It’s June 27. Do you know where your Bond Bill is? It has not yet been unveiled. There was speculation that it might be run today. If so, it will be run with no time for the public to look at it. For all the self-congratulations surrounding the signing of the Budget Bill, the two other money bills, each rife with the possibility for self-dealing from connected legislators, have yet to make their public appearance. And the Grant-In-Aid bill, guaranteed to deliver money to agencies ‘run’ by the two most ethically challenged legislators in Dover, won’t even be written until Sunday. I’m sorry, this is disgraceful.
Here’s yesterday’s Session Activity Report. Of note, legislation further enabling the Trone monopoly over retail alcohol sales was not worked yesterday. It’s at the top of today’s House Agenda, though. One more round of campaign donations to secure the votes? As Mark Brainard once said, and he was correct, “It’s not so much that they sell out, it’s that they sell out so cheap.”
We’re basically into ‘bill churn’ territory now. Let’s see what’s churning in the House, besides, I mean that special interest legislation designed to further enrich the obscenely-rich Trone family. Hey, they did it for Sam Calagione, why not the Trones?
I wrote yesterday that this bill appears to be the result of Bill Bush and Trey Paradee getting a bug up their butts concerning the Insurance Commissioner. It’s out of committee and on today’s agenda. Does anybody have the back story?
I hesitate (albeit briefly) to ask just what specific situation this bill addresses that is not already addressed:
This bill adds the intentional touching of another person with semen to the definition of sexual contact. By doing so, the act of a person intentionally touching another person with semen without consent becomes the crime of unlawful sexual contact third degree.
Which reminds me of a joke:
A penguin is driving cross-country. His engine light comes on, so he pulls into a service station which, for purposes of this joke, is conveniently located right next to an ice cream store. The mechanic goes under the hood while the penguin waddles inside in search of a frozen confection. The penguin emerges with ice cream all over his face.
Mechanic (from underneath the hood): “Looks like you just blew a seal.”
Penguin: “It’s just ice cream, I SWEAR.”
Kids, you don’t get jokes like this on any other Delaware political blog.
I don’t know if it’s the Chinese New Year celebration in Hockessin or what, but Michael Smith picks up where his predecessor Joe Miro left off.
HB 247 ‘will allow the on-going use of certain ground-based and hand-held sparklers’. (Hey, I can only work with the material at hand.)
The House will also consider
SS1/SB 92 (Townsend), which will help provide dental care to Medicaid recipients. Delaware, along with Tennessee and Alabama, are the only three states not to provide such coverage.
Today’s
Senate Agenda features, well, not much really.
SB 175 (McDowell) provides for an expansion of SEED scholarship grants.
HB 59 (Bennett) ‘requires the Secretary of the Department of Transportation to publish the transaction history for funds allocated to each member of the General Assembly under the Community Transportation Fund.’ Hey, that’ll certainly give Nancy Willing and me something to look at.
Uh, that’s about it. But the real danger now is what legislation will be worked without notice. Sen. McBride pretends to be a stickler for proper process. If so, he will not allow the Bond Bill to be run today under rules suspension. And, if he’s sincere about being transparent, he won’t permit the Grant-In-Aid bill to be introduced and run on Sunday with no time for public review. He’s not sincere, though, so you can bet that the Grant-In-Aid bill will be signed into law before he declares that early recess he’s promised. And our PAL Val and Nicole ‘No Longer’ Poore will leave Dover with their agencies’ filthy lucre intact.
Get lots of sleep, drink plenty of fluids, and join me Sunday for A Long Day’s Journey Into Mediocrity.