General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., June 22, 2011
The banks are gonna get their tax breaks, and there ain’t no way to put lipstick on those pigs. They’re blackmailing us and we’re paying and paying and paying:
Rep. John Kowalko, D-Newark South, initially came out against the bank tax cuts when Markell proposed them in May.”They do pretty damn well with the federal handouts,” Kowalko said at the time. “I want to see a return on the investment before I will blindly vote on that.”But Kowalko has since decided to support the bill, convinced the tax cuts will help save existing banking jobs in the state. “I don’t want to be the one who takes that chance,” Kowalko said Tuesday.
This bill will not produce one new job in the banking industry. We’re just paying ransom to try to keep jobs here. Which is what happens after 30 years of bribing banks to come here by legalizing usurious interest rates. The banks and Markell will be back to plunder the treasury again next year. Drip, drip, drip. Oh, and the banks we’re paying? They’ll leave anyway, likely sooner than later.
OK, now that I’ve gotten that temporarily out of my system, let’s check out the rest of yesterday’s low- and highlights.
The House Democratic Caucus introduced its redistricting bill, HB 210. Other than cleaning up some jots and jiggles, the bill is virtually identical to the plan released about a month ago. For more on that plan, check out my analysis here. I think this is a very solid plan, and one that will help lock in a D House advantage for the next ten years. In other words, the diametric opposite of the proposed Senate plan, which is political retribution in bill form. Political retribution that could ultimately cost the D’s their Senate majority.When you screw D’s like Sokola, Bunting and Katz while rewarding R’s like Connor, Cloutier, and Bonini in a state with an overwhelming Democratic plurality, you’re acting irresponsibly. Placing your own motivations ahead of exercising leadership. DeLuca and Blevins have done just that. I still hope that some of this can be redone, but I’m not holding my breath. Maybe it’s time for Gov. Markell and (dare I say it?) the Democratic State Committee to get involved. Yo, Jack, Dave Sokola was with you from the very beginning. How about returning the favor?
Legislative Council was apparently too busy to put the Session Report online today. I hear that they’ve got an exciting new video poker program to keep them occupied and, well, they no doubt find that more addictive than doing their jobs. But that doesn’t stop El Somnambulo. As previously noted, SB 91 (DeLuca), this year’s tax giveaway to the banks, passed the Senate unanimously. As did SB 111, HB 76, SB 104 (with one ‘Not Voting’), SB 18 (one ‘Not Voting’). All were discussed in yesterday’s brilliant magnum opus.
The House passed HB 174, HB 177 (a particularly good bill), HB 182 (1 No, 5 Not Voting), and the sop to the telecommunications industry, HJR 3. Lest you have any doubt as to whether corporatocracy has replaced democracy as Delaware’s form of government, HJR 3 and SB 91, among many others, should disabuse you of that notion.
Tiny Tony DeLuca’s joke of an open government bill highlights today’s Senate Agenda. SB 4 would ‘require(s) members of the General Assembly and statewide elected officials to disclose all separate income and the hours worked in separate employment during days when they perform official duties.’ The Napoleonic Martinet is trying to change the subject from the real issue: Double-dipping state employees who refuse to provide verification that they are actually earning their generous salaries over and above their legislative salaries. I tell, you Tiny Tony, I’ll make you an offer that you can refuse, but shouldn’t. Show us your swipe card logs from the Department of Labor, and then I might take you seriously. Hey, nice to know that your ‘boy’ Viola has signed on as your House co-Sponsor. Both of you should come clean about your ‘work hours’ before you try to muddy the waters. But that’s not what grifters do, is it?
Other Senate bills of interest to me:
SS1/SB 29(Henry): Would make it illegal for persons to possess a firearm in a public place while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
HB 144(Short): As predicted here, this bill, plagiarized or not, gets the coveted agenda spot over the Katz bill. Oh, and it deals with invasive procedures at facilities that perform abortions. Memo to Sen. Katz: I know you’re gonna want to say something about this. It’s only human nature. Either (a) don’t; or (b) act conciliatory. No need to burn more bridges here.
SB 129(Lawson): Seeks to protect us from Delaware’s incipient coyote problem. Them varmints have grown jes’ too big for their britches! Which is why SB 129 would designate the coyote as wildlife which is not protected in Delaware. Which means: Unsheathe those Uzis, sportsmen, it’s CA-YOAT season!
