General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: June 19, 2019

Sometimes it’s the little details that nag at me. Can someone explain why HB 73, which is the first leg of a constitutional amendment to legalize ‘no-excuses absentee voting’, has been bypassed on the Senate Agenda for three consecutive sessions? It remains on today’s Senate Agenda, but at the very bottom of it.  I know, I know, there is no urgency. Whether the bill passes this year or next year, it must then be reconsidered in the next session of the General Assembly. However, I wonder whether the Rethugs are holding up this bill. It passed in the House by a 38-3 vote, but we know that the only influence that R’s have in Dover is the ability to slow things down and/or to fail to provide enough votes to pass super-majority bills. Like I said, it’s a little thing, but I’d like to know what’s going on.

While I’m at it, if Rethugs are gonna use brinksmanship again this year, then why shouldn’t the D’s, in each House, pass every damn bill that sets R shorts on fire? Like minimum wage, like that education funding bill. Then force the R’s to decide what hill they want to die on. Instead, the timorous (damn, haven’t used that word in a long time) majority quakes at the very thought of a late-night insurrection by the obstructionists on June 30/July 1, and decides not to do anything to offend the troglodytes. “New balls, please”. (BTW, that was a classic Brit tabloid hed on a story showing one of their princesses with a new beau at Wimbledon. You don’t get stuff like this in any other Delaware political blog.)

BTW, WEHT SB 45 (Paradee), which was also on yesterday’s Senate Agenda? Did the cops show up en masse to make sure that juveniles continued to be saddled with criminal records for having pot?  Anybody have an answer? It didn’t get worked, and it’s not on today’s agenda. I’d like to know why.

The Redding Consortium bill passed unanimously with 4 senators absent. I mention the absentees b/c, this time of year, that generally has nothing to do with the relative merits of the bill being considered. Sometimes, there are negotiations going on, sometimes, the Grant-In-Aid Committee is meeting.  But the absentees aren’t generally ‘taking a walk’, although that sometimes happens too.

Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report.

Did I mention minimum wage?  We know the story. President Pro-Tem McBride had dumped the bill into the Finance Committee after the bill had cleared the Labor Committee. To my recollection, that had never happened previously with any minimum wage bill. Perhaps someone could rouse Scott Goss from his torpor to employ his not-inconsiderable journalistic skills to find out whether what I assert is true. Well, Sen. McDowell has scheduled a meeting of the Senate Finance Committee for today at 2 pm.  In typical Harris fashion, he hasn’t posted the Agenda for the meeting.   Could the four D’s on that committee vote to release SB 105? Maybe yes, maybe no. The 4 D senators are McDowell, Ennis, Paradee, and Sturgeon. McDowell, Ennis and Paradee have historically supported minimum wage bills, although perhaps the circumstances are a little different this time.  Sturgeon hasn’t yet cast a vote on minimum wage. Let me just say that Sen. Brown could have done a better job of lining up support for this bill before introducing it.  On a bill like this, it’s much better that he gives every legislator who might be supportive the opportunity to be a co-sponsor.  Having said that, this is a written-in-stone priority of the Delaware Democratic Party. I say release it for a floor vote and hold everybody accountable. Including, especially, R’s like Cloutier and Delcollo. Oh, and ‘Statewide’ McBride as well. (Kids, you wanna get a complimentary drink at our next ‘Drinking Liberally’, if there ever is a next ‘Drinking Liberally’? Give me the origin of the monicker ‘Statewide McBride’.)

Today is the final regularly-scheduled day of committee meetings for the year. Let’s check out the highlights, starting with the Senate:

*SB 144 (Hansen) ‘… prohibits discrimination based upon genetic information in the issuance or renewal of disability, long-term care, and life insurance by doing the following: 1. Clearly explains what constitutes discrimination under this Act. 2. Allows the results of genetic information approved by the Insurance Commissioner to be used for disability or long-term care insurance in a manner that is reasonably related to anticipated claims experience. 3. Prohibits sharing the results of direct-to-consumer genetic tests with insurers.’ Banking, Business & Insurance.

*SB 129 (Hocker) ‘exempts a number of nonprofit corporations from property taxation or assessment by a county or other political subdivision of the State.’ It then lists the specific non-profits to be exempted. My question? Why these non-profits? Elections, Government & Community Affairs.

*The Senate Executive Committee will consider some nominations. Because this is the Good Ol’ Boys network, it doesn’t surprise me, although it pisses me off, that former Sen. Gary Simpson has been nominated to the ‘Public Integrity Commission’, which now, and presumably forever, belongs enclosed in ‘air quotes’.  OTOH, Carney has nominated Michael Arrington to be a Family Court judge. Mike was a superb Director of Special Court Services for Family Court, and I applaud this appointment. He’s contributed a lot to this state for a long time.

