Delaware commission supports changes to reduce lawmakers’ pension raises

Typically, laws are made in Delaware by state lawmakers introducing and passing legislation, which is then signed into the law by the governor. But reports by the compensation commission automatically become law if the General Assembly doesn’t take affirmative action to reject the report the group issues every four years. The commission meets to recommend changes to salaries and other monetary benefits for the General Assembly, governor, his cabinet and the courts. In the case of the 1997 report, it was not rejected, but it never made it into the state’s legal code.

DeMatteis said a retired lawmaker contacted the pension office earlier this year to point out the 1997 compensation report changes were not in the state’s statutes, prompting the bump in pension payouts.

State lawmakers asked the commission to reexamine the pension issue after Gov. John Carney’s administration made the decision to operate the pension plan as if the 1997 recommendations had not been approved. Lawmakers raised the criteria for pension eligibility in 2012, but still no one caught the 1997 language missing from the code.

Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend said in June that they had decided to wait for the compensation group’s recommendations since it was already set to meet this winter.

“Although we are sort of at the mercy of the Carney administration’s decision to cut checks without our knowledge, the reality is, because the commission is about to convene, it makes most sense for us to give them this question again,” he said. “We figured it’s most appropriate to say, ‘Please study it. Please recommend what we should do,’ and then we’ll come back in 2025 and on the basis of those recommendations, then act.”

Pension benefits are calculated using a percentage called a minimum factor. The last time the minimum factor was raised was 2020, when Senate President Pro Tem David McBride lost his seat. He first took office in 1981.

The compensation committee is set to meet twice more before the end of the month and vote on a final report by Dec. 20.