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Revenue Shortfall for Delaware State Budget

Don Rush

NEW CASTLE, Del. (AP) - Lawmakers who meet this week to begin marking up Gov. Jack Markell's proposed $4 billion budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 have almost $36 million less to work with than they did last month.

The Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council on Monday lowered official revenue projections for the current and upcoming fiscal years by about $18 million each compared to April's estimates.

The changes were largely driven by lower expectations for personal and corporate income taxes.

Monday's update follows previous downward revisions totaling $9.5 million for fiscal 2017.

Combined with the administration's recent unexpected request for an additional $28 million for Medicaid, members of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee, which meets Wednesday, are facing a gap of about $73 million between available revenues and Markell's recommended budget.

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.