Pre-teen friends sitting on climbing frame in playground
Krista Milkovics, a Real estate lawyer, appeared on “A Better Discussion,” a webcast hosted by A Better Delaware to Review the School Tax Reassessment Mess
WILMINGTON, Del. (Nov. 3, 2025) — A real estate attorney who has spent months dissecting New Castle County’s troubled property-tax reassessment laid out a blunt “winners and losers” ledger Monday, arguing the process shifted costs onto homeowners and small businesses while sparing large commercial players — and leaving Gov. Matt Meyer politically exposed.
Krista Milkovics, a Delaware lawyer who focuses on real estate, appeared on “A Better Discussion,” a webcast hosted by A Better Delaware and chaired by former Attorney General Jane Brady. Drawing on county data, legislative hearings and a recent Chancery Court ruling, Milkovics said the reassessment and subsequent “split-rate” fix for school taxes delivered partial relief to homeowners but intensified pressure on non-residential owners — costs likely to flow to tenants.
“The burden was shifted… to the homeowners,” Milkovics said, adding that many residents saw school-tax hikes far above the one-time 10% districts can levy in a reassessment year. “That’s why our school tax bills went up 65%, 80%… not just 10%.”
Brady, who has criticized the county’s rollout, called the cascade of delays, misclassifications and last-minute fixes “a problem that should have been anticipated,” noting that Kent and Sussex counties embedded with the vendor and finished appeals before sending bills. “This is all to buy them time to do it right when they should have done that in the first place,” she said.
Winners (for now)
Large commercial and utility property owners.
Milkovics highlighted marquee examples to argue that big operators benefited from valuation decisions. One logistics site, she said, sold for roughly $393 million in 2022 but was assessed at about $108 million in 2024 — a shift that cut its taxes by about $2.5 million before the split-rate adjustment. The split rate may add back “a couple hundred thousand,” she said, still leaving a sizable net gain.
Kent and Sussex counties.
Process discipline paid off, Brady and Milkovics said. Those counties worked closely with the contractor, completed appeals well before billing, and avoided New Castle County’s cash-flow crunch and public backlash.
Tyler Technologies.
Despite criticism, the contractor’s software now underpins the assessment roll and the five-year reassessment cadence. “It looks as though we are stuck with them,” Milkovics said, citing pricing and system dependence, though Brady argued the state should not assume it has no alternatives.
Partial winners
Owner-occupied homeowners.
The new split-rate authority (HB 242) lets school districts charge lower rates to residential property than to non-residential, softening the spike many homeowners saw on July estimates. Relief is “real but incomplete,” Milkovics said, because the underlying burden shifted off large commercial and utility parcels.
Lawmakers who pushed split-rate relief.
They delivered a visible fix that survived a court challenge last week. But it is a one-year patch that concentrates pain elsewhere.
Losers
Tenants and mobile-home residents.
With higher non-residential school rates, landlords are expected to pass through costs. “That’s going to affect the poorest among us,” Brady said.
Mom-and-pop landlords and small non-residential owners.
Thin operating margins leave little room to absorb higher bills. One small business owner on the call cited a five-figure annual increase.
New Castle County government and affected school districts.
Because bills remain delayed, both are short of normal fall receipts and facing higher mailing and processing costs. “They don’t have money. The schools don’t have money either… the bulk have not paid,” Milkovics said.
Finally, Our Students. What if all this energy and money had instead been spent on improving the reading program in our schools?
Where Meyer stands
Milkovics’ ledger also hints at the political stakes for Meyer. The county-level process problems — late notices, an appeals window that closed before most July bills arrived, and a reliance on the vendor’s black-box modeling — trace back to his tenure as county executive. Now, as governor, he is the most visible official positioned to steady the system or own further slippage.
Bottom line for the governor: a high-risk mixed bag. If he drives a credible fix — corrected classifications with notice and appeal, a firm billing calendar, and a financing bridge for schools — he could convert exposure into a win. If bills slip again or pass-through costs spike for renters and small businesses, the “losers” column grows, and so does the political liability.
What’s next
Lawmakers are expected to convene a special session Thursday, Nov. 6, to consider extending New Castle County’s due date again beyond Nov. 30, after a Chancery Court decision surfaced misclassified parcels that now require notice and an appeal window. Milkovics warned that could push billing into December or January, and possibly create knock-on issues next summer if schedules collide.
Brady urged scrutiny of vendor accountability ahead of the state’s required five-year reassessment cycle. “I don’t feel like we’re stuck with Tyler,” she said. “We should make that decision in advance so that we don’t end up in another boondoggle.”
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