Secret Government in Session in Dover
Nancy Cook and the Joint Finance Committee began its budget markup yesterday, free, for hopefully the last time, from the disinfectant of sunshine.
Virtually all of it took place behind closed doors, according to the News-Journal’s J. L. Miller.
Allegedly an ‘Orientation’ session, as if 12 veteran legislators with decades of JFC experience required any orientation whatsoever, it turned out to be a markup session:
In its opening day of deliberations, the JFC spent six hours behind closed doors in what is known as an “orientation” session. The panel opened the doors to detail the cuts it had made, then immediately went back into closed session before adjourning for the day.
During those closed door sessions, JFC cut travel expenses for virtually every state elective office and some state agencies. Conspicuous by its absence from the list were travel cost cuts for the Delaware General Assembly.
Since these negotiations took place out of the public eye, the Beast Who Slumbers considers himself free to speculate on what happened. Did anyone move that travel expenses for legislators, such as travel to conferences, be eliminated? Did anyone move that the mileage allowance that legislators (but not staff) receive to travel to and from Dover on Session days be eliminated? If so, what happened?
J. L. Miller performed a public service this morning by explaining what the press was not privy to. ‘Bulo hopes that this will be part of the media’s daily reporting on the budget deliberations.
This refusal on the part of JFC to open the doors is not a matter of principle, it’s a matter of keeping the ugly deal-making out of the public’s eye. Of course, it’s the public’s money, not Nancy Cook’s money.
Or, at least, it will be. Once HB 1 is signed into law.
Tags: Corruption, Delaware Budget, Media
The 12-member panel, made up of House and Senate members,
Who is on the JFC? Maybe we can email them those questions directly?
Your wish is ‘bulo’s command:
Joint Finance Committee-Calendar Year 2009
Rep. Dennis P. Williams (Chair)
Rep. Joseph W. Booth
Rep. James Johnson
Rep. Melanie George Marshall
Rep. Joseph E. Miro
Rep. John L. Mitchell
Sen. Nancy W. Cook (Vice-Chair)
Sen. Bruce Ennis
Sen. Margaret Rose Henry
Sen. David B. McBride
Sen. Catherine L. Cloutier
Sen. Dorinda A. Connor
The ‘chair’ and vice-chair’ alternate annually. One year, Senate, next year, House.
I thought HB 1 exempted the JFC, am I wrong?
It doesn’t exempt JFC. And it doesn’t exempt the Bond Bill Committee. That is precisely why the Senate adjourned before voting on the bill.
If enacted prior to adjournment, this year’s money committee hearings would have fallen under FOIA.
If you exempt JFC and Bond Bill, you essentially cut the heart out of the bill.
My scat smells better than the JFC.
This is precisely the reason we need FOIA to apply to the GA.
What is sad about this is that Nancy Cook and her peeps probably think they are doing good for Delaware by keeping the JFC behind closed doors.
They haven’t updated their excuse for this in years. As far as I know, it’s still “if the sessions were public, too many legislators would grandstand for the gallery.” Seriously. I’m not making that up.
It’s not all gloom ‘n doom. In honor of a rare Feces Throwing Monkey post, ‘bulo presents:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP865F7Xf9g&feature=related
Written by the one-and-only Curtis Mayfield.
The sad thing is you guys are bad mouthing a process run by Democrats who have driven this state into a huge ditch. How sad.
Stand by for across the board income tax` increases for all earners.
Where is the Governor? I guess all those flashy campaign books and proposals were political props?
Mike Protack
Same thing I say to David, careful of the image you are presenting, MP.
Not feeling a need to crap on everyone on this site like others do (keeping an eye on the big picture tends to temper one’s foolish impulses), it’s easy to realize that they (this site) has been very consistent in railing against the closed-door nature of meetings such as this. It’s never mattered the party-affiliation when it comes to openness (well, when railing, the credit does have a pro-democratic bias here…wonder why…read on). Have they been harsher with Republicans? Um…yeah, it’s Delaware Liberal for crying out loud! Do they segregate their own in terms of Bad Democrats vs Good Democrats? They sure to hell do. Looking at that list of JFC Democrats, I can tell you for certain of at least two they consider bad-dems that need to be beaten (Cook and Marshall) at all costs and possibly there is a third, but not sure.
You know, there are fellow party members of mine that think I am a sell-out or something unmentionable for participating here and being amicable. I will tell you this, if I ever got into a position where I can be a policy wonk or office holder in this state, who will likely have a more effective and supported office, someone like me or a partisan hack? I’ve always thought that the successful and honest wonk/politician is the one who represents all, not party.
