Meyer proposes $6.9 billion for FY27 budget
Dover, Del. – Thursday saw Delaware Governor Matt Meyer present his proposal for this year’s fiscal budget and plan to close a projected $511 million deficit. Meyer’s proposed operating budget of $6.9 billion relies on a mix of cuts and bringing in various sources of revenue to close the gap and invest in four major priorities.
“The things we prioritize, there are four things: kids, housing, health care and workforce,” he said.
The governor’s budget would invest $25.3 million in Purchase of Care childcare services and $8 million in the Literacy Emergency Fund to revamp the “Your Voice, Your Choice” program. It would also invest $19 million in supporting affordable housing and $68.9 million in bolstering public school teachers’ salaries.
A significant portion of the state’s budget would go toward expanding access to Medicare, especially in rural communities. Meyer said it would be achieved by working with state agencies to reduce one-time payments by more than $168 million and statewide investments by $131 million.
“We don’t believe in going around and cutting government with chainsaws,” he said. “We believe in doing it with a scalpel going line by line, looking intelligently at the services Delawareans are receiving and making sure those that we can make more efficient, we work to make more efficient.”
Meyer proposed bringing in revenue through modernizing business formation fees, increases in tobacco taxes, adjustments to the Escheat cap, and establishing a tax credit to encourage films made in Delaware.
According to Meyer, the budget would reduce Delaware’s deficit by more than 70% compared to last year and maintains a Rainy Day Fund of $366.5 million and a Budget Stabilization Fund of $469.3 million.
WMDT spoke with Sen. Trey Paradee (D-District 17) who is the co-chair of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee and vice chair of the Senate Banking committee and he said he did not anticipate too many hurdles in getting the proposal passed by the state legislature.
“There is nothing that really stands out in the governor’s budget as being wildly out of line,” he said. “There’s not any new, massive initiatives or spending programs. It seems to be really focused on our workforce and health care and education.”
