Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tues., Jan. 28, 2020

By Thursday, we will all know what’s in the Governor’s proposed budget.  One thing we do know: It will be printed on smooth paper. Or maybe smooth e-paper, to save a few shekels.  But there will not be any growth to the base of the budget. Not with this Concord Coalition green-eyeshade guy in charge.  A Pete Peterson (not Karen’s dad) Democrat. Which is no Democrat at all.

For you completists, here is the Session Activity Report for last Thursday. 

Today’s House Agenda  has some intriguing items on it. HB 212(Cooke), which would cap the Minquadale landfill, has returned from the Senate. But not without a gift from Dave McBride to Bobby Byrd and Byrd’s client, Waste Management. The House bill capped the landfill at 130 feet. McBride’s amendment raised the cap to 140 feet.  When you think of the size of that landfill, that’s a shitload of trash, courtesy of the President Pro-Tem. In Delaware Way circles, that’s called a win-win.  Man, I’d love to see the House amend the bill back down to the original 130.

The Trey Paradee ‘It Wasn’t Me’ Tour nears its conclusion as the House will consider the do-over of the Kent County lodging tax that was foisted on an unsuspecting General Assembly by the Brothers (and perhaps) Sister Paradee.  The ‘outing’ of the bill’s intent represented a threat not only to the tarnished reputation of the Paradee family, but also a threat to the casual corruption of the General Assembly. It will soon be gone, but the stench will linger on. Casual corruption ain’t goin’ away any time soon.

HB 281 (Schwartzkopf) ‘increases the minimum amount of property damage that triggers the mandatory reporting of a vehicular collision to police from $500 to $2,000. This bill also increases the minimum amount of property damage requiring police agencies to investigate from $1,000 to $2,000.’  The lower figures had been around for some time, so this appears to make sense.

It happens every January. Legislation is introduced to make some supplemental adjustments to the ‘money’ bills that were passed in June.  This bill represents changes to the Bond Bill.  You can sometimes find skulduggery in bills like these. Brief pause while I conduct an informal perusal…I’m back. Looks OK to me.

HB 318(Heffernan) ‘requires the Department of Education to establish and implement a curriculum on the Holocaust and genocide for students in grades 6 through 12’.   At the risk of getting pummeled, I’ll ask it: What will fall by the wayside to make way for this?  Yes, we must make sure that the Holocaust is never forgotten, particularly in this age where anti-Semitism and pro-Nazi sentiments are rising. Hopefully, this will be part of the social studies curriculum, and will not take the place of some other worthy educational program.

The Senate Agenda features nothing of interest to me.

Hey, I can only work with the raw materials on hand.