Sen. Colin Bonini Diverts State Bond Funds to Private Religious Institution
We all know Colin Bonini. The Senator who votes against the Budget pretty much every year and publicly scolds the General Assembly for failing to make the ‘tough choices’. Meaning failing to shred the social safety net while cutting taxes and screwing unions.
This self-same Colin Bonini sits on the Bond Bill Committee. A superb article by Jonathan Starkey in last Sunday’s News-Journal outlined some of the pet projects Bond Committee members funded in this year’s Bond Bill. BTW, it’s called the Bond Bill b/c the State places its full faith and credit in the purchasing of bonds to pay for many of these projects. While there is some existing revenue that also is spent in the Bond Bill, it all ultimately is backed by the state and by you, the taxpayers.
The list of projects is enough to make one’s blood boil. A $1 million skate park for the Wilmington Riverfront, ostensibly to serve as a crime deterrent. $8.3 million for a legislative slush fund for suburban road projects. $800,000 for a ‘pier to nowhere’ in the City of New Castle. $250,000 ostensibly for ‘therapeutic horse riding improvements’ at Carousel County Park & Equestrian Center (I say ‘ostensibly’ b/c a county spokesman claims it’s really for an arena they want to build). $300,000 in what can only be described as an extortion payment to two politically-connected farm owners as part of a $6.6 million bribe to keep them from developing land which is undevelopable (Tom Gordon is the leading paymeister in this blatant taxpayer ripoff).
But Colin Bonini has gone above and beyond even these outrages. We’ll let Jonathan Starkey lay it out:
Sen. Colin Bonini, R-Dover South, one of the General Assembly’s staunchest opponents of irresponsible government spending, used his seat on the Legislature’s capital budget committee to carve $250,000 out of an economic development account to fund renovations at Wesley College’s health sciences building, which houses the school’s nursing program. Bonini carved out $500,000 for building renovations last year.
“That is a big economic development project that is going to help the college significantly increase the number of nursing graduates, which I think in the long run saves us money,” said Bonini, a Wesley graduate. “I am 100 percent biased toward Wesley College. Wesley changed my life when I was there.”
Wesley College is a private institution that has a ‘covenant relationship with the United Methodist Church’. In other words, a private, religiously-affiliated institution. Can some lawyer please explain to me how it is legal for the State of Delaware to invest the full faith and credit of the State to provide funding for a capital project at a private, religiously-affiliated institution? I want to know. Believe me, I know that legislators have used trickery to fund projects that directly benefit private organizations in the past. A particular parking lot affiliated with a particularly-powerful church enjoyed the largesse bestowed upon it by a state legislator and another elected official who just happened to also work for DELDOT. I think that was illegal as well.
But Sen. ‘Tough Choices’ Bonini makes no bones about funneling state bond bill money to a private, religiously-affiliated institution. That can’t be legal. Can it?
Barristers, what sayeth thou?
Tags: El Somnambulo, Jonathan Starkey, Sen. Colin Bonini, Steve Tanzer Delaware
We have a $100 million hole in the highway fund. By my count, if one looks through the pork here, adds in the $6 million bike bridge, $10 million from raising weekend tolls, and the $9.9 million casino bail-out, we’d have had enough to pour another $35-40 million into that hole.
Let’s also not forget that we’re sending money to Wesley when all three of our state institutions of higher ed have unfunded deferred maintenance and took significant cuts to their capital budgets.
While I agree some of this money would be wasteful, therapeutic horse riding has been shown to have a very positive effect for children who have autism or other sensory processing disorders. As the autism rate grows in our state, anything that can help these children is a positive benefit.
JLF: I don’t disagree. But the County says it’s for an arena, not for the therapeutic horse riding.
Plus, the County Exec brags about not raising taxes while getting legislators to use STATE funds instead of County funds for County initiatives. Taxpayers are still paying.
I’m with El Som on the riding center. New Castle County has its own taxing jurisdiction. If it’s a state program, then let the state run it; if it’s a county program, let the county fund it.
As it is, it’s a giveaway to Tom Gordon, who ran out of sewer fund money to steal for the operating budget.
“I am 100 percent biased toward Wesley College. Wesley changed my life when I was there.”
Using Bonnini logic, we owe money to …Georgetown University (McDowell) Texas Southern University (Margret Rose Henry) Edison State College (Marshall) Worcester Junior College (Cloutier) Gettysburg College (Lopez) Neumann University (Peterson) Ulster County Community College (Bushweller) and Laurel High School(Venables).
St. Joes Prep Philly (John Kowalko)