Senator Decker Lies

Sorry, but I can’t conclude anything else from this statement,

The additional $69 million in cuts to state programs on top of the $200 million in cuts passed as part of the state budget last year…

The $200 million in cuts may have been passed, but it has not been realized.  The entire effort has been abandoned.  For Decker to use this in his propaganda is a complete lie. 

UPDATE: Oops… I screwed this one up.  The $200 million Decker is talking about is NOT the same $200 million that Doyle failed to cut before.  Sorry, Senator Decker.  Thanks, Lefty, for pointing it out. 

1. Except those aren’t the same two things.

   ACE dealt with an effort to save money through restructuring of the contracting out process and how the state goes about purchasing of goods.  It was initiated prior to the introduction of the budget we are talking about today, As your own link says, that was three years ago.

   The lapses that Decker is talking about comes from what the legislature did last summer.  In that budget they expanded on a proposal in the Governor’s original which directed the DOA Secretary to come up with $80 million in lapses or transfers from unencumbered balances.  Essentially, anywhere an agency realized a savings (for example, anytime a position was vacant for an extended period of time, or more money came in than was anticipated from the fed or program revenues, or less went out than was budget due to cost savings, or a project was delayed into the next biennium, etc) the DOA Secretary was directed to scrape that money together and come up with $80 million in savings.

   The legislature amended that provision to $200 million.

   Just because the Governor’s ACE initiative was projected to save $200 million 3 years ago, and the legislature passed a directive to the DOA Sec to find $200 million in savings this biennium, doesn’t mean they are the same thing.

   Posted by on May 13, 2008 at 2319 hrs




2. Um, yeah.  What Lefty said.

   Posted by Recess Supervisor on May 14, 2008 at 0024 hrs




3. But of course you’re going to leave the title of the post the same.  How about you really take responsibility for your mistake and remove the post or at least change the name?

   Posted by on May 14, 2008 at 1246 hrs




4. Here’s the deal, Denise… If I take down the post, I will be accused of trying to hide my mistake.  If I leave it up, everyone can see that I made a mistake and corrected it. 

   As for changing the title… as I’ve explained before… changing the title changes the link, which then screws up people who have linked to it/aggregaters/etc.  This also gives the appearance that I’m trying to hide my mistake. 

   Read my bio.  I make mistakes.  I know that.  I’m human.  The best thing for me to do is own up to my mistakes and apologize… which I did.

   Posted by Owen on May 14, 2008 at 1314 hrs




5. I believe I am supposed to say, you’re welcome.

   Hmm, a non-combative post here. That feels different

   For what it is worth, I think you policy for correcting your mistakes without changing the title is the only logical way to go about it.

   Then again you didn’t care for my logic on structural deficits, so don’t take that as an insult.

   Posted by on May 14, 2008 at 1422 hrs




6. Denise, How come you’re posting as both “carrie” and “denise?” Bit of an identity crisis?

   Posted by on May 14, 2008 at 1453 hrs




7. Fair enough on the taking the post down and the title.

   Posted by on May 14, 2008 at 1621 hrs




8. Owen’s right on changing the title of posts.  It’s a total pain in the *** because most publishing software uses the title of the post in the link.  Your only real options are to leave it and correct the text or delete the post.

   Surely, however, Senator Decker has lied about other things in his life, so if one assumes the Fox News approach of looking for the broadest way to define things, Owen’s still right.  Senator Decker lies… just not about this.

   Posted by Recess Supervisor on May 14, 2008 at 1802 hrs