GOVERNOR MEYER SIGNS BILL TO SAVE STATE FROM $400 MILLION REVENUE SHORTFALL

November 20, 2025

DOVER — Governor Matt Meyer signed House Bill 255, a critical measure to keep Delaware’s finances on solid footing while protecting public services families depend on. The legislation decouples Delaware from select federal tax‐code changes that threatened to strip as much as $400 million in revenue—and ensures those dollars remain working for Delaware’s schools, public safety, and essential services.

“This is a perfect example of the government working together swiftly to make sure hard-working Delawareans are protected, and families don’t bear the costs of unanticipated federal tax changes intended to benefit large, out-of-state businesses,” Governor Meyer said. “I want to thank House and Senate leadership, especially House Majority Leader Harris and Senate Majority Leader Townsend. By decoupling in a targeted and temporary way, we’re able to preserve the State’s budget and continue providing meaningful, essential services for Delaware families during these difficult times. We are doing all of this while ensuring that our businesses still receive every tax advantage they are owed, just on a timeline that better aligns with Delaware’s fiscal needs.”

Governor Meyer and legislative leadership, including House Majority Leader Kerri Evelyn Harris, Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend, Speaker Melissa Minor‑Brown, and Senate Pro Tempore David Sokola, worked together swiftly to move this bill through both chambers. 

“Every day, Delawareans are struggling to pay for housing, fill their gas tanks, afford a doctor’s visit, or buy their prescriptions. Instead of focusing on those real challenges, Washington Republicans passed a tax plan that gives more to the wealthy and big corporations while working people are left footing the bill,” Rep. Kerri Evelyn Harris said, House Prime Sponsor of HB 255. “If we failed to decouple, we would be silently allowing large corporations to pull critical funding away from the services that keep our state strong. Instead, we chose to act. A stable budget is good for business and good for the people of Delaware, because it protects the schools, public safety, and community services that make this state a place where families can thrive and businesses can grow.”

“When tax policy made at the federal level automatically threatens critical services we provide as a state government to the people of Delaware — funding for our teachers, our first responders, our infrastructure, and more — we have a responsibility to act. And when we learned federal policy was offering retroactive tax incentives going back as many as five fiscal years, it became clear we had to pass legislation that would protect our budget,” Sen. Bryan Townsend said, Senate Prime Sponsor of HB 255. “This is not a hasty attempt to forge new tax policy. In fact, the legislation preserves R&D tax incentives for Delaware companies going forward. Our efforts to decouple are simply an effort to retain the revenues we’ve already budgeted in a way that will have a minimal impact on the vast majority of Delaware businesses, while investing in programs that are critical to Delaware families.”

HB 255 was introduced in response to projections from the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council (DEFAC) showing potential multi‐year revenue losses from rolling conformity to federal tax cuts under H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. 

With the Governor’s signature, HB 255 becomes law immediately, reinforcing Delaware’s commitment to fiscal responsibility and putting Delaware’s hardworking families first.