Markell’s Math
It comes down to the math.
My take on the meeting is that Jack Markell is more practical than he is progressive or conservative. That is to be expected by as guy who comes to government service by way of private industry.
He carries himself like a man who knows that there are going to be tough decisions to make and he’ll explain those decisions to you – and if you don’t get it. Tough. He is moving on.
At times those decisions will grate on liberals, for instance, I’ve never been a fan of expanding gambling in Delaware, but Markell points out that gambling was established 15 years ago. Now he seems to regard it as another tool that we can either use or not use.
Again, with Vince Meconi, he knew that he would take some heat for the decision, but he decided that Meconi’s skill sent lined up with a job he needed to get done.
That is how it is going to be under Markell. You might not like his decisions, but you’ll know what went into his making them.
Talk about transparency. If this morning’s meeting with blogger’s means anything – it means there is at least one branch of the government dedicated to transparency.
Tags: Delaware, Jack Markell
What I took away from this meeting is that there are no easy answers and no one ideology to solve the problems facing our state.
I was really impressed by the questions asked and the detailed responses. This was definitely a nuts and bolts meetings. It wasn’t about scoring political points.
(I posted this comment on the other thread, but it seems more at home here!)
The one thing that has impressed me with Markell is that he is willing to listen to other people’s opinions and maybe change his mind if you could back up your side. Quite a change from the previous administration.
I want a progressive pragmatist.
The good news is that progressive solutions are often the most practical.
There was a time when conservatives were regarded as the level-headed clear thinkers. Those days are loooooooooong gone.
Yes, conservatives have come down to hoping that St. Reagan will come riding in on his magical tax-cutting unicorn and save the day.
Agreed on much of the good news about the Markell administration, but isn’t the sports lottery proposal [assuming it’s not already a done deal] a symptom of continuing acquiescence to the Reagan-du Pont-Bush-Castle approach that one does not raise taxes on rich folks if the same revenue can be squeezed from the commoners, however regressively?
Yes.
I asked about the regressive nature of this and there is no denying that.
Even, as Al Mascitti pointed out to me on the radio, when you raise the states cut from the gambling venue – you are just taking poor people’s money – not really taxing Dennis McGlynn.
My biggest disapointment (and I’ll chalk this up to the fact that time was tight) was that “taxes” are the only tool in our toolbox.
That is to say that fine tuning tax policy in order to get just enough (but not too much) from businesses and rich people is within the purview of the state and everything elese isn’t
DV points out that there is a bit of walking on eggshells with the big business community, but that is why small business is so important.