First Look At The Governor’s Budget Proposal
The governor’s office released its newest budget proposal yesterday. I haven’t had time to dig into it yet but here’s some highlights. The budget makes $100M in cuts and according to the press release the reason for the gaps are health insurance cost increases, loss of stimulus funds and $54M for an extra pay period for state workers. Here is the details of the cuts:
Some of the more significant cuts proposed in the budget include (figures are in 1,000 of dollars):
- Reduce administrative costs of Delaware Prescription Assistance Program – $1,250.0
- Reduce supplies and materials funding in Dept. of Correction – $778.7
- Reform health and pension benefits for state employees – $3,200.0
- Eliminate Farmland Preservation funding – $10,000.0
- Eliminate Open Space funding – $10,000.0
- Reduce Higher Education funding – $6,527.6
- Reduce DIMER and DIDER to freeze admission to the program for one year – $507.5
- Eliminate Local Law Enforcement Education funding due to duplicate programs – $50.0
- Improve procurement of vaccines in Division of Public Health – $118.3
- Reduce contractual services in Services for Children, Youth and Their Families – $1,250.0
- Reduce contractual services funding in DelDOT – $ 496.0
- Reduce real-time crime reporting services – $24.0
- Reduce fleet services – $33.7
- Reduce contractual services in DHSS – $1,407.8
- Reduce casual/seasonal positions in DHSS – $2,341.6
- Realize efficiencies in Division of Aging and Adults with Physical Disabilities – $1,200.0
- Reduce grants, publishing and operations in the Delaware Heritage Office – $17.1
- Implementing 90/10 Pupil Transportation split as a best practice – $7,133.8
- Reduction of Charter School Transportation funding for equalization with school district reduction – $500.0
- Eliminate Board of Parole and associated costs – $529.2
- Eliminate in-house Printing and Publishing production in OMB – $421.2
- Mandatory use of the Trapeze routing system to create more efficient school transportation routes per report recommendations – $448.0
- Eliminate General Assistance funding in DHSS – $4,547.5
- Reduce rental maintenance and software budget in DTI – $679.2
- Eliminate Northeast Old Car Rally pass-through funding in DEDO – $2.7
- Reduce mowing, parking lot and road maintenance for Angola Neck in DNREC – $40.0
- Eliminate New Castle County (NCC) Dredge Program for NCC Conservation District – $225.0
- Realize lease cost savings – $80.9
- Reduce funding for equipment purchases in the Dept. of Finance – $5.0
- Reduce printing and postage costs for personal income tax-related mailings and forms in the Dept. of Finance – $48.1
- Reduce funding for staffing, collections and library services – $72.6
The cuts are coming in many areas but it looks like education, public safety and environmental services are taking a hit here. The News Journal‘s analysis of the budget is at this link. It’s not detailed in the governor’s press release but this budget means some layoffs (55, according to TNJ).
The budget also details the capital funding in the budget plus $31.9M for the Strategic Fund, which is to help bring businesses to the state.
Projects proposed for funded through the Capital Budget include (figures are as stated):
- $1.0 million for Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCOR).
- $1.0 million in state match for the IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) Program.
- $1.0 million for Fraunhofer Vaccine Development.
- $5.0 million for the Diamond State Port Corporation.
- $93.0 million for Public Education projects.
- Funding for Minor Capital Improvements.
- Funding for major capital projects in Appoquinimink, Capital, Seaford, Sussex Tech, Laurel, Woodbridge, Cape Henlopen, New Castle County VoTech and Polytech.
- $10.5 million for Higher Education projects.
- Funding for projects at Delaware State University, Delaware Technical and Community College and the University of Delaware.
- $20.1 million in agency Minor Capital Improvements and Equipment (MCI).
- $2.3 million for NVF site redevelopment.
- $1.5 million for DSHA Rental Assistance Program.
- $4.0 million in Housing Preservation to preserve and maintain existing housing sites.
- $6.0 million for libraries in Bear, Claymont, Dover, Greenwood, Smyrna and Wilmington.
- $9.9 million for Howard R. Young Correctional Institution renovation.
- $2.7 million for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, which leverages $14.0 million in federal funds.
- $1.0 million for Clean Water State Revolving Fund, which leverages $5.0 million in federal funds.
