Governor Carney proposes Fiscal Year 2020 recommended budget
DOVER, Del. – Governor John Carney presented his Fiscal Year 2020 Recommended Budget, which will provide the General Assembly a plan that he hopes will make important investments in Delaware’s economy, public schools, and quality of life.
He is proposing an increase in the operating budget by almost 4% and bumping up the spending with $4.4 billion. Mike Jackson, Director of Office of Management and Budget says, “With a 3.8% budget that’s about 160 million with new spending, almost half of that is going to our schools.”
Education is a top priority for the upcoming year. $60 million would be dedicated for opportunity funding for low income students and English language learners. Representative Tim Dukes tells us, “My district has a lot of high poverty and so that initiative by the Governor in the State of the State is exciting to hear.”
Plus, Governor Carney wants to place millions of dollars directly to classrooms and additional resources for teachers. “To be able to make sure that the state is stepping forward with the resources necessary to ensure kids have needs and resources that they have to be successful that’s important to me,” Senator Ernesto Lopez says.
The proposal would also include a pay raise for state employees and even $85,000 for recruitment and retention efforts to invest in their workers. He also wants to add almost $2 million to help the opioid epidemic by investing in continued support for Behavioral Health Consortium recommendations. Governor Carney also proposed a capital budget of about $670 million for transportation infrastructure and construction projects.
In the budget, there was also money allocated for higher needed areas such as the Department of Corrections. An increase for more money has been in the works for some time, especially after the James T. Vaughn riot, which exposed how these Delaware facilities were running. Over $10 million would be invested in things such as staffing investments, reentry services, capital investments, and health and welfare for offenders. Geoff Klopp, President of the Correctional Officer Union says they are happy with the investments but there’s still a tremendous amount of work to be done.
He says in the plan there is no compensation plan for CO’s, which is frustrating, since they are having a hard time retaining them.
But another main priority in the budget is savings. Governor Carney is proposing $45 million to existing unspent funds that would help stabilize the state’s budget in the future.
“That’s the best argument for taking our approach so that you don’t have to cut those programs dramatically when you have a downturn,” Governor Carney tells us.
Now with the budget moving forward, for the next two months, the Joint Finance and Bond Bill committees will consider Governor Carney’s budget and hold hearings to discuss it with agencies and advocates.
If everything runs smoothly, the General Assembly would pass the budget and bond bills and the Governor would sign the bills by June 30th.
The new fiscal year begins July 1st.
