WILM 1450 AM, October 2, 2008

Outside the Carvel State Building Thursday morning, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jack Markell and Lieutenant Governor nominee Matt Denn unveiled their cost-savings strategy.

Steps were laid out to aggressively cut costs and make government more efficient, while still finding ways to save the taxpayers money. The comprehensive plan will eliminate wasteful spending, address education and health care, and according to Markell, take Delaware in a new direction toward a better future.

Denn adds, specifically this plan would, institute a state of the art budgeting processes, crack down on fraud, go green and institute a state government performance review.

Associated Press, September 26, 2008

Matt Denn — one of Delaware’s candidates for lieutenant governor — says the state isn’t equally educating children with disabilities.

Denn suggests using current Medicaid dollars to serve children with disabilities. He also says he would help the families and improve efforts to identify disabilities earlier.

Denn says children with disabilities receive an education comparable to a serviceable Chevrolet instead of a Cadillac education.

He says residents shouldn’t accept that double standard since it would never be acceptable to offer children without disabilities a lower-quality education.

The News Journal, September 26, 2008

Lieutenant governor candidate Matt Denn wants more attention and resources given to educating public-school students with disabilities.

The Democrat unveiled another piece of his campaign platform Thursday, saying he wants to improve education for students with disabilities. Denn has made children’s issues the center of his campaign, focusing on improving public schools and health care for children.

Denn said the current standards imply children with disabilities “are not entitled to a Cadillac education, but they are entitled to a serviceable Chevrolet.”

“We would never, ever accept that standard for kids in Delaware who are not impacted by disabilities,” Denn said.

Joined by disability advocates from around the state, Denn hosted a teleconference Thursday to talk about his four-part plan to remedy what he described as a failure to allow students with disabilities to “fulfill their potential when they’re grown adults.”

First, he would require Medicaid and private insurance companies to cover an inexpensive screening for disabilities before children turn 1 year old. Denn said this would allow disabilities to be caught and treated earlier.

Michael McCormick, former director of the University of Delaware Center for Disabilities Studies, joined Denn in the teleconference and said the early screening is one of the most critical aspects of the plan.

“We can really change the direction of their overall development,” McCormick said.

Second, Denn wants to create a partnership between the state and Widener School of Law to let law students help parents of children with disabilities navigate the complicated system of finding assistance for their children.

Third, he proposed simplifying the funding formula the state uses to provide money to schools who teach children with disabilities. The current formula, he said, involves strings that restrict schools from being able to tailor the money to the needs of individual students.

Fourth, Denn said he wants to work to get more Medicaid waivers for children with disabilities. Denn said better use of federal funds would save the state money and ensure children have the medical treatment and care they need.

Improving education for children with disabilities is a goal everyone can agree upon, Republican opponent Charlie Copeland said, but there are flaws in Denn’s plan for accomplishing that goal.

For example, Copeland said, while he doesn’t know about the screening test Denn described, a mandate for Medicaid and insurance companies to cover it might not be the best path. Plus, Copeland said, that mandate seems to contradict Denn’s other proposal to redo the funding formula.

“I’m glad to see that Matt is finally recognizing the free market,” Copeland said. “It seems to counteract … [the] mandate that would force the insurance companies to pay for a test.”

Copeland said the proposal to have Widener students counsel parents sounds nice but might not be practical, as it would mean asking students still learning about the law to work with parents in crisis mode. Copeland said he has a family member in law school at Widener who is trying to learn the law before practicing it.

“If we want to do that, there ought to be a better way to do that than a law student,” Copeland said.

And as for using federal funds, Copeland said the program must gain federal approval and efforts by other states to use Medicaid to fund local problems have failed.

The News Journal, September 24, 2008

The ability of the lieutenant governor to have an impact on the state was the focus of many questions Tuesday night for two of the candidates running for the state’s second-highest office.

Democrat Matt Denn and Republican Charlie Copeland, battling for the lieutenant governor position, fielded questions from residents of Cokesbury Village in Hockessin.

The question-and-answer session allowed residents of the retirement village to ask both candidates about a variety of topics, including growing the economy, the state budget and the role of the lieutenant governor.

