Spidey Sense working overtime as we enter the last five days of legislative session. We know that some kind of closed door deal has been cut on HB 165, but no one will let us in on the secret. Governor Open Government has become Governor None of Your Bleeping Business. Loads of ill-conceived Bond Bill giveaways. (BTW, this is one of the dirty secrets of Bond Bill, which requires a super-majority vote. Ill-conceived giveaways are necessary to get the needed votes, which helps explain why so many of those ill-conceived giveaways end up downstate.) Plus, bills that we haven’t even seen yet that special interests, including the Governor, will try to rush through.
The prologue is past, time for this humble scribe to memorialize what has been and what will likely be.
Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Record. SB 97 As Amended received final approval from the Senate and was signed into law by the Governor. Transgender equality is now the law in Delaware. Rep. Baumbach’s HB’s 106 and 107 almost unanimously passed the House, with 1 not voting in each case due to a conflict-of-interest. These bills provide incremental improvements to the rights of manufactured home residents. Good legislating, the Senate awaits. SB 100(Sokola), which seeks to prevent misuse of restraints and/or seclusion in public schools, unanimously passed the House and goes to the Governor.
I’m almost afraid to look at today’s agendas, but that’s why they pay me the big bucks. (Takes anti-anxiety medication. ‘Self-medicates’ with a second pill, SOP during waning legislative days.)
We’ll start with the House Agenda. I’m less anxious there. Hey! SS1/SB33(Ennis) is at the top of the agenda. Could this be the year for manufactured home residents? The overwhelming vote in the Senate leads me to think so. Have the Forces of Evil been told that the representatives can no longer hide from the public? We’ll see. Call your representatives, if you haven’t already done so.
Still don’t know what HB 128(Walker) does, don’t really care, but you just gotta love a synopsis which reads: “This bill modernizes the language of the statute to conform to the current practice of the Court.” Is there any way to read this synopsis and not wonder, does this mean that the current practice of the Court does not conform to state law?
Attempt #666 to modernize bail bond statutes to curb abuses appears in the guise of HS 1/HB 151(Keeley). Attempt #666 to permit racinos to reduce racing dates appears in the guise of HB 197(Viola). BTW, get used to the initials (MTSR) next to the bill on the House Agenda. They mean Motion to Suspend Rules. Basically, any bill considered under MSTR does not conform with the House Rules. They are the rules until they aren’t the rules. Some dangerous bills almost always sneak through each year under MTSR.
So, let’s see. We’re letting racinos cut racing dates, we’re providing them with a new revenue stream via the internet gaming law, Governor Giveaway is proposing to give them $8 mill, no strings attached. They were given monopolies, didn’t have to pay for licenses, given video lottery machines at state expense, and they’re blaming…the state for their sorry financials? El Som to Racinos: Drop Dead. They’ve come as close to ‘free’ enterprise as this state has seen, we owe them nothing. Let’s face facts. They’re going down. For about 20 years, the state balanced a hole in its budget through racino taxes. Those revenues are going away. Once other states caught up, it was over, and it is over. Spend the $8 mill where it might do some good. State employees’ pockets might be the place to start.
We also have yet another resolution to permit corporate telecommunications providers to write their own laws. Bad bad stuff.
OK, I know it’s gonna be worse on the Senate side (Self medicates ju-u-u-st a little more). I think I’m ready.
They still haven’t worked legislation permitting a FOIA-free agency to disburse a secret ‘law enforcement’ slush fund, but it’s #2 on the Senate Agenda (and #666 in your hearts). Can somebody at least amend the bill to remove the FOIA exemption? Anybody?
I don’t need to say anything about HB 165 that hasn’t already been said. So far, no Senate amendments have been filed.
Legislation to protect John Atkins’ Patriotic Pole appears on an already-bulging Senate Agenda. Perhaps further scrutiny has caused it to shrink to half-mast.
Please take the time to check out both agendas. I have not included some bills that have previously been discussed here. While I recognize that some repetition is inevitable, too much repetition is…boring. At least to me. My experience has been that, if I’m bored when writing, the readers will be bored when reading.
The House holds a couple of committee meetings today.
Finally, I leave you with some weekend reading. Specifically, HB 200, the FY 14 Budget Bill. All 233-plus pages of it. Underlined language is stuff new this year. Crossed-out language is language that has been excised from last year’s bill. Everything else is business-as-usual. Be on the lookout for stuff like significant funding increases for certain programs/positions, epilog language that appears inscrutable (if it seems inscrutable, it’s because it was deliberately designed that way), and try to figure out which legislator(s) might be securing more than their fair share for certain constituents and/or themselves. Happy reading!