General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tuesday, January 18, 2022
But, first, a detail left over from last Thursday’s session. SB 64 (Townsend) passed the Senate. This is the bill that levies civil penalties if you don’t remove accumulated ice or snow from your car. There were two no votes, and one not voting. The three senators who did not support the bill were Gay, McBride, and Pinkney. If I was uncertain as to whether a certain bill was ‘good’ or not, they’d be among the three most likely who I would seek out. I trust all three. I see two possible reasons why they would oppose the bill. The bill once again gives police discretion to stop people based on a pretext. I mean, don’t they have anything better to do during, or in the immediate aftermath of, a storm than looking for cars trailing a snow tail? The second, and this is a question I would have asked, is–what empirical evidence does anyone have that this is a danger? Annoying, of course. But, is there a record of how many accidents have been caused by people not clearing the roofs of their cars? Trucks I can see. Anyway, if the bill was going to be stopped, it would have been in the Senate. Should be smooth sailing through the cop-controlled chamber.
Another sparse Tuesday awaits.
One Senate Committee meeting today. One bill. Just try to turn that into blog gold.
At least a few bills in House committees are worth discussing:
“Mommy, where do bills letting you sell booze in Delaware come from?”
“Sweetheart, they come from the Trone Family.”
HB 289 (Heffernan) is clearly special-interest legislation, with campaign contributions inevitably attached. While the special interests pushing for this almost assuredly are broader than just Total Wine, this is a bill for them, not to create any kind of necessary convenience for consumers. Just so we’re all on the same page. Administration.
HB 257 (Heffernan) increases fees ‘for air quality natural minor permits issued by the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control’. ‘The fees have not been adjusted in almost 3 decades and as a result the program is not self-sustaining. This Act will allow for a phased approach to increase these fees, with the first increase intended to result in funding 50% of the program costs. Evaluations will occur before July 1 of 2024 and July 1 of 2027 with recommended adjustments to fund 75% and 100% of the program costs respectively’. Fair enough. My question is: If the program was supposed to be self-sustaining, then why do we have to wait until 2027 until it is? Natural Resources.
HB 276 (Bennett, is she still there?) makes sure that folks who legally use medical marijuana should also be permitted to purchase firearms. Are firearms sales to militias slowing down or something? One guarantee: Anything arming more of the white citizenry will fly right through the House. Public Safety & Homeland Security.
HB 259 (Lambert) ‘requires Delaware to use the Wireless Emergency Alert (“WEA”) system to notify the public of emergency alerts and requires that the emergency alert system be used when a catastrophic release occurs. A catastrophic release is a major uncontrolled emission, fire, or explosion that presents an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health. This Act also requires that emergency alerts be broadcast in Spanish, in addition to English, when possible.’ DEMA has the technology. Why they haven’t chosen to use it in all cases is something that passes understanding. Public Safety & Homeland Security.
HS 1/HB 168 (Bush): This is Bush and Spiros pushing special interest legislation on behalf of at least one, and perhaps more, insurance companies. IC Navarro is almost certainly reaping some bennies from this as well. ‘It is the intent of the Department of Insurance that the first approved jurisdiction be the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom real estate typically is held not in fee simple (like the US) but long-term land leases. Thirty three other states including Maryland, New Jersey, and New York have similar statues’ (aren’t those being torn down now?). Business Lapdog Committee, where else?
Back tomorrow with more committee meetings and likely little else.
So… Insurance co’s can invest in mortgages in the UK? What? Why is this a bill?
Because at least one of those companies is throwing around enough money to get two of the General Assembly’s top sell-outs to sponsor it.
Back not too terribly long ago, you’d have been able to read at least a small item in the paper about that bill and the reasons people voted. Today’s group apparently considers that type of reporting beneath them.
The News-Journal didn’t even write its own story about the House vote on the McG removal opinion. They ran an AP writeup. Incredibly sad.
I agree. Good post.
Concerning SB 289, allowing curbside pickup of beer, wine and spirits: Let’s say, Mr. El Somnambulo, that you telephone Moore Brothers Wine, order a few bottles of your favorites, and pay by card. Then you drive down there, call inside, and a clerk brings out your selections, checks to make sure it’s you behind the wheel, and then plops your purchase in the trunk. This, of course, allows you, a vulnerable senior, to avoid potentially infectious public interaction in the time of a pandemic. How, pray tell, does the Trone Family benefit?
Smaller stores likely can’t spare a worker to leave the store. It’s a small but real advantage for the larger stores.