Day: June 7, 2016

It's shaping up as a quiet June as the Joint Finance Committee has pretty much finished up their work. Bottom line: State employees get a raise (!) but teachers don't, other stuff gets cut, no new revenue sources added to mix, corporations extort millions, which is why other stuff gets cut. Here's the News-Journal story. We discussed this last year.  There appeared to be a legitimate chance then that additional revenue could be raised via corporate franchise fee increases and/or creating a couple of additional tax brackets for wealthier citizens.  Instead, Pete Schwartzkopf cut his own deal with the Senate Rethugs, and gave the finger to progressive members in his own caucus.  That essentially doomed any new revenue streams for this year, as the legislators/lemmings were not going to raise taxes in an election year. However, they were more than willing, desperate even, to throw tens of millions of dollars at DuPont and Chemours, allegedly to 'save' jobs and Chemours' corporate headquarters.  I know it's redundant for me to point out that the sole reason for Chemours' existence is to enable serial world-class polluter DuPont to get out from  under clean-up liabilities.  The invevitable Chemours bankruptcy ('Hey, we'd love to clean up this toxic environmental disaster, but sadly we don't have the money to do it') inches ever closer to reality.  A sharp-eyed tipster shared this video account with us.  It is must viewing.  Hey, we all knew it at the time and wrote about it at the time. Doesn't bother the Generous Assembly.  This should be a crime of the highest order, but it's likely legal thanks to a bought-and-paid-for Congress.  Markell, Levin, and the General Assembly are rewarding and enabling this activity by throwing tens of millions at it.  The Delaware Way, ladies and gentlemen. But, I digress.