Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tues., June 18, 2019
While we still have two more weeks to slog through, I see no reason not to write the post-mortem on this disaster of a legislative session. It’s basic: A Democratic governor and Democratic legislative leaders failed in their responsibilities to put forward a Democratic agenda.
John Carney governed as if he was still Budget Director. What initiatives of substance did he propose and/or embrace? That’s a serious question. What were his priorities? Yes, his ‘budget-smoothing’ bill was reintroduced, largely by R sponsors, but then what? He says he supports higher tax brackets, but we don’t ‘need the money right now’? Wasn’t the whole alleged purpose of ‘budget-smoothing’ supposed to be to plan for future deficits? Why not create higher tax brackets as part of that goal? He opposes a $15 minimum wage, which is part of the Democratic Party platform. He ‘monitors’ states that have legalized marijuana, while taking no position on the policy. He says he supports tougher gun laws, but he didn’t propose the bills, and he did no lobbying on behalf of those bills. He has presided over perhaps the most disastrous prison uprising in recent memory, and has demonstrated no idea as to how to address it, other than outsourcing prisoners to Pennsylvania and nominating Claire DeMatteis, who gets nominated by John for virtually everything. He does not deserve reelection in 2020. Will anybody challenge him? I’ve got a name in mind, a legit name, someone who can win. But I’m saving that for another post. (Nyah nyah.)
President Pro-Tem Dave McBride is not corrupt. But that’s the only distinction between him and former Pro-Tem Tiny Tony DeLuca. He broke his public promise to bring gun reform measures to the floor. I doubt that he would have been reelected as Pro-Tem had the Democratic Senate Caucus known that he would break that promise. He then reassigned a minimum wage bill that had already cleared committee. He’ll have to explain why. Did I mention that a $15 minimum wage bill is part of the Democratic Party platform? His partner-in-crime, Nicole Poore, is ethically bankrupt. Parlayed her election into a $100K phony baloney job with the phony baloney Jobs For Delaware Graduates. And, of course, joined Sen. McBride in burying the gun bills in the Senate Executive Committee.
If there was any doubt that Val ‘PAL’ Longhurst now runs the House D’s, this year should have disabused anyone of the notion that Pistol Pete was still in charge. She grabbed every notable bill for herself, placed herself on podium after podium, and made clear that her political ambitions exceed those of a member of the House of Reps. Problem is, as it always is with her, the reality is far different than the projected image. Allow me to quote from, yes, myself:
Well, you might say, surely HB 200 provides for the additional funding needed for this huge undertaking. No, and don’t call me Shirley. Here’s where Val Longhurst is revealed once again to be a charlatan playing the role of hero. Not only is there no such new funding in the bill, the proposed funding that IS in the bill would simply be taken from existing revenue sources. Meaning, it would open up spending shortfalls elsewhere. Allow me to quote from HB 200’s fiscal note to demonstrate the primary source of the funding (BTW, HB 200, H2O, get it?).
To be sure, there are a couple of other revenue sources, some Federal EPA money and some water pollution fine money. But $25 million, which is, pardon the expression, just a drop in the bucket, would be taken from other priorities in the annual budget. What would Val cut?
What Longhurst so proudly proclaimed as landmark legislation is, in fact, false advertising of the most cynical kind. Unless that $25 mill (and a whole lot more to meet the well over $500 mill that will be required to address the state’s clean water infrastructure), is replaced, other programs will suffer.
You might say, Steve, that’s well and good, but why repeat yourself? Here’s why. My friends at Delaware United, and they are my friends and I love them, are still pushing for release of HB 200 to the floor of the House. This is from a release I got yesterday from them:
First, the Clean Water for Delaware Act has not received a floor vote yet, and we would like to show our continued support for the provisions in this bill. This legislation includes funding for agricultural projects and farm improvements to help protect our state’s waterways and aquifers. If we do not help ensure our farms are taken care of, all Delawareans will feel the effects.
Dear friends: No, it doesn’t. There is no new funding in this bill. Val has fed you a load of chicken shit.
Enough. Let’s see what meager scraps are on today’s legislative table.
‘Meager scraps’ defines today’s House Agenda. Perhaps you can find a near-moribund site to provide excruciating detail on these bills. If you can, trust me, it won’t be worth it.
There are some interesting bills on today’s Senate Agenda. Provided, of course, that Sen. McBride doesn’t reassign them to other committees.
We’ve already discussed ‘no-excuses’ absentee voting, but it wasn’t worked on Thursday. Perhaps today.
Sen. Lockman, who has been pretty quiet in her first year, has a real strong bill in SB 148. A lot of advance work has gone into this:
This Act creates the Redding Consortium for Educational Equity (“Consortium”), which replaces the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission (“WEIC”). The Consortium has multiple purposes. First, it will recommend policies and practices to the Governor, General Assembly, and Secretary of Education regarding educational equity and educational outcomes in the City of Wilmington and northern New Castle County. Second, the Consortium will monitor educational progress and outcomes for students in the City of Wilmington and for all low-income, English learners and at-risk students in northern New Castle County and report on the same. Third, the Consortium will make recommendations to the Governor and the General Assembly regarding improvement in public education in the City of Wilmington and northern New Castle County. Fourth, it will evaluate the need for additional or alternative educational facilities in the City of Wilmington. Fifth, it will develop policy proposals to be introduced through legislation to improve teaching and learning in district and charter schools in the City of Wilmington and northern New Castle County. Sixth, it will develop a proposal for redistricting in the City of Wilmington and northern New Castle County. Seventh, it will research the viability of the New Castle County Tax District and Tax Pool. The Act specifies who will be appointed to the Consortium and how it will be staffed. Its first meeting must occur on or before September 1, 2019.
