Tag: Al Mascitti

Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tues. March 17, 2015

The key question facing the Delaware General Assembly as it returns from its six-week hiatus for Joint Finance Committee hearings is: On what issues, and to what extent, will the General Assembly push back on Gov. Markell’s policies?

We already know that the House Democratic Caucus has raised the alarm over Markell’s efforts to impose more hardships on state employees and retirees when it comes to health care.

We already know that many legislators are pushing for a pay increase for state employees, something that Markell has refused to do during his time in office, (Memo to Jack: I heard your interview on the Al Mascitti Show on Friday. Cutting wages during a crisis, then restoring them, does not count as an increase.) I highly recommend you listen to the interview.  Note the number of times that Markell dodges Al’s questions and goes off on a different tangent.  One notable example. Al asks Markell about not proposing any raises for state employees.  Just listen to his response. Something along the lines of, “Well, I’d really like to, but what parts of my sacrosanct budget would you have me cut?” In other words, he hasn’t spent one minute of his time in office seeking ways to pay state employees a living wage.  He’s glib, and he’s got his lines down pat.  But he only answered the questions he wanted to ask and answer, not the ones that Al posed.

We know that the Joint Sunset Committee, with Sen. Bryan Townsend taking the lead, is trying to determine just what the state has gotten for its $200 million-plus that they’ve given to business in one form or other over the past few years. (Memo to Jack: Asking whether we’d rather have the oil refinery or not, as you did during your response, is not answering the question. Fact is, your administration and the Delaware Economic Development Office have provided next to no empirical evidence to show that the preponderance of this money is paying off at all.)  In fact, allow me to once again link to this New York Times survey which demonstrates that there is next to no verification nationwide, including in Delaware, that these dollars are doing anything more than acquiescing to extortion.

We know that we’re starting to reach a critical blowback on the Markell/Murphy team’s attempt to destroy public education in Delaware as we know it.  Will the General Assembly intervene?

We know that the General Assembly has already stopped listening to Markell when it comes to funding infrastructure repairs and projects.  Are both sides really gonna play ‘chicken’ again this year?

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