All Posts Tagged With: "Delaware Budget"
Delaware’s Budget Mess
Today’s News Journal takes a look at the hard part of the budget – reducing pension and Medicaid costs.
1Feb2011 | Unstable Isotope | 10 comments | Continued
A Preview Of Next Year’s Legislative Battles
Speaker Bob Gilligan spoke to the Progressive Democrats of Delaware last night to preview next year’s legislative battles. There are really two big issues we’ll see next year: the budget and the 2010 election.
Budget
Gilligan told us that they expect at least a $300M-$400M budget gap next year (that’s before the additional job losses in [...]
Cathcart Wants It Both Ways
Dick Cathcart is really pissing me off. Today, he published an opinion piece in The News Journal that tries to rewrite recent history.
He [Bryon Short] and just about 100 percent of his Democratic colleagues voted in favor of the package, whereas just about every member of the House Republicans voted against the tax and fee hikes.
Guess what? The Republicans could have scuttled every one of the tax and fee hikes. Every. Single. One.
13Oct2009 | liberalgeek | 14 comments | Continued
Sanity From the Federal Bench
When I discussed legalizing sports betting with Governor Markell a few months ago I asked what the chances were that we would be legally allowed to do it. He told me that they had submitted the question to the State Supreme Court for review. That report came back with some positive results for the administration, suggesting that it would be legal by the state constitution.
30Sep2009 | liberalgeek | 4 comments | Continued
Breaking: Appeals Court Denies Delaware’s Appeal
This just in from the News Journal:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit today denied Delaware’s petition for a hearing on its bid to offer sports betting on the outcome of fewer than three National Football League games.
A three-judge panel of the appeals court in Philadelphia ruled last month that Delaware’s plan to [...]
Kowalko on TV Tonight
This evening, WHYY debuts their new Delaware-oriented news magazine “First”. This is apparently a replacement for their daily “news no one watches.”
On the debut episode, John Kowalko is featured to discuss the state budget mess (past, present and future). Tune in at 10:00 to see what’s happening in Delaware and get some insight from John [...]
Let’s Take a Look at the Ledger
I got an email from Dave Burris this morning with the press release from the Caesar Rodney Institute telling me about their newest tool. Delaware Spends is an online tool (with cool web 2.0 features) that will help make it easier to see where money is going. Essentially is is an online checkbook ledger with [...]
7Jul2009 | liberalgeek | 26 comments | Continued
Live Blogging the House – Vol. 3
Liberalgeek and I are now listening to the debate on HB 290, the budget bill.
Right now they are praising the hard work of putting together the budget.
OMB Visalli testifying. Rep. Marshall: why not 2.5% cut for judges?
Case law says that judges are exempt by law, based on DE Constitution.
Why no cut on the governor’s [...]
What to Expect From Delaware Liberal Tonight
This is the last day of the legislative session in Dover. Unstable Isotope and I (at a minimum) will be in attendance and passing along reports. Many of our reports will be available via Twitter (@liberalgeek and @UnstableIsotope), Nemski and DelawareDem will be monitoring the tweets. El Somnambulo will be listening to the audio stream [...]
30Jun2009 | liberalgeek | 7 comments | Continued
Kowalko Suits Up For Battle
John Kowalko has been fighting tooth and nail with the Governor (against the across-the-board pay cuts) and against the Republicans that don’t think that we should increase a single tax (even a small tax on alcohol and a larger one on cigarettes). But now, it’s crunch time. By midnight Tuesday they need to have a [...]
28Jun2009 | liberalgeek | 6 comments | Continued
Pushing The Issue: HB253
John Kowalko chairs the Joint Sunset Committee and he’s trying to challenge the Delaware Way from that vantage point. Case in point: HB253 (restructuring the Victims Compensation Board). From the presser:
House Bill 253 is identical to Senate Bill 144, which was developed by and sponsored by the members of the Joint Sunset Committee, a legislative [...]
AFSCME Urges Members to Boycott Walgreens? Maybe
A source told me that AFSCME Council 81 which represents State of Delaware employees, is urging its members to boycott Walgreens in the wake of the announcement that Walgreens is pulling out of the States Medicaid program. So I called Michael Begatto Council 81’s Executive Director and to confirm the story and get a comment.
