Mardela considers tax increase

MARDELA SPRINGS -- Following a 20 percent decrease in property tax assessments, the town is deliberating on how to proceed to make sure it meets its upcoming budget.
The Mardela Springs Commissioners are debating whether the municipality will need to raise its property tax rate to 25 cents per $100. The current tax yield rate is at 20 cents per $100 of assessed value.
Town Clerk Patricia Hooper told the Commissioners that the rate increase would counterbalance any losses from the assessments.
"If we raise it to 25 cents, we'll get the same amount and the tax bill stays the same," she said. "I don't know if you want to do that, but you certainly have to raise a little bit."
Four of the five commissioners -- Debbie Bailey, Robert Walter, Randy Slacum and David Insley -- each received reassessments, but Commission President Stanford Robinson did not. To most of the Commissioners' recollections, Mardela Springs hasn't had a change in its tax rates in close to two decades.
If the Commissioners decide they have no other alternative but to increase the tax rate, the next question would be whether to raise it incrementally or have the five-cent increase take place in one year.
The Commissioners would have a three-year period to do so.
Robinson said one option is to front-load the possible increase so in the final year, there would be minimal impact.
"What we might look at doing is maybe raise two cents a year for the first two years and one cent the third year or something along those lines," he said. "It has to be done over a three-year period."
In addition to the possibility of raising property taxes, the Commissioners also looked at other items in their budget to reduce. One alternative consisted of cutting the amount of replacement bulbs for Christmas lights.
Walter, who is not in favor of raising taxes, said it will be something the Commissioners will have to consider.
"I don't see a whole lot to cut and I don't know the particulars about whether there's surpluses and what we can cut," he said. "It's going to take more than us deciding here in 10 minutes on whether to do it."