DE Lawmakers weigh in on Relief Rebate Program passing the House

DELAWARE– This Spring some Delawareans could be getting $300 back into their pockets. This is because the House of Representatives passed legislation Thursday that could provide this financial relief.

The 2022 Delaware Relief Rebate Program is designed to help citizens who’ve been hit hard by inflation and soaring gas prices. A one-time direct payment would go to resident taxpayers who filed their tax returns for the year 2020, as well as those residents who didn’t.

Senator Brian Pettyjohn and Representative Ruth Briggs King said lawmakers from both sides of the aisle really came together to pass this in the House.

“After all, it’s the peoples’, it’s tax payers money and so giving that back to Delaware residents who are tax payers I think is a good timing,” Rep. Briggs King said.

“We all kind of put our own kind of agendas aside and said what can we do, one, quickly, we wanted to be able to do it as quickly as possible and to be fair,” Sen. Pettyjohn said.

Now, this bill has only passed the House of Representatives and it still needs to go to the Senate. The vote in the House was 3 no’s and 60 yes’. Rep. Briggs Kings said in speaking with some of the law makers who voted no she feels they were concerned that residents reached out to them saying they don’t need this relief rebate program.

“I just think some of them thought its not necessary, they wanted to see something longer and more meaningful, like some of the tax reform bills we have out there,” Rep. Briggs King said. “And, so I think they were just saying that we need to look at something longer term to give money back for the residents that would be much more beneficial down the line.”

Senator Pettyjohn told us the bill would also instruct the Department of Finance to create a process to provide the relief rebate to residents who didn’t file their 2020 income tax return, including those on retirement, social services, and disability.

Also, he said it would’ve been nice to get the gas tax suspended for awhile and we need to look at other taxes the state increased during the pandemic and start rolling some of those back.