Statement – June 29, 2017
Delaware Senate Majority Caucus
For immediate release
Contacts: Jesse Chadderdon (302) 744-4282 or (302) 743-0945
Delaware Senate Majority Caucus
For immediate release
Contacts: Jesse Chadderdon (302) 744-4282 or (302) 743-0945
Senate President Pro Tempore David B. McBride’s
statement on GOP’s “alternative budget proposal”
Senate President Pro Tempore David B. McBride issued the following statement on the Republican’s announcement of an “alternative” budget plan:
This is the epitome of political theater and 11th-hour gamesmanship and I think it’s shameful that these kinds of games are being played on the eve of our state’s budget deadline. I mean, it’s June 29th for God’s sake.
For months now we’ve been grappling with our budget challenges – challenges both parties agree are structural in nature. And for weeks we’ve been negotiating in good faith with our Republican colleagues. Three weeks ago we received a manifesto with a list of their demands, and we’ve essentially agreed to everything on that list in order to get cooperation from them on a revenue compromise that would give us the long-term structural stability. But they continue to move the goalposts, and now we have before us a half-baked and highly-suspect list of new demands that would make our budget structure more tenuous, not more stable.
The way I read this document, it seems more about helping my Republican colleagues win their next election than helping our state overcome its economic challenges. How else do you explain sunsetting new revenues in just 12 months? How else do you explain an insistence that the House defeat legislation that seeks to find cost savings in our health care system, so they can pass the same bill with their names on it? And how else do you explain the continued attack on working families and their wages so the wealthiest Delawareans can get away with paying just a little bit less.
We’ll continue our conversations as long as our Republican colleagues are willing to come to the table in a constructive way. But we won’t allow ourselves, or the people of Delaware, to be held hostage by their latest in a long line of political maneuvers.
This is the epitome of political theater and 11th-hour gamesmanship and I think it’s shameful that these kinds of games are being played on the eve of our state’s budget deadline. I mean, it’s June 29th for God’s sake.
For months now we’ve been grappling with our budget challenges – challenges both parties agree are structural in nature. And for weeks we’ve been negotiating in good faith with our Republican colleagues. Three weeks ago we received a manifesto with a list of their demands, and we’ve essentially agreed to everything on that list in order to get cooperation from them on a revenue compromise that would give us the long-term structural stability. But they continue to move the goalposts, and now we have before us a half-baked and highly-suspect list of new demands that would make our budget structure more tenuous, not more stable.
The way I read this document, it seems more about helping my Republican colleagues win their next election than helping our state overcome its economic challenges. How else do you explain sunsetting new revenues in just 12 months? How else do you explain an insistence that the House defeat legislation that seeks to find cost savings in our health care system, so they can pass the same bill with their names on it? And how else do you explain the continued attack on working families and their wages so the wealthiest Delawareans can get away with paying just a little bit less.
We’ll continue our conversations as long as our Republican colleagues are willing to come to the table in a constructive way. But we won’t allow ourselves, or the people of Delaware, to be held hostage by their latest in a long line of political maneuvers.
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Press Contacts
Scott Goss
Communications Director
(302) 744-4180
scott.goss@delaware.gov
Dylan McDowell
Communications Assistant
(302) 744-4282
dylan.mcdowell@delaware.gov
Scott Goss
Communications Director
(302) 744-4180
scott.goss@delaware.gov
Dylan McDowell
Communications Assistant
(302) 744-4282
dylan.mcdowell@delaware.gov