General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thursday, January 14, 2021

You can’t have a progressive tax system without progressive legislators. Progressives were in short supply during the terms of Governors Pete DuPont, Mike Castle and Tom Carper. Revenue was not in short supply.  Which is why the three governors and the General Assembly fervently embraced ‘bracket consolidation’, which is a euphemism for ‘ensuring that the wealthy don’t pay their fair share’.  It is why someone currently earning $60K a year pays the same percentage of tax as someone earning, say, $5 mill a year.  To be fair, the greedy tossed some crumbs at the poor in the form of raising the floor on the minimum amount needed to pay any income tax at all. However, the tax changes disproportionately and obscenely benefited the fat cats at the top, as was intended.

For a few sessions now, Rep. Kowalko has introduced legislation to restore some progressivity to the Delaware tax code w/o success.  However, during the last session of the General Assembly, Gov. Carney said that he wasn’t philosophically opposed to some additional brackets, but he didn’t think the state needed the money. (Clearly, ‘fairness’ was not reason enough.)

Times may be changing, though. The state does need the money, and there are a whole lot more progressive legislators in Dover than ever before.

Enter HB 64 (Kowalko).  The bill:

…creates the following new tax brackets: at $125,000, with a rate of 7.10%, at $250,000, with a rate of 7.85%, and at $500,000, with a rate of 8.6%.

In other words, you don’t pay an additional penny of taxes unless your taxable income is at least $125K.  You would remain at the current 6.6% rate.

While this is similar to his previous efforts, what’s notably different is the sponsorship.  Not only is the President Pro-Tem of the Senate, Dave Sokola,  on the bill as a prime sponsor, but four freshman legislators have also signed on: Marie Pinkney, Eric Morrison, Madinah Wilson-Anton, and Sarah McBride.  Bruce Ennis is also on the bill (I’ve often pointed out that, on issues like these, he’s with the little guy). Kowalko and Ennis have also worked together on manufactured housing issues.  The bill has been (correctly) assigned to the House Revenue & Finance Committee. While the membership would appear likely to release the bill, the committee does include Andria Bennett, who has literally quoted word-for-word from Chamber talking points on the floor, and it also includes Stephanie Bolden and Sherry Dorsey Walker, who only do what is in their personal self-interest.  Advice to advocates for the bill: Target those three committee members early and often. 

The bill has a 3/5ths voting requirement, which is eminently doable assuming there are few D defections.

OK, that’s the lead story.

Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report.  All of Gov. Carney’s cabinet nominees were voted out of the Senate Executive Committee, and then confirmed by unanimous votes in the Senate. They are:

Amy Bonner: Secretary of Health & Social Services

Cerron Cade: Office Of Management & Budget

Jason Clarke: CIO Of Department of Information & Technology

Nicole Majeski: Secretary of Transportation.

Every bill that we discussed yesterday was released from committee.  The House Business Lapdog Committee meets today. Here is the agenda.  Most of the bills were likely submitted by the Office Of Insurance Commissioner.  The one exception is HB 46 (Bush), which ‘permits Delaware brewery-pub and microbrewery license holders to brew, bottle and sell hard seltzers and other fermented beverages made from malt substitutes and includes specific tax on fermented beverages’.  Yes, it’s special interest legislation,  but, if it’s in service to Delaware’s brew pubs and microbreweries, I’m all for it.

Doesn’t look like they’re gonna do a damn thing today, other than a resolution or two.  Instead, there will be a joint session to ‘hear the results of the Governor and Lt. Governor races‘.  Spoiler Alert: Carney and Bethany Hall-Long won.

An anti-climactic way to end the legislative week, but it’s January.