General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., April 10, 2014.
Yesterday was a light day. The Senate worked and passed a series of noncontroversial measures, some of which I previously discussed here. The Gun Down the Gray Fox bill made it out of committee. The Dream Act bill didn’t. Priorities, people. BTW, projected annual cost of the Dream Act bill, according to the Fiscal Note? Just over $40K/year. Here’s the entire Session Activity Report.
The Governor has 51 million reasons to root for passage of HB 265(Schwartzkopf) in the Senate today. The bill raises $51 million in increased annual corporate fees. Since the bill requires a 3/5 super-majority vote, 13 yes votes are required. Don’t think the bill would be on the Senate Agenda if all 13 D’s were not on board, but we shall see. The over/under on how long it takes Governor Markell to sign the bill? 30 minutes. I’m taking the under.
Today’s House Agenda features legislation purporting to provide more transparency to the campaign finance process. HB 171(D. E. Williams) adds an additional mandatory reporting period for political campaign committees. In this case, June 30. This would be in addition to a year-end report and, during election years, a 30-days out report and an 8-days out report. Right now, the D’s and the R’s are falling all over each other to claim that they are the fairest of them all when it comes to campaign finance reform. Color me skeptical, no, make that cynical, but I think these efforts are more likely to make it appear that the system is more transparent, but is not, in fact, any more transparent. Oh, well, the stuff will look good on campaign brochures. Which is what really matters.
E-cigs will be treated like tobacco, with the same penalties for distributing them to minors, assuming HB 241(Hudson) passes. It will. Not sure if the bill has been carefully thought through, but it’s not as if this would be the first time that legislation has not been carefully thought through.
Wish I had more, but I can only work with the materials provided.
Do you have any more details on what happened with the Dream Act?
It’s not even clear whether it was brought up. I checked the bill’s status, and it just says that it’s in committee. Nothing, for example, about being tabled in committee.
I’ll be checking out meeting notices to see if it’s scheduled for the next one. BTW, General Assembly is out for Easter break for two weeks following today’s session.
re: HB256 – This bill should have doubled the fee increase. These corporate fat-cats have been avoiding their fiscal responsibilities for far too long. This would have attracted more green jobs and industries to Delaware by demonstrating a strong resolve against corporate cronyism and a firm commitment to central planning efficiencies.
HB 256 will work in concert with the new SB 197, addressing human trafficking in Delaware. Yes, it is going on in Delaware.