From the News Journal
The Delaware House on Wednesday passed a $4.5 billion operating budget for the next fiscal year, and the bill now heads to the governor’s desk to be signed into law. The state’s fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the budget is shaved down from the $4.6 billion proposed budget that Gov. John Carney announced in January.
Despite some cuts, the governor and state officials say they are happy with the spending plan. Schools are fully funded and state workers won’t have to worry about layoffs, furloughs or cuts to their benefits — at least for another 12 months.
Not all state workers are getting a pay raise for the third year in a row as was promised in January. But certain workers, including ones in collective bargaining agreements with unions, are getting pay raises through salary steps. Budget-writing lawmakers also shored up some lost revenue by taking half of the $126 million in the state’s budget savings fund, which was created a few years ago in case of a recession.
But the work isn’t over. Lawmakers are aiming to pass two other bills by Tuesday, the deadline for the end of the fiscal year. One bill gives $55 million to nonprofits across the state, while another puts $708 million toward transportation, infrastructure and other capital projects.
Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked both of those bills by abstaining from voting. Some of them said they hadn’t had enough time to read the bill. Sen. David Lawson, R-Marydel, said he wanted more time to scrutinize two new task forces that were written into the epilogue language of the grant-in-aid bill, which gives money to the nonprofits.
Those task forces, which were announced as part of a response to protests across the state against racism and police brutality, invest in African American communities and look at proposals to increase police accountability.
Delaware Republicans, who are in the minority party, can flex their muscles and cause hang-ups on the grant-in-aid and transportation bond bill because those bills require three-fourths of lawmakers’ approval instead of a simple majority. Democratic leaders publicly chided the eight Republicans who refused to vote, and Gov. Carney on Wednesday urged lawmakers to get those two spending measures done on time.
