Tim Carlin, Spotlight’s deputy editor for southern Delaware, is today’s guest on “Beyond the Headlines.” In addition to supervising the reporters focused on Kent and Sussex County, Tim is also Spotlight’s dedicated statehouse reporter, and his legislative coverage is the focus of this episode. The 153rd General Assembly will conclude on June 30, and Tim joins the podcast to let listeners know what to look forward to in the last 30 days of the session, as well as sharing his take on the highlights of the legislators’ work so far.
The podcast was hosted by Director of Community Engagement David Stradley.
This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
I was trying to think of a fun way to start this episode of Beyond the Headlines. Our legislators have 30 days left, but in fact, a little less than that because they don’t meet every single day.
What I’d love to do is, if you were working with an advertising team to create a movie-style trailer and grab the public’s interest for this home stretch, what would you tell that ad team? How should they structure this trailer to get the public interested in the last 30 days of the legislative session?
I think a good way to do it would maybe be, “30 days left … or is it?”
We’re heading into the start of June. The session ends June 30, but they really only have, I think the number at this point might be less than 10 legislative days left, and there’s quite a lot to accomplish. So I think the best way is to really play up the ticking time bomb, or the ticking clock, if you will, of just how little time they really have to pass a nearly $7 billion budget, to finalize some key healthcare reforms, to do their entire grant-in-aid process.
There are just many big-ticket items that all need to be tied in a nice little bow, and there’s not a lot of time for lawmakers to do that.
A consumer who’s deciding whether they’re gonna go see a movie is concerned about the ticket price. The big theme that you’ve been seeing is affordability so far in this year’s legislative session.
I think that’s a word that we’ve heard repeated over and over and over again. If we’re tossing around themes for our hypothetical advertisers, I would definitely want to drive that point home.
Affordability, in many different facets, is top of mind for lawmakers across the spectrum this session.
So the heavy-duty voiceover might be something like, “In a world where your gas has gone up by over a dollar, what will the Delaware legislature do to make your life more affordable in the last 30 days of the legislative session?”
Yeah, that’s perfect.
Before we dive into details of what listeners might see in the last 30 days, let’s take a look back. In your mind, what have been the highlights of the General Assembly’s work so far in 2026?
Not to be a broken record, but affordability and healthcare have really been some top-line issues that we’ve seen play out in different ways. At the top of the year, we had the General Assembly tie up the hospital oversight board lawsuit with SB 213, defanging some of the key oversight for the state’s hospital cost review board, and settling the ongoing lawsuit.
The majority leader in the Senate, Bryan Townsend (D-Glasgow), then introduced these sweeping primary healthcare reforms earlier this year. Those recently passed through the Senate, albeit they were an amended – and I would say a little bit watered-down – version. I think they still will accomplish the goal of bringing down healthcare costs, specifically geared toward primary healthcare and bringing those costs down in the state.
Even more recently than that, Sen. Marie Pinkney (D-Bear) and some other lawmakers, with the backing of the governor, have introduced proposed reforms to what’s known as the charity care system in Delaware, which is where hospitals have to, or should be, providing free or discounted costs for healthcare in order to receive their nonprofit status.
A Spotlight Delaware investigation by Nick Stonesifer found that some hospital systems, namely ChristianaCare, the state’s largest healthcare provider, were not necessarily meeting those expectations, or meeting the bar of what could be seen as required of them. These proposed reforms could strengthen some government oversight of these charity care practices.
So I think healthcare interweaved with affordability have been big, marquee items throughout the past five months.
In January, Spotlight Delaware presented its annual Legislative Summit, which gathers legislators, advocates, and the governor to share what their priorities are for the 2026 legislative session. You moderated one panel there with both Democratic and Republican legislative leadership. What are some of the key priorities that were raised at Legislative Summit that haven’t yet been moved forward or haven’t yet crossed the finish line?
I think the biggest is property taxes.
We were just coming off this slog of committee hearings about what went wrong with the property tax reassessment, especially in New Castle County, but across the state. This bipartisan committee that had been formed pledged to put together a slate of legislation to address some of these issues.
It’s a touchy subject for lawmakers. Taxes historically are a county issue – your property taxes, I should say. They are conducted at the county level, and I think lawmakers are keenly aware, from conversations that I have had, about how to intervene in a way that is effective – in a way that’s additive – to a solution. At least that’s what they want to do.
But as of the day that we’re recording this, it remains to be seen what exactly some of those General Assembly interventions will actually look like. There hasn’t been any sweeping legislation introduced about property taxes.
Not to be a reporter, but my sources say there should be some bills introduced soon, if not by the time this comes out. Who knows?
So listeners should definitely be on the lookout to see what legislation regarding property tax crosses the finish line.
What else? Maybe this wasn’t stuff that got talked about at Legislative Summit, but what other bills are you looking to see if they get across the finish line these last 30 days?
