General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: June 30, 2018
That was quite the mixed bag on Thursday.
The bad? The House ‘cut the baby in half’ on relief to the racinos. Hey, as long as Rep. Lynn is happy, I can’t be too upset. Still, rewarding Denis McGlynn for his serial incompetence hardly seems fair.
The really good? The House pushed back against the Carney/Simpler/Chamber cabal, and rejected their push for ‘budget-smoothing’, a thinly-veiled attempt to balance future budget deficits on the backs of those most in need of services. Carney even addressed the House Caucus and begged them for support for his green-eyeshaded vision. It’s official. Carney and Simpler are the same person. I think the next General Assembly, especially the House, will be less hospitable to the Chamber’s entreaties. More on that as we get closer to the elections.
Both the Budget Bill and the bonuses for state employees/retirees were signed into law. To be fair to Carney, I’m not sure that Markell would have set aside his hatred of state employees to do that. He really was a condescending elitist.
Here are today’s House and Senate (The Senate agenda will materialize if and when Dave McBride gets around to it) agendas. There will no doubt be other bills considered as ‘must lists’ pass back and forth between to the House and the Senate. As to the colors listed in the House Agenda(s)? The bills will be in binders on the legislators’ desks, and they will be referred to by the color of the binder.
OK, I’m gonna try this one more time. HB 165, which would permit the direct shipment of wine to Delaware consumers, has been completely misrepresented by opponents, most of whom, I suspect, don’t even understand the bill’s purpose. Let’s say you travel to California, the Pacific Northwest, the Finger Lakes, or other burgeoning wine regions like Virginia or New Mexico. In your travels, you may well encounter wonderful small-production wineries that essentially sell only to their mailing list and perhaps some local restaurants. They have no interest in marketing their wines to retailers throughout the country as they don’t need to, and they don’t make enough wine to warrant it. My wife and I generally travel to the Pacific Northwest at least once or twice a year to visit our youngest daughter. We love wine. We’ve discovered wineries that we love, both for the wine and for the personal relationship we’ve developed with the winemakers over the years. There are literally thousands of wineries like this throughout the country whose wines are not, and will never be, available here. This bill would enable people like us to purchase limited quantities of these artisan wines that are not available in Delaware. Period. We’ll still frequent Kreston’s and Moore Brothers because they are great retail purveyors of wine. But these wines aren’t available at either store, or even at the gargantuan rip-off that is Total Wines (BTW, looks like David Trone successfully bought his seat in Congress). So, any legislator who is reading this and may be on the fence, this is what the bill would do. You know that the opponents are just throwing shit up on the wall. I mean, 17-year-olds importing expensive pinot noirs in order to drink before they legally can? Seriously? They’re a bit more, um, resourceful than that.
I’m sure I’ll add to this post as the day goes on and the Senate Agenda is presumably posted. For now, time to hit the doors for Chris Johnson before the heat gets too oppressive.
In a dramatic example of a petulant personality that cannot get his way (HB460) through the legitimate legislative process, Governor Carney has chosen to emulate a Trumpian tactic that shows a healthy disdain for democratic principles of separation of powers. Please share and post with all as you see fit.
Representative John Kowalko
From: David, Emily (Governor) [mailto:Emily.David@state.de.us]
Sent: Saturday, June 30, 2018 1:30 PM
To: Kowalko, John (LegHall)
Subject: TODAY: Governor Carney To Sign Executive Order on Budget Smoothing
FOR PLANNING PURPOSES:
June 30, 2018
MEDIA CONTACT:
Jonathan Starkey
Cell: (302) 256-8364
Jonathan.Starkey@state.de.us
Delaware Governor John Carney
MEDIA ADVISORY
TODAY: Governor Carney To Sign Executive Order on Budget Smoothing
DOVER, Del. – At 4:30 p.m. today at Legislative Hall, Governor John Carney will sign an Executive Order to implement recommendations of the DEFAC Advisory Committee on budget smoothing. Following the signing, Governor Carney will be available for media to answer questions on the final day of the 149th General Assembly.
WHAT: Governor Carney will sign an Executive Order on budget smoothing, and hold media availability on the final day of the 149th General Assembly.
WHO: Governor John Carney
Mike Jackson, Director, Office of Management and Budget
Rick Geisenberger, Secretary, Department of Finance
Jeff Bullock, Secretary of State
Michael Houghton, Chair, Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council
WHEN: Saturday, June 30
4:30 p.m.
WHERE: Governor’s Office
Legislative Hall
411 Legislative Avenue
Dover, DE 19901
###
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Thanks for this John! This is beyond shameful.
This is a power grab that I don’t believe is allowed by the Delaware Constitution. Any lawyers in the readership who can weigh in on this?
Mike Houghton. There’s another Delaware Way lackey if there ever was one. Bagman for the corporate DINO’s. Of course, you don’t get to chair DEFAC unless you are a lackey, and unless you’re as far up the Chamber’s ass as a proctologist.
Of all the things on which Carney could have chosen to take a stand, he chose this. Which tells you everything you need to know about the Concord Coalition’s fave governor.
Is this officially the Simpler/Carney plan? Or is he trying to claim credit for Simpler’s BS?
He sure seemed to take credit for it on the Rick Jensen Show the other day…
https://www.wdel.com/on-demand/rick-jensen/
John is a socialist so I expect nothing less from him..
How could you read HB 460 and come to the conclusion that John Carney is a socialist?
