Legislative Council approves minutes, sponsors 60th-anniversary resolution; Controller General reports $34M revenue uptick

The Legislative Council opened with a roll call and approved the February meeting minutes by voice/roll call. The council then heard a series of routine reports and took several formal actions.

Mark Catrona, director of the Division of Legislative Services, provided the council's report and noted planning for the General Assembly's 250th event, design meetings for a Legislative Hall expansion, and that Lexis published a code supplement compiling recently enacted legislation; Catrona said the division enacted 231 bills last year that affected 1,034 portions of the Delaware code and that the division's attorneys currently have roughly 440 drafting projects open.

Ruth Ann Miller, the Controller General, reported on the operating budget and said DFAC calculations show roughly $34,000,000 more available for appropriation in fiscal year 2027 compared with December estimates, while noting risk from the war in the Middle East. She also reported the State Employee Benefits Committee voted to increase copays for GLP weight-loss medications (a net copay increase of roughly $68 after a $100 discount for state employees) and to raise premiums by 2.2 percent, which will add about $16,300,000 to the state's employer-share in the operating budget. On the capital side, Miller said grant and aid applications rose to 496 this year.

Holly Vaughn Wagner, Deputy Director for the Division of Legislative Services, asked members to sponsor a draft resolution celebrating the division's sixtieth anniversary; the council moved, seconded, and on roll call the chair announced 10 yes and the motion passed. The council later approved statutory and regulatory changes for the Registrar of Regulations (roll call announced 9 yes, 1 absent for Senator Lockman) and then voted to enter executive session to discuss Legislative Hall security recommendations; the stream and recording were paused for the closed session.

Meeting outcome: Minutes approved; council agreed to sponsor the Division of Legislative Services' 60th-anniversary resolution (10 yes); council supported Registrar statute and regulation changes (9 yes, 1 absent); council entered executive session to address security matters.

Next meeting: No additional scheduled Joint Finance Committee hearings were announced in the session, and the Division of Legislative Services noted several upcoming committee meetings for oversight and sunset reviews.

Quotes from the meeting: "I'm Holly Vaughn Wagner, Deputy Director for the Division Legislative Services," and "The net result is that revenues are up with a net increase of about $34,000,000," said the Controller General.

The meeting adjourned after the council returned from executive session.