*SB 159 (Walsh) would require the Auditor to do her fucking job. The bill ‘authorizes the Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of the Department, or General Assembly to request, and requires the Auditor of Accounts conduct or contract for, an audit of a charter school’s business and financial transactions, records, and accounts in certain circumstances.’ Can you imagine such a thing? An elected state official refusing to do their job. Well, we don’t need to imagine it. Education.

House Committee highlights:

*HB 196 (Lynn) creates a ‘process for compensating individuals who have been wrongly convicted’. Yep, 33 other states and DC already have this. Anyone surprised that Delaware doesn’t? If I had my druthers, I’d compensate them with funds right out of the law enforcement slush fund known as SLEAF. A fund that, although almost completely in the control of public officials, has been exempted from FOIA.

*It’s sure taken an awfully long time for many of the criminal justice reform bills to be considered. Until someone tells me otherwise, I’ll revert to my normal theory: Incompetence on the part of self-proclaimed visionary behind the package, our ‘PAL’ Val Longhurst.  Hey, if some press officer from the House, you know who you are, the one who wrote me way back when and said that AG Jennings did not deserve any credit for the package, wants to tell me why Val is not to blame for the delays, feel free. But, I digress. HS1/HB 10 (Chukwuocha) ‘sets a minimum age at which a child may be prosecuted, except for the most extreme offenses. This Bill prohibits the prosecution of children under the age of 12. It also bars the transfer of juvenile prosecution to the Superior Court unless the child is aged 16 or older. The exception to the prohibition on prosecuting children under 12 and transfer to Superior Court for children under sixteen, is only for the most serious of charges: murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, rape in the first and rape in the second degree.’ Judiciary.

*I have a technical question about HS1/HB 75 (Bolden).  The title of the bill reads, “AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 31 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE YOUTH SERVICES COMMISSION OF DELAWARE.”  At no point in either the body of bill or even in the synopsis does the term ‘Youth Services Commission’ appear, nor is that term even implied. I don’t even know what the ‘Youth Services Commission’ is. Sounds like something that Lisa Blunt Rochester might have dreamed up during her dalliance with state government. As I understand it, the title of the bill must provide fair notice as to what is in the bill, and the body of the bill cannot exceed the scope of the Title. Get rewrite on the phone? Barristers, what saieth thou? Judiciary.

*I’m confused (wrote Captain Obvious). I know that there were changes to be made to the way the Grants-In-Aid Committee operated. So why do we have this bill being considered on June 19? My guess? This is part of the R ‘govenment reform’ package. Meaning, it’s DOA, whether it should be or not. Administration.

*HB 220 (Bentz) ‘ adds coverage for Medication Assisted Treatment (“MAT”) for drug and alcohol dependencies to the mental health parity laws for health insurance.’ Health & Human Development. While I consider this a real good bill, let me just make a point.  There are a disproportionate number of bills just now making their way through the house of origin. More, it seems to me, than in most sessions. Meaning that many of these bills, should they make it to the opposite chamber, will either have to go through an ad-hoc committee process. and/or be considered under the suspension of rules. It’s under those circumstances that some pretty hinky stuff sneaks through in the session’s waning hours.

*I include this bill only because, had I pursued that viable alternative career as a charismatic front man for a roots-rock band, I might well have named the band “Livestock At Large”. Agriculture.

*Not sure about HB 207 (Heffernan),  which ‘expands the applicability of the Delaware Brownfields Development Program, Subchapter II, Chapter 91 of Title 7, by providing protection from liability for releases of regulated substances from underground storage tanks and aboveground storage tanks to any person approved as a Brownfields Developer who enters into a Brownfields Development Agreement, and otherwise meets the requirements of the Brownfields Development Program.’ OK, I’ll bite: Who will be held liable for such releases? The previous owner? The bill doesn’t say. Natural Resources.

*HB 170 (Heffernan) ‘increases the age requirement for compulsory school attendance in Delaware from 16 to 18 years of age. ‘ I get a feeling of ‘deja vu’ (‘We have all been here before’.)  Can’t get the phrase ‘unintended consequences’ out of my head. Education.

*HB 134 (Baumbach) ‘changes the term of a school board member from 5 years to 3 years and adds the requirement that each school board member is paid $100 per meeting attended by the Department of Education.’ Education.

I know what you’re thinking: “Man, this is longer than the three hours of WWE Raw we’re forced to sit through every Monday night.” OK, you’re not thinking that. Only those few rasslin’ fans willing to sit through Vince McMahon’s latest vanity project think that. But you get the point. I’m going long today.

Long enough to include a lengthy Senate Agenda:

Well, I guess this is where those Brownfields cleanups will continue to get funding.  Ask a question, get an answer.

If charter schools can get public funds to bus students, I suppose that this bill is about the best we can do.

Y’know, we’ve discussed the other bills of interest on this agenda previously. I have no desire to tax your attention span (OK, I mean my attention span) any further.

You want more? Give me a pay hike, ya cheapskates.