Cape increases school tax rate
Cape Henlopen taxpayers will pay more this year after the Cape Henlopen School Board approved an increase in the tax rate July 11.
Under the new tax rate, homeowners will pay $.039921, or nearly 4 cents per $100 of assessed value of their homes; houses assessed at $25,000 will pay about $998 in 2020, an increase of about $79 from 2019.
The largest increases, a 28-cent increase for capital improvement projects and a 5-cent increase for current expenses, were approved through referendum, said Cape Director of Business Operations Oliver Gumbs.
“This increase captures the last of the debt service increases for our major capital projects,” Gumbs said. “It will go no higher than that rate while all the project funding is being acquired. The rate will decrease in time after that.”
The tax rate for next year at 3.9921 per $100 of assessed value is an increase of .3147 from 2019. Gumbs said properties in Sussex County have not been assessed since 1974. Assessed values are based on construction costs in 1974 and are not related to current market values.
Residential, out-of-district tuition costs $1.68 million
The local cost for students attending residential schools outside the district remained the same.
At $100,000 per student, Cape will pay $500,000 in tuition for five students to attend residential schools such as Benedictine School and Bellweather Behavioral Health, formerly Advoserv.
Costs increased for Cape students enrolled in out-of-district alternative schools, schools for children with disabilities and Academic Challenge.
At $35,000 per student, the cost to send 15 students to Howard T. Ennis is $525,000. The cost for 100 Sussex County Opportunity Program in Education students at $2,500 a student is $250,000, with an additional $90,000 paid for transportation.
About $1,100 is spent per student in Academic Challenge college courses at Delaware Technical Community College. With 250 enrolled students, the cost is $275,000 total; an additional $37,500 provides transportation.
Delaware Department of Education states $15,700 is spent per student in the Cape district, not including Sussex Consortium students. Delaware Department of Education states $93,000 is spent on each of the Consortium’s 308 enrolled students.
