“delaware’s spending habits are a traindelawaresbadhabit.com/delawaresbadhabit.pdf · sussex,...
TRANSCRIPT
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“Delaware’s Spending Habits are a Train
Wreck Waiting to Happen”
– Senator Colin Bonini, June 2000
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Delaware’s Bad
Habit:Big Spending Equals Big Problems
A Presentation by State Senator Colin Bonini April 2009
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How Bad Is It?
• Delaware’s budget has doubled in the last twelve years
(has your income doubled?)
• State government spending increased over $1 billion in
the last 8 years.
– That’s billion with a “B”! (A billion is $1,172 for every man,
woman and child in Delaware)
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State spending increased over $1.1 Billion dollars and personal income
increased under $10,000 per capita
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Delaware spends over $8 billion, or
$31,500 per taxpaying household
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• Delaware Government’s total expenditures
for fiscal year 2008 was $8,345,626,300!
• What does this big number mean?
• Per person: $9,783.85
• Per taxpayer: $27,362.71
• Per taxpaying household: $31,492.93
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Delaware spends over $8 billion, or
$31,500 per taxpaying household
What can you buy for $31,500?– Send 4 kids to the University of Delaware
– Year-long health care insurance for 10 people
– A Disney World vacation for 21 people
– Over 3 ½ years worth of groceries (187 weeks)
– A 2009 Lincoln MKZ 6
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Delaware spends over $8 billion, or
$31,500 per taxpaying household
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And my personal favorite…
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Delaware spends over $8 billion, or
$31,500 per taxpaying household
So, is your family getting its money’s worth??8
9,574 Big Macs
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• Inflation averaged 2.73% between FY2000 and FY2007
• State spending increased by an average of 6.36%
between FY2000 and FY2007
• Spending grew twice as fast as inflation!
How has spending increased in
recent years?
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• The state government has spent in excess of $1.3 billion
more than expected with population growth plus inflation.
• 63.7% higher than with population growth plus inflation.
• If we had stayed on Governor Mike Castle’s last budget
projection, our state budget should be $2.1 billion…
How has spending increased in
recent years?
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And we would have an $800
million surplus last year!
Or in other words…
$3,000 per taxpaying household!
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How is Delaware spending
your money?
11Percentage of every dollar
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How is Delaware spending
your money?
Delaware provides 7,259 cell phones to
state workers at a cost of almost $4 million.
There are 429 Delaware school
administrators making more than $100,000 a
year, at a cost of almost $48 million.
In recent years, Delaware has purchased
two golf courses at a cost of $16,410,350.00
The state even owns two marinas, which cost
us $16,500,000.00
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And here’s some of the
best/worst…
Delaware taxpayers pay to send
teachers to space camp
Delaware taxpayers are paying to
support the Punkin Chunkin festival
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Delaware leases a dual-prop
helicopter at $2.2 million per year and
it did not fly for 17 months!
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Medicaid
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• Delaware spends over $1.2 billion on Medicaid, including federal funds.
• Almost 150,000 Delawareans receive Medicaid benefits.
• The number of Medicaid recipients have increased over 20% in the last
four years alone!
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The number of state employees
have increased significantly
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•The state government is Delaware's largest employer, by far
•Government is Delaware’s biggest industry
27,449
to
31,693
A 15%
increase!
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Education
• Delaware’s government schools spend almost $14,000 per pupil (6th highest in the country!) but our graduation rate is 43rd in the nation. More than 1 in 3 Delaware public high school students do not graduate on time (Gates Foundation, 2006).
• Delaware ranks 42nd in average SAT scores.
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Where We Are Now:
The Problem
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• Delaware has spent itself into a several hundred
million dollar projected shortfall (Governor’s
estimate = $750 million, Colin’s estimate = $390
million).
“Delaware has a spending problem,
not a revenue problem.”
- Senator Colin Bonini
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Where We Are Now:
The Problem
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• I support and applaud Governor Markell’s effort
to find cost-savings in state government.
• The governor proposes $331 million in spending
reductions and I support most of these,
especially the performance review process and
the reduction in consulting fees.
• For the Governor’s specifics, go to: http://governor.delaware.gov/2009_BudgetSolutions.pdf
(I also have copies available)
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Where We Are Now:
The Problem
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• The Governor proposes reducing the short-term
cost of government. But we must do more: We
must reduce the size of our government.
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• We can solve our financial problem:
• While still providing government’s
core services,
• Without raising taxes.
The Colin Plan
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The Colin Plan: 5 Key
Elements
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Early Retirement
Option/ Hiring Freeze
Consolidate School
District Services
Suspend
Prevailing Wages
Constitutional
Limits on Spending
Transparency and
Honesty in State
Government
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Suspend Prevailing Wages
• Recommend a two year suspension of
Prevailing Wage on all state and local contracts.
• All government projects are at least 25% - 35%
more expensive than they should be because of
Prevailing Wages.
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Estimated savings of at least
$100 million annually
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Consolidate School District
Services
• I support consolidating school districts into five districts statewide:
Sussex, Kent, New Castle, Wilmington, and Vo-Tech.
• We must consolidate services amongst current districts: food
services, textbooks, transportation, district office services, and
curriculum, etc.
• Our school districts and Department of Education are tremendously
top-heavy. We should be able to cut administrative costs by at least
25%.
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Estimated savings of at least
$35 million annually
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Constitutional Limits
on Spending
• Our state government spends too much money, way too much money!
• Our politicians have an insatiable appetite for tax dollars. They will spend it if we give them the money. Period.
• The only way to stop them from spending is to not allow them to get the money in the first place.
• I propose a constitutional amendment that will limit the increase in state spending to inflation plus population growth.
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It’s the spending, stupid!
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Early Retirement Option/
Hiring Freeze
• Offer 5 year pension service bonus to state
employees willing to retire this year.
• Allow retiring employees to use accrued sick and
vacation time to purchase pension service time.
• Sustain pension fund by eliminating $6,000
exemption for future employees.
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Estimated savings of at least
$125 million annually
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Early Retirement Option/
Hiring Freeze
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• We must eliminate
positions in state
government!
• We must have the
discipline not to refill
vacated positions!
IMPORTANT!!!!
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Sunshine is the best disinfectant.
When taxpayers know where their
money is going they will force the
government to stop wasting it.
Transparency and Honesty in
State Government
• Put all check registers online in a searchable database for taxpayers to see.
• All finance bills should be available for public review for 48 hours before being voted on by either chamber.
• The bottom line is every cent of taxpayers money should be accounted for and should be easily tracked by any taxpayer.
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The Colin Plan
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These five key elements along with ideas
from the Governor, and other cost-saving
measures will lead to a more effective and
efficient state government.
If you only remember one thing from this
presentation, please remember this…
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It’s Your
Money!
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Please go to:
www.DelawaresBadHabit.com
to sign the petition,
download the presentation,
and send in your comments!
Colin’s Contact Information:Home Phone: 302-698-0960
Senate Office: 302-744-4169
E-Mail: [email protected]