One of the first duties of the attorney general is to say no to the president. The loyalty of the attorney general is to the Constitution and the laws of the United States.
Otter Wedgies a House Divided
Submitted by Sisyphus on Thu, 02/25/2010 - 11:53pm.
Holy hemorrhage, Batman, there's some major bleeding going on in the Statehouse over the PERSI debacle and Dr. Otter's gonna operate. The Governor, going where no governor has gone before, moseyed on up to the fourth floor and into the private Republican House Caucus apparently to assuage their hurt feelings over the Senate Republicans rat fucking embarrassing the Republican House leadership on a deal to kill the PERSI 1% COLA increase approved by its Board of Directors.
Yesterday the Governor told the Idaho Press Club it was smart to go with the Board's, and therefore the Senate's, decision. Today he went to tell the House Republicans it wasn't his fault the Senate leaders threw them under a bus decided not to hear their legislation. But the words came out all, well, inconsistent.
“The governor went up there to make it clear that he understood we had a deal and it needed to be fixed,” [House Majority Leader Mike] Moyle said. “All sides had agreed to it. In fact, it was the Senate that was pushing this more than us.”
But in comments Wednesday at an Idaho Press Club event, Otter contended “it was smart that we went ahead with the 1 percent.”
He said he understood the “caution of the Legislature” but that “when you take a look at how many years we could totally fund that … we’re really in very good shape.”
After listening to a recording of Otter’s comments, Moyle said Thursday that he disagreed with the governor’s characterization of the health of the fund.
This is a MUST READ in its entirety. The doctor's scalpel seems rusty. I have a few questions.
1) What fucking DEAL?
2) Could you tell Idaho citizens the time, date, location and any participants to the DEAL?
3) Who from outside the legislature (Wayne Hoffman, Rod Beck) participated in the DEAL?
4) To what extent did any representatives from PERSI, AARP, or public employee organizations participate or have input in the DEAL?
5) Why did they uphold the COLA increase on the initial vote if the fix was in?
6) Who and what did Moyle mean when he said the senate was pushing it more than the House?
7) Are all your hearings just for show, cause if you're already decided, what's the point?
8) Doesn't this whole thing still make the House Leadership look like chumps?
9) Why does it take you so long if you've already decided things in secret?
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Good Questions...
Too bad you'll never get any decent answers.
Loertscher is a piece of work, too. I'm curious, why IS the number of retiring state workers going up? Is that a national trend, that people are getting older/retiring at a higher rate due to the baby boomer generation?
Or is it because staying in state government offers no benefits/perks with all the budget cuts out there? I know a state employee who works in eastern Idaho who says she's going to get more out of her PERSI than she gets out of her paychecks...so for her, retiring is a no-brainer.
I read a quote that "The economy is bad, so the retirees need to share some of the suffering, too"...to which I would respond...NO. They earned their pensions, they hung in there until time to go, and they deserve to get their PERSI just as promised. We have obligations to them, we need to let the retirement fund professionals do their jobs and pass along the paltry 1% increase.
Pressure to retire
may be one reason why so many State workers are retiring. It's an easy and bloodless way of making cutbacks.
I'll bet there are some who have been given the choice of early retirement or being fired. If I was one of them, I'd sure take the early retirement over trying to find a comparable job in this job market.
I agree, Nemisis... I know lots of folks who work for the State, and most of them work very hard for their money. They face an often hostile citizenry, and some are called out at all hours, in all weathers, to make make us safer or more comfortable. I feel sorry for the workers who survive the cuts- they are all going to be overworked and stressed out for some time to come.