This topic did come up [at Legislative Summit], primarily through our land use reporter, Olivia Marble, who has doubled as our energy and environment reporter. There’s been some interesting legislation on energy, on the energy sector.
There’s honestly so many bills that relate to data centers and energy generation and solar panels on houses. It’s hard to keep track of where all these bills stand today. But it will be interesting to see which of these data center/energy-related bills make it over the finish line, and then also which bills ultimately get signed into law by Gov. Matt Meyer in the summer months.
Delaware is well known as a state of financial innovation. There are some financial legislations that you’re looking at to see if those get across the finish line.
There are. Sen. Spiros Mantzavinos (D-Elsmere) introduced a few different banking modernization bills. Largely what they do is expand Delaware Code to allow for cryptocurrency-type businesses and banking ventures to operate more easily in the state.
Sen. Mantzavinos talked about how he wanted Delaware to stay competitive in the fintech [financial technology] space moving forward. We’ve long been the home of the corporate franchise for huge corporations across the country and across the world. I think he sees that these cryptocurrency businesses are maybe the next frontier in trying to make Delaware a marketable, habitable space for some of these cryptocurrency companies to call home, if you will.
There’s a slate of three bills related to cryptocurrency and banking modernization that are working their way through the legislature. Myself, as well as our other deputy editor, Karl Baker, are keeping an eye on where these stand and where they will end up by June 30.
In addition to bills having to be passed by June 30, we also need a budget by that time.
That we do.
That decision actually comes quicker than June 30. What are the big questions in your mind as it relates to the budget, and how that might work its way out in the next few weeks?
Right now, we’re in the middle of the Joint Finance Committee markup period.
To give a very cursory baseline, what that means is Gov. Matt Meyer presented his budget proposal at the top of the year, but the power of the purse strings ultimately lies with our General Assembly.
They took that budget proposal, and they had a series of hearings earlier this year to understand why each state department was asking for the amount of money it was asking for. Now, they are revisiting, and they are marking up that proposal and deciding which of these departments will get the money they want, what will change, what will stay the same.
To get back to your question, specifically, things that I’m looking for are how connected the final budget will be to Meyer’s original proposal. The governor made a very big point of wanting to stay under 5% growth this year. He wanted a return to “manageable growth.”
That’s in expense growth, correct?
Correct. Expenses – a growth of not more than 5% in expenses across the state this next year. So it will be interesting to see how much growth, or what percentage of growth, ultimately winds up in the budget.
I think another key thing that I’ll be looking for is recent projections from state budget analysts have been fairly positive. The state is in a decent spot financially. So that means there is more money for lawmakers to try and grab at. So I’ll be interested to see which lawmakers get their pet projects funded here in the final weeks.
So we’ll have that push and pull between Gov. Meyer who says, “I only want to see 5% growth,” versus legislators going, “Oh, but the state analysts say we’ve got more money to play with.”
Exactly.
In addition to seeing how Gov. Meyer’s budget proposals go through, do you have any sense of things Gov. Meyer really hopes get across the finish line with legislation?
One bill that I mentioned earlier, Senate Bill 13, is the charity care bill. Gov. Meyer was part of the rollout of that proposal, so I would imagine that he has a vested interest in seeing that legislation make its way through before the June 30 deadline.
Going all the way back to his State of the State address, affordability – again, I know I sound like a broken record here – was a really big issue for Gov. Meyer. I would imagine that any type of legislation that goes toward improving affordability and making life more affordable for Delawareans would be something he would be very eager to sign into law.
Gov. Meyer two years ago made a big deal of, “I want to see a new education funding formula in the state.” Last year, the Public Education Funding Committee passed some recommendations, but not any actual legislation. Is that something Gov. Meyer really hopes gets across the finish line this year?
I haven’t spoken to him directly about whether he hopes that gets across the finish line, but there is legislation working its way through the General Assembly that speaks to that goal.
The Public Education Funding Commission recommended this hybrid funding model. So that takes Delaware’s current funding model of districts being allotted a certain amount of money per pupil and switches it up a little bit.
It would still keep that kind of per-pupil allotment, but it also adds in another layer where districts with higher levels of students with different disabilities or students who speak English as a second language, kind of students with higher levels of need would then also receive more money in this new hybrid model.
There are two bills working their way through the General Assembly that work toward this goal. And I would imagine that Gov. Meyer would sign them into law because, like you mentioned, he’s been a proponent of reinvigorating education funding in the state.
2026 is an election year. There have been some notable announcements of legislator resignations in the Delaware legislature, including Senate President Pro Tempore David Sokola and multiple Republicans in the House of Representatives.
How might considerations of upcoming elections influence the last stretch of activity in Dover this year?
David, I don’t know what you mean. Elections would never, ever, ever impact our officials and their ability to govern. [Laughter.]
