State News questions if state budget is irresponsible!

The only thing we will add is that the picture looks even worse when you take into account all state expenditures and not just the operating budget. 

State budget irresponsible?
By Drew Volturo, Delaware State News

DOVER — When lawmakers left Legislative Hall at the end of the session in the wee hours of July 1, they had passed a record $3.285 billion operating budget in a tight fiscal year wrought with declining revenues.

The spending plan is Gov. Ruth Ann Minner’s seventh since taking office in 2001, during which time the state’s operating budget has grown by nearly $1 billion, a 43 percent increase from the $2.3 billion fiscal 2002 budget.

“The question you have to ask is, is state government $1 billion better than we were in fiscal 2002?” asked Sen. Colin R.J. Bonini, R-Dover.

“The answer is, of course not. We have been tremendously irresponsible in our spending, and I don’t blame just Gov. Minner. We as legislators are just as guilty.”

Sen. Bonini, who regularly votes against the operating budget, contends that Delaware has a spending problem and that the money the state spends could be better used by those who supplied it.

“A lot of my colleagues have forgotten that it’s not our money, it’s the money of those we represent,” Sen. Bonini said.

But Gov. Minner and her budget staff believe the administration has been an excellent steward of the state’s finances during her tenure. 

See the rest of the article at

http://www.newszap.com/articles/2007/07/21/dm/central_delaware/dsn01.txt

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