Fiscal Condition

New Castle’s fis­cal posi­tion has remained strong over the last twen­ty-five years, weath­er­ing the Dot­com Mar­ket Crash in 2000 – 2001 and the 2008 glob­al finan­cial cri­sis. As evi­dence of the Town’s robust finan­cial posi­tion in 2017, Moody’s recent­ly reaf­firmed the Town’s long stand­ing AAA bond rat­ing. Pos­i­tive demo­graph­ic fac­tors includ­ing a per capi­ta income of $89,919, as well as a coun­ty wide unem­ploy­ment rate below 4%, con­tribute to annu­al prop­er­ty tax col­lec­tion rates in excess of 99%. Despite a fluc­tu­at­ing econ­o­my, and the con­straints of the state man­dat­ed tax cap, the Town con­tin­ues to main­tain a strong cash posi­tion over the last five years, grow­ing its avail­able fund bal­ance to over 30% of oper­at­ing rev­enues. The Town’s annu­al debt ser­vice is below 7% of the total bud­get, and just over 2.5% of the statu­to­ry lim­it mean­ing the town has ample means to con­tin­ue fund­ing its cap­i­tal improve­ment plan. Recent data from the New Cas­tle Tax Assessor’s Office shows prop­er­ty val­ues are once again ris­ing after a stag­nant peri­od due to the glob­al eco­nom­ic down­turn. Res­i­den­tial prop­er­ty tax­es com­prised more than 91% of total prop­er­ty tax rev­enue col­lect­ed in New Cas­tle, while com­mer­cial prop­er­ty tax­es made up 3%. This break­down of tax rev­enue is to be expect­ed, as a vast major­i­ty of land in the Town is zoned for and used as res­i­den­tial prop­er­ty; 98% of land area in New Cas­tle falls with­in a res­i­den­tial zon­ing dis­trict, and 56% of the Town’s acreage is com­prised of res­i­den­tial uses. Com­mer­cial, office and indus­tri­al zones and uses com­prise 2% of the Town’s land area. The Town of New Castle’s strong bond rat­ing, ample reserves, and sig­nif­i­cant debt capac­i­ty allow fund­ing for vital infra­struc­ture improve­ment, and social pro­grams that enhance res­i­dents’ qual­i­ty of life and sup­port eco­nom­ic activ­i­ty in the Town.