General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: April 3, 2012

A Painting By Numbers Day in Dover last Thursday:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGchRXYAsvw[/youtube]

And, that, ladies and gentlemen, is the highlight of today’s magnum(-fueled) opus.

Unless the number in question is $100,000 and you’re an oil lightering company that just got a tax break in that exact amount.

Otherwise, pretty pro forma, as you can see here. The most notable bill passed in the Senate was  SB 174(Bushweller), which is designed to help first responders seek and receive critical counseling to deal with the stress they encounter. It’s a well-intended and even essential bill–as long as it doesn’t create a priest confessional type of situation. The House passed HB 202, which ‘makes it an offense to use a handicapped plate or placard issued to another person, unless that person is also in the vehicle’. The idea being, of course, to stop the use of handicapped parking spaces by those who don’t need them.

I strongly support a newly-introduced piece of legislation. HB 287(Lavelle) places the Delaware Sustainable Energy Utility under the requirements of state procurement laws.  About damned time, as this Harris McDowell-driven vehicle has had more than its share of controversy. The bill has bipartisan support, including many of the more reform-minded legislators, and will likely pass the House. Uh, which raises the question of what Tony DeLuca, who counts McDowell as among his supporters, will do once HB 287 reaches the Senate. The bill is in the House Energy Committee, and John Kowalko, who is a co-sponsor, is the committee chair.

Today’s Senate Agenda features only House bills now up for consideration: HB 265(Hudson), HB 245(Heffernan), and HB 272(Viola). All passed the House unanimously, and we’ve discussed them before. There was some online controversy over HB 245, which seeks to employ the use of ‘People First Language’ to ‘promote dignity and inclusion for people with disabilities’. The bill would specifically eliminate the ‘offending’ terms from the Code while not affecting any substantive or definitional change to the Delaware criminal code.

The House is scheduled to consider HB 270(Osienski), which somehow ties graffiti offenses committed by those under the age of 21 to the loss of driving privileges. I again raise the question as to whether the punishment fits the crime.

The House will also consider HS1/HB 253(Barbieri), an excellent bill sponsored by some of our better legislators. The bill would establish a procedure for the evaluation of the competency of a child for the purpose of Family Court proceedings. The bill lays out those procedures and guidelines, and is a welcome move towards, dare I say it, enlightenment. And, yes, these are children we’re talking about.

I have a question about another bill, HB 276(Carson). The bill would require State agencies, including all public schools, to display a POW/MIA flag on National POW/MIA Recognition Day. The bill has no fiscal note, but does the State have these flags and/or can they get them for free? Otherwise, wouldn’t there be a cost associated with the bill? After all, when you consider all the state facilities and all the schools, that’s a lot of flagpoles that will need flags. Can somebody answer that question for me?

Well, some days are better than others. Tomorrow looks like a better day with juicier stuff. See ya then.

‘Til then, I’m just painting by numbers.