Cokesbury resident Anita Johnson, 82, who pointed out that most of Copeland’s speech sounded like he was running for governor, asked Copeland what he could accomplish as lieutenant governor.

“The lieutenant governor’s job is somewhat ill-defined,” Copeland said, “to preside over the Senate and provide over the board of pardons.”

Copeland said he would be able to be an “independent voice” in Dover and speak out against measures he thinks will not help the state without worrying about partisan politics.

Copeland also pointed out that Delaware has had a governor and lieutenant governor from different political parties seven times.

Insurance Commissioner Denn responded by saying he anticipates fellow Democrat Jack Markell getting elected as governor, and that he would be included in decision-making processes by working with the governor.

Denn also said that as insurance commissioner, he was able to work beyond some of the clearly defined duties and provide insurance-related assistance to residents.

After the debate, Johnson said part of the reason for her question is her belief that the governor and lieutenant governor should be elected together to keep the two offices from being separate parties. She said when that situation occurs, it renders the lieutenant governor nearly powerless.

One participant asked Copeland and Denn if they could improve state spending by removing duplicate programs between the two major universities in the state, to which both responded they see cooperation already taking place between the two schools.

Copeland was asked to explain the basis for his and gubernatorial candidate Judge Bill Lee’s comments that the Delaware Economic Forecast Advisory Council had become politicized.

Copeland said the decisions by Gov. Ruth Ann Minner regarding DEFAC have allowed politics to seep into the process. And as a result, he said, some of the estimates made by the revenue-projecting committee have been overly optimistic, causing the state to spend more money than it has.

“Three years ago I said we’re heading for a train wreck,” Copeland said.

Denn responded by saying he saw no evidence that DEFAC has become politicized and saw the attacks on the committee as attacks on Markell who sits on the board.

Each candidate had a different view on bringing jobs to the state.

Denn said the state’s economic and job efforts should begin with improving public education to produce a better work force and making the quality of life more appealing for businesses considering relocating.

Copeland said while the state has long been considered corporation friendly, it has rarely been business friendly and more needs to be done to help smaller businesses and limited liability companies.

E. A. Trabant, a resident of Cokesbury, said he found both men interesting and well-informed.

“I’ll take both of them,” Trabant said.

Well, my and Jack’s opponents had their third news conference yesterday.  To recap, their first news conference was to announce that they were buying into the John McCain health care reform plan, which is essentially to deregulate the insurance industry the same way George Bush did the financial services industry.  I will not dwell on why this is a bad idea; if you need clarification, walk away from your computer and turn on CNN.  Their second news conference was to accuse the bi-partisan group of Delawareans who help develop the state’s revenue projections of being dishonest, a claim that they have slowly taken back in the succeeding weeks.  And yesterday was to announce their solution to the state’s pollution and cancer problems, which is to take DNREC (the state’s environmental enforcement and natural resources agency) and turn it into two agencies, the DNR and the EC.  I am not kidding.

Not to be too glib, but the path to tougher environmental enforcement is tougher environmental enforcement.  You don’t need to add bureaucracy to enforce the laws and regulations.  It is something I came into the Insurance Department in 2005 and started doing on day one.  It hasn’t always been easy, but the results have been tangible.  Insurance companies still do plenty of things they shouldn’t in Delaware, but by almost every statistical measure, they are taking advantage of people far less than they were four years ago.  Jack Markell and I will bring that same no-nonsense attitude to environmental enforcement in our state—and we won’t create more government bureaucracy to do it.

Well, the candidates’ finance reports for 30 days prior to the election came out yesterday, and the good news is that we have substantially more money in our campaign account than the other guy.  That doesn’t mean as much as it would in a normal race—my opponent can still head over to the ATM machine and make a withdrawal on the family fortune any time he wants to, and that is what we expect over the next month.  Still, for us to be where we are today is a huge victory, and I am very grateful to everyone who has donated to get us where we are.  We still need your help—you can donate by going to http://www.mattdenn.com/getinvolved/contribute/.

