Delaware Gov. John Carney signed a temporary spending bill after the General Assembly failed to pass a budget early today. The body will reconvene on Sunday.
Republicans said they offered a plan that would not increase taxes and would address a nearly $350 million budget gap. Democrats had proposed tax hikes and some cuts.
Carney’s office issued the following:
“I’m deeply disappointed that the General Assembly has failed to reach an agreement to pass a balanced budget, and a responsible long-term financial plan. The people of Delaware expect us to responsibly do their business, and that includes working together to enact a responsible financial plan for the state. As I’ve been saying for months, we need a balanced, long-term plan that relies on spending reductions and new revenue to solve our financial challenges in a sustainable way. The fact is we met Republican leaders more than halfway. We have pledged to support real spending reductions, and fiscal reforms that would place controls on future spending. Unfortunately, Republicans have been unwilling to compromise on their ideological demands, and have not agreed to support a sustainable plan to raise new revenue.”
Senate Republicans offered the following response:
“An opportunity to reach a deal was squandered tonight,” said State Senate Minority Whip Greg Lavelle, R-Sharpley. “We had substantive discussions with House Democrats about a budget that would have restored funding previously cut from public education and allowed us to enact the annual Grants-In-Aid Bill – all without raising taxes. We believed we had an agreement, but the governor rejected it.”
Republican said in a statement they proposed a 1.1-percent cut to non-payroll state agencies’ operating expenses; a temporary diversion of a portion of the proceeds from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI); the full inclusion of the governor’s recommended adjustments to state employee health care benefits; and other smaller cuts.
“This is the first time in over four decades the state has started the new fiscal year without an annual budget in place, but it was not for a lack of trying on our part,” said State House Minority Leaders Danny Short, R-Seaford. “We tried to be flexible, moved off the ‘final offer’ we made yesterday and made additional concessions. Unfortunately, it still was not enough.”
“We went to great lengths to have a budget and a Grants-In-Aid Bill done tonight,” said Rep. Deborah Hudson, R-Fairthorne. “Both can be done without raising taxes, and we had a proposal to do just that.”
Legislators early Saturday approved and Governor Carney signed Senate Bill 137, a short-term appropriation measure that will fund state government at Fiscal Year 2017 levels for 72 hours.
Budgets in Delaware require a three-fifths vote for approval.
The session was contentious toward the end, with the Democrat-controlled Joint Finance Committee slashing Grant-In-Aid funding for nonprofits and eliminating funding for local convention and visitors bureaus through the room tax.
Republicans pushed back with proposals that would modify the prevailing wage that pays above-market hourly rates for construction projects.
