Delaware's Budget
Lost in the debate on how to balance Delaware's budget is the fact that it got done at all, and on time. The New York Times reports that Arizona, California, Indiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and Pennsylvania were likely to miss the June 30 deadline to adopt a balanced budget. California’s problems are getting the most attention, but other states may be forced to close offices, send non-essential personnel home or issue IOUs if they don’t adopt budgets.
The budget adopted last night came in at $3.09 billion, $256.3 million less than FY 2009 budget of $3.348 billion. The Grants-in-Aid allocation was cut sharply, and the Bond Bill came in at less than half of last year’s version.
The budget adopted last night is just the beginning. Cost cutting measures in the budget are causing administrative headaches up and down the state. But the real work will come as the Markell administration begins to look at restructuring government agencies.
Much of Delaware’s budget debate revolved around the question of whether pay cuts or tax hikes would be more harmful to the economy. But the biggest blow to Delaware’s economy would have come if the General Assembly had failed to agree on a budget. Businesses like to know that they are located in states that can govern themselves.
The budget adopted last night came in at $3.09 billion, $256.3 million less than FY 2009 budget of $3.348 billion. The Grants-in-Aid allocation was cut sharply, and the Bond Bill came in at less than half of last year’s version.
The budget adopted last night is just the beginning. Cost cutting measures in the budget are causing administrative headaches up and down the state. But the real work will come as the Markell administration begins to look at restructuring government agencies.
Much of Delaware’s budget debate revolved around the question of whether pay cuts or tax hikes would be more harmful to the economy. But the biggest blow to Delaware’s economy would have come if the General Assembly had failed to agree on a budget. Businesses like to know that they are located in states that can govern themselves.
posted by Tom Noyes at 4:50 PM
3 Comments:
Excellent point, and as far as I see you are the only one who's really made it.
Good job.
It's a point we paid close attention to when I was with the City of Wilmington in the 1990s. While we were grappling with the city's budget deficit, we wanted to keep up the momentum for economic growth. It was important that we showed that the city could solve its problems.
Very good point. never thought of that.
Then again, drama is much more...dramatic and entertaining. I don't know if I could have been so compromising on voting for tax hikes on the hopes that they could sort it out in the next year.
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