The Day the Rethugs Showed Their Hand. Cut wages for workers on construction projects. Throw more people off Medicaid. Tighten the screws on the State budget. Have you ever noticed that they always leave one essential point out of their narrative when it comes to ‘the good times (then)’ vs. ‘the bad times (now)’? They leave out the fact that, during the ‘good times’, taxes on Delaware’s top earners were slashed from 11.4% to 6.5%, and that income brackets were consolidated so that we in essence have a flat tax for everyone earning over $60 K a year. Which is why you always see Greg Lavelle and Deborah Hudson, who represent the vast proportion of the 1%, deliberately ignoring this inconvenient fact. They have no interest in protecting the interests of most state residents, only those wealthy deadbeats. Shared sacrifice, their asses. Afflict the afflicted, comfort the comfortable. The Delaware Rethuglican Way.
So now they’re holding the budget hostage, and what passes for D leadership is angrily fulminating. Yo, D ‘leaders’, call their fucking bluff. PASS legislation restoring some of that fairness to the tax code and then dare the Rethugs to insist on cuts to popular programs rather than making the wealthy pay their fair share. Jee-zus, it’s not that hard. You have the numbers in the House, make this part of the negotiations. The public will strongly support you if you simply make this an issue of fairness.
Of course, it’s not just Rethugs who aim to damage Democratic principles. Bob Marshall’s minimum wage increase bill was tabled b/c at least one D objected to having cost-of-living increases reflected in the minimum wage post-2020. So now we’re waiting for an amendment to remove the COLA increases. Delaware Democrats suck.
Anyway, here is the Session Activity Report from yesterday. Val Longhurst’s constitutional amendment ran into trouble in the House and did not receive its required 2/3 majority. A pretty much straight partisan vote that belied the bipartisan sponsorship. Anybody care to elaborate on what happened?
Other than that bill, every other bill on both the House and Senate Agendas passed unanimously.
Committee highlights! Starting with House committees this week:
*HB 204 (Johnson) ‘makes a number of changes to Chapter 21, Title 11 of the Delaware Code, with the goal of modernizing the pretrial process, reducing reliance on monetary conditions, improving the efficiency and outcomes for the criminal justice system, and ensuring the safety of the community.’ This bill is a collaborative effort of judicial agencies designed to improve a system where we ‘unnecessarily detain individuals who lack funds for their release, and on the other end of the spectrum, we release defendants who fail to appear or remain law abiding during their period of pretrial release’. Judiciary Committee.
*HB 214 (Mulrooney) ‘amends merit compensation bargaining unit by allowing non-uniformed correctional employees, including correctional counselors, correctional administrative staff and similar occupations, to bargain over compensation. These correctional employees are presently the only correctional employees excluded from compensation bargaining. ‘ Labor Committee.
*HB 4 (Longhurst) creates a new ‘Department of Human Resources by transferring various divisions and other organizational units from the Office of Management and Budget to the newly established Department of Human Resources’. The new Department would be home to all state personnel functions. House Administration.
*HB 60 (Kowalko) ‘creates the right for the parent or guardian of a child to opt out of the annual assessment, currently the Smarter Balanced Assessment System’. Education Committee.
*HB 174 (Mitchell) ‘raises the first offense of purchasing or obtaining a firearm for someone not legally qualified to own, possess or purchase one from a Class F to a Class E Felony. This change is to deter such “straw purchases” by making jail time more likely for the offender, and consequently, to reduce the number of people who cannot legally possess firearms but obtain them in this manner’. Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee.
*HB 226 (B. Short) transfers the functions of the Delaware Economic Development Office to the Department of State, and provides for the creation of the so-called Public/Private Partnership, which would permit, among other things, private business leaders to decide who gets access to state funds. A dream of the State Chamber. In, and sponsored by the Chair of, the Business Lapdog Committee. Bill was introduced on June 13 with an eye towards rushing it through the General Assembly before anybody takes too close a look at it. Put the brakes on this and give the public a chance to see just what kind of sausage (lots o’ pork) is being made.
*HB 200 (Heffernan) ‘sets a minimum reimbursement rate for home health care nursing services paid for by Medicaid-contracted organizations. The rate shall be at least equal to the rate set by the Division of Medicaid for equivalent services. Home care nurses and aides give Delawareans with disabilities the option to remain at home with their families and prevents unnecessary use of higher-cost hospitals, nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities’. Yes they do. I like this bill. Health & Human Development.
*HB 220 (Bentz) creates a broad-based Addiction Action Committee to address Delaware’s addiction crisis. Health & Human Development.
Woof. Deep breath, time for the Senate Committee highlights:
Wasn’t it Sen. Pettyjohn who argued that we shouldn’t be wasting time with minimum wage legislation when there were more serious issues to discuss? With weighty legislation like this from the Good Senator, who is to argue with him? Transportation Committee.
*SB 53 (Bonini) creates a supposed remedy to the supposed problem attendant to the Court of Chancery Transperfect decision. In the Elections and Government Affairs Committee. Why that committee instead of Judiciary? I have no idea.
*SB 113 (McDowell). I’m sorry. Any time that Harris McDowell proposes something that gives authority to the SEU (Sustainable Energy Utility), I can’t support it. Too much mismanagement there, much of it attributable to Sen. McDowell. Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Committee.
*SB 49 (Townsend) establishes a Homeless Individual’s Bill of Rights. Judicial & Community Affairs.
*SB 89 (Lawson) appears to be a Rethug talking points bill about ensuring that ‘Sharia Law’ never overruns the United States. Judicial & Community Affairs.
*SB 50 (McDowell). Special Interest Legislation Warning!!! Those who would take money out of your pockets w/o referendum and give them to the Lonnie George Technical & Community College Slush Fund are at it again! That’s what this bill would do. No surprise that Lonnie’s daughter, who just happens to co-chair JFC, is on this bill as a sponsor. Nothing but a cash grab from an institution bloated with overpaid bureaucrats and a staff larded up with current and former legislators. Finance Committee.
That’s a whole lot of bills, and I’m sure that I’ve missed some that you might want to talk about. For now, however, the two worst offenders are the Public/Private Giveaway Act and the Lonnie George Tech Slush Fund Act. While the first is largely the work of the Chamber, Gov. Carney and DINO’s, the second is largely by Democrats and for Democratic officeholders and hangers-on. Both should be opposed strongly, IMHO.
For you completists, there is a Senate Agenda today. Here it is.
See ya tomorrow. Maybe.