Mr. [...]
Secret Government in Session in Dover
Nancy Cook and the Joint Finance Committee began its budget markup yesterday, free, for hopefully the last time, from the disinfectant of sunshine.
Virtually all of it took place behind closed doors, according to the News-Journal’s J. L. Miller.
Allegedly an ‘Orientation’ session, as if 12 veteran legislators with decades of JFC experience required any orientation whatsoever, [...]
The Governor Responds to the Kowalko/Geek Plan (sort of)
We got this email from Joe Rogalsky on Friday in response to our letter to them:
My apologies for the delayed response, things have been a little hectic down here today.
You’re right, the Governor always welcomes suggestions about ways Delaware can meet the historic challenges facing us. There are many parts of his proposal the [...]
UPDATED: The Budget Middle Way
I have an email out to the Gov’s office asking for his take on the Kowalko/Liberalgeek plan. I have to think that the sheer practicality of some of the suggestions made will carry some weight. – jason330
Governor Markell has always said that the last thing that he wants is to have [...]
5May2009 | liberalgeek | 42 comments | Continued
A Tale of Two Budget Proposals — Part II
Proposal 2:
Rep. John Kowalko developed a revenue proposal that concerns itself with ways to mitigate the 8% pay cut for State workers. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to get the full presentation (pdf). Rep. Kowalko wants to reject the “spread the pain” approach and make the generation of revenue to [...]
A Tale of Two Budget Proposals — Part I
Delaware’s massive budget crisis has brought about a budget proposal that provides for deep operating cuts, which includes a very big cut in salaries for state workers. This has been discussed in varying places, but two budget proposals have been put out over the last few weeks that deserve some attention.
Proposal 1:
Senator Colin Bonini [...]
Breaking: Markell to Conduct Two Town Hall Meetings W/State Employees on Monday
From the Office of the Governor comes word that Gov. Jack Markell will conduct two town hall meetings tomorrow to discuss the proposed state budget with state employees and other interested parties. The meetings are scheduled as follows:
Monday, April 6, 10 a.m.: Governor Markell will hold a town hall meeting with state employees and other [...]
Does Markells Budget Mean He Isn’t a Progressive?
There was a lot of talk during the election by people on this blog and others about Jack Markell’s progressive street cred. He certainly convinced a lot of progressive Democrats that he would represent their interests. He also convinced a number of moderate Republicans that he would represent them, as they changed party registration to [...]
24Mar2009 | liberalgeek | 26 comments | Continued
Breaking: 8% Pay Cut Among Markell Proposals
Jack Markell has proposed an across-the-board 8% pay cut for all state employees, including teachers. This would include both merit and non-merit employees and, coupled with benefits reduction and holiday adjustments, will reduce employee compensation by about 10%.
The News-Journal’s Ginger Gibson has done a superb job of explaining Gov. Markell’s entire proposal, and you can [...]
Reminder — Budget and HB1 Events Today
Today is going to be a busy one.
Governor Markell is presenting his FY2010 budget today (addressing the massive shortfalls) in a press conference at 1PM in Dover. Not sure whether this will be televised or broadcast on the radio, but will update as I hear it. And this would have been a good [...]
Thoughts from the Reality Check Town Hall March 9
This is the one in Wilmington held Monday night. There were perhaps 50 people in attendance and lots of politicians — Councilwoman Shabazz and Councilman Wright from the City; Representative Plant, Representative Johnson, Representative Keeley from the House and Senator Henry. No Senator Marshall, which was really strange. Governor Markell was late, [...]
11Mar2009 | cassandra_m | 5 comments | Continued
Governor Minner’s Last Budget
Gov. Minner released her final budget today, recommending an operating budget total of $3.06 billion for FY10. This budget is a 8.9% decrease from FY10, but doesn’t close all of the projected $556.8 million revenue gap. This budget included $190 million worth of cuts leaving $366.8 million of additional cuts to close the [...]
16Jan2009 | cassandra_m | 21 comments | ContinuedSocial Media