I would LOVE to hear what all of our educational experts think about this.
Sen. Paradee’s SB 45 ‘makes the possession, use, or consumption of a personal use quantity of marijuana a civil violation for juveniles’. Good, common-sense legislation, albeit, relatively modest. Somewhere, John Carney is monitoring.
Technically Carney was secretary of finance, not OMB director. (I know, I know)
True. But he governs as if he was the budget director, instructing all state agencies under his purview to use ‘budget-smoothing’ when crafting their budgets.
Three years in, that’s the only initiative I see him having the slightest interest in. He’s not a governor, he’s a de facto budget director.
He likes that position because, as he often observes, his hands are tied.
True. He has the Chamber tie his hands and then claims that his hands are tied.
Oops, that reminds me. I forgot one of John’s few initiatives–exempting Delaware economic development funding from FOIA by creating a ‘Public-Private Partnership’. Except, that idea didn’t originate with John. It was the Chamber and the Business Roundtable who did that.
Hey, what could John do? His hands were tied. I believe, however, that the Chamber unties John’s hands whenever he wants to polish the plaque that the Chamber gave him a few years back.
To be specific, the NCC Chamber, for 20 years of supporting business:
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/money/business/2016/03/10/carney-allen-honored-ncco-chamber/81616828/
SB 148 — call it WEIC 2.0. It’s more than a rebranding, but question is how much more can it become. Points one through five parallel what WEIC attempted to do, with varying degrees of success.
Point six, redistricting, will be the major challenge. Nobody sees any sense to keeping part of the city in Christina, but the trick will be drawing new district lines so Red Clay doesn’t think it’s getting screwed. But Brandywine doesn’t want any more of the city than it already has and that sliver of the East Side that belongs to Colonial … well, that makes about as much sense as Christina managing city schools.
Point seven, the tax district and tax pool is a remnant of the deseg court order, a way of funneling bucks from the haves (Brandywine and Red Clay) to the have-nots (Christina and Colonial). Take Christina and Colonial out of the city and you can make this problem go away.
One other thing to note: WEIC was supposed to die in June 2021. SB148 has no expiration date for the new: consortium (but the GA can kill it whenever it chooses). So, choice for the GA becomes: keep WEIC around for two more years and hope it doesn’t stir the pot in the interim? or create a new body that you’d have to kill when its proposals become a little too uppity (or costly) for the suburban/downstate masses who believe that every dollar spent on urban education is a dollar that should be returned to their wallets via another tax cut?
I’m betting that the GA tables this one until next year … unless someone comes up with the stable genius idea of arguing that passage of this bill will prove to the Court of Chancery that the state is really doing something serious about solving its out-of-whack school finance than property assessment systems.
By no means an educational expert but here is my $.02:
The WEIC report begins with an historical timeline which lists 5 prior “calls to action” since 2000. Kids born in that year would have graduated (or not) this year. Since the WEIC report was issued in 2015, a class of students have gone from Freshman to graduate (or not). The court system is the only thing that’s going to prod the Governor and GA into action.
Words of wisdom.
John sees both sides but $$$ talks and clearly understands that a majority of folks paying the most in income taxes can easily pick up and move. Maybe you guys need to push cutting pensions, spending, school taxes, etc. instead of looking to raising income taxes.
PS. I agree we need to have a statewide real estate reassessment. I want to see Biden’s taxes at the shore go from 2k to 20k.
It is totally fitting that Tom Kline is a John Carney fan.
They can always pick up and move. A half percentage point increase isn’t going to make the difference.
Besides, most of the well-off people who understand tax dodges have already taken advantage of the “moving to Florida” gambit. If you’re rich enough, it makes perfect sense. I asked one guy I know who technically lives in Florida six months a year (pro tip: he doesn’t really) how much he saved. “Enough to buy the place in Florida” was his answer.
Delaware already won the race to the bottom in the areas of seizing “unclaimed” property and turning loose limited-liability business entities on the world. I think it can survive finishing in the middle of the pack on income taxes, particularly given its rock-bottom property taxes and lack of a sales tax. Thirty or 40 years ago Delaware’s income tax was among the highest in the US, but many states with both sales taxes and higher property taxes than ours have since raised their income tax rates to our levels.
In short, people whine about taxes whether they actually have a heavy tax burden or not.
Tom Kline, if you ever decide to show a brain and have this discussion for real, feel free to indicate it.
How about a half precent decrease in an effort to keep more Taxes here in DE. That’s something I’ll support.
PS. I do support a state wide property reassessment. But the wealthy DEM’s will never ever do it.
Reassessment alone adds no revenue.
You seem opposed to raising revenue period, that is to say, you don’t sound like a Democrat.
Why would anyone who already has left come back for that?
The simple fact is that people who want to stint on their taxes will find ways to do so, including “moving” to Florida. The rate has little effect, as New Jersey showed when it raised money with a similar high-income tax.