DOVER — A bill that would have established a $280 tax credit for Delaware residents under an income threshold of $35,000 failed to be voted out of committee due to concerns from its primary sponsor, Rep. Richard Collins, R-Millsboro.

Lawmakers on the House Revenue & Finance Committee met Tuesday to discuss House Bill 393, that aims to “encourage persons to join the labor force and to treat employed, lower income individuals similarly to how House Bill 285 exempted unemployment benefits from being taxed,” according to a synopsis of the bill provided on the Delaware General Assembly’s website.

Rep. Collins said the bill is meant to support those who are working along with the previous support passed for unemployed Delawareans.

“The whole point of the bill is to encourage people to work, and to give people who do work the same benefits that people who don’t work do,” said Rep. Collins. “I’m simply trying to encourage people to work, and we do have lots of people who are working very, very hard, and not making that much money, and I’d like to see them get a break.”

However, when Rep. Collins was given the floor by committee chairwoman Rep. Stephanie Bolden, D-Wilmington, he immediately voiced concerns about the text of his own legislation.

“This is supposed to be strictly about wage income. If you recall, we had voted to give taxes back to those on unemployment, and if you look at the way unemployment works, the actual amount of money that they can receive is $280. I actually got that number through working with our Finance Secretary,” said Rep. Collins. “The bill is simply supposed to be that if a person is a lower-income wage-earner, that they would get a one-time tax credit of $280. Frankly, the bill does not say that. Looking at it, it says income, and I would absolutely amend that before the bill gets out of committee.”

Rebecca Goldman, deputy secretary of Finance, testified to the committee about several concerns that the Department of Finance held regarding the legislation.

“We did reach out to the sponsor indicating that we had some concerns about the administrative impact of the bill on the department, along with some technical things. Administratively, we cannot administer a retroactive means test for tax year 2022 at this time,” said Ms. Goldman. “We’re also in the middle of extensive programming requirements under multiple phases of House Bill 360’s 2022 rebate program. We have literally no ability to continue to program around the means-testing requirements for 2022’s tax year. We can do it at a later time, and then provide some legislative language authorizing a credit for a subsequent tax year.”

Rep. Krista Griffith, D-Fairfax, offered a motion to table the legislation after saying that “the bill does not seem in shape.”

However, the motion to table failed by one vote, so the legislation remained in limbo. During a public comment period, one community member called in to express their support for the legislation.

Rep. Paul Baumbach, D-Newark, attempted to provide some closure for the legislation moving forward.

“Representative Collins, thank you for bringing this forward. I think the intention is wonderful. I think that the Department of Finance, with all the work they are doing – this is just a time that they are not able to act on this. But I think we would all like to see something done there, so I thank you for your initiative,” said Rep. Baumbach. “As a committee, we can just leave it in limbo. I think the bill sponsor would agree that the bill is not going to be moving this month. There’s some closure to voting to table it, but I don’t want to force anyone’s hands. It’s either that or limbo – I don’t think we’re going to get 7 votes to release or 7 votes to reject it.”

However, further action on the legislation did not materialize, so Rep. Collins admitted defeat on the bill for the time being.

“I think, realistically, I didn’t expect it to pass this year anyways,” he said. “I think the plan at this point is to come back, reintroduce it in January, hopefully with any issues corrected. So that’s what I will do.”