Why Should Delaware Care?
Akin to the president’s State of the Union address, the State of the State address is a governor’s highest profile speech each year and it lays out his or her legislative agenda for the year. With Gov. John Carney leaving office next January, he has until June 30 to complete any remaining goals in his term.
Gov. John Carney made his final legislative wish list during his annual State of the State address Tuesday, seeking reforms on state budgeting and gun permitting, along with additional spending to help improve student performance and support for offshore wind power projects.
Carney, the term-limited Democrat, was largely reflective of his more than seven years leading Delaware, including through the COVID pandemic. At times, he got choked up while thanking his wife and children for supporting his never-ending schedule.
The speech was interrupted about a half dozen times by protesters in the second-floor gallery who criticized his support of Israel after the Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas and called for a ceasefire in the war in Gaza.
The 62-member legislature, where Democrats hold wide majorities in both chambers, have avenues to fulfill Carney’s goals. Here is a look at how that could get done.
Budget Stabilization Fund
Carney, a former state finance secretary, has long prioritized careful budgeting and spending, priding his administration for turning a $400 million dollar budget deficit in 2017 to $400 million in reserves today.
One way that he was able to do that was through the formation of the Budget Benchmark and Stabilization Fund. That fund is intended to essentially smooth over rough fiscal years by saving more than Delaware’s legally mandated 2% requirement of annual revenues – which go to the so-called “rainy day” Reserve Fund for use in times of crisis and to protect the state’s AAA bond rating – and placing it into a discretionary fund.
It has been an effective way to protect state coffers – especially through COVID – but it was only established through an executive order that could be ignored by his successor. An attempt in 2018 to write the budgeting mechanism into the state Constitution fell flat.
Carney is now calling upon lawmakers to once again consider adding the Benchmark Index to the Constitution, a process that if started this session wouldn’t be approved until 2025 at the earliest as two consecutive General Assemblies must approve an amendment.
“It’s really pretty simple. Delaware can’t compete in the future if we don’t have our budget in order. Right now, a future General Assembly, or a governor, could lead us down a path of uncontrolled spending. That would lead to higher taxes, and painful cuts,” Carney said. “I won’t be here next year. But most of you will. Don’t set yourselves up for failure. I hope we can find common ground on this important priority for every Delaware taxpayer.”
Reading coaches
One of the state’s biggest challenges is its woeful national rankings in public education testing, particularly where less than four in 10 students are reading proficiently at third grade on average, and some schools see even worse results.
“Imagine if your child went to a school with that kind of result. None of us would tolerate that. But too many children across our state are faced with this reality. And we need to fix it,” Carney said.
In his later years in office, Carney has focused a great deal of attention on education reform, especially through the creation of the Wilmington Learning Collaborative and Opportunity Funding. He’s proposing more than $50 million in new spending on K-12 programs, including $3 million to hire reading coaches across the state to help students to catch up.
He’s seeking legislators’ support for his spending proposals related to education, which totals $2.1 billion overall, or more than a third of the state’s budget.
Permit-to-purchase
Over his two terms, Carney has already signed bills that banned assault weapons, bump stocks and high-capacity magazines. The state also passed red flag laws and strengthened regulations preventing straw purchases.
The next target in gun reform is the permit-to-purchase bill, which would require gun buyers to complete an approved firearm training course within the last five years and obtain a permit before acquiring a firearm.
Last year, Democrats approved the measure at Senate Bill 2 in the State Senate and the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on it Thursday.
House Republicans objected to Democrats’ rush to move the bill, which they feel infringes upon law-abiding residents’ Second Amendment rights. In December, Democrats advanced the bill from its last committee hearing while lawmakers were out of session in an opaque legislative move known as “walking” a bill.
“House and Senate Democrats are self-assured that their policies are entirely correct, and any other viewpoint is not only not worthy of being entertained, but must be silenced and pushed aside,” Republicans wrote in an op-ed published after the move.
Regardless, Carney has called upon legislators to move the bill to his desk this session to be put into law.
Offshore wind
Delaware has long had a contentious relationship to offshore wind farms, having explored the potential to tap into the power generated by the winds that blow over the Atlantic Ocean to reduce its reliance on carbon-emitting energy several years ago. After slowing progress, however, Maryland and New Jersey have moved ahead in efforts to build such projects in federal waters, including directly off the coast of Delaware.
In recent years though, Carney has committed Delaware to cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. Offshore wind would be a way to make significant progress toward those goals without debating land use questions that have confronted solar and biogas projects.
Concerns about windmills’ impact on beach tourism and the rising cost of wind-generated power continue to challenge its adoption here, but Carney signaled that he is ready to move ahead. In December, his administration began negotiations with offshore wind developer US Wind to bring created power to Delaware and make additional investments here.
“Over the next several months, I hope you’ll join me in taking another big step forward. We are pursuing legislation that will make Delaware more of an active player in offshore wind,” he said.