I’m sure what you said Smitty will go in one ear and out the other, Smitty.
😆
If I weren’t already used to that, I’d try to debate you.
:sigh:
C’mon, Mike, pretend you’re governor. How do you close the budget gap? Include numbers in your answer or lower your credibility even further.
C’mon, Mike, pretend you’re governor.
That is as close as he’ll ever get to elective office.
Why would the GOP ever nominate him? How could they be sure he wouldn’t quit the race as soon as he figured out he was going to lose?
Well, he stayed in to be defeated by Bill Lee.
New Rule: You are not allowed to run a State until you can prove your router is under control.
UI: Not as an Independent, he didn’t. He colluded with party leaders to win their nomination without a contest, then dropped out when he figured out he couldn’t win.
Which brings up the question, at what point did he think he WAS going to win, and wouldn’t such serious delusions rule him out where elective politics is concerned?
According to a Dover Post story from March, the JFC and Bond Bill Committee were added to the legislation by amendment and were not included in the original, which I find sad, but not hard to believe.
Also, the Big Head Committee is exempt, which is not good. Sen. Colin Bonini had this to say in that March article:
But, Bonini added, he is disappointed with language in the bill that protects the privacy of meetings like those of the Big Head committee under the auspices of a caucus.
“We make lots of decisions in not particularly public forums,” he said. “The actual significant decisions are never made in public, and that just has to stop.”
So now what happens? If HB1 passes, the decision-making moves from the JFC and Bond Bill to the Big Head.
I hope HB1 passes and is signed before the session ends in June, but I already see room for improvement. One is to make big head meetings public, and the other is to make emails between lawmakers public.
Another Mike and ‘bulo agree that they’d like to see ‘Big Head’ either included in HB 1 or eliminated altogether.
However, ‘Big Head’ is ultimately where the broad parameters of the final tax deal is cut.
The nuts-and-bolts and the clandestine stuff (often found in the so-called ‘Epilog Language’ if you know what you’re looking for) would still be the province of the $$ committees.
Any bill that exempts any of these committees is not worth passing.
You mean in a state where you can drive from any point to the capital in less than one hour that legislators are getting paid for gas mileage?
You mean these guys can’t spring for a tank of gas a week to do their JOBS? In service to their State?!? What are we talking, $30-$50 a week?
That will look really great if they can’t sacrifice that, but they implement any pay cut to all of the state workers.
I agree, Brian. It looks terrible if you ask others to sacrifice what you won’t. Personally, I think the GA, governor and state offices should take a 16% pay cut or something similar.
Yes, Brian, they get a mileage allowance. It’s per mile and figured by the commute to and from the legislator’s home.
And here’s even a sneakier penny-ante scheme associated with this. Try to follow ‘bulo on this one. When the gavel comes down at the end of a session day, say a Tuesday, and if a legislator was absent for session that Tuesday, they STILL can get mileage for Tuesday.
Here’s how. The legislative day doesn’t begin and end when the gavel comes down. Rather, when the body reconvenes on the following day, it is still operating under the previous legislative day. During that brief time, some can, and many have, stood up and simply said “Marked Present Please”. Since the legislative day hasn’t changed, they are officially marked present for Tuesday even though they weren’t there Tuesday, and they’re making the request on Wednesday.
Only when the body officially adjourns and reconvenes does the start of a new legislative day begin.
I always thought state workers (legislature included) should only have one office.
There’s a cost savings for you.
‘bulo has left out one other sneaky move some legislators are known to make. Sometimes they ride share and still put in for mileage. That’s theft, if you ask me.
The legislator who misses the most actual days but gets marked present under ‘bulo’s scenerio is Bonini.
PI may be right. ‘Bulo knows that legislators used to pull the pool/mileage thing. He thought they had done away with that practice, but he doesn’t know for sure.
What is their per mile reimbursement?
What a bunch of craven losers.
“Mark present please.”
Sheesus.
They better cut their own travel or i finally found something to put on that billboard in Bridgeville.
41 cents a mile I believe
$2.25/gallon at $0.41/mile means you would have to have a car with 5.48 MPG to break even.
I doubt any legislator has a car with 5.48 MPG. I don’t even think farm tractors get that bad gas mileage.
They are all sucking cash out of the system. It needs to stop.
“The legislator who misses the most actual days but gets marked present under ‘bulo’s scenerio is Bonini.”
And he live in Dover!!!! Maybe I’ll run against him when he’s up for re-election…
Brian: Mileage reimbursements, public or private, take into account all the costs of operating your vehicle, not simply the cost of fuel to run it.