I received the letter found below from State House Minority Leader Dick Cathcart and House Minority Whip Danny Short. The press release comments on a closed-door meeting recently held by the Governor with only Democratic Lawmakers discussing the newly-minted budget crisis facing the State (another $400 million shortfall? Already? Who’s doing the forecasting, anyway?)
Sadly, this letter speaks to a level of partisanship that I didn’t expect. I have heard from a Newark-area friend of mine that there was a community meeting in Newark on October 8th. The only elected officials invited were… Democrats. Since Senator Liane Sorenson (R-Newark) represents more of Newark than anyone else, my friend was a bit surprised that the Governor and local legislators would be so blatantly partisan — especially in Delaware. A sign of the “post-partisan times”, I suppose.
While I frequently criticize the failure of the “Delaware Way” in Dover (because it represents the worst of “group think” and has led directly to our problems), being partisan will be unsuccessful IMVHO.
Minority Leader Cathcart & Minority Whip Short’s letter:
House Leaders to Governor:
Embrace Transparency and Cooperation in Shaping New Budget
By State House Minority Leader Richard Cathcart & State House Minority Whip Dan Short
Just a few months ago, our state closed what was arguably the most difficult budget cycle in state history, bridging a financial gap measured in the hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars and enacting a balanced budget.
That enormous task was accomplished with bipartisan cooperation and, more importantly, under the watchful eye of the press and the public.
It makes it all the more disappointing that Gov. Jack Markell has turned his back on this success and begun the Fiscal Year 2011 budget process by holding a secret, closed-door meeting with a small cadre of Democratic legislative leaders to discuss the new financial challenges facing our state.
Speaking in a recent published report about the clandestine meeting, Sen. Robert Venables said the state could again face a huge breach in the budget that begins July 1st: “The figure we got is a $337 million gap – right now – that we got to close.”
Just as was the case that led to the current budget (FY 2010), what we do to close this gap will impact every Delawarean. Mending the FY 2010 budget hole – estimated at nearly $800 million – meant eliminating hundreds of open state jobs, cutting the compensation of state workers, and enacting a package of tax and fee increases topping $212 million! No one was left unscathed.
We all have a stake in the budget process, but the governor has chosen to invite only a select few into the process thus far. According to published comments from Sen. Venables, who is chairman of the Bond Bill Committee, House Majority Leader Pete Schwartzkopf and Speaker of the House Bob Gilligan met in the governor’s office on October 20th with Office of Management and Budget Director Ann Visalli for a private briefing.
Just 10 months ago, the governor promised a different approach. Delivering his inaugural address, the governor stated: “I pledge that my administration will be more transparent and accountable than any that have come before.”
Holding secret, partisan budget meetings are not only contrary to this goal, it creates mistrust that is difficult to overcome. No doubt the people involved will say these are only preliminary meetings, held to iron out details before they’re disclosed to everyone later. In fact, in commenting on the recent meeting, the governor’s spokesman, Joe Rogalsky, said that in time everyone would be briefed.
But meeting behind closed doors, even if done innocently, sends the wrong message to a public that has good reason to question the operation of state government.
Earlier this year, Speaker of the House Bob Gilligan sponsored a new law to make the General Assembly subject to the state’s Freedom of Information Act. One of the most important implications of this landmark legislation was to open the meetings of the legislature’s budget-writing Joint Finance Committee and Bond Bill Committee. It’s ironic that the people that most touted this worthy legislation took part in the recent secret budget meeting.
We do not believe Speaker Gilligan, Gov. Markell or House Majority Leader Schwartzkopf intended any malice when they held their meeting. Unfortunately, when you conduct these types of gatherings it’s hard to shake the perception that the real decisions are being made behind closed doors and that the information that’s later shared with the public is carefully crafted to justify those predetermined choices.
There’s a simple solution to this and it’s in keeping with the governor’s stated objectives for transparency – hold all budgetary meetings involving executive branch and legislative leaders openly. The meetings can be posted in advance and streamed live on the Internet. If this proves too cumbersome, they can be recorded and posted to a dedicated page on the state’s website within 24 hours. The second option, while less desirable, could be implemented immediately and would give the public a chance to track the process and have a record of how it progresses.
Additionally, as we work on the next budget, partisanship needs to take a back seat to openness and consensus. Republicans need to be made complete partners in the process. Not only do Republican state legislators represent more than 40-percent of all Delawareans, we also played a key role in shaping and enacting our current balanced budget.
We urge the governor to conduct future budgetary meetings in the open, bringing all legislative leaders, regardless of party affiliation, together in a cooperative effort to address our shared challenges.
###
If I were looking for partisanship I’d start here:
… just about 100 percent of [Bryon Short's] Democratic colleagues voted in favor of the package, whereas just about every member of the House Republicans voted against the tax and fee hikes. – Rep. Cathcart 10/13
…which goes back to Bryon Short’s partisan attacks in his letter to the editor.
Short’s letter was irrelevant. Cathcart planned the “just enough votes” strategy to make sure the budget passed and then attack Dems for voting for it – partisan through and through. If you are perceiving antipathy from the Markell administration, there is the likely cause.
You would have preferred and supported the Republicans for shutting down the state government? Laughable.
The Democrats are in the majority. The Republicans made great strides with the little leverage that they had but in the end, it was either shut down the government over one vote or give up the vote, exert some influence and then hold the Democrats accountable.
