In what has become a staple of his annual budget pitch to lawmakers, Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice Leo E. Strine Jr. again pushed for state funding to cover the cost of parking for court employees in Wilmington.

Strine used more than half of his prepared remarks on Wednesday to ask members of the General Assembly’s Joint Finance Committee for the fourth time to back his demand that nearly half of all judicial branch employees no longer be forced to pay for downtown parking, which costs about $1,700 per year.