Carney plans to spend an additional $4.5 million on funding for low-income students and English language learners through a program called “opportunity funding,” first proposed by his administration in 2018 as a way to give schools additional funding for English learners and low-income students.
Because of an October 2020 legal settlement that made the funding a permanent fixture in how the state allocates tax dollars for students, the state must spend $60 million on this program per year by 2025.
Carney also plans to spend $20.6 million on mental health services in elementary schools. This was made possible by last year’s House Bill 100 by House Majority Leader Valerie Longhurst, which lets elementary schools hire a full-time counselor or social worker for every 250 students and one full-time licensed therapist for every 700 students. The program is expected to cost more than $25 million per year by 2024.
The plan spends $45 million on tech upgrades and infrastructure at the University of Delaware, Delaware State University and Delaware Technical Community College.
About $4.3 million will go toward scholarships at those three schools.
The plan spends $15 million on the Higher Education Economic Development Investment Fund for Delaware colleges, including the state’s struggling private colleges.
The plan spends $921,000 to reduce staff and faculty turnover at DelTech and $100,000 to support DelTech’s Bachelor of Education program.
The American Rescue Plan gives an extra $107 million to colleges for pandemic-related projects.
7. Public buildings get upgrades
The plan spends $26.8 million on libraries, $80 million on Kent and Sussex family courts, $21.8 million on Delaware State Police Troops 4 and 6 and $12 million on the Customs House in Wilmington.
The Department of Correction gets $11.6 million for facility improvements.
The plan also spends $8.8 million on public safety communications and equipment, $3.2 million on a new James T. Vaughn intake facility, $3 million on Baylor Women’s Correctional Institute renovations, $2.5 million on Howard R. Young Correctional Center renovations and $1.3 million on Leonard L. Williams Justice Center improvements.
The plan also spends $35.4 million on state agency capital improvements and deferred maintenance, $10.5 million on Carvel State Office Building renovations, $6 million on the Delaware Hospital for the Chronically Ill, $5.1 million on the Jesse Cooper Building, $3.5 million on Cleveland White Building renovations and $1 million on the Herman Holloway Campus.
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8. What else?
The plan also spends $6 million on affordable housing, $4 million on “Strong Neighborhoods,” which aims to address abandoned and vacant properties, and $21 million on preserving historic and recreational sites.
It also spends $5.5 million on Downtown Development Districts, a designation created by the General Assembly in 2014 to attract investments from private developers in central corridors blighted by vacant buildings and economic stagnation.
The plan spends $7.6 million on police body-worn cameras and $390,000 on in-car cameras for police vehicles.
The plan spends $1.4 million on extended post-partum Medicaid coverage, $1.5 million on a therapeutic foster care program, $3.7 million on expungement programs and $735,000 on crisis beds in Kent and Sussex counties.
It also spends $996,000 on the Delaware Healthy Children Insurance Program, which provides low-cost health insurance to children whose parents don’t qualify for Medicaid.
The plan also spends $500,000 on a loan repayment program for health care workers and $300,000 to permanently fund the mental health services loan forgiveness program.
It also spends $11.5 million to support child care providers and workers by paying an increase in the purchase of care rates to support child care access for low-income families.
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9. What’s next?
Two 12-person bipartisan groups of lawmakers called the Joint Finance and Bond Bill committees later this year will draft the state’s official spending plans based on Carney’s suggestions.
They’ll hold hearings in February and March to talk about the fiscal measures with government agencies and other stakeholders, who often use the opportunity to ask for more money.
The final product will ultimately depend on the latest forecast from the Delaware Economic Advisory Council, which meets multiple times a year to predict how much money will come into the state in the near future.
That group last met in December and will meet again in March, May and June to update the forecast.
Whatever it looks like, Carney has to sign the final spending plan into law by June 30 for an on-time budget.
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Sarah Gamard covers government and politics for Delaware Online/The News Journal. Reach her at (302) 324-2281 or sgamard@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahGamard.
