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Budget Parameters

Captial Quickies has an interesting piece this morning about the 2011-2012 budget.

In addition to listing programs and the money to be spent on those programs, CQ says that the budget sets parameters for the programs that defines the administration’s leeway in spending.  

One of the restrictions that CQ lists strikes me as odd:

  • Caps spending on Department of Transportation snow removal costs that the Treasury Department can approve without legislative approval at $10 million.

What happens if we get another historic blizzard late next winter and the $10 million limit has been met?   Would DOT have to spend the last $100K getting the legislators to Trenton to approve spending over the $10 million cap to clear the roads.  What if there are people in life threatening situations like there were during the December blizzard last winter?

I don’t think it is wise to have the legislature micromanaging the DOT’s snow removal spending.  Legislative approval for cost overruns of road projects might make sense.  Not snow removal.

Posted: June 27th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: NJ State Legislature | Tags: , | 2 Comments »