Welcome to The Press Room, a weekly roundup of the major stories and happenings of the 2023 Delaware legislative year.
This week’s edition focuses on the final meeting for a long-term care task force and a bill that would significantly change property tax assessment in Delaware.
As always, send story tips, feedback, ideas or gossip to me at mnewman@delawareonline.com.
Follow me on Twitter at @MereNewman.
Final meeting for long-term care taskforce
The legislative long-term care and memory task force is set to have its last meeting on May 25.
The group formed as a result of legislation that was introduced last year. The bill would have created staffing ratios for assisted living facilities, which currently don’t exist. This legislation went nowhere and this task force was created instead.
Many Delaware family caregivers have expressed concern about the state of dementia care in Delaware assisted living facilities. The task force is expected to release a report filled with recommendations on how to improve long-term care in Delaware.
A draft of the report includes 17 recommendations, none of which include any specific time frames to implement these recommendations. Instead, the task force “encourages” the health department to “embrace” certain recommendations and “calls on” the state to investigate issues further.
With just over a month left in the session, it’s very unlikely any related pieces of legislation will be introduced.
Related, a congressional investigation found that many states, including Delaware, have a backlog of nursing home inspections due to the lack of inspectors – ultimately due to lack of federal funding.
The report confirmed much of my reporting from this spring.
You can read more about it here.
Here’s where to watch the legislative task force meeting on May 25.
Consequential legislation for property tax reassessment
The Delaware House of Representatives has taken a significant step toward permanently changing the way the state taxes residential and business properties. This issue has been debated in the Delaware General Assembly for decades.
The bill would require taxing authorities across the state to regularly update the valuations used to determine individual tax bills.
Read more about this from my colleague Xerxes Wilson.
What’s going on this week?
The Joint Finance Committee, the powerful General Assembly entity that writes Delaware’s budget, begins its markup. This is a period in which lawmakers begin assembling the state’s budget, based on the recommendations made by the governor.
It begins at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
You can watch it live here.
