DOVER, Del. (AP) - The Delaware Senate has approved a $4.27 billion operating budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.
The budget bill passed on a 19-1 vote Wednesday and now goes to the House.
The bill, which represents a 4 percent increase over this year’s budget, includes $26 million for pay raises of $1,000 for most state employees and 2 percent for teachers.
It also includes millions more than Democratic Gov. John Carney proposed in areas including disability services, special education and school transportation.
The spending plan also includes $753 million for Medicaid, a slight decrease from this year, as part of an overall health and social services budget of almost $1.2 billion. Spending on public education, the largest single chunk of the budget, would increase by more than $63 million to $1.48 billion.
The proposal also provides about $189 million in cash that would go toward a capital budget for construction and road projects. It also restores grant funding to community and nonprofit groups who saw their state funding cut 20 percent this year.
Lawmakers also have filed a supplemental budget bill that would allocate $23 million for $500 employee bonuses, on top of the pay raises, and $11 million for one-time payments of $400 to retirees. Approval of that bill would bring the spending increase over this year’s operating budget to more than 5 percent.
Sen. Harris McDowell III, co-chair of the legislature’s budget writing committee, called the proposed budget a “fiscally sound and socially responsible bill.”
The spending plan includes increased funding for early childhood learning centers, schools serving high populations of low-income students and English-language learners, and school bus contractors.
“We’ve finally gotten our school bus drivers up to where they don’t feel like quitting their contract,” McDowell said.
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