Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Let’s not mince words. Not since 2009 has the General Assembly entered June with so much uncertainty and so much unfinished business.  I’d argue that it will even be a more difficult June than June of 2009.

Back then, everyone recognized that Delaware, like virtually every other state, was suffering from an economic downturn.  The newly-minted governor was able to work with the General Assembly to craft a series of ‘revenue-enhancers’ to address the budget shortfall.  R’s released just enough yes votes to enable bills to pass, in exchange for provisions sunsetting the revenue enhancers.

Fast-forward six years.  This governor has lost a huge amount of political influence. So much so that his press flak has said that he’ll watch what the General Assembly does, and not actively participate. He has, in particular, lost a lot of leverage with Democrats.  Some of this is inevitable.  Lame ducks almost never have much political capital to spend by Year 7.  Markell has also wasted political capital in ways that have earned him the enmity and distrust of D’s in particular.  Whether it’s the disaster of Race To the Top, his attempt to bypass the General Assembly while looking to get rid of the Port of Wilmington, his sabotage of a meaningful minimum wage bill, his inability to rally support for his gas tax increase, his cheerleading for charter schools, his refusal to consider any tax increase on his wealthy pals, and so much more, he is as close to feckless as any governor facing a budget shortfall can be.

Except…he HAS, by Executive Order, created a panel to look at long-term changes to how Delaware funds government.  Unfortunately, Markell has chosen to place a vast majority of DINO’s and Rethugs on the panel, ensuring that any recommendations it might make would not in any way address inequities in who pays what.  The good news: the ideas that are being put forward by this group are likely to be DOA. I mean, eliminate the estate tax? Really? These are not serious proposals except in a world where ALEC is king.

The Rethugs, as usual, don’t appear interested in governing, just using the shortfall to try to screw workers.  Many of the D’s are, per usual, afraid of their own shadows, and don’t want to risk political capital to do the right thing unless it’s politically neutral, at worst.

While there has been some movement on infrastructure spending in the form of proposed motor vehicle document fee increases, a proposal that has passed the House, the money raised would not close the  infrastructure revenue gap, nor would it address last year’s shortfall.

Other than that, who knows? While it is not unusual for the JFC to delay finalizing a budget until some time in mid-June, especially until after the final DEFAC estimate, it is unusual for the key issues to be this muddled and unresolved at this time. It is also unusual for there to be so many  unresolved budgetary issues this late in the game. And, it’s virtually unprecedented for the Governor to have voluntarily removed himself from the process. I fear that the so-called ‘Big Head’ Committee will take over and cut some pretty unsavory deals.  For those who are new, the ‘Big Head’ Committee is the nickname for leadership. They generally step in when things are at an impasse. Me? I’d much rather have JFC, especially the co-chairs, playing the key role here.

My suggestion? With the governor taking himself out of the game, why not do what this governor has steadfastly refused to do? Craft an income bracket for the higher-earners.  And look for other ways to restore equity to the tax system.

Tuesday’s House Agenda (Now linkable!! Many thanks to whomever made this possible.) features legislation that would decriminalize marijuana possession, at least to an extent.  As it is currently constituted, HB 39(Keeley) would:

…decriminalize the possession or private use of a personal use quantity of marijuana. 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. Likewise, the private use or consumption of less than an ounce of marijuana shall be punishable by a civil penalty. Persons charged with one of these civil violations are not subject to incarceration.

Over and above the question as to whether the bill will pass, the overriding concern is to what extent will amendments pushed by the police weaken the bill.  So far, the only pre-filed amendment has nothing to do with the negotiations that have reportedly taken place.  Let’s see whether reason will win out over relentless pushback from the cops.  I am not optimistic. The police appear to be fighting any impositions on their ability to use, say, a whiff of marijuana (real or imagined) as a pretext to conduct searches that could lead to arrests on other offenses.  Of course, people are supposed to be protected from unreasonable search and seizures.  Making HB 39 an advancement for our constitutional rights, rights that have been routinely undermined by the police. The cops want to continue to undermine those rights. It’s time that the General Assembly stand up to them. Have a vote on the clean bill, let’s see where our representatives really stand.

HB 4(Bolden) is also noteworthy. I never would have thought that an employer would have acted so egregiously as to make this legislation necessary.  But at least one did. This bill deserves to be on the Governor’s desk ASAP.

Today’s Senate Agenda features a humane bill that also addresses the state’s marijuana laws. SB 90(Lopez)  enables a physician to prescribe the oils of medical marijuana for treatment of intractable epilepsy.  One of Sen. Lopez’ youthful constituents has this condition, and Lopez has led a bipartisan effort to enable this child to get the treatment they need.  I expect nothing less than a unanimous vote in both houses.

I’ll be back with a preview of this week’s committee meetings tomorrow as I just ran out of time to include it in today’s piece.

I’ll be on the Al Show today to discuss Beau Biden (that was a tremendously powerful piece that Pandora wrote) and all things legislative as session days get longer and the number of those days dwindle.