A recent Delaware State News article, Carney warning: Must solve budget woes, was a bit interesting on two fronts. First was a Rodney Village resident who said:
“(Carney) came down from Mount Olympus. Nobody else did,” Mr. Patz said. “I’ve been here since 1992 and (Ruth Ann) Minner never came down from Mount Olympus, (Tom) Carper never came down, (Jack) Markell never came down. Well, Gov. Carney came down.
“I was impressed by the fact that as a representative of the people he recognized, ‘We have a problem. We need help.’”
Carney going out and listening to the people of Delaware is a good thing, maybe even a great thing. How much he will listen is another story completely.
What scares me are Carney’s visits are is his realization that this budget shortfall is going to be difficult. As El Somnambulo has said, and I am paraphrasing, “What the hell was Carney thinking about in 2016?”.
Gov. Carney said the issue with the budget gets more difficult to solve each year the state puts off addressing the issues.
“The (budget) problem gets harder each year that you don’t fix the structural part of it,” he said. “The best way to address a structural fiscal deficit is to have a strong and growing economy.
“That will mean that your revenues will be coming in at a rate that’s the same pace as your expenses, or greater, and the expenses that you incur as a result of not having a robust economy, people that are unemployed that need services, that need Medicaid, those expenses will go up.”
Jesus Christ, the budget problem gets harder each year?
Wait, it gets better, I mean, worse.
“It’s time to solve Delaware’s budget challenges — we need to stop kicking the can down the road,” Gov. Carney said. “My team will work with Democrats and Republicans in the General Assembly on a long-term budget solution.
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
Here are two things that Carney needs to remember in 2017: you’re the freaking Governor and you’re a Democrat — well, at least it said so on the ballot in November.