Of almost equal importance in the long term, I have discovered a recipe for healthy banana bread that my kids eat like chocolate cake.  You can find it by clicking http://www.tcns.info/child_snack_recipes.htm and going to “Flaxseed Banana Bread.”

I had a great day on the campaign trail yesterday.  I don’t know how many votes I picked up, though it seemed like a good number, but I had Adam Denn as my wing man all day, and we had a blast.

There are some logistical challenges involved in having a three year old as a campaign sidekick.  Some of them involve toilets, I will not elaborate.  In Adam’s case, a long day in the car also requires updating of his soundtrack music—every few weeks, Adam has new favorite songs that need to be added to the constantly evolving CD that we play in the car.  This week, the Fifth Dimension and Nellie McKay have been rotated out, and the Doobie Brothers and Steve Winwood are in.

Adam and I first hit Coast Day in Lewes, and with our campaign director Alyssa greeted people as they came in from the parking lot.  Nobody can say “no” to a three year old who offers them a sticker.  After the crowd started to level off, we went inside so Adam could see the pirate ship, oyster shells, and the ‘critter tub.’  After seeing the signs admonishing people to disinfect their children’s hands after they stuck them in the critter tub, I decided Adam would just look at the critters.

We had some chocolate ice cream (that I had to borrow $2 from Pete Schwartzkopf to pay for), and then headed off to the Rehoboth AIDS Walk in Grove Park.  A man in a clown suit made Adam an excellent balloon hat, Adam played on the amazing park swingset, and I was able to thank many volunteers for walking.   Loyal Denn friend and supporter Fay Jacobs was also there showing the Denn colors.

We closed things out by heading back to Coast Day for a while with supervolunteer Steve Burke, and then we went down to the boardwalk for dinner.  In between, Kim Epolito gave me some samples of the homemade Markell/Denn signs and flags that she had designed—very nice work!

We got home just in time for bedtime, so Adam could tell Zach about what he done all day.  Like I said, not sure how many votes we got, but there’s nothing better than having one of the Denn boys with me all day.

Candidates for governor, lieutenant governor propose bold steps to make government do more with less, implement ‘state of the art’ budgeting process

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 2, 2008

WILMINGTON – Jack Markell and Matt Denn today laid out the steps a Markell-Denn administration would take to aggressively cut costs and make government more efficient.

Joined by legislative candidates and incumbents, the Democratic gubernatorial and lieutenant governor nominees stood outside the Carvel State Office Building in Wilmington to release the details of their cost-savings strategy.

“I am proud that Matt and I are the only statewide candidates with a comprehensive plan to save taxpayer dollars, eliminate wasteful spending and ensure Delaware has the resources it needs to invest in its future,” Markell said. “We owe it to taxpayers to find innovative ways to save money. We cannot keep doing things the same old way if we want to address important issues like job creation, education and health care, and simply saying ‘no’ to everything is not going to take Delaware in a new direction toward a better future.”

This plan builds on the cost-savings plan Markell released this summer. Both candidates have a proven track record of doing finding ways to save taxpayers’ dollars.Denn cut travel costs, consultant fees, and unnecessary job positions at the Insurance Department. Markell reformed the state’s purchasing system to save $30 million, developed the Health Rewards program to improve employees’ health and cut medical costs, led efforts to make the state’s technology spending more efficient and switched to a modern computer accounting system to save taxpayer money.

“Jack Markell and I haven’t just talked about making government work better, we’ve done it,” Denn said. “Jack and I have each been the chief executives of large state agencies, and we have transformed those agencies into much more responsive and efficient agencies than the ones we inherited.”

Specifically, the Markell-Denn plan would:

Institute State-of-the-Art Budgeting Processes by limiting use of revenue from unpredictable sources, implement a ten-year Sunset Review system for all agencies, look at a five-year budget cycle and analyze long term economic and demographic trends and compare Delaware’s efficiencies against other state’s operations. For example, Delaware’s cost efficiency of child support collections is ranked 48th nationally, at $2.40 collected for every dollar of administrative expenses.

