Budget committee votes to distribute bank settlement funds

(AP) – Democrats on the legislature’s budget-writing committee have approved a proposal to spend more than $28 million in mortgage settlement money on a variety of housing and non-housing programs.

Thursday’s vote by the Joint Finance Committee follows months of discussions on how to spend Delaware’s remaining share of money from nationwide settlements involving Bank of America and Citigroup to resolve allegations that market misconduct by banks contributed to the financial crisis and housing market implosion in 2008 that resulted in many people losing their homes to foreclosure.
    
Republicans on the committee dissented, expressing concerns about how the money would be spent and arguing that lawmakers should delay any decisions until the budget picture for next fiscal year becomes clearer.