The Delaware operating budget for the next fiscal year is available for review by lawmakers and the public more than two weeks before the end of the legislative year.
Not so long ago, the budget was not available until hours after the fiscal year began each July 1st after a marathon session of the Delaware General Assembly. Often, the sun was up by the time lawmakers adjourned and the full impact of the spending plan was known.
Representative Dennis P. Williams (D-Wilmington), co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee, submitted the 238 page bill as House Bill 190 Tuesday in the House of Representatives. Williams praised fellow members of the panel, who spent six weeks over the winter reviewing the Governor’s proposed budget, then several more weeks in the spring for the budget mark-up.
While he thanked members of the JFC, Williams said they often had to compromise. “We grappled at times,” Williams said.
Representative Melanie George (D- Bear), a member of the committee, called it a “strong, solid, well thought-out budget. “
The budget bill totals just over $3.5-billion and would increase state spending by 6.15-percent over the current spending plan.
Earlier in the week, members of the House minority Republican Caucus expressed concern about the rate of state spending growth during a time when the state’s economic growth is languishing. “We’re ratcheting up spending at a time when we should be taking stock of where we are, what might lay ahead and how best to prepare for the future,” House Minority Leader Gregory Lavelle (R-Sharpley) said in a statement.
Lavelle is also troubled by the Markell administration’s proposal to create a Jobs Infrastructure Fund and an Asset Preservation fund in the capital budget, or Bond Bill. The Bond Bill is still being written.
“Proponents of these new funds claim they’ll only receive one-time money, but the reality is once a fund is created it becomes a new mouth to feed at the start of each budget cycle,” Lavelle said.
House Republicans are supportive of an earlier rollback of tax increases that are set to sunset in 2012, part of their own series of proposals in response to Governor Markell’s initiatives for investing a budget surplus estimated at $365-million.
House Speaker Robert Gilligan (D-Sherwood Park) assigned the budget bill to the Appropriations Committee.
