General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., May 3, 2016.
“Forget it, Som, it’s…Stupidtown.”
Last screed, I promise, until the next one. The Golden Retriever, a dog with no historic links to Delaware, is one paw closer to becoming the State Dog of Delaware. The House voted to make that dog THE dog last Thursday, April 21. No no votes. (Is there any truth to the rumor that legislators voting yes will be loaned golden retrievers for brochure pics to be taken at the Delaware beaches? I would not rule it out.) Teh stoopid. It burns.
Predictably, the ‘Honorables’ (h/t to Ralph Moyed) were far more divided when it came to closing a gun loophole. HB 325(Osienski):
…closes a loophole to our gun background check laws. The current loophole allows for guns to be given to a potential purchaser if the background check is delayed for 3 days or more. In some cases a gun is given to a person who should not be in possession of a firearm. This leads to law enforcement having to retrieve a gun from a person prohibited if the background check provides that a person should not have a gun.
That places police in an unsafe situation. You think it’d be a slam dunk. However, the bill barely passed, 22Y, 17 N, 2A. Only one R yes, Rep. Smyk. Idiot D’s voting no: Bennett, Carson, Mulrooney (what’s gotten into him lately?), and Paradee. One amendment was added to the bill. If you guessed that it exempted active and retired law enforcement from the waiting period, you’d be correct.
Hmmm, this one smacks of some sort of building trades favoritism. The bill authorizes agents from the Division of Professional Regulation to ‘inspect persons providing electrical services to ensure compliance with the laws relating to electrical services’. Will they be ‘inspecting’ the work, or are they ‘inspecting the persons’? I know a special interest bill when I see one, and this is a special interest bill. 26 Y, 9 N, 2 NV, 4 A.
Here’s Thursday’s Session Activity Report.
Blogger’s Note: I had written this wrap-up before I discovered that the General Assembly had taken a week of vay-kay. They’re back…at least until right around Memorial Day.
Not much to say about today’s Senate Agenda. Today’s lengthy House Agenda turns out to be a case of ‘less than meets the eye’.
HB 308 (Mitchell) merely makes a clarification to benefits law at the request of Superior Court. The rest of the bills are of the ‘making technical corrections’ sort, except for a couple of Sunset bills (Board of Dentistry & Dental Hygiene, Board of Examiners in Psychology).
By far the most important bill on the House Agenda is SS2/SB 130(McDowell). The bill:
defines criteria for a local government to enter into an agreement with the Department of Transportation (“Department”) to create transit-oriented development districts, called Complete Community Enterprise Districts (“District”), for the purposes of promoting economic development. A District may be designated in downtown or urban core areas, traditional towns or villages, or regional activity centers. A District is characterized by its mix of land uses, efficient use of public infrastructure, efficient use of public services, and multiple modes of public transportation combined with environmentally friendly private transportation.
I look for this bill to pass some time this week.
Committee meetings are where this week’s action is. Take a deep breath, time to dive in.
Senate Committee highlights:
*Wonder why this bill is necessary. SB 232 (Ennis) ‘will clarify that pari-mutuel wagering is allowed at all types of horse racing events, whether harness racing or horse racing.’ Which, of course, raises the question, what does this cover that is not already covered? Senate Agriculture Committee.
*Yet another bill bypassing the Delaware Health Resources Board, this one for a 34-patient bed in-patient rehab center in Kent County for victims of stroke, traumatic brain, orthopedic, and other such injuries and/or undergone surgical procedures requiring rehabilitation as well as follow-up out-patient services for those patients. Health & Social Services Committee.
*‘Work a Day, Earn a Pay Public Works Jobs Program’. Senate Labor Committee.
*SB 214(Peterson) increases ‘the amount of time provided to a person seeking to file a charge of employment discrimination from 120 days to 300 days, making Delaware’s statute of limitation consistent with the statute of limitations under federal discrimination law’. Senate Labor Committee.
*SB 233(McBride) strengthens enforcement provisions for releases or other violations stemming from aboveground storage tanks. Natural Resources & Environmental Control Committee.
House Committee highlights:
*The deer can’t even have Sundays off from hunters. HB 289(Carson) permits ‘the hunting of deer on private land on Sundays’. Apparently b/c paying someone to do their killing for them does not satisfy the blood lust of the ‘To the Manor Born’ set. Special Interest legislation. House Ag. Committee. Oh, wait, a ‘substitute’ bill has been introduced in its place. Guess the exclusivity in the original didn’t sit too well with would-be Sunday deer killers who don’t have access to private land.
*OK, all you entrpreneurs out there. What do you make of HB 327(B. Short), which ‘permits Delaware residents to become early stage investors in Delaware based startups through newly available crowdfunding platforms’? At first glance, this appears to me to be yet another chance to fleece the local yokels, but I admit that I have no expertise or knowledge on this, and I doubt that that’s the legislative purpose. Lemme know what you know and think. Business Lapdog Committee.
*The Rethugs latest scheme to skim yet more money from public education will be considered in the House Education Committee. HB 161(Hudson) is the so-called ‘Parent Empowerment Education Savings Account Act’. It purports to ‘provide opportunities to parents of special needs students to select the most appropriate and productive educational pathway for their children by using funds otherwise allocated to their residential school district’. Yep, no new funding, just a scheme to skim more $$’s away from public education. The entire synopsis is solely designed for election brochures:
The co-sponsors of this legislation appeal to the General Assembly to dignify parents of special needs children, by approving an innovative experiment to empower certain parents with the authority to design their special needs children’s education plan, subject only to state approval of vendors to be managed by the state Department of Education or its designee.
