... regarding the JFC and the Delaware budget. Of the proposed 2.5% State employee pay cut that the Joint Finance Committee is now pushing, Senator Cook says, according to the WNJ : The only alternative to a pay cut, Cook said, would be layoffs -- something she is dead-set against. The JFC discussed furloughs, she said, but ruled them out because they couldn't come up with a way to do it fairly. Two issues: 1) Several months ago, Governor Jack Markell warned us that the only alternative to an 8% across-the-board State employee paycut was ... layoffs. Now, suddenly, 2.5% is the magic number. Which means that Senator Cook is ... suggesting that the Governor was lying about the 8% being necessary, or what? And why, exactly, should we believe Senator Cook now when suddenly instead of $92 million, $29 million is the magic number? 2) The JFC--in what is supposed to be its last secret session ever (holding my breath and waiting for the court challenge in the off-season)--ruled out furl...

Irony Number One: I couldn't boycott Happy Harrys/Walgreens if I wanted to do so, because I don't shop there and I never have. So it would be really difficult to send them less business than I have during the past twenty years. Outrage Number One: The State of Delaware [with lots of bloggers lined up with torches and pitchforks] is out to punish a private business for doing something completely legal. Forget jason's asinine contention that Walgreens deserves to be punished because its a baaad corporation, since he--unlike Dana Garrett--never raised this issue in previous years when Al Levin was selling out to them for bazillions of dollars. Forget kavips' ridiculous comparison of American patriots boycotting goods forced on them by British government policy to people who want to boycott Walgreens in order to implement a government policy . Forget the idea of a public boycott of Walgreens which is completely legal, moral, and certainly the prerogative of any p...

Here's what Walgreens said about Delaware's prescription policies in its press release on refusing to participate in the State Medicaid program: The state could easily eliminate its Medicaid pharmacy budget gap simply by focusing on its generic dispensing rate at all pharmacies in the state. Each percentage point improvement in the generic dispensing rate would save the state approximately $1.2 million annually. As a low-cost, quality alternative to brand name medications, generics are good for patients, the state and pharmacies. Is this accurate or not? The Department of Health and Human Services studied generic drug utilization rates in State Medicaid programs in 2006 , and found that Delaware had one of the lowest generic usage rates in the nation: Alaska--46% Maryland--48% Delaware, Connecticut, Idaho--49% The highest rates were: Alabama--61% Hawaii--60% Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky--59% ExpressScripts estimated in 2004 that Delaware could save--overall, not just in Medicai...

So Walgreens, told by the State to take it or leave it on new Medicaid prescription reimbursement rates, told Delaware, No thanks . You can read the story with full liberal/progressive angst here , with reality completely dependent upon the self-serving DHSS press release: Walgreens Turns Its Back on Delaware’s Neediest Citizens Illinois-based company refuses to serve state’s Medicaid customers WILMINGTON – Refusing to share in the sacrifice necessary to help Delaware meet its historic budget challenge, Walgreens Pharmacies announced Thursday that it will no longer fill Medicaid prescriptions in the First State, according to the Department of Health and Social Services.... According to Alan Levin, the former CEO of Happy Harry’s who sold the Delaware-based chain to Walgreens in 2007 and is now the Director of the Delaware Economic Development Office, “the State’s offer was fair and reasonable and should allow pharmacies to make a reasonable profit.”... Walgreens, according to its rece...

With many Delaware teachers now working Bell to Bell as the DSEA attempts to make a point about the inequity of across-the-board State employee pay cuts , the blog and public reactions are mixed: Dana stands with the teachers at Delaware Watch. The mostly anonymous commenters at Fix Red Clay mostly think the teachers have pretty good jobs and are acting like spoiled brats. There is no party line at Delawareliberal: some for, some against, some confused. It is interesting to see many supposedly pro-union folks (with Dana as a notable exception) suddenly willing to throw the DSEA under the school bus, and who mouth the narrative so easily: Things are tough all over, you ingrates. Other people have had to take pay cuts. Man up, you wimps. [I'm sort of channeling my inner jason here.] What is truly intriguing about this situation is the absence of any real consideration of the morality of the situation. For example, the operative moral impulse here is, Treating employees like shi...

