By Senate Republican Leader Gerald Hocker, 20th District
Local control in Delaware is under attack. The General Assembly is aggressively advancing bills that sideline our counties and municipalities in favor of centralized state power.
This session, several bills have come before the legislature that do little more than override the judgment of our local governments. The most egregious example is Senate Bill 159 (SB 159), a direct response to a decision made by the Sussex County Council to deny a conditional use permit for a US Wind substation. But because some in Dover didn’t like the outcome, they crafted legislation to change the rules and strip the Sussex County Council, and the other two counties in our state, of its authority on these matters.
What’s especially troubling is that this bill is being led by a senator from New Castle County, not someone who represents the residents of Sussex. The message is loud and clear: the upstate legislators think they know better than the local officials who actually live and work in our communities.
This isn’t just about one substation. SB 159 would create a statewide mandate allowing the Public Service Commission to override local governments on the siting of critical infrastructure, effectively turning every community into a doormat for state-level decisions made without regard for local impact or resident concerns.
It’s part of a pattern we’ve seen during the first half of the 153rd General Assembly.
Senate Bill 75 proposes to override county government decisions regarding zoning, specifically for marijuana dispensaries.
Senate Bill 87 would override municipal ordinances and homeowner associations’ rules regarding accessory dwelling units.
This trend is alarming. Our caucus laid out these concerns a couple weeks ago in a blog post, and the evidence continues to mount. Taken together, these bills represent a slow but dangerous shift toward centralized decision-making in a state that has long valued the strength and insight of local government.
I have always believed that the people closest to a problem are usually the ones best equipped to solve it. That’s why we elect mayors, council members, and commissioners. They understand the fabric of their communities and are accountable to the people they serve, not to a bureaucracy in Dover.
If you care about your community’s ability to shape its own future, now is the time to speak up. We must defend the principle that local governments matter, that local voices deserve to be heard, and that state government should support, not undermine, the leaders closest to the people.
I urge my colleagues to oppose SB 159 and any other bill that weakens local control.
Good government doesn’t come from the top down. It grows from the ground up.