Here we are in mid-May, and it’s been weeks since we’ve heard anything about a gas tax for transportation funding and/or a revenue stream to clean our water. Is this a game of political chicken, or has everybody chickened out? Assuming no new revenues for transportation projects, there will be roughly $70 million less to spend next Fiscal Year on fixing our roads and bridges than has been allocated in the current Fiscal Year. This after one of the most brutal winters in recent memory. This also means $70 million less to invest in our workers and our state’s economy. Is this really (not) going to happen? What a pathetic demonstration of what passes for political leadership in Dover. There’s still time, but is there political will?
As predicted, almost all bills considered Tuesday passed virtually unanimously. Sen. Simpson voted no on legislation banning the sale of e-cigarettes to minors. I tend to agree with him, to this extent. E-cigarettes have neither tar nor smoke. If you accept the premise that minors who want to smoke will find a way to smoke (I accept that premise), then why not make sure that they’re indulging in something with neither tar nor smoke? I’m not sure what health problem we’re solving by passing this bill, but I see at least that one potential downside.
SB 123(Marshall), which makes constables eligible for line-of-duty death benefits, garnered four no votes and one ‘not voting’. There clearly was some ambivalence about this bill. Otherwise, the Senate was a vote lovefest.
In the House, HS1/HB 297(D. E. Williams) passed unanimously. I raised the question yesterday as to whether the substitute bill afforded protections for dogs protecting their families and property at their homes. I have been assured that the substitute indeed addressed concerns that had been raised by dog lovers in the original bill. As such, this is a pretty darn good piece of legislation and deserves passage.
Here’s yesterday’s Session Activity Report.
Lotsa committee activity today.
Highlights from today’s scheduled Senate committee meetings:
Well, let’s start with a Joint meeting of the Senate Public Safety Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee. The committees are scheduled to get a ‘Briefing on the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner’. Doesn’t say who is/are providing the briefing. Could I make a humble suggestion? Could some public official like, say, the State Auditor conduct a meaningful investigation into this? Doesn’t the pathetic Tom Wagner have something more important to do than rousting himself from his torpor every four years to go after people like Norman Oliver and Bill Collick? Whatever they may have done, it pales in contrast to Dick Cathcart’s bid rigging at Delaware State, and Wagner buried evidence to protect his fellow Rethuglican. I’m not a lawyer, but, if criminal activity did not take place in the events surrounding the disappearance of drugs from the Medical Examiner’s office, then there’s no such thing as criminal activity. Is there nothing in Delaware too corrupt to actually warrant a criminal investigation with teeth, arrests and consequences? Rhetorical question, I know.
Deep cleansing breath.
The Senate Education Committee considers legislation that would make bullying a justifiable reason for terminating a student’s right to attend a charter school or to continue to choice into a certain school.
Here’s a good bill. The Senate Executive Committee will consider SB 185(Townsend), which makes clear that firms with four or more employees cannot discriminate based on disability. Currently, all protections based on class apply to employers with four or more employers, but not for those with disabilities( it’s currently 15 or more employees). This bill corrects that.
The Senate Health & Social Services Committee considers legislation to ‘increase the amount of the life-saving drug Naloxone in the community and specifically in the hands of the people most likely to discover someone who has suffered an overdose (of heroin) and who will be able to administer a dose of the medication while waiting for first responders to arrive’. The bill will also ‘allow DHSS to create a community-based program that will put Naloxone into the hands of friends, family, and maybe service providers at no or low cost. DHSS will seek grant funding to support a community-based program.’ An enlightened piece of legislation from Sen. Bethany Hall-Long. As is SB 212, which ‘clarifies that the current prohibitions against sex discrimination in employment includes pregnancy’.
Another real good bill from Sen. Townsend. SB 217 ‘repeals the provision of the Delaware code requiring the revocation of the driver’s license of any individual of a drug offense, regardless of whether the offense is related to the operation of a motor vehicle’. Got that, folks? You get busted for smoking reefer at a party and you have your license revoked in Delaware. Yet one more excess from the absurd Delaware Drug Wars. Time to do away with it. In today’s Senate Judiciary Committee meeting. As is a bill which appears to afford greater rights/protections to children on the Child Protection Registry.
You know? Go back over the highlighted bills, and you see some pretty good progressive initiatives. Also makes me happy that a woman is running the Senate. There’s no way that most of these bills would be moving forward if one of the previous Neanderthals still ran the body. I take back (almost) everything bad I’ve ever said about Sen. Blevins.
House committee highlights:
The House Corrections Committee considers HB 264(Johnson), which ‘will enable the Department of Correction to offer casual seasonal employment for up to 6 months to ex-offenders who demonstrate exceptional job skills while enrolled in a Level 4 or Level 5 vocational program, notwithstanding any prior felony convictions’. While I support the bill, how about making sure that there’s a real paper trail? You know just to make sure that we don’t have any more Sussex Correctional Institution lame-o explanations of ‘the dog ate my homework’ kind. Again, isn’t this something that a non-comatose State Auditor might take a look at? Just askin’.
OK, kids, time for a Learning Opportunity. Yay! Today’s House Appropriations Committee meeting includes several bills that first went through other House committees. Why? Because the initial committee considered the bills on the their merits. Because, however, the bills in question have a fiscal impact, they subsequently must be considered by the House Appropriations Committee, which is comprised of the House members of the Joint Finance Committee.
Hmmm…wonder who’s pushing for this bill. HB 216(Scott) extends ‘last call’ from 1 am to 2 am. Uh, wouldn’t this bill automatically increase the number of drunk drivers on the road? If you want to enable your patrons to drink for an extra hour, it’ll cost ya. $1000 for ‘small’ venues, and $5000 for large venues. A bill that raises numerous questions like this doesn’t come out of nowhere. What’s the story behind the story? Anybody know? In today’s Business Lapdog Committee meeting.
Good solid bill in today’s House Education Committee meeting. HB 337(K. Williams) ‘promotes uniformity in the timing of the application process for school districts, charter schools, magnet schools, and career and technical education schools.’
I’m confused. I know, not exactly a news flash. But, if e-cigarettes do not give off smoke, why ban them from ‘all public places where smoking is prohibited under current law’? Which is what HB 309(Heffernan) does. Can someone less confused than Yours Truly explain? If there’s no second-hand smoke risk, why prohibit their use? In the House Health & Human Development Committee.
The House Administration Committee considers several FOIA bills today. But not, of course, Rep. Kowalko’s HB 331, which would eliminate the exemption from FOIA currently enjoyed (and abused) by the University of Delaware and Delaware State. Nor will that bill be released from committee as long as Schwartzkopf and Longhurst rule the House.
There is a Senate Agenda today, and it includes one of this year’s legislative lowlights. HB 235(Longhurst) designates bicycling as the official sport of the State of Delaware. I have one question: Why? There’s no substantive answer. Other than: Just because.
Which is a great place for me to stop for today. Just because.