I can’t point to one specific bill, but I think taking a step back and looking at it more broadly – you don’t want to be caught with your hand in the cookie jar on Election Day. If you are an elected official and you’re facing a challenger, whether a primary challenge – which there are some interesting primary challenges – or just a challenge from a candidate from the other major party, you want to be on solid footing and be able to talk all about the wins that you’ve brought to your district.
You don’t want to be left with egg on your face, basically. You want to be able to stand on solid footing and say, “Here are the things that I’ve done for this district, and here is why you should re-elect me and not put my opponent into office.”
I think just by virtue of that sentiment, it makes lawmakers at least a little bit more hesitant about the types of proposals that they’re willing to take up, especially as we’re in this final sprint here.
So we shouldn’t necessarily look for any big, bold sweeping changes in these last few weeks during an election year.
At least big, bold sweeping changes that don’t have widespread support.
Things that are even a bit controversial, you’re not going to see taken up in an election year. But you know, healthcare reforms, those are things that may be more palatable that can score some points, for lack of a better word, when you’re seeking re-election.
In addition to the Democratic-Republican divide in Delaware, there’s also intra-party divides, particularly in the Democratic Party between the more traditional Democrats and progressive Democrats. Perhaps that is something that might push some incumbents to do some bolder action. What are those dynamics? And are there particular legislators that are facing that stress in these last few weeks?
We recently held a members’ editor call – shameless plug to become a member of Spotlight Delaware – where Karl and I talked about this exact dynamic. There is a slate of more progressive Democratic candidates who’ve been endorsed by the Working Families Party, which is a more progressive arm of the Democratic apparatus.
They’ve put up a slate of candidates to run against some more establishment Democratic incumbents. Rep. Kim Williams (D-Stanton) – she has made a name for herself in education proposals. Rep. Nnamdi Chukwuocha is facing a challenger up in Wilmington. Sen. Ray Siegfried (D-North Brandywine), I believe Sen. Dan Cruce (D-Wilmington) as well, are facing challengers from the left. So it’ll be interesting to see how these primary elections shape up.
The Working Families Party has a pretty good track record of putting up candidates who win their races. So these incumbents are going to want to take any wins they can get back to their constituents.
So listeners may watch, for instance, to see if Rep. Williams or Sen. Cruce have any particularly strong leadership in these last few weeks here.
Yes. Exactly. You might want to see who kind of speaks up for certain issues and who’s particularly vocal. It’ll be interesting to see.
This has been your first year covering proceedings at Legislative Hall in Dover. You came to this fresh. You were not a Delawarean. You hadn’t been following the proceedings for years. What has caught your attention as a first-time observer of the goings-on in Dover?
I think this year was a bit of a tamer year than what I heard occurred in years past, at least coming off the rambunctiousness of the first leg of the 153rd General Assembly last year.
I’ve just been trying to soak it all in. The political nerd in me likes to see how these interpersonal relationships shape up – you know, much has been made about the legislature’s relationship with Gov. Meyer. Specifically, there’s talk about contentious relations between Gov. Meyer and the Senate. I think we saw some of that, but largely it’s been pretty amicable this year.
So it’s just interesting to me to watch how closed-door relationships and whispers that you hear translate into legislation, or play out. And I think lawmakers have largely done a fairly decent job of keeping the personal relationships, in-fighting or whatever you want to call it, at bay, at least this year.
I’m sure it’s there, but it’s been calmer than what I was expecting it to be based on conversations that I had with some colleagues is I guess how I would phrase that.
One of our driving forces at Spotlight Delaware is to get our listeners, get our readers engaged in public policy discussions. How can listeners best make their voices heard during the final days of the legislative process?
I think that the most direct way would be to call or email your elected official.
Right now we’re in the middle of the Joint Finance Committee markup sessions. If you happen to be free on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays and you want to go to Dover, you can watch lawmakers debate the proposed state budget. You can also watch it online.
I think your most direct way would be to get in contact with your lawmaker, whether that is through email or giving them a phone call – that information can be found directly on the General Assembly’s website – and just letting them know where you want your tax dollars to be shepherded. Some of these other key issues that we talked about – affordability, property taxes, energy and data centers – let them know what you think.
There’s not a lot of time, but there is still time before the General Assembly gavels out for the session. And so I would just say make use of the time that you have left.
And those elected officials running for office this year are perhaps even more willing to hear your voice.
Exactly. Your elected officials in the House of Representatives especially are up for re-election, unless they’re retiring.
But, the entire House of Representatives is turning over, so they’ll be eager to hear what you have to say, I would imagine.
Thank you for your insights today, Tim, and happy birthday.
Thank you so much.
And good luck to you and the rest of the Spotlight team covering this stretch run of the legislative session.
Many late nights ahead, I think.