Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tues., April 13, 2016
But first, a HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF(?) ALERT!
The Governor and leaders of the General Assembly, along with the State Chamber of Commerce, are repeating the same strategy they employed so effectively to emasculate a decent minimum wage increase two years ago.
The exact same strategy, in fact.
Step One: Get some DINO like Brian Bushweller to express reservations about the bill, thus requiring supporters to weaken it in order for it to pass the Senate.
Step Two: Have Speaker Pete put it in the House Business Lapdog Committee, instead of the Labor Committee.
Step Three: Get a couple of putative D legislators to parrot Chamber talking points and express ‘concerns’ they have with the bill.
Step Four: Either kill the bill in committee or, failing that, make the bill even weaker than the bill that passed the Senate.
While states like New York and California have passed bills establishing a $15 minimum wage, and while several municipalities have done the same, what passes for D leadership here seeks to water down a bill that would provide a phase-in of an eventual $10.25 minimum wage. This, of course, after tossing something like $50 mill to corporate serial polluters to stay here.
So, here’s what happened. Yep, Speaker Pete put the bill in Bryon Short’s Business Lapdog Committee. And, yep, it didn’t get enough votes to be released. Short was listed as a co-sponsor of the bill, which is what happens when you buried it last time and you can’t afford to have labor opposition while running for Congress. He wasn’t going to vote for it, though. So, it was up to Quin Johnson and Andria Bennett to do the deed this time, expressing ‘concerns’ about the bill. Bennett did the same thing last time, then did a mea culpa and claimed she had been misled by the Chamber. I guess she’s easily misled, as she’s doing it again. And don’t you be misled. Short is there to do the Chamber’s bidding. No vote was actually taken so that nobody’s name was on the record as having voted a certain way. Which is what you do when you’re a D and you want to hide caucus members’ cowardice from the public. Now here’s what really irks me:
Sponsor Rep. Gerald Brady, D-Wilmington West, said he did not think he had enough votes on the 10-member committee to get the legislation released to the full chamber. Brady said he would try to work out a compromise that would get more votes.
Got that? Once again, a compromise of a compromise while, all over the country, significant minimum wage increases are being enacted into law. It’s simply disgraceful that so-called Democrats shrink in horror at the fear of being demonized by the Chamber. It’s time for us to demonize them. Because they’re not real Democrats. Andria Bennett, Quin Johnson, Bryon Short. You might want to call them and urge them to vote like Democrats.
At least on one issue, they may be standing firm. Jack Markell once again wants to cut health care for state employees, even going so far as to propose voucher systems for new employees. I remember when Tom Carper, always looking to ‘save Medicare and Social Security’, once proposed vouchers for Medicare and Medicaid recipients at a Brandywine Area Democrats meeting. This goes back 30 years or so. Look, I understand the need to control health care costs. We could always implement single payer and save a shitload for everybody, but why do that when you can squeeze state employees and still accept campaign checks from insurance interests? Have you also noticed that this issue only comes up annually after the General Assembly has thrown millions at corporate miscreants? That elephant poop has to be cleaned up before the yearly battle to screw state employees takes place. I’ve said this time and time again: Most people who work in the public sector do so because they want to make a difference. This state spends so much in extortion to attract and keep corporations here, but this Governor annually works to put more impediments in place when it comes to attracting and keeping a high-quality public workforce: “Come to Delaware to teach, and we’ll give you a voucher for health care. Just don’t get too sick, or you’re screwed.” That’ll work.
Not much of interest in Dover today. The Senate does not have a posted agenda. However, two major bills on autism are scheduled for Thursday. SB 92 and SB 93, both sponsored by Sen. Henry. For those of you involved in this issue, please let us know what you think of these bills.
A ‘new motorcycle lemon law’ highlights today’s House Agenda. When you read the very brief bill, it makes me wonder why motorcycles were exempt from the initial law to begin with. It wasn’t an oversight, it was a specific exemption.
