Harris, With Marble(s) in Mouth, Blasts Proligate Dems

September 25, 2008

Every once in a while, Rich Harris, Gov. Rell’s PR pitbull, is let out for a walk to bite the ankles of majority Democrats.
Harris, Rell’s spokesman, said in a pointed statement yesterday that the state’s Auditors of Public Accounts already have a dozen full-time employees assigned to state Department of Social Services, so the Democrats including Comptroller Nancy Wyman would be blowing money with a $100,000 study of the agency.
“It would be hard to find a more textbook example of ‘waste’ and‘inefficiency’ than the comptroller’s plan to spend tens of thousands of dollars to have outside consultants audit DSS,” Harris said.
He went on to blast Democrats – who control the Legislature and therefore the Committee on Legislative Management that runs the Capitol complex – for profligate spending, including a recent $11,000 purchase of equipment for the speaker’s Capitol office and Democratic.“They may wish to examine, for instance, the $200,000 spent this year to chip away marble baseboards in the Legislative Office Building (LOB) and replace them with granite baseboards,” Harris said.
The Blogster thought it was closer to $250,000, but what the heck.
“Perhaps the consultants will offer a discount if they are also hired to examine the legislative branch for frivolous spending,” Harris said. “The simple fact is that the Democratic majority is desperately hoping to avoid making difficult decisions, particularly before the November elections.”
The Spanish marble baseboards were torn out this year after they were found to be cracking and they were replaced with tougher Indian granite. Several years ago, Spanish-marble details throughout the LOB began cracking, chipping and falling, some chips descending several stories to the first-floor atrium, prompting their replacement, rather than the expensive issuance of hard hats for everybody.
Larry Perosino, Speaker of the House Jim Amann’s spokesman, said in reaction to Harris’sstatements that the Democratic majorities this year saved millions of dollars when they abandoned a planned multi-million-dollar renovation and redesign of the Legislative Office Building.
It surely sounds like budget season. Can a special session be far behind?