Based on what’s come before, it’s entirely fitting that this first session of the General Assembly draws to a close with the passage of two money bills with contents hidden far from the prying eyes of the public.
On Thursday, the Senate passed the Bond Bill with no notice whatsoever. The bill was not made available to the public to review before the roll call had been taken. The Senate could have just as easily delayed consideration of the Bond Bill until first thing today, giving the House plenty of time to consider it. So why didn’t they? No, seriously, I’m asking. We now know that there’s a potential bailout of Wesley College, a private institution, using public dollars to bail it out. I take no position on whether the state should be doing this. My criticism goes to the deliberate move to rush this bill through the Senate with no public notice.
What’s even worse is the cavalier manner by which the entire General Assembly will consider the Grant-In-Aid bill today. The committee charged with writing the bill is not even going to meet until 3 pm today. Now, bear in mind that at least two of Delaware’s most powerful legislators have every reason to hide the particulars of this bill from the public. Nicole Poore parlayed her public position into a second job as President of Jobs For Delaware Graduates, a bullshit waste of money if ever there was one. Valerie Longhurst parlayed her public position into a second job as Executive Director of the Delaware Police Athletic League. There is only one reason why Delaware’s two most unethical legislators have these positions–they can ensure that they will be amply funded even though neither agency is a state agency. The funding is in the annual Grant-In-Aid bill every year. They will get their funding–the bill will likely be signed into law–before the public even has a chance to read it. If you’re OK with that, there is no point in reading this.
Here is the Session Activity Report from Thursday.
Today’s Agendas are starting points, and only starting points. Having said that, the House deserves credit for providing notice on a significant number of bills it intends to run. We’ll find out soon enough if the Trone family will be aided in their continuing pursuit of a retail liquor monopoly as Mike Ramone’s gift to them is #1 on the agenda. Actually, the House agendas include several Senate bills that are likely senate priorities. Conspicuous by its absence is SB 159 (Walsh), which is designed to make the State Auditor do her job. Speaker Pete decided that protecting Kathy McGuiness was more important than accounting for taxpayer dollars. So, he buried it in a committee that won’t meet until 2020. The bill could still be worked under a motion to suspend rules, but that would require some integrity on the part of senate leadership.
The bleeping Senate hasn’t even posted an agenda yet. Guess the senate ‘leader’ wanted to beat the beach traffic back home to Lewes on Thursday. BTW, Dave, is it true that your wife is registered to vote down at your beach house? After all, she is listed as living there, 35759 Tarpon Dr., Lewes DE 19958-5047, to be specific. Memo to Sen. McBride: Spare me any talk about bringing transparency to the office of Pro-Tem. The senate leadership team is hopelessly compromised, and it’s up to the Senate Caucus to address it. And it’s time that the voters elected someone to replace Sen. McBride unless they want someone who lives in Lewes representing them. Betcha they don’t.
I’ll provide updates as developments warrant. However, I won’t be burning the midnight oil tonight. If you’re down there, let us know what’s going on.
Me? I’ve had enough of this group of miscreants.