So here we have another episode of the Delaware Republican party — the Supposed to Be Governing Division — putting out news and PR bait in form of silly bills rather than actually working at the State’s problems. In other words, its reruns from these people again.
This time, we have the pathetic spectacle of Senator Bonini trying to introduce SB 288 (it is not on the website as of this writing) and Bonini’s claim that the Democratic majority would not let him talk. Notwithstanding the fact that the Senate cuts off debate and discussion as it sees fit, it looks like he circumvented the usual procedures to get this bill to the floor. But SB 288 is basically SS1 to SB 147, an effort that provides an incentive (in the form of an additional 2 years of service added to those who would retire before June 30) AND would implement a a new — less generous — tier of pension benefits for new hires. SS1 to SB 147 does have a Fiscal Note too, which I’m trying to get.
We can start with the new tier of pension benefits — this is already something that is proposed in the Governor Markell’s latest budget. So Stunt 1 is Bonini trying to take credit for work that is already underway (for better or worse).
But the early retirement scheme reminds us that not only is Colin Bonini as fully innumerate as the members of his party apparently take a test to ensure, but that Bonini is spectacularly unconcerned about the real business of governing. And once again, Bonini is only interested in a headline for his talking points but not in doing any real work to help save the state money. This counts as Stunt 2.
So let’s look at the bad math:
Bonini was on Jensen’s show recently claiming that the savings would be $75K for each job lost to this early retirement. That number does not include the upfront costs for the pension plus payouts. Except that 500 or so retirements from last year (and not replaced) saved the state $13M, for a savings of $26K each.
But remember that the key to this boondoggle (if you aren’t still trying to figure out how Bonini got those numbers exactly) is that these jobs are not replaced. Which is fine, except these jobs will include the police, correctional officers, DNREC enforcement officers, toll takers, nurses, librarians, tax auditors and others that provide some real value to the State. And you’ll notice that Bonini won’t tell you this. He will get his victim on and he’ll studiously mess up the numbers because he is in campaign mode here — not governing mode. He is spending the last days of the session trying to get some crusader cred here, not in working at buttoning down the budget and other state business so that the state can, you know, Work.
So as an example — police departments are notoriously top heavy with people who are retirement-eligible. What happens of 30, 40, 50% of State Police leadership decide to retire now? These are not jobs that will be replaced (because you won’t get your savings otherwise) and yet all of his PR complaining that Democrats won’t let him talk never mentions that he is asking you to endorse reductions in strength for the State Police. The same would be true for corrections officers or probation/parole officers or the people who take your tolls. Imagine traveling around this state if there were actually fewer toll takers.
Beyond the made up numbers (a horrifying habit for a man who is running for Treasurer), the effort to hide the real impacts to services is despicable. It is one thing to tell people that smaller government = fewer police, but he won’t be honest with you about that. He is just going to waste the time of the Senate to bring up stunt bills so he can fire off his prepared press releases on them. I mean really — how to you bring up a major financial bill 2, 3 weeks before the session ends? The JFC is essentially done its work so that the session can wind down with its budget. There is no time for any of the actuarial work that has to be done. And this bill would ask people to make their retirement decisions on or before June 30, 2010! Bonini already knows that there is no way the JFC or the GA could get this done now. But he isn’t interested in passing a bill — he is interested in a campaign prop. Count this as Stunt 3.
So if you see Bonini around the campaign trail, make sure to ask him for the backup on his cost savings here. Sensible backup won’t exist — but he will run around hyping his fake numbers (and how this individual gets away with such spectacular idiocy with numbers is beyond me). But a man willing to tell you fake numbers about early retirement will be delighted to live with fake numbers in the Treasurer’s office.