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Written on: July 2nd, 2010 in Guest Posts, Recognizing State Employees
Guest Post from Major General Frank Vavala, Delaware National Guard:
I was honored to kick off the Sixth Annual Miles for Minutes motorcycle ride, a fantastic event hosted by Clear Channel Media, WDSD radio, and the Delaware National Guard. The event raises money for the purchase of phone cards through the USO that are sent to Delaware servicemen around the world. The Delaware Guard has about 250 Soldiers and Airmen deployed, but countless other Delaware residents are serving as well.
What a great day it was! The weather couldn’t have been nicer and the smiles were as bright as the sun. The event has become a “base-to-base” operation, with the rally starting and ending at military facilities. This year it started at the Delaware Army National Guard’s River Road Training Site in New Castle. The ride takes the biker-patriots along scenic Route 9 and ends at Dover Air Force Base’s Air Mobility Command Museum.
There were almost 700 motorcycles and nearly 1000 participants in this year’s event. It speaks volumes about how the Delaware community supports our troops. I couldn’t be more proud to be a First Stater than on a day like this.
The riders raised enough money to buy almost 750,000 minutes this year. That’s right, almost a quarter of a million minutes! That’s a lot of talking, and I am sure the men and women in the Armed Forces serving around the world will be glad to have a free opportunity to call their loved ones.
I want to personally thank Eric Fendt from WDSD for the tireless work he and his team do in putting this event together. Also, thanks to Joan Cote from USO Delaware for getting these cards to our troops. But most of all, thanks to all the riders who registered and rode to make this event such a success.
For news on the Delaware National Guard, please visit us on Facebook or Twitter.
Tags: Delaware, Delaware National Guard, Major General Frank Vavala, motorcycle, National Guard
Written on: July 1st, 2010 in Effective & Efficient Government
This morning, the General Assembly passed and I signed a balanced budget – on time – that will help shape our state’s future and get people back to work.
The budget funds fewer state positions, while meeting increasing demands for government services like education, healthcare and public safety. The Fiscal Year 2011 Budget is over $50 million less than the budget passed two years ago. We will be implementing new efficiencies while keeping our core commitments to education, public safety, the health of our environment and our quality of life.
With this budget, we are:
Investing in our schools, to better prepare our children so they can graduate ready to succeed in work or college. To keep class sizes stable, it invests in new teachers. To keep the focus on the classroom, it reduces funding for administrative costs.
We worked together to ensure that we did not have to follow other states into raiding our rainy day fund and looked instead for common-sense ways to cut some costs:
Compared to 2010, this year’s budget has over 520 fewer state employees meeting even greater demands on state service. Compared to the 2009 budget, we have eliminated over 1,000 positions and are spending $50M less in our operating budget.
Our hard work last year did make some things easier this year. All three bond rating agencies recognized our commitment to fiscal responsibility and sound budgeting for 2010, by reaffirming our Triple-A bond rating. This recognition gave us the opportunity to cut an additional $16 million in costs for taxpayers.
Because of a bill we signed last year to create more open government, the votes and debates on this budget were fully open to the public. The citizens that attended the meetings had a chance to see branches of government work together, across party lines, focused on improving our state’s future. It was a bipartisan vote to pass this budget, as it was a budget built by months of bipartisan effort and compromise.
At the end of the day, that cooperation truly is the Delaware difference and that’s how, together, we’re moving Delaware forward.
More information:
Written on: July 1st, 2010 in Effective & Efficient Government
This morning, the General Assembly passed and I signed a balanced budget – on time – that will help shape our state’s future and get people back to work.
The budget funds fewer state positions, while meeting increasing demands for government services like education, healthcare and public safety.
The Fiscal Year 2011 Budget is over $50 million less than the budget passed two years ago. We will be implementing new efficiencies while keeping our core commitments to education, public safety, the health of our environment and our quality of life.
With this budget, we are:
We worked together to ensure that we did not have to follow other states into raiding our rainy day fund and looked instead for common-sense ways to cut some costs:
Compared to 2010, this year’s budget has over 520 fewer state employees meeting even greater demands on state service. Compared to the 2009 budget, we have eliminated over 1,000 positions and are spending $50M less in our operating budget.
Our hard work last year did make some things easier this year. All three bond rating agencies recognized our commitment to fiscal responsibility and sound budgeting for 2010, by reaffirming our Triple-A bond rating. This recognition gave us the opportunity to cut an additional $16 million in costs for taxpayers.
Because of a bill we signed last year to create more open government, the votes and debates on this budget were fully open to the public.
The citizens that attended the meetings had a chance to see branches of government work together, across party lines, focused on improving our state’s future. It was a bipartisan vote to pass this budget, as it was a budget built by months of bipartisan effort and compromise.
At the end of the day, that cooperation truly is the Delaware difference and that’s how, together, we’re moving Delaware forward.
For more information on our budget, please click here.
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