Governor Markell’s State of the State Address
We didn’t get to talk about this on Thursday when he delivered this address, but I hope you all had a chance to see it or to read it (there is a video of the address as well as a transcript of the speech at the link). The Governor choose the theme of Unleashing the Potential in Every Delawarean, which is certainly an excellent launching point to get to job, school, infrastructure investment as well as revitalization opportunities for Delaware downtowns. Here’s a summary of the major points from a recent press release from the Governor’s office:
Opportunity to Work:
· Launch a program to help students acquire nationally recognized manufacturing certificates, recognizing that pursuing a traditional degree is not for everyone.A Culture of Innovation:
· Support cutting-edge research that leads to new inventions, spawns new companies, and creates jobs.
· Focus on cybersecurity, a field in which we have hundreds of unfilled jobs and need more qualified professionals.Opportunity to Learn:
· Better support our youngest children and their families by expanding the proven Nurse-Family Partnership.
· Aim to improve our teacher compensation system to attract and retain top teachers in our schools.Safe and Vibrant Communities:
· Create development districts to revitalize downtown areas.
· Invest in infrastructure and clean water projects that create jobs and lay the foundation for future prosperity.
· Reduce crime by addressing gun trafficking in Wilmington and focusing on ways to help ex-offenders and those suffering from addiction become productive members of society.
And it looks like he is endorsing an increase in the minimum wage here.
Infrastructure investment is absolutely needed — in spite of the screaming from various quarters about spending this money. Someone needs to connect the dots with these people — the crappy roads or risky bridges that you drive on every day do not fix or upgrade themselves. And nor is it free to fix or upgrade them. Investments in upgrading water and wastewater systems are also needed. I’d love to know from the GOP how they think this work will get done if there is no money to pay for it. The NJ spends some time speculating on where the money will come from and noting that Representative Longhurst is against an added gas tax. Interestingly, no one at the NJ asked any of these legislators about the safety improvements targeted by DelDOT and how they thought they should be paid for.
Revitalization of downtowns is close to my heart — Wilmington’s downtown is poised for real change with the appropriate incentives.
Trying to lessen the burden on ex-offenders to join society by the Ban the Box initiative and letting them get their driver’s licences back is a no brainer.
What did you think of the Governor’s proposals?
Tags: Featured
Today’s NJ has a lot of Dems taking a dump on the idea of investing in the future. the GOP’s goals have been so internalized by Dsmocrats that we have no need for a Republican party in Delaware.
all hat and no cattle.
Why the bleep would Longhurst piss all over this plan before Markell has presented his budget? Investing in our infrastructure is the one sure and immediate way to create new jobs.
Actually, that was a rhetorical question. The answer is that she’s an idiot. The D House caucus will rue the day that they finally decided to let her speak in public. Hopefully, Longhurst will as well.
After all, she WAS the prime sponsor on the 2013 tax cut for the rich. Does she not believe that creating jobs would be good for the state and, truth be told, good for her district? Betcha a whole lot of constituents would disagree.
OK did anybody notice that after $119 million of Race to the Top and enthusiastically pursuing every public education reform to come down the pike for five years, Governor Markell just announced that all of those reforms have, effectively, failed? Or maybe you can draw a different conclusion from him telling you in the speech that 80% of our high school graduates are neither college nor career-ready?
My other favorite is the environmental section, where he says we have horribly polluted waterways (100 years of pollution that is, miraculously, not attributable to anybody) that we have to fix, not because he’d like kids to have safe drinking water or there could be a correlation between massively polluted groundwater and, say, cancer, but because it’s bad for business?