yet captured.

See the methodology page for data sources and limitations.