State lawmakers made mincemeat out of Gov. Jack Markell’s (D) proposed new spending for the upcoming fiscal year Wednesday.
It was a bloodbath for new initiatives Markell floated earlier this year after the Joint Finance Committee slashed about $21 million from his budget plan.
Education took much of the hit, with millions of dollars cut that he set aside for a new after school tutoring program, a new teacher salary system and early childhood education. In all, education funding dipped by $9.2 million.
A $6 million carve out for implementing recommendations from the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission still remains, pending approval by the full House and Senate.
But co-chair Rep. Melanie George Smith (D-Bear) says JFC needs a full price tag – including any concessions to downstate lawmakers, like extra funding to low-income schools in their districts – before it writes a check.
“If [there are concessions] hat’s going to cost more than $6 million and so we, the Joint Finance Committee, we need to know…what the 62 legislators – essentially what the State of Delaware – wants to have happen," Smith said.
Sen. Brian Bushweller (D-Dover) tried in vain to save $100,000 for the Charter School Performance Fund, saying it’s incredibly hard to revive programs that have been cut in prior years.
The committee also cut $658,900 in state funding given towards operations at Delaware State University, Delaware Technical Community College and University of Delaware.
It was billed as a one percent, across-the-board reduction, though it didn’t factor in public cash going toward salaries, debt service or the schools’ utility bills, making it a fraction of a cut to what the institutions receive annually.
Lawmakers slashed $3 million to expand internet bandwidth for public schools and $500,000 in extra rental assistance money.
$500,000 for a police body camera pilot program also fell short due to conflicting opinions from the governor, Attorney General Matt Denn, the Public Defender's office and law enforcement on how much it would cost to implement.
“We then made the decision [since] we’re not getting accurate numbers on how much this is going to cost, we can’t roll out the start of a program not knowing how much it’s going to cost us in future years," Smith said.
The committee did fold back in $1.2 million to help bankroll additional state troopers in Sussex County over objections from Sen. Karen Peterson (D-Stanton).
New Castle County pays for its own police force, which Peterson says should be the model for Sussex.
"“[JFC] isn’t Santa’s workshop. You don’t get to send us your list and we turn out what you ask for,” Peterson said.
Contracted workers across state government will not get a taxpayer-funded raise, if the budget is approved.
JFC rejected the $2.3 million proposal to give contracted workers raises – mostly due to concerns there was no guarantee that money would land in low-level employees’ bank accounts.
Lawmakers haven’t yet acted on Markell’s proposed one percent pay raise for all public workers.
It’s not clear how much more JFC believes it needs to cut to balance their budget.
