Did McDowell & Williams Go Rogue?
Signs point to ‘yes’. On the first day of budget mark-up by the Joint Finance Committee, co-chairs Sen. Harris McDowell and Rep. Dennis P. Williams unveiled a proposed 2% pay hike for state employees. Trouble is that they apparently did not give anyone a ‘heads-up’ on the move. By ‘anyone’, I mean the Markell Administration and the legislators’ respective caucuses. Nor did they seek or receive support from either their own caucuses or the Markell Administration. What makes me think so? These excerpts from today’s News-Journal story(password protected):
Immediately after McDowell announced the plan, Office of Management and Budget Director Ann Visalli spoke up. “This is not the administration’s proposal. The administration is hearing about this for the first time,” she told the committee. “I don’t think you can afford it.”
“I fully support pay raises for state employees, but I think it’s a lot being thrown at us on day one of markup in the first hour,” said Rep. John L. Mitchell Jr., D-Elsmere. “I hope you will give the rest of the committee a little more time to absorb this.”
After realizing that ‘fart in church’ analogies were running rampant, the co-chairs met in private with the Controller General, and then tabled the proposal.
The issue here isn’t whether state employees deserve a raise, which they do. The issue here isn’t really whether or not the Administration supports such a raise. The issue, at least to me, is that two elected legislators, each with strong political motives to do this, sprung this on everyone, including their own caucuses. Said caucuses are led by the President Pro Tempore and the Speaker of the House respectively. They appoint both the chairs and the members of the JFC, and they reasonably expect that proposals like this will be vetted with their members before being thrown out there. I’m going out on a limb here, but they cannot be at all pleased with this. If such an initiative were to have been pursued, they assuredly would have wanted this to come from their respective caucuses. And if they agree with the administration that this increase is not sustainable, a completely defensible position given the current tenuous fiscal conditions, then they look like they helped to thwart a pay increase for state workers. As does, for that matter, the Governor.
Perhaps Dennis Williams thinks that this will help him in his mayoral campaign. I’m not so sure it will, at least when it comes to endorsements and financial support from his own caucus.
Perhaps Harris McDowell thinks that this will help to change the subject from his mismanagement of the SEU. I think it should do the exact opposite. Just listen to McDowell try to justify the numbers behind the pay increase:
“We do not intend to use one-time money,” McDowell said. “There’s already non-one-time money in one-time places.”
Uh, OK. But where exactly is the non-one-time money coming from to pay for this? Coming from someone whose financial skills proved sorely lacking with the SEU, that’s a question he needs to answer.
The real question that McDowell and Williams need to answer, IMHO, is whether this is a serious proposal or just a chance to burnish their political prospects. And, more than anyone, the people who deserve that answer are the state employees who may be in a position of being exploited for political purposes. And if they are being exploited for political purposes, they now know who is doing the exploiting.
Tags: El Somnambulo, Sen. Harris McDowell Delaware; Rep. Dennis P. Williams Delaware; pay raises for state employees Delaware, Steve Tanzer Delaware
I wonder what hi-jinks McDowell is up to with his left hand while he has everyone looking at his right?
Wouldn’t it be so much better if more legislators went rogue more often? Usually they support silly bills like HB180 unanimously because someone puts them on a “Must-Pass List” and only after the bill passes, 3 months before they cost a bunch of people their jobs, do some of them try in vain to reverse the damage.
http://www.legis.delaware.gov/LIS/LIS146.NSF/vwLegislation/HB+180?Opendocument
Try to stick to the topic, Will. That belongs in the last or next open thread, not this one.
While reading the article this morning I immediately thought the two of them were attempting to bolster their position with voters who may be or who may know state employees.
To M4M’s comment: If the goal was letting those people know Williams and McDowell are fighting for them, it works whether or not they actually deliver the raise.
