Delaware Gov. Jack Markell's $3.54 billion operating budget proposal for the next fiscal year includes additional spending for Medicaid and schools but calls for no tax or fee increases.

Estimates increase $33.4M but remain 3.5% below 2010 figures.

Lawmakers sent the governor the spending plan for the 2012 fiscal year -- the largest in state history and a 6.15 percent increase from the current year.

The legislative committee responsible for drafting the state budget today approved a modest increase in funding for nonprofit agencies that provide services to disabled Delawareans.

Delaware taxpayers will have at least a week to pore over the state's $3.4 billion operating budget before lawmakers vote on it.

Less than half of Delawareans receive unemployment insurance benefits when they lose their job. The claims process is time consuming and demeaning for many. Errors in payment and outright fraud waste millions. There is a better way. Personal Unemployment Accounts (UA), run like a 401K or IRA, can provide an attractive alternative.

$3.4 billion in spending is slight rise over 2011 and closes a $216.4 million budget shortfall with spending cuts, efficiencies, one-time revenue sources and layoffs.

Delaware will be getting an additional $75.6 million in federal assistance this year, thanks to a bill that cleared the U.S. House and was signed into law by President Barack Obama.

Delawareans will face no new tax hikes this year, and teachers and state-agency workers had their pay cuts reversed when Gov. Jack Markell signed a $3.3 billion balanced budget on July 1. Markell's budget includes a 7 percent spending increase over last year's budget, as more and more residents rely on state services - including Medicaid - to make ends meet.

State governments from New Jersey to California that are struggling to close budget deficits are skipping or deferring payments to already underfunded public-employee pension plans. The moves could help ease today's budget pressures, but will make tomorrow's worse.

Delaware Gov. Jack Markell's $3.54 billion operating budget proposal for the next fiscal year includes additional spending for Medicaid and schools but calls for no tax or fee increases.

Delaware will be getting an additional $75.6 million in federal assistance this year, thanks to a bill that cleared the U.S. House and was signed into law by President Barack Obama.

Delawareans will face no new tax hikes this year, and teachers and state-agency workers had their pay cuts reversed when Gov. Jack Markell signed a $3.3 billion balanced budget on July 1. Markell's budget includes a 7 percent spending increase over last year's budget, as more and more residents rely on state services - including Medicaid - to make ends meet.

Less than half of Delawareans receive unemployment insurance benefits when they lose their job. The claims process is time consuming and demeaning for many. Errors in payment and outright fraud waste millions. There is a better way. Personal Unemployment Accounts (UA), run like a 401K or IRA, can provide an attractive alternative.

This all boils down to who gets to pick taxpayers' pockets first, public pensioners or municipal bond investors? More people are waking up to the hard reality that when it comes to state and local government, somebody has to lose money over the next few decades. The National Association of Bond Lawyers is worried enough about it to issue "Considerations" for advising clients who think they're getting safe investments.

Despite an organized campaign to stop public pension reform, reality is beginning to break through.  One recent report outlines a possible path to long-term solutions and another details the necessity of states and municipalities finding their own way because federal bailout is impossible.  And Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel released a plan that could have been based on both reports.

Hey, young public employees, what are you going to do when your pension checks bounce after you paid in for decades? That is what will happen in many - maybe all - states and municipalities sooner or later if they do not reform right now. If you want to see the future, just look at Illinois. One citizen there did, and came up with a real reform plan that might work.

Public employees should take their pension money now and run to avoid risk of getting reduced benefits - or nothing - in the future. It's the best deal for them and for taxpayers. A growing chorus of credible voices including the Government Accountability Office, a Federal Reserve bank and now the Harvard Kennedy School Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government confirm state and local government finances are "spiraling out of control" and even draconian reforms only make it "more likely" that future benefits will paid in full.

Hey, young public employees, what are you going to do when your pension checks bounce after you paid in for decades? That is what will happen in many - maybe all - states and municipalities sooner or later if they do not reform right now. If you want to see the future, just look at Illinois. One citizen there did, and came up with a real reform plan that might work.

This is what it sounds like when the Federal Reserve Bank screams: "Much has been written about the various headwinds restraining economic activity over the near term. However, our economy also has other headwinds to confront over the medium- to-longer-term. ... the finances of some state and local governments are also under stress and in need of serious adjustments."  - Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Sandra Pianalto