The New Castle county Council has unanimously approved a $174.2 million operating budget that does not raise property taxes.
There was some acrimony though when the council considered pulling a quarter of a million from the budget for the Wilmington Fire Department.
It was kept by a 10-to-3 vote.
But, Sam Guy, one of the top executive assistants to County Council Tom Gordon, compared this to the decision by two members of the Sussex County council not to provide $100 each in grant money for a youth program by the NAACP.
Guy is a former NAACP branch president.
The Wilmington News Journal reports that sparked an angry response from Council member George Smiley, who said he resented the comparison and called the remarks an attempt at intimidation…that “doesn’t work”.
Meanwhile, the budget did provide $359-thousand in grant money for volunteer fire companies to help with a shortfall in ambulance-service costs.
There was another half a million for a public campaign against heroin addiction and another $810-thousand in new spending for the Land Use Department.
