Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tuesday, June 8, 2021

It’s official.  Matt Bittle is the best legislative beat reporter I’ve seen during my years of working for/following the General Assembly.  Chad Livengood was the best investigative reporter, but you simply can’t beat Matt’s ongoing coverage.  It’s why I subscribe to Bay To Bay (formerly the Delaware State News).  Here is his preview of the remaining 11 (or so) legislative days in session.  Subscriptions don’t cost much. Subscribe.

One takeaway is that Speaker Pete seems to have his hackles up:

“It would be very irresponsible of me in a fiduciary sense if I were to put bills on the floor … and we don’t have the money to fund it,” Rep. Schwartzkopf said. “That would be the worst thing we could do.”

Poor guy.  But here’s the really good news.  The House Appropriations Committee met on June 4 (I saw no notice of this meeting, but I’m not gonna complain), and voted to release SB 15 (the minimum wage bill) and other bills with budgetary costs to the floor.  There should now be no impediments to placing the $15 minimum wage bill on the floor…although it’s not yet on an Agenda.  Hey, marijuana legalization is on Thursday’s House Agenda, so I will hold my fire for now.

It’s gonna be a busy week and, hopefully, a productive week. Today’s Senate Agenda is a good place to start.  Looks like Mike Ramone’s scam of underpaying kids for work is going…going…gone.  HB 88 (K. Williams) eliminates the training minimum wage and youth minimum wage.  Don’t forget that this rip-off of young workers became law b/c Speaker Pete cut a deal with Senate Rethugs to carve out a budget deal that was opposed by many members of his own caucus.  It never should have become law in the first place.  But, you know, ‘the Delaware Way’.

SB 101 (Townsend) ‘creates a right to counsel for tenants in evictions and other landlord-tenant actions.’  Good. Level the playing field.  How unlevel is that playing field?:  ‘Approximately 18,000 eviction cases are filed each year in the State of Delaware, and while 86% of landlords are represented by an attorney, agent, or business manager, only 2% of tenants have representation’.

If you’re gonna pass bills that required funding before they could be considered, it only makes sense that Schwartzkopf and Longhurst get the first bites of the apple pie.  Today’s House Agenda features HB 80 (Schwartzkopf), which, of course, pads the paychecks/pensions of correctional officers and ‘peace’ officers (his word, not mine). HB 100 (Longhurst) ‘establishes a mental health services unit for Delaware elementary schools’.  Excellent bill, except why is Longhurst the sponsor and not the Chair of the House Education Committee?  It’s a rhetorical question.  Val can and does grab any bill that places her in a favorable light. Spoiler Alert:  She didn’t think this bill up by her own wittle self.  She just grabbed it as if she had.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, now chaired by Sen. Gay, considers two police reform bills today.  SB 147 (Pinkney):

codifies a reasonableness requirement for the use of force, both non-lethal and lethal. This is important when the state of mind is an issue in a criminal trial, such as when the judge or jury must decide as to what someone believed, knew, or intended at a given time. The justification law as currently written uses the term “defendant believes” throughout its several sections. This Act makes it clear that the determination of one’s state of mind is an objective standard —that is, what a reasonable person would have believed, rather than what the defendant believed. Additionally, this Act makes clear that deadly force includes the use of a chokehold.

SB 148 (Pinkney):

…expands the Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust’s responsibility to review deadly use of force incidents by law enforcement by adding review of cases involving serious physical injury. It also requires that if the Division issues a public report on the use of force, the report must include the race of the law enforcement officer who used force, the race of the individual on whom force was used, and whether race was a relevant or motivating factor.

Back tomorrow with a bleepload of committee meetings, plus a Senate Agenda.

Coming Thursday:  Legalize It.