House Republican Leaders Set The Record Straight
Aug 7th, 2009 by MariaEvans
Representatives Cathcart and Short swing back:
Rep. Schwartzkopf took unjustified jab at House Republicans
Dick Cathcart and Dan Short
Recently, State House Majority Leader Pete Schwartzkopf wrote a column in which he used one arm to pat House Democrats on the back while using the other to take an undeserved swipe at House Republicans. We take issue with what he said, but more so with what he omitted.
For instance, the column credited House Democrats for enacting legislation that bars discrimination based on sexual orientation. Conveniently forgotten was that similar legislation cleared the House during the 141st, 142nd and 143rd General Assembly sessions. On all three occasions, the House was controlled by Republicans and the legislation was blocked in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Another accomplishment attributed to House Democrats was the enactment of House Bill 1, which makes the General Assembly subject to the state’s Freedom of Information Act. House Republicans supported this. In fact, we sponsored and passed similar legislation in the House two years earlier. Again, it was blocked in the Senate.
The bottling-up of good government legislation is not limited to the upper chamber. There are at least eight reform bills currently being held in the House Administration Committee controlled by the Democrats.
Two of these bills would require that the state’s operating and capital budgets be introduced a few days prior to a vote, giving the public and the press a chance to comment on the spending plans before they’re enacted. (This year’s $3.1 billion, 240-page operating budget was introduced just a day before it needed to be enacted.)
Another bill languishing in the same committee would require state officials to disclose if any of their family members are employed by the state or an organization receiving significant state funding.
We find it hard to understand how anyone could fault these good government measures, let alone work to prevent them from being openly debated.
Also among the bills the committee has refused to release are five measures to create searchable Internet databases, giving citizens access to how the state and public schools are spending tax money. In other places where such initiatives have been implemented, it has led to greater scrutiny and cost-cutting suggestions.
Another House Republican bill, which has the potential to save taxpayers millions of dollars, is sequestered in the House Labor Committee. HB 110 seeks to temporarily suspend the state’s “prevailing wage” requirement on school construction projects. Prevailing wage is a minimum wage for workers employed on the state’s public works projects. The requirement doesn’t apply to private-sector projects, and 18 states have either never enacted or repealed this outdated mechanism.
In its 2008 report on reducing public school costs, the non-partisan Leadership for Education Achievement in Delaware committee estimated that suspending the prevailing wage could save taxpayers $21 million to $34 million annually. Construction labor unions oppose this common-sense measure, and Democrats in state government seem content to spend tens of millions of dollars on needlessly inflated wages to keep their political allies happy.
Rep. Schwartzkopf’s column also took great satisfaction in the passage of a balanced budget. While we too appreciate this bipartisan feat, House Republicans were generally not thrilled with how it was accomplished.
To balance the budget, House and Senate Democrats passed a $212 million package of tax and fee increases, including hiking the personal income tax (PIT).
Originally, the PIT proposal spanned three income brackets that would have affected everyone earning more than $50,000 annually. It was the intervention of House Republicans — who successfully pushed for an agreement to reduce the state work force by 525 positions via attrition — that changed this. Using the millions of dollars saved by eliminating these positions, we reduced the overall size of the PIT increase by 25 percent. The proposal was scaled back to a single bracket, saving 83 percent of the state’s wage earners from being affected by the increase. The savings were also used to leverage the proposed gross receipts tax hike, cutting it by 20 percent.
Just as importantly, House Republicans forced a concession to “sunset” the personal income and gross receipts tax increases after four years. We also attached a time limit to another law that raised taxes and fees on Delaware’s business community by $127 million annually.
In conclusion, in 2009, House Republicans successfully fought higher taxes, downsized state government and proposed ideas to make government more accountable and efficient. By contrast, our Democratic colleagues’ “accomplishments” include enacting higher taxes, obstructing government reforms and protecting the interests of their political friends.
[...] the rest here: House Republican Leaders Set The Record Straight Social [...]
Not shocked. Pete Swartzkopf’s every statement needs to be fact checked.
Clearly Cathcart and Short Read my letter in the Cape Gazette and News Journal. How they end the first paragraph: “We take issue with what he said, but more so with what he omitted.”
How I ended my first paragraph: “Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf’s commentary expounding on his accomplishments during the last legislative session was interesting reading, both for what it said, and what it did not say.”
Here’s the rest of my letter in case you missed it:
Unseat Pete before he does us any more favors
Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf’s commentary expounding on his accomplishments during the last legislative session was interesting reading, both for what it said, and what it did not say.
To begin taking credit for balancing the budget seems a bit disingenuous to me. The budget was going to be balanced no matter what; that’s state law. Instead of buckling down to do the hard work of finding inefficient or ineffective programs, or meaningfully cutting the bloated state workforce, Pete Schwartzkopf voted to pile tax increase upon fee increase onto the backs of already struggling Delawareans.
Rep. Schwartzkopf also touted his party’s efforts to bring about the “sunshine” laws to make government more open and information more accessible. I think that’s a great idea. What Rep. Schwartzkopf neglects to mention is that he weakened the bill considerably by introducing an amendment to exempt his own emails. So much for open government.
Finally, one achievement that seems to have slipped Pete’s mind completely, HB 198. Pete Schwartzkopf voted to give away Delaware’s Electoral College votes to whichever presidential candidate gets the most popular votes nationwide, regardless of who Delawareans actually vote for. This attempted end-run around the Constitution completely mutes Delaware’s voice in the electoral process. Pete Schwartzkopf wants to take our own electoral votes out of our control.
So, if these are the kind of “accomplishments” Rep. Schwartzkopf delivers for his constituents, I say it’s time to unseat Pete before he has the chance to do us any more favors.
Bill Wong
Rehoboth Beach