... is not simple, but it's doable. Governor Jack Markell gets about $93 million of his budget savings from cutting the salary and benefits of State employees across the board. Here's how you avoid that trap: 1) Instead of cutting salaries, put all State employees making under $100 K on two weeks furlough. That's roughly a 3.8% pay cut, but it is better than simply reducing salaries for two reasons. One: it meets the temporary requirement far better than a pay cut does; it's a hell of a lot easier to eliminate the furlough next year or the year after than it is to raise salaries 4-8%. Two: it gives the employees back the time to use as they prefer, rather than working them for the full year at lower wages. If it inconveniences some customers or causes some problems with service--well, shared pain is what it's all about, anyway. By my back of the envelope calculations, this would reduce the $80 million in savings from those workers to $34 million, leaving a de...

Two reasons for this post: One, a belated welcome and link to Redwaterlilly's Ramblings , one of Delaware's newest political blogs. Reason number two: because we have to keep in mind that the State employees we're talking about these days are real people : I am really mixed on this one for two reasons. One is that my partner is a correctional officer and those 8% are going to hurt us big time - since I currently only have a seasonal part time job and won’t be working at all after July. The chance of finding full time employment by then is slim in the current economic climate. We will depend on her income to feed our family of three . This isn’t just a serious budget cut but will cut into our necessary living expenses such as the mortgage. I understand other families are going through the same difficulties, but I am talking about me and my family here. The Correctional Officers are already seriously understaffed - but the same is true for prisons in surrounding Stat...

Hube has this "Dopey WNJ letter of the day/week/month/millennium" feature, which generally does crack me up, but--just occasionally--one of those letter writers actually gets it. Such is the case with Roger C Williams of Bear: I am outraged at New Castle County leadership and their plan to raise taxes by 25 percent while cutting services across the board. We pay for services to be provided road maintenance, parks, libraries, police and fire protection, etc. We are also responsible to pay for the head count needed to provide those services and upkeep for them. However, personnel costs are over 75 percent of the county’s budget. At this level, the personnel budget is clearly disproportionate to spending in other areas. If that comes in the form of a enormously bloated payroll, I am perfectly fine with laying off employees. This may sound heartless, and it is tragic for the hard-working people. They are victims of terrible management of county head count and capacity, that went...

Jack Markell campaigning to become governor (when he knew the budget deficit was already $210 million and climbing rapidly): In tough budget times, the typical response is to pull out the axe and implement across-the-board cuts. With this approach, agencies operating efficiently and with fewer resources may be harder hit than those that have accumulated inefficient programs and resources over time. The result is a disincentive for any program to operate efficiently as a buffer against across-the-board cuts. Yet the Minner-Carney Administration still uses across-the-board percentage cuts – the equivalent of using an axe when you should use a scalpel.... That’s why, as Governor, I will implement a statewide performance review to evaluate long funded projects for their true effectiveness. Resources associated with outdated and poorly performing programs will be re-directed to higher priorities . I will ask state employees to focus on areas where they know there is waste.... The perf...

I really need to showcase this response to my post about the bogus shared sacrifice idea behind Governor Jack Markell's across-the-board planned 10+% salary/benefits cuts for State employees: Anonymous: Sorry to post anon, but this one might bite me back unless I had plausible deniability. As RAM was leaving, a vacant position in my agency, one that had been vacant for 1 1/2 years got filled by someone on Minner's staff. Let me reiterate. WE DID WITHOUT THIS POSITION FOR 1 1/2 YEARS. AND NOW WE FILL IT? Luckily it is not a merit position, so it's possible that the position gets vacated anyhow. But this is one of those 120k positions. I've been busting my butt getting by without getting needed equipment, but this person comes in and blows a 120k per year salary? And you wonder why I'm annoyed at this 8% mess :) These stories are starting to come out of the woodwork all over Delaware. See, here's the problem: when everybody is getting by, and the State tosses yo...

