Spring Break
Markman's Musings: The governor's continued buffoonery
Joe Markman
Issue date: 10/16/07 Section: Editorial/Opinion
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10/16/07 - What's the difference between Michael Jackson and Gov. Donald Carcieri?
Carcieri screws little kids with a pen.
He also screws big kids with his sweeping eliminations and benefit reductions, but it's the little-kid-screwing that focuses the issue and gets people really riled up.
In a Providence Journal story, Thomas Dwyer, a former top official in the Department of Children, Youth and Families, said, "I can no longer participate in the choices being made, which fail to make our most needy and vulnerable children a top priority."
I would suggest that the R.I. General Assembly no longer participate in such choices either. Weeks ago it was announced that financial aid for poor families supporting children would be cut. Carcieri also supports President Bush's veto of expanded State Children's Health Insurance Programs. So when the governor says that it is absurd to claim he puts children at risk, it depends on your definition of risk. A lack of health insurance and dismal support for DCYF is not necessarily putting children at risk, it's just screwing them.
Now for the big kids. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Rhode Island has 164 state workers per 10,000 residents. That is the smallest amount in New England and 40th in the country. Somehow the governor pins nearly all of our budget woes on this work force. A work force that is the base of a pyramid atop which sits the governor himself.
Somehow, by squeezing out 1,000 union members at the base of the pyramid and taking away $50 million in benefits from the rest, the governor believes the pyramid will not falter. While there may be a certain amount of inefficiency prevalent in our state workforce, it takes a transparent approach that looks ahead, beyond elections and retirement, to solve a complex problem.
In my short experience with just a single part of the state work force, I've noticed glaring inefficiency. It exists and will always exist, to some extent, as long as we're human. There is small inefficiency, like when someone on the state payroll clocks in before changing his or her shoes or checking his or her voicemail. And there is large inefficiency, like "inappropriate billings" and rampant nepotism at the Department of Transportation.
Carcieri screws little kids with a pen.
He also screws big kids with his sweeping eliminations and benefit reductions, but it's the little-kid-screwing that focuses the issue and gets people really riled up.
In a Providence Journal story, Thomas Dwyer, a former top official in the Department of Children, Youth and Families, said, "I can no longer participate in the choices being made, which fail to make our most needy and vulnerable children a top priority."
I would suggest that the R.I. General Assembly no longer participate in such choices either. Weeks ago it was announced that financial aid for poor families supporting children would be cut. Carcieri also supports President Bush's veto of expanded State Children's Health Insurance Programs. So when the governor says that it is absurd to claim he puts children at risk, it depends on your definition of risk. A lack of health insurance and dismal support for DCYF is not necessarily putting children at risk, it's just screwing them.
Now for the big kids. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Rhode Island has 164 state workers per 10,000 residents. That is the smallest amount in New England and 40th in the country. Somehow the governor pins nearly all of our budget woes on this work force. A work force that is the base of a pyramid atop which sits the governor himself.
Somehow, by squeezing out 1,000 union members at the base of the pyramid and taking away $50 million in benefits from the rest, the governor believes the pyramid will not falter. While there may be a certain amount of inefficiency prevalent in our state workforce, it takes a transparent approach that looks ahead, beyond elections and retirement, to solve a complex problem.
In my short experience with just a single part of the state work force, I've noticed glaring inefficiency. It exists and will always exist, to some extent, as long as we're human. There is small inefficiency, like when someone on the state payroll clocks in before changing his or her shoes or checking his or her voicemail. And there is large inefficiency, like "inappropriate billings" and rampant nepotism at the Department of Transportation.
