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.