Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tues., June 30, 2015
“HOSTAGE-TAKERS WIN. YOU LOSE.”
That will likely be the headline from the last day of session barring something unexpected.
Especially with the Rethugs seemingly determined to abdicate any responsibility to be, um, responsible. For purely id(iot)eological reasons, the R’s have tied any willingness to cooperate to screwing workers through their obsessive need to push for ‘right to work for less’. They have also abandoned any pretense of thinking for themselves, leaving all talking points to their ALEC overlords. Check out their refusal to stop the escalating infrastructure crisis from getting any funding. Check out the result. Greg Lavelle perhaps cemented (the use of ‘cemented’ is deliberate) his position as the Worst Legislator in the General Assembly by his phony demands for ‘reform’ which, for anyone paying attention, simply is a transfer of administrative costs from the Transportation Trust Fund to the operating budget w/o providing a mechanism to pay for it:
Republicans also sought a lock-box amendment that would force state officials to use new revenue on capital projects, not administrative costs. But top lawmakers from both parties were unable to reach an agreement before Thursday’s vote.
“What we have before us is a bill with no reforms associated with it,” Senate Minority Whip Greg Lavelle, a Sharpley Republican, said in Senate floor testimony. “We have promises. We’re not here to vote on promises. We’re here to vote on solid reforms to fix a system that there is widespread agreement on is broken.”
“We are abusing the trust fund,” Lavelle said.
Although Colin Bonini’s not inconsiderable girth is still in the running:
Sen. Colin Bonini, R-Dover, and a Republican gubernatorial candidate in 2016, said it was “laughable” that Democrats want to blame Republicans for the gridlock. Democrats had “absolute domination” for years and could have raised taxes to fix infrastructure whenever they wanted.
“If you wanted to raise taxes, you could have done it last year. You didn’t need us,” he said. “You could have done it the year before that, and the year before that.”
Got that? The Rethugs had no intention of funding repairs to our crumbling infrastructure. None. The D’s (‘you’) should’ve done it when you had the super-majority, they say. While they’re partially correct, their refusal to do what even they know is right is irresponsible and cynical to the nth degree. And unprecedented in times of fiscal crisis during my time with the General Assembly. Their official position is, “We don’t give a shit if the roads fall apart, we must maintain our talking points about taxes regardless of the costs to the public.”
Forget about the fact that it was then-Gov. Mike Castle and his fellow felon henchman Kermit Justice who, once the Transportation Trust Fund was established, immediately raided the fund by using it to pay DELDOT administrative costs. The simple fact is that, under cover of demanding phony reforms that will have to be paid for somehow (they, of course, don’t propose how), Lavelle and his Rethug colleagues are playing chicken with our eroding infrastructure. Might I suggest Russian Roulette instead? On each other? Both Greg Lavelle and Colin Bonini are pompous jerks. The difference is that Bonini (a) pretty much knows it and makes light of it; and (b) is essentially harmless most of the time. In other words, the ideal R to run for Governor. Lavelle (and Danny Short, who reportedly put the kibosh on a deal negotiated between the construction trades and designated caucus member Ruth Briggs King that would have yielded some movement on ‘right to work for less’) does real harm while pushing his agenda. Now that the Church has an enlightened Pope, I guess Lavelle needs to look elsewhere for spiritual guidance, and has found it in ALEC. Just as long as someone else writes his talking points for him. Memo to Ernie Lopez and Cathy Cloutier: Do you really want to have to explain to your constituents why you won’t fund long-overdue infrastructure projects and why your constituents will have to pay for auto repairs caused by that crumbling infrastructure? Uh, if they don’t die first in a tragic accident caused by infrastructure failure? Because I guarantee you that you will be asked those questions over and over. No sense asking the other Rethugs. They’re beyond redemption.
Due to legislative unwillingness to create any new revenue streams, the Budget Bill, the Bond Bill, and the Grants-In-Aid bill (see the Budget Bill link) are essentially cobbled together with some one-time funding and a series of cuts that will inflict unnecessary pain. Oh, BTW, next year will be worse. If the General Assembly didn’t have the courage to do anything this year, can you imagine them addressing this budget crisis next year? Didn’t think so. The only semi-delicious irony is that John Carney who, along with Ruth Ann Minner, kicked the can down the road in 2008 and left it to their successors to clean up the mess from the economic slowdown, will now face virtually the exact same scenario if elected governor.
