Final Week in dover

by James DeChene

The General Assembly finished out, for the first time, in what is called “extraordinary session” early Monday morning by passing a budget, a revenue package to pay for it, grants-in-aid, and the bond bill. 

Some of the highlights from the last few days in Dover include:

• The passage of HB180. This a very important bill for companies that collect personal information, especially Social Security numbers. The bill mandates that companies who suffer a cyber security breach of personal information notify those impacted within 60 days. If Social Security numbers are part of the breach, the business must provide their clients with credit monitoring for 1 year, cost free.  More information to come on that bill in future posts.
• Both the budget and revenue package passed. Facing a budget gap of over $350 million, the General Assembly worked to bridge that gap by passing increases in the alcohol excise tax, tobacco taxes, the realty transfer tax by 1%, and funding grants-in-aid at 80% of last year, with all of this new revenue going to the State. These increases were augmented by an earlier bill that raised $116 million by increasing the corporate franchise tax. No action was taken this year on raising the personal income tax.

 
Also of note was the passage of a number of State Chamber priorities, which provides good news for our members. They include: 

• Updates to the Coastal Zone Act passed.
• As did enabling language to reorganize Delaware’s Economic Development Office.  
• No action was taken on raising Delaware’s minimum wage or raising the fees for LLCs.

An important item to note: None of these increases are structural changes or work to address Delaware’s long term revenue and spending issues. Many of the same issues the General Assembly faced this year remain, with the added complication of next year being an election year. It remains to be seen the impact this year will have on future budgets, but the expectation at this point is that next year will be another painful year.
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