Pity The Poor Rethuglican. A couple of years ago, Speaker Pete cut a deal with them rather than work with his own caucus. The result? A special ‘training wage’ and a special ‘youth wage’ that was below the minimum wage. A lot of D’s bristled at this bill. But not Mike Ramone, whose vote Pete valued more than the votes of his caucus. This finally led to HB 88, which does away with this rip-off of wages. It passed the House w/even Speaker Pete voting for it. Yesterday, it passed the Senate. But not without a snit-fit from the Senate Rethugs. From Matt Bittle’s Twitter:
In a highly unusual but allowable move, Republicans have objected to a floor debate and vote on a bill to repeal the youth/training wage.
To no one’s surprise, they were outvoted. Now debating the bill. Minority Leader Gerald Hocker threatens to withhold the needed GOP votes from the bond bill later this month over Democrats passing this and undoing a bipartisan arrangement from a few years ago.
Translation: “We held you hostage in good faith. How dare you free yourselves from captivity.”
The repeal of the youth/training wage passes 13-8 and now goes to the governor.
Can you see the weak hand that the R’s are playing? “We’re not gonna vote for the Bond Bill because you took away the one scrap of self respect we had remaining.” Fine, if I’m the D’s, I’m compiling a list of all the projects tucked into the Bond Bill for these mouthbreathers, and I’m preparing to publish the list. And, you know, ask the constituents of these mouthbreathers, ‘Do you want these improvements, or don’t you?’ What are the Suxco crybabies gonna do? Claim that the principle of denying starting workers a decent wage supersedes tens of millions for projects in their districts? Have at it.
Darius Brown. Steven Smyk. Both have been accused of serious offenses. President Pro-Tem Dave Sokola yesterday removed Brown from the Judiciary Committee entirely. His statement:
“After considerable discussion, I decided this step is necessary to avoid any potential distractions or conflicts of interest for either Senator Brown or his colleagues on the Committee as they consider multiple bills dealing directly with the courts, law enforcement and the Delaware Department of Justice,” said Sokola in a written statement.
Steven Smyk is currently a member of the House Judiciary Committee, the Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee, and the Corrections Committee. I agree with Sen. Sokola’s reasoning in removing Brown from the Judiciary Committee. It’s equally clear that Smyk should be removed from these committees for the exact same reason. Will Speaker Pete, with all his cop connections, act like the Speaker of the House, or like the cop-for-life he has been accused of being? We’ll be watching. So will the members of his caucus.
Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report. You’ll notice a couple of whacko pieces of legislation right out of the RWNJ playbook: SCR 47 (Wilson), which was defeated; and SB 172 (Lawson), which has been assigned consigned to committee, where it will remain.
Other than HB 88, the only other bill that generated any controversy was SB 101, which affords tenants in eviction actions a right to counsel. The bill passed, 13-8, with Sen. Mantzavinos joining the Rethugs in opposition. You’ll have to ask him why.
Plenty of highlights on today’s House Committee schedule:
HB 240 (Longhurst) ‘creates the Korey Thompson Student Emergency Housing Assistance Fund for the benefit of housing insecure undergraduate students at any college or university in Delaware and appropriates $90,000 to the Fund for FY2022’. Don’t mean to sound suspicious, but it only provides $90 K in funding, and it’s only for one year. Basically next-to-nothing. If student housing insecurity is a problem, this is hardly the solution. Administration.
HB 245 (Schwartzkopf) ‘changes the deadline for the General Assembly to reapportion and redistrict the State after each federal decennial census to within 120 days following receipt of the federal decennial census data for redistricting’. I get it, due to the delayed release of the census data. Administration.
I don’t generally discuss bills that have already passed one chamber and is now being considered in the other chamber. Gotta say, though, that there are some real good Senate bills being considered in the House Health & Human Development Committee today.