Not that Gov. Markell or the D’s are blameless. Far from it. Taking his cues from second graders, Markell removed himself from the discussion: “You didn’t listen to me last year so KMAGYOYO (Kiss My Ass Goodbye, You’re On Your Own)”. And, yes, the D’s should’ve done something about the gas tax last year, but Val Longhurst was and is still a ‘leader’, so her ignorance served as a substitute for serious legislating. Still, any Rethug who claims that they aren’t responsible b/c the D’s should have somehow unanimously passed ‘new taxes’ w/o their support is correct on one point: They’re not responsible.
One person who deserves credit is DELDOT Secretary Jennifer Cohan, who has carried that chunk of concrete from hearing to hearing to illustrate just how bad things have gotten. Too bad the legislators’ heads are harder than that chunk of concrete.
BTW, this just in, Wilmington Mayor Dennis Williams is still a clueless jerk:
“They waited too long to come to a conclusion on a budget agreement. Things went pretty much haywire,” said Wilmington Mayor Dennis P. Williams, who for three years chaired the General Assembly’s budget committee as a state representative. “If I had been the chairman, personally, I wouldn’t have let it go this long.”
Because, you see, Dennis Williams is renowned as a conciliator, above all. Just check out his estimable body of work as Mayor.
But I digress. Fact is, a majority of legislators could not agree on even the most harmless of revenue increases, and now the folks at home are blasting the General Assembly for failing to fund their pet projects. Memo to the legislators: You’re the problem. Here’s a case in point from Monday’s Starkey/Offredo News-Journal piece:
Delaware’s southernmost county took another big hit, as well. As of Jan. 1, Delaware is cutting the more than $2 million it provides to cover Delaware State Police patrols in Sussex County. The program is jointly funded with the county, and pays for 44 troopers. Come next year, that patrol presence could be reduced by half because of the cut, imposed by budget lawmakers without public input with just days left in the legislative session.
“We will fulfill our commitment,” (Todd)Lawson of Sussex County said Friday. “Whatever the state does with their state police staffing requirements is up to them really.”
Lawson called the funding predicament “very disappointing.”
“The fact that in a $3 billion budget, the state looked to cut roughly just over $1 million and it directly impacts the public’s safety, it’s fairly alarming,” Lawson said.
Of course, each person/agency that experienced cuts only focuses on their narrow interests. So, when Lawson bitches about the $1 mill cut, he ignores the dozens of other $1 mill (more or less) cuts that are also in the budget. Maybe if someone from Sussex County government called for additional revenues, they might influence the votes of the lockstep Sussex County R legislators. But, they won’t b/c taxes. So don’t cry about the policing cuts. Pony up the $$’s your own damned selves or STFU.
I hope I haven’t been too subtle for anybody.
It’s also pretty clear now that a lot of legislation will have to wait until next year. I’m surprised that the General Assembly did not opt to convene on Monday. Usually, there are at least one or two additional legislative days added during the last two weeks, but such is not the case this year. The House is not even scheduled to go into session until 7:30 p.m. The Senate? 6 p.m.
In fact, one piece that’s being rushed through with little thought is SB 144(Peterson), the so-called Beau Biden Memorial Bill. While the intent of the legislation is laudable, the bill paints with too broad a brush. I’ll give you an example from our sylvan burg of Arden. We have a summer program for our kids called ACRA. The staff, of course, already must submit to the requirements of the bill. But members of the community, some of them in their 80’s, volunteer and are not in any way dangerous. This bill would require these long-time contributors to go get ID’s and a background check? To provide the neighborhood kids who have known them forever gardening tips? And this has to be rushed through, why exactly? But I digress.
There is still some hope that about $24 mill in additional road funding will pass, assuming that one Senate R crosses the aisle to do so. I think that it’s time for Cathy Cloutier to cross the aisle permanently and caucus with the D’s. The days of Bob Berndt, Myrna Bair, Jane Maroney, Gwynne Smith, Dave Ennis, Steve Amick, Jim Neal, Joe DiPinto, and, yes, Phil Cloutier are long gone. Left to her conscience, Cloutier will do the right thing. Only the unforgiving doctrinaire rigidity of her caucus stands in her way.
And in our way.
Tags: Delaware General Assembly, DELDOT Secretary Jennifer Cohan, El Somnambulo, Sen. Cathy Cloutier, Sen. Colin Bonini, Sen. Dave Lawson, Sen. Greg Lavelle, Steve Tanzer Delaware
El Som,
Mistaken identity here?
