Did you know that Delaware will spend nearly $12.5 billion over the next year despite a widely-reported “General Fund Budget” of around $5 billion? Did you also know that the difference, $7.5 billion “Shadow Budget,” has almost no legislative oversight or citizen input? Could this be an invitation to cronyism and corruption?

 

 

CRI:    Hi Charlie.  Thanks for joining us. It is widely reported that Delaware’s “General Fund” budget is around $5 billion. Yet, you tell us that Delaware will spend another $7.5 billion above and beyond what is in the “General Fund” in a “Shadow Budget.” Why do you call this additional spending a “Shadow Budget,” and what is it?

 

COPELAND:     Thank you for having me.  I could have called it the “Secret Budget” or “Stealth Budget” since it’s pretty invisible to Delaware citizens. In Dover, this spending is officially referred to as “Special Funds” or “Appropriated Special Funds,” and it is almost entirely comprised of Federal funds in the form of grants for hundreds of projects in dozens of our state agencies as well as our colleges and universities. Almost none of this money passes through the General Assembly’s Joint Finance Committee’s budgeting process. It is very opaque.

 

CRI:    $7.5 billion is a massive amount of money – 1.5 times larger than the “General Fund.” Could you give us some examples of these funds?

 

COPELAND:     First, let me state that the “Shadow Budget” has been this massive for at least a decade, likely far longer.

 

As for a couple of examples, last June, the Clearinghouse Committee approved a grant to the Department of Health and Social Services titled “Child Care Development – Discretionary,” in the amount of $14,202,295. What piqued my interest with this grant was the term “discretionary.” Whose discretion is being used? $14 million is a lot to leave to someone’s discretion…

 

Or in October 2020, when the same department received an almost $5,000,000 block grant simply titled “Social Services Block Grant.” How is this block grant being used? I have no idea. These are but two examples from last year. But there are hundreds of expenditures – large and small – to dozens of agencies as well as the University of Delaware, Delaware State University, Delaware Tech. None of these grants seem to have any detailed public information as to their actual use.

 

Equally concerning is that the lion’s share of the Covid stimulus money will NOT be reviewed by the Legislature. These funds could add billions to the “Shadow Budget” with zero transparency or public oversight. This has a huge potential for fraud, theft, or corruption.