State Budget Process
Significant learning points:
- Robert
Scoglietti from the Office of Management and Budget provided an overview of the
state budget process and Jerry McNesby provided an overview of Delaware Tech’s
budget process.
- Credibility
is EVERYTHING in Legislative Hall. It’s important to know your issue and how it
affects people.
- Agencies
that understand the process and abide by the timeline are more likely to get
what they want or need because their proposals will get in front of the
governor and legislature in time.
- The
timeline for Delaware Tech’s budget development spans a few years (i.e., DTCC
FY15 priorities were discussed in June 2013 and were due to OMB by November
2013).
- Through
the case study on whether or not to recommend continuation of a high-speed rail
project, I was able to see the wide variety of factors that influence major
decisions – not all of which are economic.
Relevance to ideas about leadership:
It
is important for leaders to have a big picture understanding of the budget
process at both the state and college levels as well as the multiple factors
that weigh into budget decisions. With
limited financial resources to allocated to Delaware Tech from the state each
year, our leaders have to agree and respect the funding priorities – which may
be for another campus.
It is equally important for college leaders to have good working relationships with our legislators and other community stake holders in order to maintain their support for our programs.
It is equally important for college leaders to have good working relationships with our legislators and other community stake holders in order to maintain their support for our programs.
Ways to apply learning to current role:
As
a general education department chair, I have requested for several years to
hire an additional full-time faculty member since nearly 80% of math courses at
Owens are taught by adjuncts. Since new
positions are authorized by the legislature, this request has gone
unfulfilled. This seminar helped me
understand how the economic situation of the state determines the available
funding, and why it is unlikely that I will get a new faculty member any time
soon. I can use my knowledge of the
state and college budget process to help communicate this reality to my team,
so that they understand why this will continue to be an unmet need.