It is truly fascinating to watch the reactions to Governor Jack Markell's shared pain budget, in which he cuts State salaries/benefits 10% across the board, setting the stage for potentially driving thousands of State employees into the category of working poor. Many of my favorite bloggers and commenters, however, have bought into both the bogus shared sacrifice and manufactured Us vs Them ideas: Dominque : Cry me an effing river. What a bunch of whiners. Do they have any idea how many people would give an arm for their jobs even with the 10% cut? I’m having a very difficult time feeling sorry for people who have gotten free health insurance having to contribute a little bit to it. The private sector has been paying about 10% of their salary to health insurance premiums all along and, while state wages tend to be lower than wages in the private sector, they work fewer days with their crazy state holidays (not to mention their offices close with the slightest dusting of snow) a...

I really hate the term meme , but I like George Lakoff's intellectually dishonest framing even less, and what I'm about to tackle is shorter than a narrative . So I'll just go with idea . We have been told by Governor Jack Markell that what he heard from wandering around the State for a series of unscientific listening sessions is that most State employees would rather take a pay cut than see some of their co-workers lose their jobs. I seriously doubt that any of them thought he'd be proposing a combination of salary cuts, benefit reductions, and tax increases that would take more than 10% of their salaries in one fell swoop, but that's beside the point. Here's why this idea is so pernicious: 1) It takes away from government any responsibility to function efficiently , by transposing the primary responsibility from delivering certain services cost-effectively to being a jobs program where the more people who are employed, the better. It relieves senior admin...

The WNJ only lays out who is receiving what, and--not too amazing--fails to attempt any analysis. So le't help them out, to find out the big winners in the stimulus lottery. Here are the eleven largest recipients US Army Corps of Engineers: $18,965,000 DelDot: $7,030,000 Delaware State University: $3,617,250 University of Delaware: $3,071,250 Delaware River Basin Commission: $2,600,000 State of Delaware (agency unspecified): $2,250,000 Jobs for Delaware Graduates: $1,353,000 New Castle County: $898,000 Delaware State Police: $600,000 Coastal Hydraulics Laboratory: $500,000 Delaware Aerospace Foundation: $500,000 Several notes: 1) The US Army Corps of Engineers and DelDot being the two largest recipients on the list is hardly surprising, as these are the types of infrastructure projects touted by the administration and Keynesian economists. 2) The combined largess provided to the two state universities makes higher education the second-largest beneficiary from the stimulu...

Just thinking about this issue like Governor Markell asked everybody to do. I haven't costed them out, but the least significant would save several millions of dollars: 1. Eliminate the Secretary of Homeland Security position and fold its security responsibilities into the State Police and its disaster responsibilities into DEMA. There is not the slightest bit of evidence that the proliferation of staffs and offices has made us one whit safer or improved interagency coordination. 2. Eliminate the DSTP. Jack promised to do this, anyway. 3. Commute the sentences of non-violent, non-dealing drug offenders, and follow up by decriminalizing at least personal marijuana use. 4. Increase the mandatory replacement age for school buses by three years. 5. Close the Delaware Psychiatric Center and pay the cost to send our patients to the comparable institutions in Pennsylvania, Maryland, or New Jersey. 6. Program EZ Pass on Rt 1 to charge vehicles registered out of state a 15% surcharg...

Speaking as someone who would be directly affected by any cuts to State worker benefits, I have absolutely no problem with Governor Jack Markell's plan , as long as it is tied to dumping the prevailing wage requirement for State construction jobs. The LEAD report estimates that eliminating the prevailing wage requirement just for school construction would save the State $21-34 million dollars annually. This is almost exactly equivalent to the $30 million saved by doubling State worker premiums for healthcare insurance (on workers who average $41 K annually, which is almost exactly the average per capita income for DE residents). But let's see if our liberal and progressive friends are willing to accept the idea that union construction workers should share just as much of the pain as State employees.