Delaware General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Despite some last-minute games, including a possible ‘turfing’ attempt by an alleged grassroots group which was really an industry effort in disguise, Delaware’s comprehensive universal recycling bill passed in the Senate. Three senators voted no. As usual, the posted Senate roll call does not reveal which three. Seriously, isn’t about time for the newly-reconstituted Common Cause to raise a stink about this? Either you have open government or you don’t.

Speaking of open government, the News-Journal article gave a little hope that the Delaware Way may be fraying slightly. Uber-lobbyist David Swayze, this time representing the Glass Bottle Institute, whined that he’d been denied “a seat at the table” for negotiations. Kids, here’s a postulate to remember: Any negotiation that does NOT provide David Swayze a seat at the table is far more likely to serve the public good than one that does. He’s got his paws into everything. Here are his current clients:

David S. Swayze Parkowski, Guerke & Swayze 800 King Street – Suite 203 Wilmington , DE 19801	AAA Mid-Atlantic One River Place Wilmington , DE 19081	AMERICA’S HEALTH INSURANCE PLANS 555 13th Street, N.W. Ste. 600 East Washington , DC 200041109	AMERICAN RED CROSS IN DELAWARE P.O. Box 831 1010 Concord Ave. Wilmington , DE 19899
	Asurion Insurance Services, Inc. 648 Grassmere Park Drive Suite 300 Nashville , NA 37211	AT&T 99 Bedford Street Suite 420 Boston , MA 02111	BLUE CROSS AND BLUE SHIELD OF DELAWARE, INC. P. O. Box 1991 Wilmington , DE 19899
	Bluewater Wind Delaware, LLC 1 Innovation Way Suite 304 F Newark , DE 19711	CHESAPEAKE UTILITIES CORPORATION P.O. Box 615 Dover , DE 19903	Christiana Care Corporation 501 West 14th Street Wilmington , DE 19801
	CITIBANK DELAWARE One Penns Way New Castle , DE 19720	CITICORP c/o Citicorp. Washington, Inc 1101 Pennsylvania Ave.,NW Suite 100 Washington , DC 20004	CITY OF WILMINGTON 800 N. French Street Wilmington , DE 19801
	Columbus Circle Capital LLP 152 W. 57th Street 32nd Floor New York , NY 10019	Continental Casualty Company CNA 333 S. Wabash Avenue, 43rd Floor Chicago , IL 60604	Del Pointe, Inc. 55 Cascade Lane Rehoboth , DE 19971
	Delaware State Education Association 136 East Water Street Dover , DE 19901	Distilled Spirits Council of the United States 1250 Eye Street NW Suite 400 Washington , DC 2005	E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company 1107 Market Street D-7038 Wilmington , DE 19898
	EZ CASH OF DELAWARE, INC. 300 Bi-State Blvd. Ste. 2 Delmar , DE 19940	FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANK OF PITTSBURGH 601 Grant Street Pittsburgh , PA 152194455	FIRST BANK OF DELAWARE 824 Market Street Wilmington , DE 19801
	Frascella Enterprises of Delaware LLC 650 Naamans Road Suite 101 Claymont , DE 19703	FSI Energy, Inc. 820 Gatemore Road Bryn Mawr , PA 19010	Glass Packaging Institute 700 N. Fairfax Street Suite 510 Alexandria , VA 22314
	MULTI-STATE ASSOCIATION of behalf of METROPOLITAN LIFE INSURANCE CO. 515 King Street Suite 300 Alexandria , VA 22314	OSG America Inc. 302 Knights Run Ave. Suite 1200 Tampa , FL 33602	Progressive Insurance 200 Westgate Parkway Suite 300 Richmond , VA 23233
	Riverfront Development Corporation 800 S. Madison Street Wilmington , DE 19801	Sepracor, Inc. 89 Waterford Dr. Marlborough, , MA 01752	UICI Companies 9151 Grapevine Highway North Richland Hills , TX 76108
	Unison Administrative Services, LLC Unison Plaza 1001 Brinton Road Pittsburg , PA 15221	WILMINGTON RENAISSANCE CORP. 214 N. Market Street Wilmington , DE 19801

Over the years, he has consistently worked the inside game on behalf of the special interests. He easily transitioned from legal counsel for Gov. duPont to lobbyist, where he has flourished ever since. At least, unlike Gary Patterson and Bobby Byrd, he was ethical enough to wait until he left government. Byrd and Patterson continued as registered lobbyists even while employed by Gov. Minner. The News-Journal, late as always. claims to be shocked that Minner accepted a trip from Chris Tigani, funded by NKS Distributors. And that does appear to be highly unethical. Well, they should have been screaming bloody murder that lobbyists worked in her administration while carrying on their lobbying activities.

But, I digress.

Here’s the entire session report from Thursday. As you can see, activity is picking up.

Onward to Quatro de Mayo.

The Senate Agenda appears devoid of any substantive bills today. Mostly rearranging administrative deck chairs, clarifying definitions, and providing for electronic child support payments instead of mailing out checks. As always, YMMV.

There are a few interesting bills in the House today. Clearly inspired by the Dr. Bradley case, HB 326 (Rep. Schwartzkopf) ‘clarifies that civil actions based on sexual abuse of a patient by a healthcare provider may be filed at any time after the commission of the abuse. This Act also creates a 2-year “look-back” provision in cases of abuse which was unknown and could not reasonably have been discovered by the patient.’

SB 157 (Sen. Peterson) brings Delaware into conformity with Federal law by ‘protect(ing) up to $125,000 of a debtor’s equity in their principal residential home in a bankruptcy proceeding.’

And HB 380 (Rep. Bennett) creates a tax credit incentive for Delaware  businesses to partner with new businesses to bring new jobs to the state. Both the existing Delaware business and the new-to-Delaware business would be eligible for a $500 annual tax credit per job for each new job created. This bill has high-powered sponsorship from both parties and was almost certainly an initiative developed by the Delaware Economic Development Office.

If you’ll excuse me, in honor of the season, I’ll spend the rest of the day wasting away in Margaritaville, or to more accurately describe Jimmy Buffett’s music, ‘Mediocreville’. Which, come to think of it, is a pretty good nickname for Dover.