Delaware’s Shittiest Democrats: Bob Byrd, Part II
Lobbyist Bob Byrd, who registers as a Democrat, had lots to say to Dace Blaskovitz in the radio interview sent out by the Caesar Rodney Institute — more than one post could cover. Yesterday’s installment showed Byrd thinks allowing public input in zoning decisions makes Delaware uncompetitive for businesses, meaning his clients. The public interest, he made clear, is none of his concern. The public will have to defend itself — mainly from him.
In the second half of the interview, Blaskovitz asked his pal Bobby for a preview of the 2020 General Assembly session. Here are some highlights (emphases mine):
The Delaware Economic Financial Advisory Council set the amount of revenue that the state can expect to receive in any given year. We raised the estimates by some $200 million, about $120 million more in this fiscal year and about $80 million more in next fiscal year. So that means the General Assembly and the governor have about $200 million that they can spend over the next six months and into next year as they put the budget together. …
[T]he debate will be over whether or not we spend those $200 million on goods and services and things that people think the state needs to be doing. Or whether we will put more of that money aside in what the governor has called his benchmarking process, which is identified dollars that need to be put ahead, put aside in addition to the rainy day fund, in addition to the 98% spending limit. And looking forward toward that day when we don’t have as many revenues coming in as we do now. [I]t’s going to be for the conservatives and the Republicans and the governor, who is fiscally conservative I think, to put some of those dollars away. So that will be a very spirited discussion and debate over the next six months.
The problem with this should be obvious: Socking away today’s taxes for tomorrow’s expenses is unfair to today’s taxpayers, whose taxes should fund government year by year, not in perpetuity. In effect, this year’s taxpayers are being overtaxed so some future year’s won’t have to pay for their services. And no, they’re not all the same people — folks move into and out of the state all the time. It’s yet another form of incumbency protection. Instead of stashing the money for another year, the state should pay down some of its considerable debt, which represents more incumbent cowardice — they borrowed the money because they were too scared of the public to raise taxes directly.
Byrd went on to demonstrate the cluelessness of “fiscal conservatives.”
We’ve got to figure out what that next big thing is in economic development. Delaware is a low tax state. We are attracting many retirees from the mid-Atlantic and even up in the Northeast and the New England area. We got a lot of people moving in here and retirees, because of our tax system, are not paying a lot of taxes, but they’re using a lot of our services. And as I sit back and look at it, I think that’s the biggest issue we have to solve.
Jesus H. Christ in a green eyeshade, is this really that hard for you to figure out, you large-handled tool? If people are paying less in taxes than it costs us in services, you need to RAISE THEIR TAXES! For a start, we could stop offering tax breaks to people based on their age. Seniors are moving here in part because we offer property tax breaks to seniors. Is it really so hard to figure out that maybe we should STOP DOING THAT?
As a senior, I promise you the tax rates aren’t that great compared to many other states. With that said, they are definitely better than most, if not all of the Leftist kingdoms of New Jersey, New York, etc. Welcome to the future. The Leftist have created and will attempt to stoke their utopian hell holes as the money to fund it moves to better locations.
So fuck off to some low tax state. I hear Alabama and Mississippi are very welcoming.
If you knew what you were talking about you’d know the economy is performing best in the higher-tax states. If you had any reading comprehension you’d realize that the reality is more seniors are moving in than leaving.
Old and ignorant is no way to go through life, fella.
LOL —- Keep them coming.
Look it up, cowboy.
Florida and Texas are the exceptions. Other low-tax states include Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas — the list goes on and on. Most trail the high-tax states in most quality-of-life measures.
This is all easily available to anyone who cares to learn, which you people never do. Your arguments always lack all rigor — you just repeat the simplistic shit you hear on TV. You never have any links that amount to anything like deep arguments.
Those arguments do exist. I read the conservative arguments as well as the liberal ones, You folks don’t even know the intellectual underpinnings of your own positions in any but the most simplistic way.
That’s why we always end up banning you. We don’t do this so that conservatives feeling insecure about their masculinity can parade their pretend superiority. So bye-bye again.
BTW, Bobby Byrd has plenty of company in ‘Democrats’ like Rhett Ruggerio, Joe Farley, Rebecca Batson Kidner, and others, who parlayed their supposed D cred (aka access) into lucrative careers lobbying for the worst of the worst.
Hey simpletons,
Good luck going to the most loyal voting base aka seniors and let them know you are raising their taxes and scrapping credits. Let me know how that goes. Even your circle jerk heroes like Lynn or minor brown wont do it. Go ahead and ask. I will be here.
Scared shitless again, I see.
If you weren’t a moron without reading comprehension I wouldn’t have to explain this, but here goes:
Byrd says we’re attracting too many seniors. I’m saying he can’t have it both ways. If you keep taxes low, you’re going to attract seniors who use more services than their taxes generate.
What part of this does your bird-level brain not comprehend? Let me know and I’ll dumb it down further for you.
Also, by the by, seniors are the most conservative voting group. Why should we cater to people who vote Republican anyway?
The days of you old jagoffs controlling things from your fire companies and union halls are ending. I don’t blame you for lamenting your pending loss of privilege, not that you ever earned it in the first place.
When I occasionally comment on this you keep saying things like I’m “scared”. Of what? I have been on the right side of every statewide election you thus stick your nose in. You guys aren’t very good at this. Dover is still in Our great governors hands. You couldn’t even get a “progressive” win in Wilmington. An old white dude beat you lol in Wilmington. So what am I scared of again. I’m drinking a whiskey and watching the birds. I just enjoy the crazy banter of your insanity and complete lack of Delaware electoral politics. But keep telling yourself I’m scared as I chuckle. In fact let me send some more money to our great senator coons. I want 70 percent on that primary. 30 point win isn’t enough.
If you weren’t scared you wouldn’t even visit the blog. You’re worried, if you prefer that term.
Your pastime is fitting. You think politics is about keeping score, as if it were a football game. Keep drinking, it beats thinking.
Conservatives who look to pick fights always say that.
The fact that you call aggressive behavior “laughs” says more about you than you think.