Why Should Delaware Care?
Government works best when its citizens are knowledgeable and engaged. Delaware’s government has scores of commissions, working groups, agencies and legislative committees. All must hold meetings that are open to the public. Below we highlight a few of those meetings that are happening this week.
Below are some of the most important or interesting public meetings happening around the state this week.
- Sussex County Council to consider Belle Mead project (Sussex County)
- Delaware budgeters to release latest forecasts (Statewide)
- Dover Police Advisory Board to meet (Kent County)
- Redding Consortium to issue recommendations (New Castle County)
- Port of Wilmington oversight continues in wake of audit (Statewide)
New apartments among subdivisions and farms outside Lewes?
The Sussex County Council is set to discuss, and potentially vote, this week on a controversial plan to build an apartment and shops on a tract of farmland near the Delaware beaches.
For much of the past year, the Belle Mead development had sparked a debate within the surrounding community as it pitted two of Sussex County’s most important quality-of-life issues against each other — traffic and housing affordability.
It also is one of three large developments in the county that have collectively formed the hottest political controversy in the area this year.
Amid the tension, the county in September delayed a previously scheduled vote on the measure that to grant a zoning change for the Lewes-area property that would allow the plans for more than 300 apartment units and retail businesses to move forward.
📍 The Sussex County Council will meet at 10 a.m. Tuesday for its weekly meeting to discuss a range of topics, including Belle Mead. The meeting will take place at the Sussex County Administrative Office Building, located at 2 The Circle in Georgetown. Information about virtual attendance can be found at the bottom of the meeting agenda document here.
Wilmington school redistricting
As noted in Spotlight Delaware’s story published on Monday, a state task force is set to issue recommendations this week to lawmakers about where school district lines should be drawn in Delaware’s largest city.
It follows five years of discussions about where Wilmington kids should go to school.
📍 The Redding Consortium for Educational Equity will meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the West Conference Center at Del Tech’s Wilmington campus, located at 300 N. Orange St. For more information, including about virtual attendance, click here.
What will Delaware’s budget look like?
Delaware’s official budget prognosticators will meet Monday to release and discuss their latest forecasts for state government revenues and spending.
The meeting is the first since lawmakers passed and Gov. Matt Meyer signed a bill that reversed some of the effects on Delaware from President Donald Trump’s signature piece of federal legislation – the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Among several provisions within the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was one that gave businesses the ability to take lump-sum tax write-offs for research and development costs, and for the depreciation of buildings and equipment. Previously, those write-offs were required to be taken over several-year periods.
The change prompted Delaware’s budget analysts to predict a steep, near-term drop in business tax revenues – totaling more than $400 million during the next three years.
Elected officials, including Meyer, said their action last month reversed that drop.
During Monday’s meeting, the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council also is expected to vote on a tool, called the Delaware’s healthcare benchmark, designed to rein in one of the state’s biggest line items. The benchmark sets the expected amount of healthcare spending in the state for the next year in a way that serves as a nudge to hospitals to limit spending increases.
📍 The Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council will meet at 1 p.m. Monday at the Buena Vista state property, located at 661 S. DuPont Highway in New Castle. For additional details, including information about virtual attendance, click here.
Policing in Dover
Public controversy over the Dover Police appears to have subsided since a controversy last fall had a police union paying a mobile billboard company to drive around the city calling for the chief’s resignation.
Spotlight Delaware may learn more about that chapter after the Delaware Department of Justice ruled that the city had improperly denied a request for public records.
In the meantime, Dover’s Police Advisory Board will hold a regular meeting on Thursday. The meeting agenda states that the board will discuss citizen complaints, among other topics.
📍 The advisory board will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Dover Police Department’s James L Hutchison Public Assembly Room. The address in 400 S. Queen St. in Dover. There is no virtual attendance option.
Port of Wilmington
The Port of Wilmington’s legislative oversight committee will meet this week to discuss the state’s embattled, but ongoing, plans to build a new container terminal in Edgemoor.
The meeting comes about two weeks after Delaware’s state auditor published a report that stated Delaware’s other port oversight board had failed during a recent four-year period to sufficiently supervise and inspect operations at the Port of Wilmington. Several state and port officials pushed back on those findings.
This week’s meeting also comes a week after the board of the Diamond State Port Corporation – the chief overseer and de facto landlord for the public port property – held its own meeting.
In it, Delaware Secretary of State Charuni Patibanda-Sanchez said officials from the competing Port of Philadelphia were continuing efforts to block an expansion of the Port of Wilmington, by refusing to sign a statement of no objection for the Edgemoor project.
📍 The Port of Wilmington Expansion Task Force will meet at noon Tuesday at the third floor of the Carvel State Building located at 820 N. French St. in Wilmington. Click here for information about virtual attendance.
