General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thursday, April 22, 2021

Looks like Mike Ramone’s gonna have to stock up on Robot Lifeguards.  That’s the inescapable conclusion following yesterday’s surreal meeting of the Business Lapdog Committee, where the sheer idiocy of arguments against a $15 minimum wage made it impossible for even the Chamber-leaning D’s to justify burying the bill in committee.  Matt Bittle, as usual, provides the best story.  Did I mention robots?:

“There’s a math problem here … and the math problem is we are incentivizing going to robotics,” said Rep. Jeff Spiegelman, a Clayton Republican.

Yep. Robot waiters, robot lifeguards…maybe robot cops wouldn’t be such a bad idea. I’m certain that businesses could acquire robots much more cheaply than paying working stiffs $15 an hour would. But, I digress.

Some fucking guy who runs a nursing home even claims he might have to cut people.  Since nursing homes routinely understaff and have heretofore escaped any watchful eye by supposed regulators, might I suggest that regulators enforce the law, starting with this guy’s nursing home?  But, I digress.

BTW, does this sound familiar for those of you who have watched the General Assembly make a mockery of police reform?:

Rep. Bryan Shupe, a Republican from Milford, called on committee members to hold off on the bill for now. Instead, lawmakers should pass legislation instructing the General Assembly’s fiscal office to perform a comprehensive study of the impacts of an increase, he recommended.

“While debates on the merits of an increased minimum wage have centered around talking points, political agendas and emotional appeals, the aim of (the bill) is to provide empirical evidence and financial projections of how the minimum wage increase will impact Delaware taxpayers on the public side, along with families and small businesses on the private side,” he wrote in an email newsletter distributed over the weekend.

Is this mic on?  There’s already a shitload of evidence that (a) demonstrates the economic value of a $15 minimum wage, and (b) destroys virtually every argument against it. From, you know, places that have already implemented the $15 minimum wage.

Here is the ‘horror’ facing opponents of SB 15. Minimum wage increases to:

$10.50 in 2022

$11.75 in 2023

$13.25 in 2024

and

$15.00 in 2025.

Kudos to Network Delaware, The Working Families Party, and every single person and organization who lobbied the three reluctant D’s (Griffith, Bennett, and Bush) on the committee.  You made a difference.  Thanks to the opponents of the bill, who were unable to marshal a serious argument against it and, in fact, guaranteed that the bill would clear committee with their gibberish.  You earned your paychecks yesterday. No, I’m not gonna congratulate the three reluctant D’s for acting like D’s yesterday. That’s what they were supposed to do.

To our ‘Governor’: Time to poke your head out of your shell, and openly support both SB 15 and the timeline in it.  Don’t worry, the Chamber won’t repossess your trophy. They’ll still need you down the road to scuttle some other progressive initiative. You know, it doesn’t hurt to act like a Democrat at least once in a while. This is not Tom Carper’s Democratic Party any more.  Nor yours.

To Speaker Pete: Hey, you tried. You stacked that committee.  Not your fault that the Chamber and its allies came up with bupkus.  Put this on an Agenda soon, and have your press office start cranking out those ‘Democrats Enact $15 Minimum Wage’ ‘Reports To The People’ ASAP.  A $15 minimum wage is not just good policy, it’s a political winner. Then, put Mike Ramone and Mike Smith in the same district during reapportionment. Have I mentioned lately that they live 2.9 miles from each other? They do.  Check it out on Google maps. I did.

Hmmm, pretty sure I accurately honed in on today’s lead story.

Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report.

Today’s Senate Agenda  features SB 64 (Townsend), which ‘requires that accumulated snow and ice be removed from surfaces of a vehicle before it is operated and imposes a civil penalty for a violation. This Act also creates a civil penalty for each instance where snow or ice dislodges from a moving vehicle and causes property damage or physical injury but this penalty is not an exclusive remedy for property damage or physical injury.’  While I think that reasonable people can agree on what constitutes ‘accumulated snow and ice’, will cops make that distinction? Or will they pay more attention to the driver than the car? While I support the intent of the bill,  I’m leery of any proposed legislation that affords the police more discretion to pull people over. Talk me down.

Today’s House Agenda features HB 29 (Baumbach), which would put an end to that brief post-filing deadline scramble where filed candidates engage in a game of musical chairs by switching the offices they are running for. While I generally hate that practice, I must point out that, had the practice not been in effect in 2020, the plan by Ken Boulden to install his successor w/o any chance of her being challenged would have succeeded. I don’t think any legislation on this front is corruption-proof. Not when you’re dealing with politicians.

I’ll deal with ’em again next Tuesday.