- $300,000 for new Troop 3 and Troop 7 in Camden and Lewes respectively.
- $2.0 million for the completion of the Kent County Courthouse complex.
So, what do you like and what do you not like about this budget?
Tags: Budget, Delaware, Governor Markell
Ouch. The Open Space and Farmland Preservation will hurt, because that’s not the kind of thing that can be fixed later by restoring funding. I hope someone in the GA insists that the damage is mitigated by state or local action to preserve as much worthy space as possible until funding can be restored.
“Reduce contractual services in Services for Children, Youth and Their Families” – this one will also hurt, and needs to be looked at closely.
This is the part I did not want to hear (from TNJ):
“The Democratic governor said the budget can be balanced with no additional taxes.”
It’s the ol’ voodoo economics. Hopefully the voter reaction to the cuts will scare them into some reasonable tax increases.
There are also unspecified savings in Medicaid and pensions.
Notably absent are salary cuts like the previous 2% cut (that has been restored, right?) But there may be other compensation cuts buried in the other provisions.
If I were a state employee I’d rather take a salary freeze or even a cut, while keeping my benefits and job security.
The best pension reform would be to get rid of some six-figure middle managers. Also, take a look at law-enforcement pensions – kind of a third rail though.
“The Open Space and Farmland Preservation will hurt, because that’s not the kind of thing that can be fixed later by restoring funding. I hope someone in the GA insists that the damage is mitigated by state or local action to preserve as much worthy space as possible until funding can be restored.”
Isn’t the this the source of the outrage at DelDOT — paying money to keep people from developing land that has no chance of being developed anytime soon?
Geez,
the key difference between the DelDOT deals and Open Space and Farmland Preservation is that the latter keeps the land from being developed (forever?) for any purpose, including highways; the DelDOT deals merely preserve open space until they decide whether to build a highway.
The other difference: one (usually) benefits farmers, the other benefits developers. And our society tends to think better of farmers than of developers, at least until the farmers decide to cash out and let the developers build on their soybean fields.
Out of curiosity, what if a Republican governor proposed these same budget cuts and reforming pensions (which will cut benefits), with no tax increases? Would you all be up in arms over this?
Personally, I find problems at the margins, but the budget requires no new taxes and has some worthwhile cuts, so I don’t object to the plan as a whole.
Another food for thought: How much is the state government relying on casino revenue to fill in the budget gap? It’s a really unreliable source of income.
budget cuts and reforming pensions (which will cut benefits), with no tax increases
Why should tax increases be off the table, with the deficit so dire and the need for services so great?
The “cash assistance for adults” program grants $94 per month–not per week—to those often homeless, always destitute and unemployable adults who very frequently use it for public transportation to and from soup kitchens and temporary shelters. The mis-report in the NJ has been pointed out and should be corrected but it should be noted here and elsewhere before the “anti-entitlement, not-with-my-tax-money crowd go berserk.
John Kowalko
I for one am very disappointed that a tax increase for upper income wage earners isn’t on the table. It makes me think that Gov Markell is trying to keep happy all those wealthy Republicans that turned Democrat in time for the primary.
Obama 2008, Delaware lives off of business incorporating due to our low tax rates. If we raise them, these businesses will incorporate somewhere else. Furthermore, the Greenville rich can just as easily move a few miles down Route 52 into Chester County and West Chester (a bit further down 202) if we taxes are raised dramatically . Will the change occur overnight? No, but $250,000+ earners who move into the tri-state area will take tax rates, cost of living, etc. into account of where they live. So increasing these tax rates will, over time, decrease the tax base you want to support the whole state. I mean, what other incentives are there to live in Delaware, if not low cost-of-living? It’s not an ‘in’ place to live like New York or Chicago. We are not Wyoming or California or some large state where it is hard for people to work and live in different states. In such a small state, you need to be cognizant of the ideal that increased tax rates on a select group will not result in increased revenue that you envision.
Another food for thought: How much is the state government relying on casino revenue to fill in the budget gap? It’s a really unreliable source of income.
You’re in the area of 8-10 percent of state revenues. I wouldn’t classify it as “really unreliable”; but, given current economic conditions and increased competition from Md. and Pa., you wouldn’t bet the house on any significant growth in casino revenue.
