DL Open Thread: Thursday, November 6, 2025

Looks Like A One-Bill Special Session In The Senate Today.  Here’s the bill:

An extension of the deadline for payment of property tax bills in New Castle County for the 2025-2026 tax year established under Chapter 135 of Volume 85 of the Laws of Delaware (House Bill No. 242, as amended by House Amendment 1, of the 153rd General Assembly) is required because property tax invoices could not be timely delivered due to subsequent, unforeseen expedited litigation before the Court of Chancery (Newark Property Association, et al. v. State of Delaware, et al., C.A. No. 2025-1031-LWW). The current deadline is November 30, 2025, however this Act changes the deadline to December 31, 2025, to ensure that taxpayers have a commercially reasonable period to review and pay property tax invoices and to help prevent the inequitable imposition of statutorily-mandated penalties and interest.

I would imagine that the House will address this during next week’s Special Session that was called to consider the budget shortfall.

Could Be A One-Bill Special Session Next Week As Well:

Democratic lawmakers in Dover have introduced new legislation designed to protect against a looming $400 million shortfall they say would be caused by the Trump Administration’s recently passed “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”

According to the House Majority Caucus, Delaware’s tax code is automatically updated to reflect changes to federal tax law. Trump’s OBBBA, according to democrats, recently changed provisions to the federal Internal Revenue Code that would allow businesses to immediately write off certain costs such as research and property investments instead of spreading the tax deductions over years.

Those new federal provisions, automatically applied to Delaware’s tax code as well, would be retroactive for businesses spanning back to 2022 and all tax payers in 2025, according to lawmakers. The House Majority Caucus says the immediate tax breaks would cause a projected $400 million state revenue loss over the next few years.

To combat the expected deficit, Delaware Rep. Kerri Evelyn Harris and Sen. Bryan Townsend have sponsored House Bill 255. In order to keep the OBBBA tax changes from automatically applying to Delaware, lawmakers say they can specifically target certain federal provisions to “decouple” from, ensuring Delaware’s tax code does not reflect the new tax breaks.

Gov. Meyer Creates ‘Office Of New Americans’:

Gov. Matt Meyer established the Delaware Office of New Americans on Monday to aid the state’s nearly 119,000 immigrants amid a period of unprecedented hardships, yet continued prosperity, for many.

Delaware joins nearly half of all U.S. states that already have a similar office to help newly arrived immigrants with citizenship aid, workforce development and civic engagement resources. Meyer appointed Rony Baltazar-López, a native of Milford and a child of immigrants, as the office’s inaugural director, who will provide “integral support” to the state’s immigrant communities, according to a statement released by the Governor’s office.

Delaware immigrant advocates have long asked for a state government arm to help newcomers integrate into life in the First State. State Sen. Darius Brown (D-New Castle) introduced bills both in 2023 and again in January to create the Office of New Americans, but the legislation stalled in the Senate Finance Committee both times.  (Just asking–JFC has a majority of Democratic members.  Which D’s buried this in JFC?)

On Wednesday, Rep. Bryan Shupe (R-Milford South, Lincoln, Ellendale) called for increased transparency around the new office, its cost and functions going forward. Shupe said Delawareans support legal immigration but that taxpayers deserve more transparency and purpose when a new government office is created, especially during a budget shortfall (Oh, shut up).

The Office of New Americans was established with pre-existing funds that were allocated for a vacant position within the Department of State that would be dedicated to addressing immigrant issues in Delaware, according to Meyer’s office and the state’s 2026 fiscal year budget.  

Trump To Cut Thousands Of Air Flights.  Because they have to:

The Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it would cut 10 percent of air traffic at 40 of the nation’s busiest airports, in a move that analysts said would force airlines to cancel thousands of flights while the administration tries to push Democrats to end the government shutdown.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the reductions were an attempt to “alleviate the pressure” on air traffic controllers, who have been working without compensation since the start of the shutdown and have not received a paycheck since mid-October. He said the administration would announce the affected markets on Thursday, as the year’s busiest travel season approaches.

The cuts would start taking effect on Friday, potentially forcing hundreds of thousands of travelers to change plans on short notice, as airlines are pressured to slash capacity across their routes. Representatives of several major airlines and Airlines for America, a trade association, said they were working with the Federal Aviation Administration to understand the details of the new requirements, but had yet to make changes.

Let me get this straight: The voters clearly blamed Trump for pretty much everything on Tuesday.  The ‘administration’ thinks this could help ‘push Democrats to end the government shutdown’?  I think that, every time someone has their flight delayed, it’s to the disadvantage of the Rethugs.  But that’s just me.

Yeah, This Will Happen:

It appears that Trump’s allies are looking for somewhere to focus their messaging after the party’s pretty universal Election Night shellacking. And they’re looking toward the Democratic socialist in New York they’ve spent the last several months demonizing and attempting to turn into a national MAGA foil, Zohran Mamdani, as well as Democratic candidates in Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere who ran on a platform of affordability and spoke to voters directly about their skyrocketing cost of living concerns.

White House deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs James Blair announced to Politico on Wednesday that Trump would now pivot to focusing on affordability issues across the country.

“The president is very keyed into what’s going on, and he recognizes, like anybody, that it takes time to do an economic turnaround, but all the fundamentals are there, and I think you’ll see him be very, very focused on prices and cost of living,” Blair said during an interview Wednesday.

Right.  Because message discipline has long been Trump’s strength.  Not to mention (OK, I’ll mention it), that Trump can’t even fake empathy.  He doesn’t feel your pain, he inflicts it.

What do you want to talk about?