Please don’t feed the troll. If he read that bill, it will be the first bill he’s ever read.
BTW, the Senate is scheduled to go into session in about 20 minutes. Still no posted agenda. Guess the President Pro-Tem feels that the public doesn’t deserve to know what the Senate will consider tonight.
Four tight-ass white guys talking about ‘budget smoothing’. Any questions as to why Delaware Democratic leadership sucks? Didn’t think so:
https://www.delawareonline.com/videos/news/local/2018/06/30/governor-carney-signs-executive-order-budget-smoothing/748478002/
In watching that Carney clip, he says that they are employing the methodology of ‘budget smoothing’ already. Whatever that means. Fortunately, they can’t force the General Assembly to adopt it w/o a statutory change. I suppose he could veto future budgets over it, but he’d have a lot of real D voters to answer to.
So, petulant? Yes. Impactful? No.
Oh, the Senate Agenda finally surfaced. Guess which bill was the very first one to pass? If you guessed the Racino Welfare Bill, you’d be correct.
John Carney would NEVER let budget smoothing stand in the way of business and a taxpayer-funded bailout. Nice optics, John.
BTW, the minimum wage increase was SUPPOSED to be worked after the Racino Bill. You know, so that Sen. Bushweller could presumably stop holding his breath and vote ‘yes’. Hasn’t happened yet. If the bill does pass and go to the House, there will be pressure on them to pass it.
MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE PASSES IN SENATE, 11-10. Straight party line vote. Two R’s in strong D districts voted no: Cloutier and Delcollo.
What will Pistol Pete do?
Looks like it was another clusterbleep in Dover last night. The House passed the minimum wage increase on a straight party line vote. Buh-bye, Reps Hensley and Ramone. The Rethugs were so outraged that they held the Bond Bill hostage. Will Jellyfish John veto it in exchange for the Bond Bill? Who knows?
The Teamsters strong-armed the wine shipments bill to defeat. Wanted: A single teamster who can read. They’re almost as bad as the state cops:
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/politics/2018/06/30/last-day-delaware-general-assembly-session-carney-orders/748182002/
The poorly run casinos got some more welfare. So… jobs!
Bushweller held the minimum wage bill hostage until after the casino bill headed to the Governor.
Not a single R in either the House or the Senate voted for an increase in the minimum wage. There are campaigns where that may sink incumbent R’s. Specifically, Hensley and Ramone.
Pretty bad optics, deep-sixing the Bond Bill b/c workers are getting a modest increase in the minimum wage. If they have to come back into session, I hope someone totes up the cost of the Rethugs’ snit fit. And they will come back, b/c no Bond Bill means no construction, and that will create a recession that not even budget-smoothing could address. Oh, and could endanger even more R’s.
The R’s misplayed their hand. The D’s should just let them be forced to capitulate. They won’t, of course.
Hey, I have an idea. Let the R’s run a resolution making Ronald Reagan Day an annual occurrence. That should be cover enough.
I hope it resonates.
Related – From what I’m hearing it is absolutly sick how far Karen P is going to prop up Ramone. Does she even still have juice? What’s the real deal with that connection?
BTW, any word on Marshall, Q. Johnson, or A. Bennett? They were the only legislators who had either not announced their retirement, or who had not refiled.
Nah. Not sure what the connection is. Maybe his vote on marriage equality?
In checking the House vote on minimum wage, it was NOT a straight party line vote. True, not a single R voted for it. In addition, Bryon Short, Melanie George Smith, and Quin Johnson displayed their true DINO colors, and either voted no or went not voting. John Viola apparently called it an early night and was absent. What good are you if you represent a strong union district and don’t stick around for a vote on minimum wage? There were no votes to spare. Neither Short nor George Smith will be missed.
Sorry to admit that while R’s are opposing the bond bill for the wrong reasons, $10 million future debt requiring interest for voting machines ( computers) and software that will be obsolete in 5 years or less is an abuse of the the concept of bonds. The hardware and software will be in the junk pile and replaced long before the bonds are paid off by our grandchildren. My fellow Dems in many states and municipalities have abused this financial instrument for as long as I can remember. And all of the D Auditor candidates seem to agree, at least those with accounting and finance backgrounds.
Stan,
You raise a great issue and as you know we have discussed this before. I remember you asking a question about this when I spoke at an RD meeting. You are correct, we should not be paying for items with a short useful life with long term bond financing. This just increases the long term debt load and the burden on our children and grandchildren. I clearly stated that as my position at the meeting. We can pay for this with the cash portion of the Capital Infrastructure Budget. When talking about my time in the General Assembly I try to refer to the Committee I served on by the official name of Joint Capital Infrastructure Committee rather than the nickname Bond Bill Committee, since there are two funding sources for capital spending in the budget – Bonds and Cash. The Cash is allocated from the regular operating budget and in some years includes additional funds as happened this year. This money should be used for the shorter useful life items. It is an important distinction and my time in the General Assembly provides the experience to understand this distinction.
It should be noted that the other two candidates in the Auditor race have not been able to give a definitive concise answer. I don’t think that Ms. McGuiness, who has no accounting experience, even understood the question. Ms. Davies waffled on the answer, saying she would have to look into it more. I think we agree, there is nothing to look into. This is why I firmly contend that my broad experience in accounting, state government, federal government accounting, and non-profit accounting is critical to effectively serve as State Auditor.