Attorney General Matt Denn and a number of community leaders are calling for state lawmakers to provide immediate funding to help quell the recent surge of gun violence in Wilmington and Dover.
In a letter to the co-chairs of General Assembly’s budget writing Joint Finance Committee, Denn asks for a special JFC meeting this month to allocate $2 million in escrowed funds to help the cities of Wilmington and Dover pay for additional law enforcement resources.
"Both of these cities are facing surges in violent gun crime that is killing and wounding residents (including in some cases children), creating chaotic living situations for those trapped in violent neighborhoods, and threatening the economic vitality of both the state’s capital and its largest city,” said the letter.
The letter, co-signed by Delaware State Chamber of Commerce president Rich Heffron and Delaware Community Reinvestment Action Council Executive Director Rashmi Rangan, says the allocation of funds can’t wait until lawmakers return in January since “residents of parts of Dover and Wilmington are living under siege.”
Rangan echioed that sentiment in an interview with Delaware Public Media Friday.
"We have innocent children being shot while they are playing on the streets. So there is a huge urgency," said Rangan.
The funds being requested are part of $36 million in settlements negotiated by the Delaware Department of Justice with Bank of America and Citigroup for misconduct committed in the national financial markets by those banks.
The letter notes money from a similar bank settlement used to pay for increased nighttime foot patrols in Wilmington between March and July helped cut the rate of homicides in the city of Wilmington by two thirds during that span.
Denn sought that more of that money to continue that additional Wilmington police presence in Wilmington, but legislators said no, choosing to use some of the money to plug a budget hole and hold the rest for the coming fiscal year.
Now, Rangan says the situation is more dire than ever:
"Communities are hurting, and it seems like the communities are on fire and the government has just shut down water supply to the fire hydrants," said Rangan. "So it's a very angry state for all of us who are working in our neighborhoods, to make whole the harm that has been put on them by everyone -- the financial industry and now the government."
In addition to seeking the immediate funding, the letter also pushes for the entire remaining bank settlement funds be used "to support economically-impacted communities, rather than to temporarily plug holes in the general fund budget." Lawmakers used about half of the bank settlement funds to balance the current state budget, leaving about $30 million of those funds remaining. The state face an anticipated $130 million budget shortfall in the coming year.
“We have strong opinions about the importance of the General Assembly spending all of the remaining $30 million in settlement funds on specified projects for low-income communities rather than simply folding them into the general fund and we will reiterate those opinions at the appropriate time," said the letter. "For now, though, our request is that the Joint Finance Committee agree to the use of a small fraction of those funds to allow us to secure the streets of Dover and Wilmington.”
Rangan's group called in August and again last month for legislators to look at whether settlement funds were being properly used to heal Delaware's cities. She says there's been no response, and that they're prepared to go to court over the issue if they can't work with lawmakers.