Short’s letter was hardly irrelevant. He attacked the republican members of the House. And he attacked them for their efforts to compromise and be supportive of a trying time. If anything, he was the worst aggressor.
You would have preferred and supported the Republicans for shutting down the state government? Laughable.
It is called having the courage of your convictions. It is not a laughing matter for most people.
Noman,
I don’t think shutting down the government is ever really a good option for anyone. It’s a nuke-option that renders state employees penniless and without benefits. Seriously, how would that have worked? You know as well as I do that one side would blame the other for putting state employees in the firing line simply for their own partisan snit-fits and we’d still go nowhere. I’m surprised from reading your comments over time that you think this would be OK. I happen to know that shutting down the government was not an option that was on the table. The option was to take what was offered, work with it, counter propose and continue. Seriously, what is wrong with taking a stand that shutdown is not an option? I think it’s a hell of a lot more noble than using thousands of employees as leverage in a partisan fight, don’t you?
I honestly am a little perplexed at Markell’s approach, too. I know Markell a little bit beyond politics, moreso through my siblings. I’m hoping, really hoping that this becomes more inclusive soon, as not only is that truly better for a good plan, but fits in with the character of the person that I have been told about.
I hate partisan sniping, mainly because it’s more posturing than it is anything remotely close to resolution. Take all that illustrative posturing away and let’s get to the other end of the tunnel the most efficient way possible. People have brought up Bryon Short’s letter and the minority response. Democrats cheered Short’s letter, which was partisan, and Republicans cheered the response, which, well, was also partisan, but defended the accusations inaccurately asserted by Short. How no one mention Schwartzkopf’s pat-on-his-own back after the session and that response is beyond me. That went beyond this recent tit-for-tat.
Bottom line is, the next budget is far worse than what just happened this last session. Governor Markell ran, promising solutions and working with both sides. Whether you want to believe it or not, the minority Republicans have indeed had to fight for face time. I have no problem, no problem at all if their face time must always included Gilligan and Schwartzkopf. They are the speaker and the majority leader, so that comes with the territory. The problem is, the house minority doesn’t exist until they fight for it and that’s just plain stupid and wrong, let alone horribly short sighted. The House Republicans are in the minority and their influence, as a result, is given that kind of weight. It doesn’t mean they are excluded, though.
I want a solution for Delaware to work for all of us, not a solution that helps one party over another.
I don’t think shutting down the government is ever really a good option for anyone.
I don’t think this would be OK. Of course a shutdown was not on the table. Republicans (Cathcart) worked hard to make sure the budget passed. That is why it is so pusillanimous to attack Dems for voting for it. Cathcart was apparently bipartisan behind closed doors, partisan in public. Maybe Dems need to work harder to point out both sides of his face.
I don’t have the insider view some of you have, but I would like to make a few observations.
First, state legislatures dominated by one party often follow the tactics and attitude of a federal legislature and administration dominated by the same party. If the current dominant party is following “smoke filled room” tactics, state bodies are encouraged by example and, worse, by political pressure to follow example–particularly when federal largesse such as stimulus money is at stake. We’ve all taken note of the deals being constructed behind closed doors in Washington.
Next, Winston Chruchill’s observation may apply here: “Americans always do the right thing, but only after they have exhausted every other alternative.”
His point: the tendency is to allow the situation at hand to reach overwhelming proportions. What could have been cured incrementally and sensibly then has to be done by drastic measures. It appears Delaware is fast approaching an economic situation that will blow up and require desperate measures.
Part of the problem is that Democrats and Republicans’ political and economic philosophies are so divergent, such poles apart, that encouraging bi-partisanship is like asking Roman Catholics and Lutherans during the Reformation to come peacefully together and cooperate in establishing mutual goals.
Let’s put it boldly: the parties are at war. There are honorable men and women in the war, but the divide is too severe to permit cooperative mutuality.
To put it another way, Delaware and our nation are faced with a civil divide and multiple crises that have no bridges to cross a raging river. There is so little mutuality that the state goes to hell in a handbasket while our elected officials duke it out.
Lost in the battle is the fate of ordinary Delawareans who will soon feel the effects of desperate measures forced on them by a legislature dominated by one party politics.
Enough of petty sloganeering, win at all costs mentality, oneupmanship and the rest of the petty, narrowminded partisanship.
We desperately need people who recognize the truth of our situation and who will rise up and lead us out of this self-created mess.
Fay Voshell
Maybe Dems need to work harder to point out both sides of his face.
Let them get their shot in, because that’s what matters (/snark), then open the freaking door in those skull-and-crossbones meetings that have been happening.
skull-and-crossbones
I suck.
skull-and-BONES.
Pertinent to the discussion, including the issue of bi-partisanship.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/10/gop_should_grow_the_party_grow.html
The USA is indeed experiencing a kind of low grade civil war. It comes at the worst possible time. Almost as if some divide and conquer war strategy is being waged on us.
I can’t remember a time when the fullest expressions of American freedoms – our elections – were so blatantly disregarded by the losing side. That is the heart of the problem.
With a deficit of 450 milllion looming and job growth NON existant I think the political atmosphere will soon rival that of DC.
The 527′s will reign holy war on beau and mike as well.
Our genteel state is no more.
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