Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tuesday, May 6, 2025

We’ve got at least two games of chicken going on in Dover–the Port vendetta between the State Senate and the Governor, and the battle over how to pay for the FY 2026 budget.  The more urgent is the latter, as any prospective resolution over the Edgemoor port expansion will require the courts to sort out the various lawsuits.  However, the budget issue must be resolved by June 30.  Perhaps it’s not even a game of chicken. Perhaps the General Assembly and the Governor will support adding a couple more tax brackets for those Delawareans making the most money–although this is where Rethugs and super-majorities could come into play.  Perhaps we’ll have more clarity on how many of Trump’s proposed cuts withstand the rule of law.   Regardless, I don’t look for much movement on that front until we get to mark-up in a couple of weeks.

Which leaves us with today, the first session day since the Spring recess.  I shared the introduction of new bills with you yesterday.

Today’s Senate Agenda features the annual running of the corporate law package, being run, for the first time, by noted corporate law expert Darius Brown (For newbies, this is snark. Brown is not a corporate law expert, nor an expert on anything legislative.  Just wanted you to know how we roll.)  Which hardly matters, as the bills will pass with no real understanding as to what’s in them.  It has ever been thus.

The House Agenda is more interesting, and more substantive.  Released once again literally 24 hours before session because that’s how this Speaker rolls.  No more public notice than what is the minimum required by law.  In direct contrast to how the Senate generally provides much more lead time when it comes to posting an agenda.   But, I digress.  The key bill is HB 82 (Wilson-Anton), which dovetails (I know I can look it up, but the term ‘dovetail’ has always been a mystery to me) nicely with the civil suit that Christina School Board member Doug Manley has filed to try to remove Christina’s Man In Pakistan from the board.  HB 82 “requires that a school board candidate and member be an “inhabitant” of the district, or designated portion of a district, that member represents. “Inhabitant” is defined for this purpose as “a person who both claims legal residence and physically resides in a designated area or school district.”  This bill, of course, would not be needed had several adults on the Christina Board applied even a minimum of logic and fairness to what’s been going on there.  But, they didn’t, and so it is.

HB 97 (K. Williams) appears to be in response to a recent article detailing the number of unlicensed teachers who have somehow found their way into Delaware classrooms.  The bill:

…ensures that a public school employee may not work directly with students unsupervised without a valid permit or license issued by the DOE’s Professional Standards Boards or an approved license issued under Title 24. To that end, this Act creates a new permit requirement for any paraprofessional or student support and classroom position, including specialist interns, year-long residents, full time substitute teachers, substitute teachers seeking certification, student teachers, and classroom aides.

Were I prone to snark, I could have mentioned that a certain Delaware legislator is cited in the story among those who is/was teaching without a license.  Said legislator was also cited in the State Auditor’s report as not verifying hours they worked as a ‘teacher’ while also collecting their legislative salary.  But I see no need to mention Rae Moore’s name here.

There are no scheduled Senate committee meetings today.  Of today’s scheduled House committee meetings,  only the Labor Committee has a substantive agenda.

HB 105 (Ross Levin) ‘requires that employers include salary or wage range information and a general description of benefits in all postings for job opportunities, and ensures that applicants have access to that information prior to any offer or discussion of compensation.’  Good bill.  Pretty much every D is on it, as are zero Rethugs.

HB 130 (Osienski):

‘…provides that a public employer must provide an exclusive bargaining representative with certain contact information of bargaining unit employees, (i) within 14 calendar days of their hiring and (ii) in January and October of each year, starting in January 2026. In addition, a public employer must allow an exclusive representative to communicate with bargaining unit members using their employer-issued email addresses regarding collective bargaining, the administration of collective bargaining agreements, the investigation of grievances, workplace-related complaints and issues, and internal matters involving the exclusive representative’s governance or business.

Now you may ask, ‘How do you know this is a good bill?’  Usually the answer is ‘Because I’ve read it in a critical manner and made that determination’.  However, with this bill, the answer is simpler:  ‘Because Madinah Wilson-Anton is a co-sponsor.’

Back tomorrow with a heavy committee day.