McDowell escaped scrutiny on the left for years by sponsoring good-government bills that he didn’t have the juice to get passed. It took a long time for liberals to notice that despite all his caring, he was incapable of or unwilling to expend any political capital once the bills were introduced.
Yes, Geezer that is what I think the goal was and the reason they did it.
If the topic is legislators going rogue, then I think I was on topic in asking if it shouldn’t happen more often. Either way, this particular occasion looks like a stunt if they backed down. That doesn’t quite count as going rogue.
Will, my point is that they went rogue from the very people who appointed them to the Joint Finance Committee.
I’m not sure I can recall a previous situation where the chairs went off half-cocked like this.
I hope the state employees get raises, but this stunt by McDowell and Williams does not make it more likely. In fact, it could even be less likely now.
Williams used the pay raise in his opening remarks at the Mayoral debate held at Trinity Episcopal last night.
mike4smom: I know it’s damning with real faint praise, but you’ve broken far more political stories than the News-Journal recently.
In this case, you’ve unmasked the crass cynicism behind the McDowell & Williams state employees’ pay raise proposal.
Good for them! Its an old game the Governor’s office plays. When there is a surplus, they play dumb until the end because they have projects and thuings they want to fund. Lots of little agency slush funds and special projects with little accountability. A pay raise takes the money and gives to real employees rather than giving Levin and others pots of money to play with and dole out to pet projects.
You know better than that, JJ. The issue isn’t the Governor’s office. The issue is that not even their own caucuses were involved. Unless…
OK, either these guys went rogue on their own for political purposes, or, they did it with the silent and implicit backing of Gilligan and DeLuca who did it for political purposes benefitting primarily McDowell and Williams.
I have not read anywhere that Markell has set it in stone that he’d oppose a raise for state employees, so the only imperative that I see coming out of this is some perceived need to buttress Williams and McDowell. Only question is, who’s in on the buttressing?
Markell, Gilligan and De Luca do not need Williams as mayor of Wilmington, and McDowell is a big boy who can take care of himself.
So, most likely, they did it on their own and Markell/Visalli quickly pronounced the pay raise DOA.
Results:
Williams/McDowell don’t have to waste much time pressing the issue with the JFC, so they can focus on loading the budget with goodies for other favored constituencies.
Williams looks good to city employees (a significant voting bloc in the mayoral primary).
If/when Williams gets elected mayor, city employees still not likely to get a raise because, after being elected, Williams will realize there’s no money to give away.
“McDowell is a big boy who can take care of himself.”
McDowell is a problem drinker staring a nasty SEU scandal in the face. He has nothing positive to point to as a reason to re-elect him.
Geezer, I know that is certainly true that many of the General Assembly make a pretense of coddling an issue and sponsoring a bill and then shrugging off the fact that nothing gets any further and no one is taking a stand.
I guess if these na-gonna-happen bills had enough loud public support it might make a difference.
Geez, McDowell can drink all he wants and bumble the SEU management to his heart’s content. Tiny Tony drew him some nice district lines and the Republicans aren’t likely to discover a credible candidate to challenge him. Indeed, if you hold to the view that the GOP prefers griping to governing, they’re better off having McDowell back for another term as a convenient target.
MW: Last time he ran for re-election he had to scare up two rabbits for the primary so he didn’t lose in September. He broke a sweat that time, and he’ll have to do it again if he hopes to win this time.
JFC just announced 1% raise.
They pulled an old Terry Spence routine. Spence used to file a bill for a 5% pay raise every year. Then JFC would settle down to 2%. He looked golden to state workers and the budget realities confirmed a lower %. Thats what McDowell and Williams did. Publicly start high and come down in private . Declare victory and give the administration less money to play with and give away to their special interests…………smart move by the city Dem legislators.
“give the administration less money to play with and give away to their special interests…”
…by giving it to their own special interest. Do you think these guys give a crap about the workers for any reason but their votes? You’re right, it’s smart politics, but let’s not pretend it’s principled.