What is remarkable about Delaware, however, is how much its citizens gripe about paying taxes while we offload about half of our expenses on gamblers and out-of-state corporations. The possible loss of the corporate revenue stream poses a far greater threat to our solvency than any change in casino revenues. And that’s why our legislators are so cozy with the bankers and the corporate lawyers.
@mediawatch
actually casinos are the 4th lrgest source of income for the state of delaware
and ummm, the revenue is growing even in the down ecomony:
read it for yourself:
http://lottery.state.de.us/wherethe.asp
and if you bother to take the time do a search for the o9-10 auditor’s report
do the research – then comment, its really wiser
@mediawatch
I would do a little research on casinos and revenue before I comment if I were you.
search for the 09-10 Auditor;s report and casinos are the 4th largest revenue generator for this state
http://lottery.state.de.us/wherethe.asp
revenues are up – who knew?
No, but $250,000+ earners who move into the tri-state area will take tax rates, cost of living, etc. into account of where they live. So increasing these tax rates will, over time, decrease the tax base you want to support the whole state.
This is likely true for retirees, but not for folks with school age kids. While Delaware’s income tax is higher than PA’s, property taxes in PA are a pretty big bite. Parts of Delaware and Chester Counties have extremely good school systems (paid for by those tax dollars) — so there is another tradeoff, involving not paying extra for a good school. Plenty of middle class Delawareans move over to PA while they are raising their kids, with plans to move back to back to Delaware when the kids are gone.
When I moved here (working in PA), I decided to live in Delaware, but tell people frequently that if I had kids, I likely would live in Chester or Delaware County for the schools…
What strikes me about the summary of the budget that I’ve read is that is isn’t as cataclysmic as expected. Land preservation, DHSS, state employees seem to be the big losers. Expect to hear sometime in the future that a transition to community-based mental health services didn’t save as much as they thought. It is hard to know how to comment on the changes to employee health and pension plans without some detail, but cuts to benefits or increases of out of pocket costs make those changes a functional wage cut. I *do* think that there are some revisions that should be made to the pension plan, but am not sure that those changes will result in big savings. The Parole Board gets cut, but otherwise Corrections doesn’t get cut. I do hope that the Administration will get behind the revision to the mandatory minimums that should have some long-term savings.
DelLib: You are confusing two different things. The incorporation tax rate is entirely separate from Dana’s call for a higher tax on $250,000+ earners. At this point, nobody is incorporating here because the rate is particularly low; they’re here mainly for the courts.
On the issue of a higher rate for high earners, who said anyone was contemplating a “dramatic” increase? An extra 1% on $250,000 equals $2,500 (and remember, that’s $250,000 in adjusted gross income, meaning after itemized deductions) — about one-third the amount they weren’t taxed in the federal deal.
If you’re like most people in that earning bracket, your mortgage gets you a house in the $800,000-$1 million range, which gets you property taxes in nearby Pa. of about $20,000, vs. perhaps $4,000 in Delaware. In short, the nonsense put out by CRI about rich people voting with their moving vans is just that — nonsense. Cassandra is correct — the big loss is among people with more than one child, because even an extra $20,000 in taxes is less than the bill for private schools.
Obama 2008, Delaware lives off of business incorporating due to our low tax rates. If we raise them, these businesses will incorporate somewhere else.
Sweet music to the ears of conservatives! But dead wrong.
Out-of-state corporations do not pay corporate income tax in Delaware, nor do their out-of-state employees pay Delaware income tax.
Geezer: don’t be so quick to discount the “nonsense” about rich people voting with their moving vans.
When Maryland passed its so-called “millionaire’s tax” in 2008, the number of rich filers dropped by 30%. The tax was such a spectacular failure that the legislature let it expire this year.
Geezer is absolutely right on the matter except he has not pointed out that the added 1% tax rate would be on the number over and above $250,000. Every $10,000 in ADI “above” $250,000 would be hit with a whopping $100.00 tax increase. Nothing would be added to the first $250,000 under Dana’s proposal. A $300,000 Adjusted Gross Earner after deductions would save $500.00 by moving his family somewhere else, hardly enough for a U-Haul rental I would imagine.
