Vote Tracker for February 4, 2015

The Vote Tracker is a joint project between Delaware Liberal and the Progressive Democrats for Delaware (PDD). Each week we will be keeping track of how our General Assembly votes on bills of progressive or liberal interest.

Now, this chart does not follow all the legislation that has been filed. We don’t report on perfunctory bills, nor do we follow the progress of judicial nominations, executive nominations, or Concurrent or Joint Resolutions unless they are a matter of controversy. So the legislation that is listed is a matter of concern and priority for those of us on the liberal / progressive side of the aisle. I review every piece of legislation as it is filed, and if I miss something, Senators and Representatives on our side of the aisle usually call me out on it, so if I miss something it won’t be missed for long.

We are starting to get some serious legislation now. Rep. Helene Keeley’s Marijuana Decriminalization Bill was introduced last week. As HB 39, the purpose of the bill is to decriminalize the possession or private use of a personal use quantity of marijuana, or more specifically, persons who possess one ounce or less of marijuana shall be assessed a civil penalty that will not become part of a criminal record and must forfeit the marijuana. These persons will also not be subject to incarceration. In other words, you will get something similar to a traffic ticket. Section 2 of the bill treats public use or consumption of an ounce of marijuana or less shall be considered an unclassified misdemeanor punishable by a $200 fine or imprisonment of not more than 5 days, which is in line with the penalty for possession or consumption of an open container of alcohol. Current laws make possessing one ounce or less of marijuana in the First State a misdemeanor punishable by up to three months in jail, a criminal fine of up to $575, or both.

Republicans have also introduced their Estate Tax Repeal. Currently, the Delaware Estate Tax only applies to estates worth more than $5.43 million. So let’s all be honest and call this bill the Making the Rich Richer Bill.

To download the Vote Tracker, click on the menu button in the bottom right section of the embedding window below: