Nightmares

by Stephen Brandon

  “Governor, a presentation like that will take several weeks to put together.”

  “That's bull, we don't have that much time! All that information has to be somewhere. Try the state computer system and the Internet. In fact, call that new computer whiz you were bragging about hiring last month. Get him up here now.”

  “Governor, this is Jimmy, the brightest kid ever to graduate from the state university.”

  “Jimmy, what is your proper name?”

  “James Monroe, Sir.”

  “OK James, what I need done quickly is a presentation put together showing the state economy when I took office. Then, after each piece of legislation was passed the way the economy reacted. Also, I want a comparison presentation that can be run with it showing what the surrounding three states did during the same time frame. Last, the same thing thing for the nation. How soon can you give me a draft presentation?”

  “If Mr. Abbot will let me pick three assistants and authorize working overnight I can have a rough draft on the computer tomorrow.”

  The governor scratched his head and then said, “John give him the authority and authorization. Then set up a meeting with the senate and house leaders for a late lunch meeting in the large dining room. Also get any computers and other equipment that James needs to give his draft presentation after you give your poll presentation. Any questions?”

  “No Sir,” replied John.

  “I can only get a rough draft done by then, there will be information that I won't have time to weed out by tomorrow.”

  “That's OK James, I want to give the attendees a shock that will hopefully make them get their followers in gear. I don't want to stick another finger in the dike, like the little dutch boy. I want to quickly build a wall that will stop the death spiral the state's in.”

  “Alright Governor, I'll do my best and have all the information ready to present by noon tomorrow. After I give the presentation, I'll polish it and link in any points they have questions about.”

  ~ ~ ~

  “Before we eat, John is going to give a quick briefing on the summary of the recent polls that the news media have taken.”

  Then the Governor continued, “After lunch we'll have another presentation that was put together by some of my staff last night. I haven't even seen it yet. I hope that their draft presentation will put us in a better mood. So lets eat.”

  As the dessert dishes were being cleared by the staff the Governor told John, “Get James in here. As soon as the staff is out of the room I want you to post yourself outside and make sure we have privacy while we check out this presentation and talk.”

  James and a young lady entered and hooked up his laptop to the three big screen TV's on the west wall. She then sat down and pulled out a steno book and pen. James started off by saying, “Yesterday I was given the task of tracking the governors term in office, the state economy, laws that were passed, effect these laws had on the economy, and a few surrounding states as a factor to see how the national economy was tracking. On the left screen is the national economy statistics on the day he took office. On the middle screen is the three surrounding states, each in its own window. On the right screen is our state statistics. All these statistics are published by the government budget office of the entity listed. As soon as you are ready I'll start with each policy and law passed that I was able to track, they will be displayed on the far right screen. I'll be using the national economy reports as a benchmark and progress in thirty day increments. Any questions before we start?”

  “Yes,” said the senate majority leader. “Who are you, what's your background, and what political party do you belong to?”

  “Well sir, I graduated from the state college 5 months ago and was hired as a staff researcher due to my computer skills. I'm 23 and haven't registered to vote, nor voted in any election. I was planning on putting in my resignation due to the boring aspects of my job here, and going into the private sector at the end of the year. That was until I was given this assignment yesterday. Anything else?”

  “No young man, get on with the presentation.”

  “Yes sir, now these three screens show the economic indicators that are tracked by each government entity. Here are February's statics, here are March's. As you can see all the states have taken a dip that the federal government does not show. Now in March the national teachers union started making demands, and the state teachers unions started echoing the demands in April. Notice in June all the states except our neighbor to the east, that is a right to work state, took a 2 point dip. New contracts were signed in July. The legislature of our state and the neighbor to the north passed tax hikes and user fees in early September. Our neighbor to the south passed theirs in late September. As you can see when they took effect in January, our neighbors economy slowed by an average of 3 points. Now lets go back to September when the state income tax was upped from 7% to 7.9%. You signed it in October. The combination of the two taxes and the user fees had a combined effect of slowing our economy by 5.7%. Our neighbors did not raise state income tax. Our neighbor to the east lowered their state income tax from 8% to 7.5%. Their economic indicators as of the end of January are up 2.5% even though they placed user fees on many state paperwork functions.

  “If you will change the submission dates for the states economic indicators and have them sent to my office I can have February's indicators for a presentation by the 10th.

  “Also Governor, if you will require the regulatory departments to submit their new and changed regulations I will be able to include them in the presentation. I was only able to get hold of two in the housing sector and the housing sector took a dip about 30 days after each was implemented. The housing sector has not bounced back like it has nationally or in our neighboring states. That is all I have, questions?”

  “Son,” said the senate minority leader, “How would you suggest we proceed to get the economic indicators for the state to rise before election time?”

  With a deer in the headlights look James stated, “I can't really say, all I can do is look at the policies the different states have implemented and the results in their economic indicators following those implementations. Politics is something my parents warned me to stay out of.”

  The Governor stood up and stated, “I don't give a damn about your politics. I want you to list all the laws passed since I took office and correlate them with the economic indicators for the three months following implementation. In fact include any previously passed laws that took effect after I took office. Put your assistants to combing the state regulatory agencies and list all their changes and effects upon the economy after implementation. To be fair you will furnish a copy to the senate and house leaders the same time you deliver a copy to me. I want you to start tomorrow and have a report to us every Thursday. I'll be damned if I'm going down without a fight because what I learned, and what my advisers tell me sends the state into a death spiral. If it works, I want it done!”

  Then he yelled, “John get in here.”

  As John said, “Yes governor”, the Governor cut him off. “I want Mr. Monroe here to have an office tomorrow and room for his assistants. You will draft an executive order for me to sign tomorrow morning giving Mr. Monroe carte blanche to gather data from all state administrative offices. I don't want any administrative red tape preventing him from getting his reports in on time.

  “Now gentlemen, since you will be getting the same reports every Thursday, I am going to request that you give Mr. Monroe authority and freedom to gather information for the next year. These reports will be hand delivered to you by either him or one of his assistants. You will control the information, so if any of the information in the reports gets out you will know where the information came from. Either that or we can set up a luncheon meeting every Thursday here.

  “As it stands right now the polls report that none of us stand a chance in hell to
continue our political careers after the next election. I don't intend to be a one term governor! Any questions or comments.”

  “Yes governor I have a comment. As a loyal member of the opposition party, I must inform you that you are going to give me a headache. You are going to make it very hard for us to beat you in November. It's really to bad that the information in the reports can't be used against you unless you turn ultra liberal and refuse to act on policies that will improve the living and economic conditions of our constituents.

  “Monday morning I will be submitting a bill to make our state a right to work state, and revoking the laws and regulations requiring all state employees join a union. We all know that there is a lot of deadwood lurking in our bureaucracy. Lets trim some of it out after bringing our pension plans more in line with the private sector. No one should retire with a pension higher than the salary they earned while working.

  “A colleague of mine will be submitting a bill to revise state pension plans. If you get Mr. Monroe to add pension plans to his list, I'd appreciate it. I'll even give him a list of sources to start with. I hope he will give you an unbiased factual report. My staffs report indicates that the state pensions will exceed projected tax revenues in seven years.”

  “Anything else?” asked the Governor. “If not then I'll talk to each of you next Thursday or Friday, or shall we have our first report over lunch. Let John know by Wednesday.”

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