Proposed FY 2024 Delaware Budget Passes in State House
With just over a week left of the General Assembly session, state lawmakers introduced House Bill 195 on Tuesday – that is the state’s proposed $5.606-billion FY 2024 operating budget. The measure was passed in the State House Thursday by a 32 to 8 vote. The 8 who voted against the spending plan said in a statement that the state’s spending growth is alarming – showing a 10% increase or over $500-million above the current budget.
A supplemental appropriation measure – House Bill 196 was also approved – by a 33 to 7 vote. Those who voted against the two spending plans feel controls to limit spending need to be adopted.
Eight House members — State Reps. Rich Collins, Jeff Hilovsky, Shannon Morris, Charles Postles, Bryan Shupe, Jeff Spiegelman, Jesse Vanderwende, and Lyndon Yearick — voted against HB 195 – the state operating budget – released a statement explaining their vote against the budget:
“Although we appreciate the hard work of all the people in the executive and legislative branches that have labored for the last six months to write the new state operating budget, we cannot in good conscience support it.
While the budget includes many vital investments and expenditures that we fully back, we find the pace of state spending growth to be alarming.
The budget for FY 2024 is $5.606 billion — an increase of more than $507 million and nearly 10% above the budget it’s replacing.
For context, the new budget is more than 50% larger than the operating budget enacted ten years ago (FY 2014).
The new budget also does not include an additional $194.5 million in spending contained in a supplemental appropriation (House Bill 196) that will be enacted before the end of next week.
Net General Fund revenues are expected to be down next year by 3.8% before rebounding somewhat in FY 2025 with modest growth of 2.5%.
Considering all these factors, it is irresponsible to approve such a significant spending increase resulting in higher costs that must be accounted for at the start of the next budget process.
We believe our state needs to consider adopting prudent controls to limit spending by linking future hikes to factors like inflation and population growth.“
Both measures have been sent to the State Senate where they have been Laid on the Table.
