REHOBOTH BEACH, Del.- Rehoboth Beach commissioners are considering upping property taxes and adding a hotel tax by this summer.
During the commissioners' recent budget workshop, a presentation from city manager Sharon Lynn outlined the potential of creating over $667,000 in revenue from increasing property taxes by fifty percent, and creating $886,000 in revenue with a three percent tax on hotels or motels. Lynn noted that these are just proposals, and anything can be changed, but city commissioners seemed open to the ideas.
"Taxes have been kept artificially low," says Commissioner Pat Coluzzi. "The monies that we have, where we've had money from wastewater, water funds, etcetera have been used to balance the budget instead of increasing taxes. That in my opinion was the wrong way of doing things."
If implemented, the money would help fund infrastructure improvements and projects that have been deferred due to funding. Mayor Paul Kuhns says new revenue increases could be found in the future, but balancing a budget before the upcoming deadline is the current priority.
"I think our taxes probably should go up close to 100 percent over the next two to three years," he says. "But these are services we have to pay for. We have to come up with some sort of storm water fee or tax, absolutely, because those are the types of things we need. [But] we've got until April. This is something that's put in front of us and we can put out and start looking at different other sources for the future as well."
The city's next budget workshop is scheduled for noon on Friday. To see the most recent meeting in its entirety, click here.