I’m a supporter of HB 215 (Minor-Brown), which ‘mandates electronic recording of the custodial interrogation process by law enforcement when the interrogation relates to a crime allegedly committed by an adult or a delinquent act allegedly committed by a child.’ Yes, there are exceptions, including a so-called ‘exigent circumstances’ exception, which seems too broad to me. But the bill also ‘requires the prosecution to notify the defense of an intention to introduce an unrecorded statement and of the exception that permitted the lack of recording. This Act requires the prosecution to prove by clear and convincing evidence that an exception applies.’ Here’s the rub, though: ‘This Act provides civil immunity for both law enforcement officers and law enforcement agencies’. In other words, if they break the law, they don’t have to face the consequences. Why the fuck not? Still, the bill is an improvement. Judiciary.
HB 202 (K. Williams) ‘is designed to increase the opportunity for Delaware children to undergo developmental screening with a research-based screening tool at an early age in order to identify children who may be eligible for Early Intervention or special education services’. Education.
A Tale Of Two Bills today in the Business Lapdog Committee. HB 10 (Kowalko):
…adopts the Agreement to Phase-Out Corporate Giveaways, under which member states are prohibited from offering or providing company-specific tax incentives or grants to an entity as inducement for the entity to physically relocate to the state from a location in a member state. Corporate incentives are among the least effective uses of taxpayer dollars to create and maintain jobs and governments should attract and retain companies based on general conditions, not based on a specific grant for a particular company. The Agreement to Phase-Out Corporate Giveaways creates a level playing field for all employers. This Act takes effect upon the adoption of the Agreement to Phase-Out Corporate Giveaways by 2 or more states. This Act is known as the “Agreement to Phase-Out Corporate Giveaways”.
SB 127 (Walsh) ‘promote(s) sustained economic growth and stability by establishing a fund to provide grants, loans or other economic assistance to businesses or public entities that invest in constructing, renovating or improving infrastructure for sites that will attract new businesses or expand existing businesses within the State to initiate economic development opportunities that will create a significant number of direct, permanent, quality, full-time jobs’.
In other words, one bill seeks to do away with corporate giveaways, the other bill expands them. Guess which one will make it out of committee.
This Act establishes the Delaware Expanding Access for Retirement and Necessary Saving (“EARNS”) program to serve as a vehicle through which eligible employees may, on a voluntary basis, provide for additional retirement security through a State-facilitated retirement savings program in a convenient, cost effective, and portable manner. The EARNS program will be designed to serve small businesses who are unable to offer retirement plans to employees due to the cost and administrative burden. Because there are documented wealth gaps in Delaware, disproportionately impacting women and people of color, a state-facilitated savings plan aims to alleviate barriers small employers face in offering options, close the wealth gap among low to modest wage earners and keep Delaware competitive with neighboring states by attracting talented workers to Delaware.
…all 50 states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico have enacted infant safe haven laws that allow a parent to surrender a newborn without fear of prosecution. These laws vary in terms of where an infant can be surrendered. Delaware is among 16 states that only permit a baby to be surrendered to a hospital. Twenty-five states allow surrenders at fire stations and 25 states permit surrenders to personnel at police stations or other law enforcement agencies. This Act adds police stations to the designated safe havens where an individual may surrender a baby.
In order to lower the cost of energy and accelerate the adoption of community-based solar photovoltaic systems in the State, this bill eliminates current barriers to such systems and sets up a regulatory process to be implemented by the Public Service Commission with consumer protection provided by the Department of Justice. More specifically, this bill: 1. Allows for multiple types of ownership models, defined as “community-owned energy generating facilities,” to exist and compete in the marketplace; 2. Increases the maximum size of these systems to 4 megawatts (MW); 3. Eliminates the requirement that all customers of a system must be located on the same distribution feeder; 4. Eliminates the requirement that all customers of a system must be identified before the system can be built; 5. Provides for the regulation of these systems by the Public Service Commission and sets forth the fee and requirements for a Certificate to Operate; 6. Provides compensation to the system owner for 10% or less of unsubscribed energy; 7. Requires each system owner to certify that it serves at least 15% low income customers; and 8. Provides that the Public Service Commission will engage in rule-making in consultation with the Consumer Protection Unit of the Delaware Department of Justice and promulgate rules and regulations by March 11, 2022.