I’ll delay a preview of committee meetings until tomorrow since I’m not sure that all the committee notices have been posted. See you then.
“Most people who work in the public sector do so because they want to make a difference”
Awww, thats adorable. Do you believe in Santa too little fella?
Yep, teachers, social workers, environmental workers, they’re only in it for the money.
Before we get too happy about New York’s increase to the minimum wage:
Not that it isn’t something, and not that we shouldn’t be striving for more here in Delaware, but New York isn’t exactly the stunning success that we have been lead to believe.
I am so glad Pete finally has a primary opponent, someone who supports a living wage: Don Peterson. It’s time for a change.
True, LE. But ours, too, is a phased-in increase, doesn’t get to $10.25 until about the same time that New York’s gets to $15.
Yet, even something this modest is too much for the Chamber and weak-kneed D legislators.
I prefer Ant-Man to LE…
Oops. Freudian…
When is the ACA supposed to start reducing run away health care costs?
I don’t care how much money you throw at corporations to keep them here; when people who work for those corporations can’t sent their kids to public school, breathe clean air, drive on decent roads and drink their tap water, the businesses are going to flee. The state has stripped away all of the benefits of state employment (one of which is NOT the salary): there is no tuition reimbursement for folks who want to learn and be better employees, health care costs are rising, wages have stagnated, promotions are impossible, there is no pension until you are with the state for 10 years (previously you vested at 5), there are no 401K contributions and now we are going to create a second class citizen of state employees with respect to health benefits. Good people aren’t sticking around for long, at a time when we need them the most and I see a fairly big crises of competency on the horizon. Yah, yah, make your state employee jokes here, but if you think it’s bad now, just wait until only the knuckle draggers are left in the state office buildings.
This is my position and Delaware online statement on the proposal by this Administration to create an economic second-class state employee group while refusing to consider the inflated and excess costs of medical services being demanded of all state employees (by the Christiana Care monopoly and the pharmaceutical industry). New State employees are being economically abandoned by this Administration. This proposal by this Governor and Office of Management and Budget regarding health insurance costs is outrageous and punitive to working families.
Statement in response to News Journal article:
Dear DR. Nevin, spokesperson and apologist for the Christiana Care monopoly of medical provider services in Delaware, “Renegotiating hospital rates or increasing regulations will not solve the state’s budget problems”, No! but if we get a fair, comparable rate with every other neighboring state for medical provider services instead of allowing your monopoly to engorge itself on taxpayer and state employee monies we would certainly have a much less significant cost burden. Now who wants to speak up for those “poor” pharmaceutical companies, (so willing to flee to Ireland and elsewhere to avoid corporate taxes), yet so unwilling to negotiate fair prices or fair “bulk” purchase prices. A better question might be “who in this Administration has asked/demanded Christiana’s monopoly to negotiate prices or the big pharma industry to negotiate prices”? Governor? Ann Visalli? anyone? Nobody? Let’s just put a new generation of employees at economic risk by imposing a mandated “non-negotiable” deduction for their health care expenses with nothing other than the managed care (read “don’t get sick because you cannot afford it”) option. Maybe they can get a second job with a business that gives a darn about their employees.
Representative John Kowalko
@evolved: “when people who work for those corporations can’t sent their kids to public school…” Do you mean post-secondary or are you talking about public schools at the elementary/secondary level?
@Prop Joe I read that as they view public schools as failing so while they can use them, they don’t view them as an option. I may have gotten that wrong, tho.
If one uses the wholly unsupported metric of standardized test score performance to judge pass/fail, then I guess I could understand that view…
Not trying to project whatever they meant, but continuing along that train of thought, I’ll paraphrase an old phrase Joe Biden has used throughout his career: “Don’t tell me that education and schools in your state are important. Show me how you fund those schools, especially the ones most in need of increased support, and I’ll know whether or not you really think it’s important.” (I really bastardized his ‘Don’t tell me what it’s important’ line!!!)