You see, because these parents are currently bring denied their dignity. I call bullshit.
*Two bills sought by advocates for the autistic are also in the Education Committee. SB 92 and SB 93, both sponsored by Sen. Henry. Both bills passed the Senate unanimously.
*School board terms would be decreased from five years to three years, under legislation sponsored by Rep. Baumbach. Education Committee.
*Here’s a bill that both Chip Flowers and I could agree on. HB 43(Kowalko) adds appointed members of the Cash Management Policy Board to the definition of “public officers.” This designation would subject the appointed members of the Board to annual financial disclosure requirements. They decide on the investments, they need to be vetted. Simple as that. House Administration Committee (Pete ‘n Val).
*Some real good changes to employment practices. HB 314(Keeley) makes it an ‘unlawful employment practice for an employer to require an employee to not disclose his or her wages’. HB 316(Heffernan) ‘prohibits discrimination in employment based upon an individual’s reproductive health decisions’. HB 317(K. Williams) ‘prohibits discrimination in employment based upon an individual’s caregiving responsibilities’. That package is some damn good legislatin’ right there. House Labor Committee.
*Looks like disposable store bags may soon come with a customer charge. HB 202(Hudson) would charge 5 cents for every ‘single-use disposable bag’ a customer receives at check-out. According to the bill, ‘the stores will be authorized to use the fees that are collected in order to promote the use and distribution of reusable bags’. Natural Resources Committee. Gotta point out that this is kinda ‘found money’ for stores, especially those that already promote recycling. I think it’d work, though, in reducing waste, so I’m for it.
*In the pantheon of ridiculous special license plate bills, some are more ridiculous than others. As in HB 336 (Wilson), which creates a special license plate for the Delaware Equine Council. Time to create a special license plate for the Delaware Equines’ Ass Council, aka the Delaware General Assembly. Pathetic. Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee.
“School board terms would be decreased from five years to three years, under legislation sponsored by Rep. Baumbach. Education Committee.”
I wonder if Rep. Baumbach would support legislation limiting the terms of office for legislators…
Terms for state reps are only two years long now. Senators four years.
I am, however, curious as to how our education posters view this proposal.
It seems unnecessary, to be honest. What’s the reason for reducing the term length? Does he think that by reducing it from 5 to 3, more people will consider running?
Reducing it from 5 to 3 means on pretty much every school board, you will have multiple races/vacancies every year. And given how difficult it is to find people willing to run, I seriously doubt the reduction of years is going to create some civic stampede to the filing office.
Let’s assume that a person who runs and is elected is serious about the gig. It’ll take at least a year to get familiar with the insane amount of managerial and operational issues impacting a district on a day-to-day basis and the decisions a Board must make regarding them. Still assuming the person is serious, it’ll take the same amount of time to really become familiar with how the budget works, various impacts of it across the district, etc.
I feel confident in my belief that Rep. Baumbach filed this legislation as a “solid” to some constituent or personal friend who seeks to unnecessarily shake up school boards.
I understand the term lengths, but what I was referring to with that part was putting a cap (“limit”) on how many terms in office a legislator could serve… Basically, make it so the General Assembly can’t have “lifers”
HB 333 DOES appear to be a solution in search of a problem, doesn’t it?
I would like to see school boards stand for election more frequently than five years. After three years you become susceptible to cliques and backroom deals, and parents should have a shot at turning you out. On the one hand, three years really isn’t enough to master the job. On the other hand, if you want more than three years, listen to your constituents and earn a second term.
Parents serve a “term” of three years or less, in that thanks to NCC’s crazy-quilt choice and NSA they have to get invested in a different school every few years. Schools and school boards know that they can just stall and wait out any vocal or informed parents.
Except that the terms are staggered, so it’s not like all the terms expire at once.
Is it the machinations and failings of the Christina School Board, maybe some of the issues Red Clay faces on its own end, that drives this legislation and the claims Puck threw down?
There are some school boards in Delaware that actually operate in a civil manner, engaging the public in a reasonable amount of input and transparency, and absent the histrionics.
There are some good legislators on this bill. All I can say is that, other than Greg Lavelle, they’re all from the Newark area. Don’t know if that’s a clue or not.
I think three is too short and five is too long. I think four years is plenty. I know some in the Newark area don’t like the idea of some board members serving that long (even if the ones they don’t like are actually the ones who have saved the district from some DOE shenanigans the past couple years). But that is a story in and of itself. I think someone like a certain Christina board member who has been on that board since the first Bush president or something crazy like that is a bit ridiculous. But what this bill fails to do is address charter or vo-tech boards, all appointed positions. I’ve seen some charter folks on their boards since the school opened. That is a bit much for some of the older charters…
@prop joe–at least in Red Clay it is difficult to make many arguments about the need for shorter terms accomplishing anything since, for the past two years the incumbents (including my wife, for sake of accuracy) have ended up being unopposed. If memory serves, at least one other incumbent within the past four years has been re-elected unopposed. I don’t think frequency of elections is going to solve that perceived problem if nobody can be found to run.