John Kowalko
Well, since I pay the improvements taxes on my rich neighbors, they can all move, and I’ll pay their first tank of gas…if they sign a contract that they won’t cross the state line again for 10 years.
LOL, the Maryland millionaires myth again.
The millionaires moved all right – they moved to a lower tax bracket.
Also you may want to consider that under Delaware’s Tax laws a married couple filing under specific choices may not see a penny more in state taxes under Dana’s offering up to $500,000.00 (half a million for the numerically challenged)in family income. Consider that a 3/4 percentage point increase kicking in at $125,000.00 income would only generate an added $75.00 tax obligation (for an individual ADI) for every additional $10,000.00 and then consider an additional 1/2 percentage point to be applied at the $250,000.00 level to income in excess of that quarter million (again individual–(possibly meaning no additional tax burden until $500,000.00) again above that mark would be $50.00 for each additional ten thousand dollars in adjusted gross income. To summarize this would add an enormous amount of revenue and the $300,000.00 wage earner would be hit with an additional $750.00 in taxes helping to put gas in that u-haul rental. Problem with all this is that the average overall tax burden in Delaware does not allow comparative relief for those wealthier unless they are making a 1000 mile move.
With 30-35 hoodlums in a classroom, they need to keep paying the same if not more of my healthcare costs. MILLIONS of RTTT dollars and they talk of cutting the amount of healthcare they pay to teachers. You want schools to be better? You want better teachers? Stop treating us like numbers in a budget and start treating us like professionals. My job was on the line for 3 years straight, not because I’m a bad teacher, but because I was a newer teacher. All because we are afraid the millionares are going to fuss a little if they pay a few bucks more in taxes? Give me a break. Should have voted for Carney.
“When I moved here (working in PA), I decided to live in Delaware, but tell people frequently that if I had kids, I likely would live in Chester or Delaware County for the schools…”
Cassandra, it pains me to say this because I was a Delaware public school teacher for many years and my kids all went through the public schools here, but I tell people the same thing. And if I had it to do over again, I would have moved over the border.
Not that my kids didn’t get a good education, but when it comes to your own, you want the best. What this means is that we need to work on our schools! But if I get started talking about that, I’ll bore you all to tears. Where’s my soapbox!
I had kids, I likely would live in Chester or Delaware County for the schools…”
Sadly I think this is a tacit acknowledgment that people are looking for schools that do not draw from urban areas. This is the underlying problem.
That’s a silly conclusion. I live in very urban Wilmington and very much prefer to live in an urban area. And there is more to Delaware than its (small) urban areas. But as far as I can tell, replicating my own education in this part of the world means paying for private schools or going to a public school system where that is possible.
Obama2008, I can tell you exactly what I mean – I wanted my kids to go to a school where both teachers and kids could concentrate on academics. I chose to spend my entire teaching career in some of the roughest urban neighborhoods in the state. Most of the teachers did a good job in a very difficult situation but there was a lot more to worry about than academics. As a result, I wouldn’t choose to send my kids to the schools I worked in. I wished for better for them, just as I wished for better for my students.
You both reinforced my point. Red Clay and Christina draw from Wilmington. Kennett Square, for example, does not draw from Philadelphia or (obviously) Wilmington.
Kennett Square Middle School, for example, is about 2 miles from one of Delaware’s better middle schools, H.B. du Pont, with roughly the same enrollment.
KSMS has 3% African American students, vs. 24.2% for HB.
KSMS has 31% Hispanic vs. 15.1% for HB.
KSMS has 57% white vs. 51% for HB.
KSMS has 29% economically disadvantaged vs. 35.6% for HB.
KSMS has 12% special ed, vs. 14.6% for HB.
I think the demographic differences would be even more stark by comparing more remote PA schools, vs. Christina schools for example, which draw from the East Side of Wilmington.
(PA percentages are back-of-envelope from PA raw numbers)
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/school_assessments/7442
http://profiles.doe.k12.de.us/SchoolProfiles/School/Default.aspx?checkSchool=276&districtCode=32
But, cassandra, that’s partly an era issue, not a geographical one. My teachers felt I’d be better served in private school, when I began to hit middle-school age. They encouraged my folks to move me. I’ll never know if they were right (there were substantial tradeoffs) but I doubt my kids would have teachers who were permitted, informed, and motivated enough to step outside the system in that way. That’s not because teacher quality has lessened, but because our commitment, imperfect as it is, to educating ALL students, and not just the ones tracked into college, has increased the numbers they’re responsible for.
