Legislative committee continues agency budget hearings

DOVER (AP) — Members of the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee are continuing their review of state agency budgets and spending requests as they continue to lay the foundation for a budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

The committee is to resume hearings Monday with presentations by the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families.

In the past, the committee has typically looked at agency spending requests for the upcoming fiscal year and compared them to current funding levels. Given the significant challenge this year, the committee is taking a more analytical approach to agency spending, looking at base budgets and performance measures to check that agencies are meeting expectations and spending wisely, while also trying to ferret out duplicative or unnecessary spending.