Man, that Carney State Of The State was downright sad. Read it for yourself if you don’t believe me. Half-measures on everything except tilting the playing field to the advantage of businesses, regardless of what protections need to be sacrificed along the way. And the half-measures reflect Carney trying to get away with as little as he can on education and prison reform. Ahead, perhaps, of the courts.
Nowhere is his blinkered vision more apparent than when it comes to the budget. Allow me to quote: “I don’t believe it does any good to spend money on ongoing we know we can’t pay for in the long-term. That’s why at the end of last session, I signed an Executive Order committing to a budget that limits our spending and creates a Budget Stabilization Fund to use in an economic downturn. We will follow these principles in the budget I propose next week.”
That, my friends, is the idea he ‘borrowed’ from Ken Simpler. Circumscribe any long-term spending on essential programs by adopting a gimmick specifically designed to starve said programs. Inspired by his would-be Rethuglican challenger. Make no mistake, though. Carney LOVES the idea of ‘budget-smoothing’ as opposed to, say, higher taxes on the wealthy or a statewide reassessment. Coming later this week: Carney’s ‘budget-smoothing’-inspired budget. There will be a few small initiatives. And nothing else. Will the General Assembly go along with Carney’s lack of vision? Or will they insist on being a co-equal branch of government? I think it’s a closer call than in previous years.
If the House wasn’t under the thumb of its two leaders, all three items on today’s Agenda would at least be subject to some scrutiny: HB 34 to make sure that we’re not giving more voting rights to Rehoboth Beach LLC’s; HB 40 because that entire Ft. DuPont development project totally stinks; and SS1/SB9 because someone should ask why we’re spending even more state money to benefit Buccini/Pollin. But the deals have all been cut to get these three bills through the General Assembly by the end of January. This, of course, being the last legislative week in January. Gotta say it, the early returns on this General Assembly’s priorities are not promising.
There is, again, no agenda for the Senate. Don’t worry, though. The Schwartzkopf/Longhurst bills will be headed to the governor’s desk by week’s end.
Uh oh, didn’t take long for Harris McDowell to peddle Mark Brainard’s Del-Tech ‘taxation without representation’ scheme this session. For at least the third consecutive session, this bill threatens to saddle taxpayers with funding Del-Tech w/o any vote by the taxpayers, but merely with the affirmative vote of the college’s board of trustees (gee, that should be difficult to get). I am especially concerned that freshman Senators Brown, Lockman, and Sturgeon have signed on as co-sponsors. I can only hope that they did that as a matter of courtesy w/o understanding what a rip-off this is. Uh, if one of them is your senator, you might want to remind them that this money grab is undeserved. Oh, and McDowell is trying to rush this bill out of committee while nobody’s looking. It’s scheduled for a committee hearing tomorrow. This is a change in tactics. In past years, he tried to sneak it through at the end of session. Now, he’s trying to sneak it through before everybody knows what’s going on. This bill should not be rushed through w/o proper public input. I would ask the committee members, which include my state senator, Cathy Cloutier, to keep the bill in committee for now. Unless they want to explain to their constituents why their taxes were raised to fund an already well-funded institution without their input.
See ya tomorrow for Committee Day.