By Joe Rogalsky
Delaware State News
DOVER - Serious work on the state's fiscal year 2006 operating budget will begin today when the legislature's Joint Finance Committee starts two weeks of deliberations on the spending plan.
The state's budget includes everything from employee pay raises to how much the state pays school bus companies to ferry children back and forth to school.
The work, mostly done behind closed doors, will be guided by forecasts from the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council. DEFAC meets today to issue its latest rounds of estimates.
Unlike several years ago when the state faced a cash crunch, legislators will have the luxury of deciding how to spend surplus funds.
Revenue estimates have grown by $170 million since Gov. Ruth Ann Minner released her budget proposals in January, but $10 million has already been allocated to school districts and charter schools for textbooks and library materials.
Traditionally, DEFAC has increased its predictions at its May and June meetings.
The size of the projected state-revenue growth will go a long way in deciding whether taxes are cut and whether agencies and programs receive additional funding. "With the way the economy is going, we think the numbers will increase," said Rep. Joseph G. DiPinto, R-Wilmington, a JFC co-chair.
"The expectation is the numbers will continue to go up. By how much, we don't know."
Since Gov. Minner made her recommendations, Medicaid estimates have climbed another $10 million.
And the governor needs about $30 million to rebuild an account to fund environmental projects such as beach replenishment and land preservation.
"It's an equally challenging year," said Jennifer W. Davis, the governor's budget director.
"The lists of needs far outpaces the available resources. It will require significant discussion and deliberation among the money committees and the governor.
"It will present a challenging set of choices for policymakers."
Republican lawmakers are pushing a business tax cut proposal that would cost $20 million in fiscal 2006 and $56 million in fiscal 2007.
Gov. Minner has said she could support a tax cut if revenue estimates do not falter.
"The governor has made it clear she would like to look at tax policy as long as it is sustainable," Mrs. Davis said.
"We will be discussing that with legislators after the May and June DEFACs."
To achieve the goals of tax cuts and increased funding in some areas, lawmakers will have to divide extra available revenue and possibly strip some spending out of the governor's budget proposal to pay for hikes in other areas.
Pay raises
When the Joint Finance Committee begins writing the state budget every year, the state's employee package always tops the agenda.
Gov. Minner recommended giving most workers a 2 percent or $1,100 raise, whichever is greater, July 1, when the new budget takes effect.
Workers making $55,000 or less would see the $1,100.
On Jan. 1, 2006, those employed as of July 1, would receive an increase equal to 2 percent of the middle of their pay range.
"The first thing we have to do is deal with the pay policy," said Sen. James T. Vaughn, D-Clayton.
"We have problems in Medicaid and we have contractors with Health and Social Services for various areas that are wanting increases."
The JFC has a long history of approving worker raises above the governor's proposal.
State employees hope the same happens this year.
"We are looking for something fair and reasonable," said Michael A. Begatto, who represents state workers through the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
"We are not putting a specific number on it.
"We are hoping the members of the Joint Finance Committee remember the commitment they made to state employees that if there is extra money available, the employees would be the first to receive it."
As part of its pay-policy deliberations, the committee will also consider ways to improve recruiting and retention of correctional officers.
A July 12 incident at the Delaware Correctional Center near Smyrna, in which a counselor was held hostage for nearly seven hours and raped, brought much attention to the high vacancy rate in correctional posts.
Gov. Minner's budget proposal includes a plan to increase hazardous duty pay for correctional officers by $600 a year.
The governor also set aside money to fund the recruiting and retention enhancements that the JFC approves. A task force several years ago recommended moving the officers up two pay grades and instituting a system to reward officers for longevity.
"There are two or three options we have to look at," said Sen. Vaughn, former state commissioner of corrections.
"Which one we will pick, I don't know. We need to do something for them."
School daze
When the Joint Bond Bill Committee begins work next month on the state's annual capital budget, school construction will be one of the first big-ticket items considered.
The JFC has several education-related issues to tackle as well.
The panel will have to decide whether to fund the next step in implementing Gov. Minner's plan to have full-day kindergarten in all school districts by 2008.
How children arrive at school will also be a hot topic. School bus contractors warned lawmakers in the winter that if the state did not increase the amount it pays them to operate routes, some contractors might go out of business and leave districts in a bind.
"It is a driving issue we are going to have to address," said Rep. Peter C. Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth Beach, who in his first year on the powerful panel.
Healthy choices
Besides the high figure for Medicaid spending, the JFC will decide whether to endorse a plan from the Minner administration to reorganize the Department of Health and Social Services.
DHSS Secretary Vincent P. Meconi said the reshuffling would let the agency better handle the growing Medicaid program, but some lawmakers and many advocates are not receptive.
"We want that stopped, burned and completely off of this Earth," said Jamie Wolfe, chair of the Delaware Disabilities Council.
Staff writer Joe Rogalsky can be reached at 741-8226 or jrogalsky@newszap.com.
Reprinted with permission from newszap.com
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