Rep. Kevin S. Hensley, elected to the House of Representatives in 2014, is a Republican serving the 9th District, which includes Odessa, Townsend and Port Penn. He is also an associate broker with Re/Max Premier Properties, a founding member of MOT Charter and an advocate for nonprofits that support the intellectual or developmental disability community, including Easterseals and the Ability Network of Delaware.
This year’s hearings on the fiscal year 2026 state budget have been interesting thus far. We’ve had brand-new Cabinet secretaries presenting their departments’ priorities, having been on their jobs less than 30 days. Further, the governor’s recommended budget, which is being considered, is actually the one put forth by former Gov. John Carney on his last day of office in January. We’ve been told that Gov. Matt Meyer will be performing a budget “reset” in March — no one seems to know, at this time, how this will affect what we worked on in February.
In the budget overview, the Office of Management & Budget director Brian Maxwell informed us that the proposed budget represents a 6.9% increase over the FY 2025 budget. Please note that the prior two years’ budgets have seen growth by just under 10% each year. I have suggested, since my time on the Joint Finance Committee, that this amount of growth would not be sustainable and that we ought to be looking at how to keep spending under control.
Unfortunately, it seems that I’ve been right after all. It is currently projected that, at this rate, we will be running a $325 million deficit in fiscal year ’27 and a $143 million deficit in FY ’28. The administration has proposed that we raid the budget stabilization account (one of our two state savings accounts) to cover the shortfall. This, in essence, would completely deplete this account. I do not agree that this is the proper approach. Instead, we should be looking at the number of vacant positions in state government of three years or more and move to eliminate some or all of them from the operating budget. My feeling is, if they’ve not been filled at this point, and the agency seems to be operating fine without them, that we remove them from the books.
Our budget challenges, in part, are related to the increased cost of those programs we are obligated to fund (often referred to as “door openers”). These include an $85 million increase in the Medicaid program for fiscal year 2026. While the number of participants in that program has dropped from about 310,000 to 290,000 currently, the cost of services has increased. Other programs include an additional $26 million to cover enrollment growth in public schools throughout the state and $81 million to fund increases in teachers’ salaries.
In addition to the state’s operating budget, there are two additional pots of money: the bond fund to cover the costs of infrastructure projects and the grant-in-aid budget to subsidize the work of hundreds of nonprofits throughout the state. I have long been advocating to increase this allocation, which has been fairly flat over the past several years. These organizations do great work for some of the state’s most vulnerable residents and are critical in addressing the needs of thousands of Delawareans.
Please stay tuned as we continue to work through the budget and don’t be shy about weighing in with your thoughts to your state senator or representative.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
