Seal of Delaware Delaware

Delaware has a constitutional tax and expenditure limit, covered in Article 8 Sections 6 and 11 in the Delaware State Constitution. In Section 6, enacted by the legislature in 1980, requires a 3/5 supermajority vote in the legislature to raise taxes, with an exception allowing a simple majority vote to raise taxes – but only if debt service is greater than total revenue. Section 11, also enacted in 1980 by the legislature, limits general fund appropriations to 98% of estimated available revenue but exempts debt service and budget reserves from this rule.

 
The base year represents the year the hypothetical Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) would have been enacted. Selecting a base year changes how the state’s TABOR is calculated because the annual growth rates of inflation and population change depending on when TABOR is enacted.
  • Year Inflation-adjusted Actual Spending
    1992 4,162,279,117
    1993 4,155,917,885
    1994 4,463,919,565
    1995 4,838,930,397
    1996 5,328,539,319
    1997 5,682,728,422
    1998 6,044,203,923
    1999 6,476,685,399
    2000 6,705,494,126
    2001 7,097,968,141
    2002 7,326,894,326
    2003 5,353,131,961
    2004 5,272,456,785
    2005 5,781,825,118
    2006 8,982,171,297
    2007 9,036,147,000
    2008 9,770,675,429
    2009 9,767,975,032
    2010 9,119,178,159
    2011 8,206,445,817
    2012 8,795,182,719
    2013 8,939,991,323
    2014 9,206,102,959
    2015 9,190,461,765
    2016 9,545,810,682
    2017 9,868,237,446
    2018 9,500,527,238
    2019 10,002,351,940
    2020 10,155,283,260
    2021 9,902,325,273
    2022 10,414,400,000
*All spending figures are in inflation-adjusted 2022 dollars.