Mark Your Calendars: Legislative Panel on the FY2017 Budget Next Week
On Wednesday, September 2, at 7 pm at the Del Dem HQ in New Castle, the Progressive Democrats for Delaware are hosting a pretty great event: a Legislative Panel on the Budget for the next fiscal year. Remember the 6 Progressive Democratic State Representatives who voted against the Budget for FY2016 at the end of the last legislative session? Remember their reasons? Because the leadership did not address a looming deficit in the coming fiscal year and did not have the courage to raise taxes on the wealthiest in this state.
Well guess what, the planning for this fiscal year is here, and we have now reached the can that we have kicked down the road.
The Six House Democrats Who Voted Against The Budget will be panelists at the September 2nd meeting of the Progressive Democrats for Delaware to talk with us about FY2017.
If you have questions or suggestions about how state government will be approaching the budget next year, come out and participate in this discussion! We’re guessing everyone in the state wants to see something different out of the General Assembly than what happened last year. And this is your chance to get up close and personal with the group who stood firm on principle to vote against their majority party caucus.
The panel will begin after a brief award ceremony where State Representatives Kim Williams, Paul Baumbach, Sean Lynn, John Kowalko, Andria Bennett and Sean Matthews will receive their 2015 Bob Stachnik Progressive Courage Awards. Mike Matthews, John Young, Kevin Ohlandt and Tizzy Lockman will receive their 2015 Education Hero Awards. And Kathleen Perkins and Charles Fleming, Jr. will receive their 2015 Community Hero Awards.
Kim Williams had to bow out due to school-start and family-related conflicts and Andria Bennett will be late since she has a class she’s teaching that is starting up at DelTech but for all else, we are looking forward to an open forum where the core progressives in the House can give us a hint of what may be up their sleeves. This being an election year, I am sure hoping the progressive community can work together to bring more and better DEM candidates to the ballots come November.
Here is a key document to start Wednesday night’s focus:
Paul Baumbach’s Handout
JFC—Smith, Carson, Heffernan, JJ Johnson, Kenton, Miro, McDowell, Bushweller, Ennis, Peterson, Cloutier, Lawson
Bond Committee—Q Johnson, Potter, Mulrooney, Mitchell, Ramone, Wilson, Sokola, Bushweller, Hall-Long, Marshall, Bonini, Hocker
$31.20M of financial settlement money spent
HS 1 to HB 225 Budget
Released 4:50pm June 29th, Passed House 1:18am, Senate 1:52am
$4.58M of one-time settlement money spent
($1.0M Charter School Performance Fund, $1.2M Identity Management System, $0.8M private school transportation, $1.2M Presidential Primary)
HB 230 Grant-in-Aid Bill
Released 3:46am on July 1st, Passed House 4:35am, Senate 4:41am
Section 36 (page 26), $8,580,000 of one-time settlements is spent, $5.00M for DelDOT operations, about $2.15M for paramedic and EMS needs, $1.20M for Sussex County state police services (which the JFC had earlier eliminated), $0.2M for municipal law enforcement email accounts.
Despite applications, zero dollars for Hope Dining Room, Newark Area Welfare Committee, Newark Day Nursery, which collectively requested less than $20,000, but $68,000 was awarded to Homeward Bound, which I noted to the Controller General’s office and the chair of the JFC was likely a no-longer-active organization.
$20.8M section 1 (senior centers, other aging services, $16.0M section 2 (non-profits), $5.9M section 3 (fire companies)
SS 1 for SB 160 Bond Bill
Released after midnight on July 1st, Passed Senate 3:27am, House 4:44am
Section 3, $15,042,800 of S and P settlement to be used, $10.00M to DEDO, $2.20M to DNREC, $1.19 to DHSS, $1.00M to OMB
Sections 16-18: No money for Open Space, for Farmland Preservation, for Energy Efficiency.
DEDO highlights: $13.5M for the port (53), $3.25M for Kent County Regional Sports (55), exclusion from NCCo jurisdiction for Croda Project (56), DSHA had $14.5M for housing programs (60-61), DTI has $9.3M for technology projects (63).
DNREC: $5.0M for ‘strategic sites’: former NVF facility in Yorklyn and Fort DuPont complex (92).
DELDOT–$25M new debt (98). Community Transportation Funding (111), see Appendix A..
Dept of Agriculture–$3.0M for Farmland Preservation from one-time settlement funds (135) Appendix A,
Municipal Street Aid $5.00M, CTF $16.75M ($260,000 per elected senator/representative, plus $630,000 extra, for the chairs).
$456.3M of spending.