Chip Flowers Fumbles the Implementation of his “Economic” Program
Over the weekend, you may have noticed that a discussion started in the Friday Open Thread comments about how State Treasurer Chip Flowers’ first attempt to expand the duties of his office has run into something of a brick wall. If you look at the comments there, you’ll note that the Flowers’ Fan Club is out in force again, and they are hanging their defense of Chip Flowers on arguments that rely alot on conspiracy theories and not much on the facts on the ground.
One of their basic beefs here is that Celia Cohen actually wrote something about Flowers’ difficulty in setting up an Economic Development function in the Treasurer’s office. She is being accused of trying “to destroy Chip Flowers” and other nefariousness. Now, I’m not the world’s greatest fan of Ms. Cohen’s, but it is *really* hard to read her pieces here and see efforts at *destruction*. For those who are interested in making their own judgements, you can read what she has written for yourself:
“Not a Slush Fund for the State Treasurer”
The Treasurer Flubs the Law on Lawyers
I don’t see anything especially unfair here, and Allan Luddell’s account (complete with audio of his own interviews) over at WDEL is consistent with what Cohen reports.
Personally, I don’t have much of a problem with the actions of either the Cash Management Policy Board (which has specific duties — including for the Treasurer — enumerated in statue) or the AG’s office in this thing. Everyone has a job to do and helping the Treasurer to expand the reach of his office isn’t what they are chartered to do. But what this looks like to me is essentially a bunch of newbie errors — fundamentally not getting that changing government (or any large organization, really) is typically a cooperative process that needs some by-in from the folks who have some say in that change. Which usually isn’t just one person.
But don’t be suckered into the conspiracy theories, the fake martyrdom, the spin being sent out here to make (VERY badly) Chip’s case. One of the things that his supporters here want you to believe is that he can’t talk about the people or the conspiracy arrayed against him. Think about that, people — one of the most senior elected officials in this state retreats to conspiracies rather than make use of his own bully pulpit to talk about the change he wants to make. This tells me that he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that he went about this stupidly, but we’re supposed to be fooled into seeing The Man Keeping Him Down. Which might be the case, but you’d have to make that argument by noting how these people might be working specifically out of their own lane or deliberately misrepresenting actions or conversations.
One of the questions I have is whether these small local banks would even use this program. The Fed currently has a Small Business Lending Fund that is targeted to community banks. This fund also has costs, but they are pretty low and they get even lower the more the bank lends. So what kind of fees would the Treasurer’s office charge that could make this proposed program more competitive than the one the Feds have?
I probably won’t get an especially good answer to this, but this is the kind of thing that Flowers ought to prepare his people to talk about and leave the conspiracies and other BS out of it.
Tags: Chip Flowers
Flowers’ surrogates need some coaching or something.
Christmas-on-a-crutch, will they get rid of this office already?
As Al Mascitti said on the radio today, this story is too small to mention. Not too small for a Hater!
And here we have more two-faced BS from the Original Hater — your story was quite different here.
But perhaps you should have called for a “peep” from DL bloggers that provided the sycophancy that you are so very good at. Next time you don’t have anything to say, just don’t say anything, OK?
I will make some enemies here by saying that I think Celia is a good reporter — granted she reports when D’s stub their toes but she does her homework. Her site is called Delaware Grapevine,not DelawareLiberal.
I will make a few more enemies by saying that I thought Chip’s campaign promises were over-reaching and he seemed naive about how Delaware government works, especially those things that are reserved for the General Assembly and the Governor. He was elected State Treasurer. The rules for how that office operates are very straight forward and I expect someone like Chip is going to chafe a bit.
This is not a conspiracy, nor does The Man want to keep Chip down. He’s just got to mature and learn and develop a bit of patience. He will, and eventually he’ll have a shining career in politics. This is his training ground — remember he’s never held public office before and he managed to grab a state-wide job right out of the gate. That is some accomplishment right there. Fortunately he can’t mess up too badly because of the way the laws operate here. It is as Al said, a small story about growing pains.
WTF?? Cass. The story that was too small to mention was the pushback on Chip that is the status quo Delaware Way trying to demean his ideas…sound familiar. Al just didn’t want to lower himself to echoing Celia Cohen’s smear job on air.
Here’s some indication that the DE Way IS at work here and the Chip might actually be introducing some best practice to our state:
Treasurer Steve Grossman offers ‘More Money’ to Mass. businesses
By Will Richmond, Herald News
State Treasurer Steve Grossman wants to invest in the commonwealth, and he has at least $100 million to spend.
