2 days to go. Based on press reports, the white smoke has yet to be seen from the Legislative Hall chimney. The state’s finances, of course, being the foremost subject facing the Delaware General Assembly. Lots of ‘whipping’ is gonna have to go on, especially in the House Republican Caucus, for a balanced budget to emerge. The reason why the House Republicans are essential is that a super-majority is required to pass revenue-enhancers and both the operating budget and the Bond Bill. And it’s gonna have to be more than the bare majority to pass. D’s won’t ‘walk the plank’ w/o sufficient Republican support.
The Delaware State Senate has no posted agenda for today. They are now working from must-lists, which are lists of bills submitted by legislators and reflect the bills they consider essential priorities. Hence the term ‘must-list’. There are also no committee meetings scheduled today for the Senate. Since the Senate has not yet chosen to ‘stream’ its session, unlike the House, the Senate will operate in virtual anonymity today, free from prying eyes save for those who venture to Legislative Hall.
Memo to the New Senate Leadership: Start (a) posting full roll calls, not just the numbers w/o the names; and (b) start streaming your proceedings. Otherwise one might question the body’s commitment to open government.
By contrast, the House has three agendas posted and, perhaps more importantly, four ‘revenue-enhancers’ that have been laid on the Speaker’s Table. That term (LOT) means that the legislation can be lifted from the table and considered under suspension of rules, assuming that a majority does not object. These four bills sponsored by Rep. Schwartzkopf are the revived versions of the tobacco and alcohol tax increases plus the increased licensing fees for establishments involved in gaming and/or the sale of alcohol. Check ’em out: HB 194, HB 210, HB 211, and HB 212.
People with long, if you can count two weeks as long, memories will recall that HB’s 210, 211 and 212 were previously defeated in the House, but were revived due to a common parliamentary maneuver (a supporter of the bill switches to ‘no’ when it’s clear that there are not sufficient votes to pass it, then as a member of the ‘prevailing’ side, moves to restore the bill to the calendar). If you click on the bills, you will note that the Senate Republican leadership signed on as sponsors, leaving the House R’s the holdouts to passing the bills. No doubt, Rep. Schwartzkopf will not move to lift these bills from the table until or unless it’s clear that the House R’s are prepared to fall in line. Legislative Hall equivalents of ‘Kremlinologists’ can likely take R support of this package as a strong signal that a deal has been struck on the entire financial package. Conversely, if the bills aren’t run today, that’ll tell you that it’s gonna be a long June 30/July 1.
If past years are history, the House will likely try to work through its entire agenda(s) today, and will probably work ‘must-lists’ most of the day tomorrow.
For those of you in Leg Hall, try to pay attention to who is going in and out of the Governor’s office, long ‘caucuses’ when it appears that no one is actually in caucus, and the like. Much of these last two days revolve around negotiating and/or brinksmanship, so sometimes what’s not happening is far more instructive than what’s happening.