‘The state‘? It was the Joint Finance Commmittee that cut this b/c they, uh, didn’t have the funds. David Lawson? A member of the JFC who joined the unanimous Rethug refusal to provide more funds. Dave? It’s your fault. You are them’, you stone-cold dope. You refused to fund this program and dozens of others. Oh, and it’s about time that Sussex County paid for their own bleeping policing anyway. Let them raise revenues for once.
I believe the Lawson referred to in the referenced article is Todd Lawson, the Sussex County administrator.
Todd is no relation to Dave.
MW & SW: You’re correct. And I’ll correct. Of course, the point still stands. The $1 mill cut for Sussex police funding is but one of literally dozens of cuts. Cuts that could have been averted with just some modest revenue generators.
As a member of JFC and an unrepentant supporter of the GOP hostage-taking, Sen. Lawson is responsible for everything. But the quote.
Sorry, my lips got exhausted from reading…
Kendall Massett and the Delaware Charter Lobby are running a desparate click-to-send email campaign to stop HB186 and financial audits of charter schools.
My email to my representative – send yours today:
Kudos to county and municipal government officials for talking the GA out of the robbing-Peter-to-pay-me proposal on the real estate transfer tax.
However, I’m daring to suggest that some of them (notably the NCCo and Sussex governments) engaged in a little bit of pandering with their claims that virtually all of their transfer tax revenue is dedicated to public safety spending.
That’s certainly not the case for burgs like Bethel, Bellefonte and the Ardens, which have no police forces. And I’d love to have someone FOIA the aforementioned county governments for documentation that demonstrates that transfer tax revenue is funneled directly into public safety accounts.
In the case of Sussex, it may be true that transfer tax revenue is roughly equivalent to the cost of contracted services provided by DSP, but I doubt that the payments flow from transfer tax receipts right back to the state.
As for New Castle County, this is the first time I believe I’ve ever heard anyone suggest that police funding is specifically dependent on transfer tax receipts.
So, congrats to local governments on winning their case, but I think they’ve stretched the truth a bit to do so.
Judging by my DEGOP spam, all of this is cynical politicking. They earnestly believe that Bonini’s take will be a winner with voters.
It is stupid and shallow enough to work with a great many voters.
I don’t get why more transplants don’t vote for Democrats? Maybe they just don’t vote. This is a backward corrupt little state full of arrogant cabals who do nothing but serve themselves. We need to fix this!
@MW: As you probably know (but others might not), all the money goes into one pot — even in New Castle County, where sewer funds were supposed to be kept separate but never are in Gordon administrations.
It’s sad that these folks had to choose such a cheap, pitiful route to make their cases, when it should have been obvious from the first that this was not a solution to anything but the GA’s bookkeeping problem. If the municipalities had been forced to cut anything, voters would know who caused it, and would have punished the perpetrators for both raising taxes and cowardice.
Democrats in Delaware, it seems, are no more capable of governing than Republicans are nationally.
Mouse said, “This is a backward corrupt little state full of arrogant cabals who do nothing but serve themselves. We need to fix this!”
You are not the first transplant to notice this.
Just to be clear on HB 186, the charters are already audited. Currently they are allowed to select their own CPA firm. All HB 186 does is make our State Auditor responsible for the CPA Firm selection process.
Hey, I’ve been here almost 30 years. I’m a naturalized citizen and my great, great grandchild will be a real Sussex Countian lol
Rufus… That’s the point. I have zero confidence in the independence of an auditor when the auditor/auditing firm answers to the individual (or company) who foots the bill for the audit and is being audited. Why does the Charter School Network care that the State would be the auditor of record for all charters? Hell, it’s one less thing for their schools to do, contracting out for an audit.
Could it possibly be that Academy of Dover isn’t so much the exception as it is the rule?
Prop Joe, you almost got it.
The Charter School Network (aka the Delaware Public School Privatization Task Force) wants private CPA firms to do the audits so the private CPA firms can have more clients.
While I understand your concern about the independence of an auditor being paid by the business(school) that is being audited, that is pretty much how the system works and, if I recall correctly, the first accounting firm hired by Academy of Dover to perform the audit bailed out of the assignment and dimed out the school after it began uncovering all sorts of irregularities.
I’m hardly a fan of Tom Wagner and I’m quite underwhelmed by his performance in what seems like a lifetime as state auditor, but I do think it would be appropriate for the auditor’s office to set the standards for what should be required of charter school audits and to partner with the Dept. of Education to make sure that the audits meet those standards.
Mediawatch – all due respect for your posts which are always interesting and informative – but I think you may be mistaken on the Academy of Dover auditor. They have had the same CPA firm for several years (according to audit reports posted to their website and to the state checkbook).