We try to give all kids a crack at higher education. That’s a good thing. But we’ve never (and nowhere) committed the resources achieving that would require. If you had the time machine, you’d be horrified, and I know you know that.
Shifting 10% of school transportation cost back on the districts is nothing more than a back-door tax on local taxpayers. Cutting funding to Delaware Tech will only result is increases in student tuition and just another back-door tax.
Adding 100 new teachers is as it sounds. It is a nature event associated with the student population growth and dictated by Title 13 re: required state unit funding. So not a gift from the governor.
As far as state workers healthcare and pension, many of you working in the private sector knows those employee contributions progressed over the years. No cheap shot hear but fact, when Obamcare extended children staying on their parents play to the age of 26, that is an additional cost to insurance companies and has to translate in the rate structures government and private industry pay.
So-called failures in Delaware public schools are a result of failed leadership and underfunded and unfunded state and federal mandates. Delaware DOE reports a 3.9% high school dropout rate for 2009-10 school year the lowest is over 30 years. Did NCLB and DSTP work?
Red Clay is sowing seeds to build a new k-8 school in Hockessin and at the same time there is elementary space in the city schools. There is no Red Clay traditional middle school in the city or high school. So is it OK to bus black students out of Wilmington and not white students to Wilmington. On school is Wilmington is at 67% capacity.
I see a future that may not provide after school sports and other programs due to academic needs come first. Or perhaps activity fees including activity bus transportation.
Delaware is a tax haven for old people. Kiplinger puts us as the second cheapest place for geezers to live from a tax perspective. Alaska is number 1 and who the hell would want to retire to Alaska.
Red Clay is sowing seeds to build a new k-8 school in Hockessin and at the same time there is elementary space in the city schools.
Kilroy, nothing could make Red Clay parents whip out their checkbooks faster than hearing you say this.
Obama2008, I can tell you that the statistics you quoted aren’t even in the same universe as the Christina city schools.
I think you were too general when you used the term ‘urban.’ The problem people have is with urban or rural or suburban schools where the local conditions make it very difficult to provide a top notch education.
For years in Delaware, especially since the return to neighborhood schools, we have many schools like that. There is widespread refusal to deal with this reality. If you read the work of people like Geoffrey Canada or James Comer, you get an idea of the enormity of the efforts involved in having any hope of providing a good education in these schools. We do pretty much the same thing in all our schools, as far as funding, practices, etc, and then seem surprised year after year when we’re not ‘closing the gap.’ I don’t know if you can imagine the frustration of working under those conditions.
I’m not sure we’re even disagreeing. I think what I’m reacting to is that I sensed you were implying there was racism involved in talking about moving over the line. I think you’ll find that there are other reasons for doing that. If I’m overreacting, I apologize.
Oh, I’m not trying to call anyone out for racism. On the contrary, I am exercising my white liberal guilt and looking for any shred of racism in myself.
But the fact is, where people used to look for “whiter” schools, they are now looking for “better” schools. Maybe most of them no longer have racism in their hearts, but it seems a distinction without a difference in terms of the outcome.
And the numbers don’t lie. In many Delaware schools the white and Asian kids are making AYP, and the black and Hispanic kids are not. This has caused formerly Superior schools to go on warning. I’m not blaming the kids; it is still the school’s responsibility to educate every kid who comes through the door.
The schools used to be able to do tricks like averaging all the stats together and declaring victory, or combining Asians and black as “minority.” But now the new reporting leaves them nowhere to hide. The DE school profiles page is really excellent; I have my mind blown and preconceptions shattered every time I browse through it.
My family’s assessment was that the Red Clay K-8 schools are excellent, if you are lucky with choice, and you couldn’t find better K-8 schools if you paid for them. The high schools however are unacceptable. The big kids have big-kid problems, and the schools don’t seem equipped to handle them at all.
So for our kids, we are going public K-8, while going charter or private for HS, and still will come out ahead over moving to PA. That will work for us, but sucks for anyone who doesn’t have the option of charter or private.
