Even more details of how DelDOT was organized as a conduit of taxpayer dollars directly to developers is in this morning’s News Journal. This is a remarkable story — including some detail on how DelDOT specifically locked in higher appraisal values just to ensure that developers could loot the Treasury for the maximum amount.
The land buys offer a glimpse of how Delaware’s $512.7 million U.S. 301 construction plan became a road to riches for some developers at taxpayers’ expense. Despite an intervening recession, DelDOT in some cases paid developers five and six times more per acre than the amounts investors paid a few years earlier when buying land for development in the path of the highway.
The deals also show how developers were able to win settlements seldom given to smaller landowners, including some who owned their property for decades.
What is really galling about this is that these deals were being locked in during the worst recession of most of our lifetimes. The State and taxpayers went through a great deal to come out on the other side of this — while State employees were forgoing raise after raise, Delaware developers were cashing in at the expense of taxpayers. While I get that some of the princpals involved in this mess are gone, it is nowhere near clear to me that DelDOT has fundamentally fixed any of their problems here. And their fundamental problem seems to be that they don’t understand who it is they work for. Also — if DelDOT is paying a premium for land acquisition, it wouldn’t surprise me if they aren’t paying a premium for construction too. Maybe the Governor needs to pick a handful of recent DelDOT projects and subject them to a total 3rd Party review — including a review of how funds were spent. And pick a 3rd Party Reviewer who isn’t writing campaign checks to Delaware legislators.
And, ugh, there’s more on the Vance Phillips sex abuse allegations.
Today’s Stupid Conservative Trick is from Kansas, where their Senate passed a reduction in taxes on groceries. The Kansas House isn’t sure that reducing taxes for everybody (rather than just the rich, as is their habit) is a good idea. One of them decides to apply his Who Would Jesus Starve values to the question:
A Republican state lawmaker in Kansas says that he opposes cutting the taxes on groceries because it would be a form of “social engineering” that encourages people to buy food over other items.
The Kansas Senate on Thursday voted to cut the state sales tax on food from 6.3 percent to 4.95 percent, but Sen. Jeff Melcher (R) led opposition against the measure, arguing that it would lead to people eating more.
“It seems to me we are encouraging the behavior of purchasing food and discouraging the behavior of purchasing anything else,” Melcher reportedly told his colleagues.
You can see how fundamental sheer disdain for most of the citizens of this country is absolutely essential to their ideology.
Hope you are enjoying this weekend — what interests you today?