The House Agenda features several previously-discussed items that didn’t get worked yesterday. Plus:
HB 140(Carson): A presumably well-intended (it’s Carson, folks, so it’s impossible to really know) bill that would “prohibit slower moving vehicles from driving in the left lane and blocking traffic, which commonly leads to road rage and has motivated several other states to adopt “left lane” laws. This bill provides that vehicles may overtake slower moving vehicles on the left, but otherwise shall not drive in the left lane, which is intended to serve as the passing lane.” What could possibly be wrong with this? I think it will significantly increase road rage incidents, not decrease them. There is simply no easy way for police to enforce this. Which means that 99.99% of these incidents will not be enforced. However, now it will be against the law, so drivers won’t only rage about the mom-moms and pop-pops in the left lane, they will rage that (a) it’s now against the law; and (b) that nobody’s enforcing the law.
SB 63(Peterson): Long overdue, thanks to Nancy Cook and Thurman Adams, this bill will put proposed legislation in context by placing it within the current Delaware Code. It will afford both the public and legislators the opportunity to see what is really being done with any bill. The Delaware General Assembly’s system has had the capacity to do this for over ten years now, but the aforementioned Senate obstructionists delayed it. SB 63 unanimously passed the Senate earlier, and should soon become law. I consider it good ‘open government’ legislation.
SB 70(Hall-Long): I didn’t give this bill its due when it was considered in the Senate. This bill would:
…protect the health of young children by prohibiting the chemical bisphenol-A in certain children’s products such as bottles, cups, and other containers used for food or beverages.
Bisphenol-A, or BPA is a chemical used to help harden plastic and is found in many plastic food storage containers. BPA is a known hormone disruptor. Tests have shown that trace amounts leach out of the containers and into foods and liquids. BPA-free products exist.
SB 70 unanimously passed the Senate, and I expect a similar result in the House. Having a health care professional like Sen. Hall-Long in the General Assembly proves invaluable when legislation like this is the result.
Finally, just to illustrate the ‘Delaware Way’, I bring you House Consent Agenda D:
3 SB 77 (2/3) Blevins (George) Out of Committee AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 8 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE GENERAL CORPORATION LAW. 1 SB 74 (3/5) Blevins (George) Out of Committee AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 15, TITLE 6 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE CREATION, REGULATION, OPERATION AND DISSOLUTION OF DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIPS AND THE REGISTRATION AND REGULATION OF FOREIGN LIMITED LIABILITY PARTNERSHIPS. 2 SB 76 (3/5) Blevins (George) Out of Committee AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 18, TITLE 6 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE CREATION, REGULATION, OPERATION AND DISSOLUTION OF DOMESTIC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANIES AND THE REGISTRATION AND REGULATION OF FOREIGN LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANIES. 4 SB 95 Blevins (George) Out of Committee AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 17, TITLE 6 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE CREATION, REGULATION, OPERATION AND DISSOLUTION OF DOMESTIC LIMITED PARTNERSHIPS AND THE REGISTRATION AND REGULATION OF FOREIGN LIMITED PARTNERSHIPS.
These bills are all part of the annual submissions by the Corporate Law section of the Delaware Bar. Nobody, save perhaps Melanie George, has a clue as to what’s in them. However, all four bills are on a Consent Agenda, which means that, unless there are any objections, all four bills will be passed by one single roll call. Better for business that way.
Which is how it’s done in a corporatocracy.
I wonder if JK got something? …that sounds pejorative, but I’m assuming DL readers are mature enough to know how politics work.
Just thinking … but if we’re going to reduce taxes for these out of state banks, wouldn’t it make sense to get them to use some of money they’re saving to provide loans to small businesses in Delaware? Take a approach like that, and the governor could say it means “jobs, jobs, jobs.”
Access to loans is not an issue that keeps employers from hiring. There is one thing that drives hiring and one thing only: demand for the company’s products or services.
I don’t know about JK getting something — but Olbermann’s bit the other night about the *timid party* seems to ring true here. What got preserved were any and all of the checks written by the local banks to the local legislators (no idea if Kowalko is one of them). Certainly not many jobs got saved.
What is absolutely astonishing to me is that all of these guys and girls are sitting in a state where bank news hits the front page of the paper with some regularity. If you haven’t been paying attention to the fact that these banks are fundamentally changing their business model (and how can you not see that after the BoA business?) and that fewer jobs are exactly what is on offer for the rest of our lives –then maybe you ought to give up your seat in favor of someone who *will* pay attention.
And just to call it first — when the local casinos finally start to succumb to the out of state competition, *this* is how they’ll be spending your money, folks. Throwing it after an industry that is changing in ways you are way too late to change.
DeLuca’s dual employment disclosure bill passed the senate today with 11 votes. The usual cast of weasels helped him advance this ridiculous piece of legislation. Hopefully the House demonstrates saner thinking.
I think that the open-season-on-coyote bill is outrageous. It takes considerable anthropecentric hubris to automatically assume that because a new species migrates into the area that it has no right to be here.