“Kilroy, nothing could make Red Clay parents whip out their checkbooks faster than hearing you say this.”
It’s true Red Clay eyes new K-8 school for Hockessin
http://www.communitypub.com/topstories/x1203795040/Red-Clay-eyes-new-K-8-school-for-Hockessin
And you are correct for Hockessin and Pike Creek crowd. I am sure they can mustard the votes to hold of the naysayers. However, there is the serious issue with concerns for a Wilmington School District to make neighborhood schools equitable. Also, the “surplus” space Charter School of Wilmington is renting from Red Clay seems to be no so surplus now with this need. There is AI middle school but that is not in the city. I doubt if any city community leaders will make a fuss because some of them are on the $$$ re: SES providers.
I support new school is growth area as Hockessin but were was this in the planning for “The roughly 1,000 homes being built on the former Delaware National (Hercules) golf course”?
There have been no new schools build in Wilmington and with the busing of Wilmington students to the suburbs they could have the same argument as the need for a new school in Hockessin.
“And the numbers don’t lie. In many Delaware schools the white and Asian kids are making AYP”
AYP is linked to DSTP the basis for NCLB ratings. DSTP was so flawed how could it be reliable? Explain the 3.9% high school dropout rate? its all numbers and they are skewed and manipulated.
Red Clay eyes new K-8 school for Hockessin
This could be an ugly referendum, splitting the district along economic lines.
It did get ugly in the past for Brandywine Springs Elementary School and in fact it was turned down by the public twice and was “never” approved by the public. The district sold its administration building on Washington street and was able to funding from the state. The district administration moved into the annex building next to Brandywine Springs and later yield to Brandywine Springs Parents to expand to K-8. The district rented commercial space in a multi-million / year lease agreement which sent the stage for the Red Clay financial meltdown. The recently and I believe are still relocating the administration offices into Baltz school after backing out K-8 for Blatz. The district subset some of the space in the commercial building below cost. Don’t tell anyone because thats a secret. There was a major social and financial ripple effect with Brandywine Springs. The Baltz community is denied a K-8 program.
I see this to be an ugly referendum because there is a call for a Wilmington School District and this special accommodation to the haves and the busing of city students to Red Clay middle and high schools outside the city is fuel for discontent. Do make note the city residents living in Red Clay boundaries will help pay for this new school.
mustard the vote!!
But we’ve never (and nowhere) committed the resources achieving that would require.
I’m not saying that there is some golden age of education somewhere. The era’s problem was that it was clearly acceptable (and in some instances a matter of policy) to invest better in some than others. The difference now seems to be a passionate repudiation of the idea of unequal access to resources while doing precious little about it. So the competition for resources continues, the deflections to one political problem or another continues while governments rush to build new stadiums or funnel more money to the latest big box retail monstrosity.
People who can afford them (or who can suss out the game to get them) have always had choices as they do today. But I said in another post someplace that people with exceptional educational experiences want to replicate them for their kids — which is an impediment for moving more high tech types from places like Madison or Boulder or Seattle. For all of the requisite bowing towards the importance of a great education over the years, you’d think that there would be less need for the competition for public school resources — not more.
anononthisone said With 30-35 hoodlums in a classroom, …Stop treating us like numbers in a budget and start treating us like professionals. My job was on the line for 3 years straight, not because I’m a bad teacher, but because I was a newer teacher.
You are a distinct minority among teachers, but I have to say that you are no professional. It is too bad you didn’t find employment elsewhere if you believe that every single kid your classroom is a hoodlum. Either you are teaching an in school suspension class or you need to transfer somewhere where you can recover the joy of teaching. Maybe you need to teach adults or little ones. Where you are is not doing anyone any good with your current approach. Please move on. Most teachers respect at least some of their students even on their worst days. Most blow off steam, but this is over the top. You need to reevaluate your choice of profession. It is not for everyone. That does not make you a failure to realize it.
Why spend 10 million dollars to buy open space to stop nonexistent development when that money can go for economic development? This is about current needs not emotions. Open space money made sense during the boom not so much now. It is money not to have jobs.
Markell is right.
I wish the office for Delaware Commission for Women would be eliminated. It really does not need to be a seperate office with paid staff for what it does.