An Understander’s Guide to Gov. Carney’s Budget

The budget released by Gov. John Carney doesn’t officially mean a thing, because the General Assembly’s Joint Finance Committee puts together the state’s real budget, starting with hearings next Tuesday.

But the JFC has to start somewhere, and that somewhere is Carney’s proposal. Matt Bittle of the Delaware State News has an accessible rundown along with quotes from key players, and unlike the News Journal’s story by Scott Goss, it’s not behind a paywall.

(BTW, Gannett isn’t saying how many people it laid off this week, and no word yet on who got whacked at The News Journal.)

I’ll leave most of the apportionment details for another time. What I noticed was Carney’s insistence on referencing his “executive order” restricting budget growth to 3.8% annually (a would-be sop to Republicans which actual conservatives would note exceeds the inflation rate).

The pretense about his executive order is obvious: Under the Delaware Code, executive orders apply only to executive-branch agencies. The budget is the legislature’s responsibility. The executive can order whatever he wants, but legislators don’t have to listen. But until fairly recently, they mostly did.

When Nancy Cook ran the JFC, as she did for donkey’s years, it usually hewed closely to the governor’s budget, make of that what you will. It still does, but I recall the way some Jack Markell proposals, like a gas-tax increase, were dismissed out of hand. I interpret Carney’s pretense that his order is binding as an attempt to exert more influence for his office in setting budget priorities.

So is the “budget smoothing” idea behind it. This Republican plan for socking away “excess” revenue so lawmakers won’t have to make cuts during recessionary times might sound like common sense, but only if you ignore other things that could be done with the money — using it for capital projects, for example, to ease up on the state’s heavy reliance on the bond market, or to make ahead-of-schedule repairs on our many crumbling schools.

But in the clubby world of Delaware politics, its usefulness to incumbents will make it popular. Most electeds soil their undergarments at the words “tax increase,” and this will help avoid such inconveniences, particularly in election years.

Plus, in the unique phraseology of Rep. Quinn Johnson, “I am also an understander that, while I don’t want to predict when because I can’t, a recession is coming.”

In that regard, Rep. Johnson, I believe we are all understanders.