Make Sure Delaware Receives Its Fair Share of Federal Funding by working with the congressional delegation to ensure that the federal government is paying for all the services they can or should pay for. This means not cutting state funds that generate matching funds, maximizing our receipt of federal funds to which we are entitled by pursuing funds Delaware is eligible for and utilizing federal funds instead of state monies to pay for programs.

Crack Down on Waste and Fraud, especially in the Medicaid system. By investing in technologies designed to detect fraudulent patterns, such as billing, the state could recover millions of dollars. Even if Delaware reduced one tenth of Medicaid overpayments, the savings would range from just under $5 million to over $12 million.

Make Investments That Will Save Us Even More by making sound budget decisions to save the state money in the future. For example, investing in education and creating crime-fighting policies that reduce recidivism will save the state millions in prison costs while investing in healthier communities. A single prison bed costs over $24,000 a year in Delaware; long-term savings could be significant. If Delaware can reduce its incarceration rate to the national average, the state could reduce prison costs by $15 million.

Going Green Saves Green - Investing in green technology can reduce energy consumption, cut costs and reduce urban sprawl at the same time. In addition to the suggestions in his Blueprint for a Better Delaware book, Markell’s budget plan includes making new state buildings green buildings and retro-fitting and retro-commissioning state buildings. Following the lead of states like Colorado, Delaware’s pilot program to reduce utilities with new energy efficient technology and appliances reduced energy costs by 25% across four agencies. Applying conservative estimates statewide could save at least 5% on all utility costs across the remaining agencies.

Institute a Total State Government Performance Review to identify savings opportunities through improving customer services, eliminating unnecessary or redundant services or proposing new ways to perform essential services. States such as New Mexico and West Virginia – which are just double the size of Delaware – are projecting that their performance reviews will save taxpayers more than $300 million over four years.

Improve State Government’s Purchase of Goods and Services by expanding Markell’s Strategic Sourcing Initiative to include other services, such as state agencies and school districts. As treasurer, Markell reduced Delaware’s procurement costs by 13.5% across a range of categories. Other cost effective strategies include investing in contract management and implementing performance based contracting, investing in preventative maintenance first (before new projects are started) and working with other states to pool buying power in order to obtain better prices on a wide range of purchases.

Being Fair About Who Pays Taxes – Smarter Enforcement of Existing Tax Laws: To achieve this, Markell and Denn propose adopting the latest technology in tamper-proof cigarette tax stamps, using technology to detect tax deadbeats, crosschecking taxes owed the state against drivers’ license renewals and conducting a one-time tax amnesty to boost collections – something Delaware has not done in over 25 years.

Leverage Technology to Reduce Costs by implementing e-pay secure internet access for employees, encouraging broader use of combined telecommunications technology and conducting a review of state delivery, mail and fleet policies to identify cost saving and efficiency opportunities. Booking all employee travel online, and allowing Delawareans to renew their drivers licenses online will also save the state money.

I am off early again this morning, but I wanted to report that had our first Markell-Denn press conference yesterday regarding our plans to make state government work more efficiently, and it was a great success.  I ran into the Governor-to-be in the parking garage, where he was searching for his parking pass that he had dropped on the floor of his car, and as we came around the corner of the state building and saw the crowd of people standing where our press conference was supposed to be, I was briefly afraid that we had double-booked the plaza with some sort of community fair.  But everyone was there for the press conference—including over a dozen of our great candidates for the Delaware General Assembly.  It was a terrific event—you can read about it in today’s News Journal at http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20081003/NEWS02/810030327/1006/NEWS. 

Just over four weeks to go!

Well, I hate to say I told you so…but the negative campaign against me has started. I won’t bother you with the details—they will move onto another subject within a few days, so there’s almost no point. But this is what we have been expecting, and it’s what you can expect for the next month.

Some people asked me yesterday if it bothers me to have people make things up and distort things about me. And I guess the answer is that this may be the least bad time in my life for me to be the subject of a negative campaign. My kids are too young to understand it, and my wife has now been through it twice before (I haven’t managed to get through a statewide election without going through the sleaze-recipient endurance drill), so she doesn’t like it but at least she knows the drill.

As for me, I know what I am about, so it doesn’t bother me except to the extent that it affects the election outcome. So the best thing we can do is win—which we will.