According to the News-Journal, the JFC restored all of the previous cuts to the Grant-In-Aid…using one-time $$’s to make up the $2.5 mill difference.
Man, they’re just pushing EVERYTHING off until next year.
Rufus,
I was at the April meeting of the State Board of Ed when Academy of Dover financial issues were discussed. Don’t recall whether it was during the meeting or talking to DOE personnel afterward, but there was a clear indication that their regular accounting firm spotted irregularities last October, got off the case and tipped the state Auditor that there were problems. At the time, it wasn’t clear whether they bailed on their own or Academy of Dover decided to find a new auditing firm but
(1) the audit in question had not been completed by April and (2) given the time frame and the nature of the dispute, it’s possible that the original auditors hadn’t billed for their work yet, or they’re not billing, or it could conceivably wind up in litigation.
MW: Its funny then that the State Auditor went out of his was to throw them under the bus. From his press release:
“In fact, the CPA firm auditors, contracted by AOD, reported clean opinions (Unqualified Opinions) with no findings on internal controls during Fiscal Years 2012 and 2013 for both the financial statement and single audits.”
You would never know from the State Auditor’s report that he wasn’t the one to uncover the fraud – the report says it was a tip on the “Fraud Hotline”.
I don’t think his involvement in the auditor selection process would have changed a thing in this instance although that appears to be what he is trying to imply.
MW: Todays News Journal confirms your recollection of events; that the original audit firm uncovered the fraud, a fact that is not mentioned in the State Auditor’s report.
So. The General Assembly basically used lots more of the ‘one-time’ money than they had planned. They couldn’t say no, except to Denn and those who supported the original intent for the money. So, one-time money goes to the Grants-In-Aid, to the Bond Bill (??) and to the budget.
Those one-time funds won’t be available next year, and the budget deficit promises to be greater. The cowardice displayed by the legislature will only increase exponentially in an election year. Ain’t enough smoke and mirrors to cover up the fiscal crisis facing the state next year.
Un. Bleeping. Believable. A complete lack of leadership in Dover. It’s gonna cost all of us. One can only hope (in vain, I think) that it costs some legislators their jobs.
If they just looked at cronnie, bogus and ineffective state contracts they could have found 10’s of millions
What the Auditor’s report states: The Office of Auditor of Accounts received a tip on our fraud hotline about the Academy of Dover in August 2014. Subsequently, the Academy of Dover Board of Directors and Department of Education contacted AOA regarding irregularities at the school.
I also want to point out that the Department of Education Delaware Financial Performance Framework report for the Academy of Dover provided an overall rating of “Fall Far Below” the standard for Fiscal Year 2011, and an overall rating of “Does Not Meet Standard” for Fiscal Years 2012 and 2013. There were signs that a deeper analysis of Academy of Dover’s finances should have been completed by the DOE, the State Board and Charter School Accountability Committee; these signs were ignored.
In the Auditor’s report it states an overall lack of oversight and a complete disregard for internal controls provided the opportunity for significant misuse of school funds. A major concern regarding the situation at Academy of Dover is the length of time that passed without any intervention from oversight parties including the Board of Directors, DOE, the independent auditors (Rep. Danny Short’s witness, who was brought up to testify during the House debate on House Bill 186, was part of the auditors), Innovative Schools, the Charter School Accountability Committee, and the Division of Accounting. Until August 2014, nothing in the statewide process or the ongoing financial audit, contracted to a CPA firm, drew attention to the mismanagement at Academy of Dover. In fact, the CPA firm auditors, contracted by Academy of Dover, reported clean opinions with no findings on internal controls during Fiscal Years 2012 and 2013 for both the financial statements and single audits.
When I asked Rep. Danny Short’s witness how long she had been auditing Academy of Dover books, she said she could not answer that question. I asked her, well has it been for one, two, three or four years. She stated a few years but she could not give me the exact number because she audits many schools.
When the leader of the school is running the show, the board of directors answers to the leader, the parents’ children can be removed by the leader, the teachers can be fired by the leader, and the auditing firm can be dismissed by the leader–these things are bound to happen when there is no oversight.
This is our hard earned money that is being misspent. This school has had lawsuits as far back as 08. Just this June the school entered into a settlement agreement of $650,000 for a breach of contract with their first former charter management organization.
http://auditor.delaware.gov/Reports/FY2015/Academy%20of%20Dover%20Charter%20School%20Inspection.pdf