148TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY WRAP-UP

​by James DeChene

The 148th General Assembly closed out its session in the early hours of July 1st with its mandated legislation, notably the budget, bond bill and grants in aid, finalized.
There were a few notable pieces of legislation important to economic development this year that passed, namely:

• The Delaware Competes Act, which recalculates the way in which corporate income tax is calculated, bringing Delaware in line with other states using a single sales factor formula.
• The Delaware Commitment to Innovation Act, which expands the state’s R&D tax credit, and makes the credit refundable, acting as a draw for companies to keep or move their R&D facilities to Delaware.
• The Crowdfunding bill, which allows Delawareans to invest in startups similar to Kickstarter and other innovative venture capital funding mechanisms.There were also notable bills that would have been detrimental to the business community on which the State Chamber worked to stop including:

• Minimum Wage, a proposed increase over the next 4 years to $10.25 with built in increases for each year after.
• Project Labor Agreements/Craft Training, a bill that would mandate union backed Project Labor Agreements on all state funded construction projects known to add an average of 20-30% to construction projects was tabled. In its place was a bill to mandate apprenticeship training programs on all state funded projects which would freeze out smaller companies, even if the work they do is exemplary.

Budget
In order to provide the bulk of the shortfall funds required in bond and grants in aid specifically, budget writers were forced to raid funds, rely on inversions from unspent accounts and to restrict new program spending to cover, including using the $6 million Governor Markell set aside to help cover redistricting costs associated with the Wilmington Redistricting plan.  The main takeaway from the ending this year was that next year, especially the budget, will be difficult.
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Issues for Next Year:
Economic Development – Coastal Zone Modernization, this year the State Chamber raised awareness of the need to modernize the Coastal Zone Act, specifically for sites located north of the C&D Canal to make Delaware more competitive with surrounding states to create jobs here.  The issue gained no traction in the General Assembly this year, despite a broad coalition of businesses and business groups calling for action.  The State Chamber, along with other coalition members, will continue the process into next year with the hopes of legislation passing.
Budget and Tax Policy – The State Chamber’s Tax Committee is working this summer to help draft recommendations for the next governor to promote pro-growth policy for Delaware.  With DEFAC projecting low revenue growth for the next few years, the time is ripe to review how Delaware collects and spends taxpayer dollars.