Grossman pitched his “Move Money” program to local bank leaders on Wednesday in an effort to increase loans to the state’s small businesses. Grossman said the slow pace of the economic recovery has made it difficult for small businesses to obtain loans, and local and regional banks should be the ones prepared to help. Grossman described the program to The Herald News editorial board prior to his meeting with bank leaders.
To help the banks, Grossman is committed to allocating at least $100 million for deposit into participating banks as part of the first phase of the program. Banks participating in the program will be eligible for deposits up to $5 million.
Grossman said southeastern Massachusetts will be represented in the program with banks such as Citizens Union, Rockland Trust and Mechanics Corporation among the 60 to 70 banks that will ultimately participate. Grossman said 24 banks have agreed to join in.
Banks must be headquartered in Massachusetts to participate, and will have to adhere to criteria including regulations on interest rates applied to the loans. Banks in the program will also be required to promote the program to small businesses in their market area.
Grossman said a good deal of the state’s money is currently held in banks around the world, including many in Europe, rather than local institutions.
“Let’s take Massachusetts taxpayers money, put it in Massachusetts banks and loan it to Massachusetts businesses,” Grossman said.
Bolstering the state’s small businesses, Grossman said, should have a ripple effect on the local economy, especially considering the impact those businesses already have within the state.
Based on state data contained in a summary of the “Move Money” proposal, small businesses and sole proprietors make up 85 percent of the state’s businesses. Those businesses have, in turn, historically accounted for two-thirds of the new jobs created in the state.
“Anything we can do as a commonwealth to help small businesses grow, develop, flourish, is the centerpiece of what we should be doing,” Grossman said.
The total allocation to be deposited in banks could increase as the program continues, Grossman said. He estimated Wednesday that the $100 million will be accounted for by the end of May. As more money goes into the program, Grossman said he will not invest more than what the commonwealth can afford.
“We won’t deposit so much that we have to pull it back out and we won’t deposit what the commonwealth needs for cash flow,” Grossman said.
http://www.heraldnews.com/archive/x2057181186/Treasurer-Steve-Grossman-offers-More-Money-to-Mass-businesses#ixzz1KdnU4bik
Nancy: Celia pointing out that Chip Flowers did not do his homework, and in fact wasn’t within the law, is not a “smear job.” That’s what political reporters do.
Now let’s look at the Steve Grossman proposal in Mass. This is from another account of the story yesterday:
“…Grossman said Thursday after meeting with local mayors, bankers and representatives of chambers of commerce at Springfield City Hall.”
Grossman, you’ll notice, held a news conference about this WITH HIS BACKERS. Clearly, he talked about his plan with those who might be players. Also, there’s nothing in this article about whether his office — which just HAPPENS to be called the “state treasury,” so I wonder where Chip, who attended Harvard, got the idea? — has the authority to do this. Big difference.
There was also this: “Joseph G. Traczynski, senior vice president and senior loan officer at Florence Savings Bank, said demand for business loans is slow. Companies are paying down debt and are waiting for the economy to improve before they will borrow more money.”
In short, Steve Grossman has run (unsuccessfully) for governor of Mass. before, and probably will again. As the banker noted, this money isn’t greatly needed, putting this in the “publicity stunt” category.
Way to avoid the point, Nancy. You can’t hide behind whatever Al might have said to ignore the fact that you were specifically calling out the writers on this blog for NOT talking about this. Please keep the idiocy on your own blog, thank you.
And whether or not keeping money in local banks is typical isn’t the point, either — which is why so many of you keep working this particular talking point. The point is process — and unlike MA, he DE Treasurer’s actual authority in moving money around is constrained. But even more — and the real objection that keeps getting documented all over the place — is the moneys possibly generated by the fees banks will have to fork over for the privilege of this new capital. It looks like there are NO fees for the MA program, nothing generating a “slush fund” for the Treasurer’s office.
AND I’ll point out that this still does not answer my own question — the Feds have been flooding the banking zone with cheap money (that may end this week) including a facility specifically targeted at community banks to encourage lending to small businesses. I still don’t know — and neither do you — if paying fees to the state is going to be anywhere near competitive with the cheap funds to be had from the Fed.
So thanks for playing, OK?
Cassandra, thanks for explicitly highlighting the talking point that Chip Flowers’ supporters keep harping on. The “local money in local banks” talking point is simply a dodge to avoid the real issue: Chip Flowers tried to do something for which his office doesn’t have the authority. Simply because Mr. Flowers pouted (somewhat passive-agressively) about his office possibly moving unilaterally doesn’t mean that his office actually has the authority to do so. It is clear that Mr. Flowers’ plan would create a slush fund for his office.
oh i fosee a crash and burn unles he gets two things under his control…..
the first is his ego the second is well…not so pretty