Yesterday was a light day. The Senate worked and passed a series of noncontroversial measures, some of which I previously discussed here. The Gun Down the Gray Fox bill made it out of committee. The Dream Act bill didn’t. Priorities, people. BTW, projected annual cost of the Dream Act bill, according to the Fiscal Note? Just over $40K/year. Here’s the entire Session Activity Report.
The Governor has 51 million reasons to root for passage of HB 265(Schwartzkopf) in the Senate today. The bill raises $51 million in increased annual corporate fees. Since the bill requires a 3/5 super-majority vote, 13 yes votes are required. Don’t think the bill would be on the Senate Agenda if all 13 D’s were not on board, but we shall see. The over/under on how long it takes Governor Markell to sign the bill? 30 minutes. I’m taking the under.
Today’s House Agenda features legislation purporting to provide more transparency to the campaign finance process. HB 171(D. E. Williams) adds an additional mandatory reporting period for political campaign committees. In this case, June 30. This would be in addition to a year-end report and, during election years, a 30-days out report and an 8-days out report. Right now, the D’s and the R’s are falling all over each other to claim that they are the fairest of them all when it comes to campaign finance reform. Color me skeptical, no, make that cynical, but I think these efforts are more likely to make it appear that the system is more transparent, but is not, in fact, any more transparent. Oh, well, the stuff will look good on campaign brochures. Which is what really matters.
E-cigs will be treated like tobacco, with the same penalties for distributing them to minors, assuming HB 241(Hudson) passes. It will. Not sure if the bill has been carefully thought through, but it’s not as if this would be the first time that legislation has not been carefully thought through.
Wish I had more, but I can only work with the materials provided.