DOVER — Gov. John Carney’s proposed spending plan contains the largest operating and largest capital budgets in state history. It contains a $500 pay raise for most state employees, allocates $30 million to support the fight against COVID-19 and sets aside $50 million for clean water projects and another $50 million for new Family Court facilities in Kent and Sussex counties.

At $4.71 billion, the operating budget would be a 4% increase over the current $4.53 billion spending plan, which expires June 30. Gov. Carney proposed a $4.63 billion budget last year before coronavirus hit the state, driving new expenses and cutting revenues.

The $4.71 billion total doesn’t include a separate $35.7 million supplement for one-time operational expenses, chiefly for pandemic response.

The capital spending plan is up 26%, from $708 million to $894 million, although it’s right in line with the $893 million appropriation the governor recommended 12 months ago. The current mark for largest capital bond bill is $863 million, in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020.

The final piece is $55.5 million for grants to nonprofits and community organizations, a slight increase from the current $54.5 million.

Fitting with Gov. Carney’s focus on financial stability, much of the budget is dedicated to non-recurring expenses, such as capital projects.

The plan calls for a $500 raise for most state employees, with teachers getting an extra 1% in addition to their regular contractually mandated pay bumps. Collectively bargained workers like police and correctional officers would not receive an increase.

The governor also hopes to phase in pay increases for the 630 or so executive branch employees (about 4-5% of all workers) who currently make less than $15 an hour in hopes of bringing them up to that level. Legislators are expected to debate a $15 statewide minimum wage at some point this year.

State workers have received pay raises in three of Gov. Carney’s four years so far (fiscal years 2018, 2019 and 2020).

The budget includes $19.9 million to cover expected school enrollment growth. It also has $38 million in extra supports for low-income students, non-native English-speaking pupils and school mental health. There’s more money for early childhood education and for special education students from kindergarten to third grade as well.

The state settled a lawsuit last year in which it agreed to make permanent more funding for needy students.

“My top priority remains the same, and I know it’s one that many legislators share. We need to ensure that our most disadvantaged students are getting the education they need and deserve,” Gov. Carney said in a statement. “Our Opportunity Funding program is already providing direct, classroom-based supports for low-income students and English learners.

The budget does not touch the thorny issue of property reassessment, a function of the counties that nonetheless hasn’t been done in at least 30 years. The subject is set to be debated in court in March, which could force the counties to update property values for the first time in decades.

The governor’s plan puts $50 million toward construction of new Family Court buildings downstate, replacing the outdated and cramped ones in Kent and Sussex. Construction on the Sussex courthouse is set to start in the summer, according to Office of Management and Budget Director Cerron Cade, and take about two years. Work on the Kent facility will commence at some point after that.

The budget proposes to spend $50 million cleaning up the state’s waterways, an initiative supported last year that did not make it into the final spending plan due to COVID. Legislation to establish a clean water trust is expected to be taken up by the General Assembly in the next few months.

Also among the recommendations: $10 million for farmland preservation, a program that generally received less money under the prior administration, as well as $5 million for beach preservation.

Nearly $35 million in the spending plan goes to minor capital improvements and deferred maintenance on state buildings, while the University of Delaware, Delaware State University and Delaware Technical Community College are allocated $10 million apiece for capital needs.

Each of the three institutions also is set to receive a little bit more money for other areas: offering more scholarships for in-state students for UD, expanding social work and other programs at DSU and supporting career pathways and reducing staff turnover at DelTech.

The governor’s recommendations aim to make sure every police officer in the state has a body camera in the next few years, with a $3.6 million allocation to that end in the upcoming fiscal year. Many agencies already have cameras, although not every officer is outfitted with one.

According to the Department of Justice, 21 of the approximately four dozen police agencies in the state have body camera programs (not counting Wilmington and Dover, which are in the process of adopting them).

The governor’s plan would phase cameras in, with 2025 as the target date.

The budget contains a number of initiatives targeted at supporting business growth, including $20 million for the fund used to incentivize companies to stay or settle in Delaware, $15 million for economic development projects by higher education entities, $10 million for infrastructure improvements aimed at attracting businesses and $10 million to establish lab space for start-ups.

It sets aside $62 million, bringing the total in an unofficial reserve account to $131 million. The stabilization fund, a pet project of Gov. Carney and former Treasurer Ken Simpler, was used last year to help balance the budget when revenues dipped after COVID hit.

“We put together the budget for 2022 with an eye toward the next year,” Gov. Carney said Thursday.

Republican leaders had high praise for the governor’s commitment to avoid growing the budget too much, also touting the funding for new courthouses and clean water initiatives. They did express concerns about bumping government employees up to $15 an hour.

“There’s going to be a ripple effect up through that state employment process,” House Minority Leader Danny Short, R-Seaford, said.

The budget-writing Joint Finance Committee will meet to review the governor’s proposal and hear from various state agencies starting Tuesday. A final spending plan doesn’t have to be approved until the end of June.