Budget & Taxes

This Act amends the Charter of the City of New Castle by authorizing the City Council to levy taxes on real property at varying rates based upon property classification (e.g. residential, commercial, or industrial). H.S. 1 to H.B. 144 clarifies that any taxes on real property must be in “just portions” sufficient to cover the aggregate of the budget.

This Act is a Substitute for and differs from Senate Bill No. 51 by removing the retroactive effective date. This Act amends the Charter of the City of Harrington to clarify the City’s taxing powers by adding a specific power for the City Council to impose and collect a lodging tax of no more than 3% of the rent, in addition to the amount imposed by the State under Chapter 61 of Title 30, for the occupancy of any room in a hotel, motel, or tourist home, as defined under § 6101 of Title 30 of the Delaware Code, located within the boundaries of the City. This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 1 of Article IX of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to amend a charter issued to a municipal corporation.

This Substitute to HB 91 differs from HB 91 in that it further expands free breakfasts in schools participating in the federal School Breakfast Program by making them available to all students, regardless of household income, but does not expand free lunch income eligibility. The Department of Education shall reimburse a public school providing free breakfasts. The reimbursement must be equal to the federal free reimbursement rate multiplied by the total number of breakfasts that the participating public school serves during the applicable budget year minus the total amount of reimbursement for breakfasts served during the applicable budget year that the participating public school receives under the School Breakfast Program. This Act does not apply to schools participating in the federal Community Eligibility Provision, Provision 1, Provision 2, or Provision 3 special assistance certification and reimbursement alternatives. This Act takes effect immediately and is to be implemented beginning July 1, 2026.

This Act broadens the scope of a special fund administered by the Office of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing that provides telecommunications assistance to Delaware residents who have deafness, hearing loss, or speech disabilities related to deafness or hearing loss. This Act authorizes the office to provide residents with assistive devices that facilitate communication or provide users with information pertaining to emergencies. It also authorizes the Office to employ individuals to administer the program, provide education, and manage program resources. This Act adds restrictions on how money in the Fund may be spent and requires a three-month reserve be maintained to ensure financial solvency of the Fund. This Act also requires the Office of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing to file an annual report with the Governor, the Chief Clerk of the House, and the Secretary of the Senate concerning the performance of the fund in the previous fiscal year.

SB 200 authorizes Delaware to issue general obligation bonds and revenue bonds for state capital projects during the 2025-2026 fiscal year. It appropriates funds from the Transportation Trust Fund, Delaware Transportation Authority's special funds, and general state funds, while also allowing for the reallocation of existing state funds. The bill specifies how these funds can be spent, including for transportation infrastructure and other state capital improvements. This funding package directly affects Delaware state agencies and projects funded through these bond issuances and appropriations.

HB 225 is the state's budget bill for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2026. It allocates state funds to government agencies and programs, while establishing specific rules and limits on how those funds can be spent. The bill also updates certain state laws to support the budget's implementation. This legislation directly affects how state agencies manage taxpayer-funded operations during the 2025-2026 fiscal year.

HB 226 provides a one-time funding of $37,632,955 to the Office of Management and Budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2026. This supplemental appropriation covers specific, one-time budgeted expenses that were not included in the original budget allocation. The funds are intended to address immediate financial needs within the state's budget process for that fiscal year.

This Act provides supplementary appropriations to certain Grants-in-Aid recipients for Fiscal Year 2026. Section 1 – Government Units and Senior Centers $ 37,093,119 Section 2 – One-Times and Community Agencies $ 47,093,493 Section 3 – Fire Companies and Public Service Ambulance Companies $ 13,258,013 Section 4 – Veterans Organizations $ 839,000 GRAND TOTAL $ 98,283,625

The Department of Education (“Department”) currently administers the High Needs Educator Student Loan Repayment Program, the Speech-Language Pathologist Student Loan Repayment Program, and the Mental Health Services Student Loan Repayment Program. Annually, these programs help roughly 600 public school employees, including educators, speech-language pathologists, school counselors, school psychologists, and school social workers, through a single application process, by making loan payments directly to student loan lenders. But paying the lenders directly has caused 2 persistent issues: 1. Because the payments are considered taxable income, award recipients have the tax withheld from their paychecks, even though the payments go directly to the lenders. This lowers the award recipients’ take-home pay and can create confusion and hardship. 2. The process involves sending out 600 or more individual checks each year. And many checks are returned or delayed due to changes in lender information or system mismatches. To avoid these issues, the Department recommends combining the 3 different student loan repayment programs into a single program and changing the award process from a system that repays lenders directly to a system that pays stipends to public school employees through the State central payroll operation. These changes would streamline a system that already uses a single application and would do all of the following: 1. Avoid surprise tax impacts and imputed income issues. 2. Reduce administrative burden and failed payments. 3. Provide more timely and transparent support to award recipients. The suggested changes are easy to implement, budget-neutral, and could allow public school employees who previously declined awards due to the tax consequences to benefit from the financial support. This Act makes the changes recommended by the Department by doing all of the following: 1. Eliminates the separate Speech-Language Pathologist Student Loan Repayment Program, Mental Health Services Student Loan Repayment Program, and High Needs Educator Student Loan Repayment Program, and combines them into a single program under § 4163 of Title 14. 2. Shifts payment of awards from paying the lenders directly to paying the award recipients a stipend through the State central payroll operation. 3. Streamlines the process for determining financial need by allowing the Department to focus on collecting the income and loan information that is necessary to fairly allocate program funds. 4. Changes the title of § 4163 of Title 14 from the High Needs Educator Student Loan Repayment Program to the “Public School Employee Support Program for High Need Areas” because the 3 programs are now combined into a single program and the program is no longer a direct student loan repayment program. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act amends the Newark Charter by authorizing the City of Newark to levy and collect a per student, per semester tax on Colleges and Universities that host in person classes which are located within the boundaries of the City of Newark. This tax applies to all colleges and universities including any organizations that are considered subdivisions or agencies of the State of Delaware or are otherwise tax exempt, including but not limited to the University of Delaware. The amount of the tax will be adjusted annually in an amount not to exceed the change in the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, not seasonally adjusted). It also limits the available payment methods to restrict the use of credit cards for the payment of the aforementioned tax. This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 1 of Article IX of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to amend a municipal charter.