My favorite politician in Delaware is disappointed and we should all be as well. Matt Denn, the Delaware Attorney General, posted this on Facebook this morning:
There is no sugar-coating it. The state budget was passed last night, and after five months of making the case, I wasn’t able to persuade the General Assembly’s Joint Finance Committee to invest financial market settlement funds in any of the initiatives I proposed to address violent crime — no funds to extend Wilmington’s very effective police foot patrols (whose state funding will expire in two weeks), no funds for staffing of video cameras, no funds for new after-school or summer programs for juveniles, no funds for new re-entry programs, no additional funds for high-poverty elementary schools, no additional funds for low income housing. Instead, the Joint Finance Committee spent millions of dollars in settlement funds to balance this year’s budget. I recognize that it was a very tough budget year, but it would’ve been affordable and appropriate to fund at least some of what we proposed. To the Delawareans who are living every day with the consequences of violent crime, and others in our state who think it is an important issue, I am sorry I wasn’t able to persuade the legislature to invest in these programs, and I want you to know that I am going to keep on trying.
This yearly overnight shenanigans by the General Assembly’s Joint Finance Committee has got to stop. Important programs, such as the ones that Denn was trying to get through, die here. The programs asked for by Denn were very important for the future of Delaware. The short sightedness of the Joint Finance Committee is shameful.