Enacted Budget – Fiscal Year 2024
On June 30, Delaware Governor John Carney signed the state’s fiscal 2024 budget. The budget provides for $5.6 billion in general fund operating spending, representing a 9.9 percent increase over the prior year, as well as $193.5 million in one-time expenditures and contingency funds provided in a supplemental bill. The enacted budget provides pay raises between 3 percent and 9 percent for full-time state employees, with the lowest grades receiving the highest percentage increases, and establishes a $15/hour minimum wage for full-time merit employees. The operating budget also includes salary increases for teachers, funds projected K-12 enrollment growth, and directs $20 million to targeted education and support services provided by the Redding Consortium for Educational Equity and Wilmington Learning Collaborative. Additionally, the budget invests $30 million in increased funding for K-12 student mental health, $21 million for early childhood education programs, $2.3 million for a residential lead paint remediation program, and $1.3 million to provide free legal representation to families facing eviction. The supplemental funding bill directs $51 million to address long-term retirement health liabilities, $30 million for statewide housing investments, $69 million in Medicaid contingency funds, and $13 million for new state agency technology purchases. Additionally, the legislature passed and the governor signed a $1.4 billion capital budget investing in roadway improvements, school construction, courthouse expansion, state building renovations, economic development, state park improvements, and clean water projects, as well as a $71.9 million grants-in-aid package providing funding to nonprofits.