General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thursday, April 6, 2023
You know those red Solo plastic cups that are ubiquitous and omnipresent? They are the biggest-selling product of Dart Container, makers of landfill, um, fillers:
Dart Container Corporation — not to be confused with DART, the Delaware Transit Corporation — will be the first tenant in the Delaware Logistics Center in New Castle near Delaware City. The site is Dart’s first location in Delaware, and the center is the first project in the state for NorthPoint Development.
Dart will occupy a million square feet on the new campus, where it will serve “customers who order a tremendous amount of Dart products,” says Bob Markus, director of distribution for the Michigan-based company.
Dart’s customers don’t lack options. The company manufactures more than 3,000 packaging products from a variety of raw materials for the food service industry, including cups, plates, containers and lids. Some of these items have been in high demand, given that many restaurants have depended on takeout during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The global company has more than 30 locations in four countries and about 14,000 employees. The Delaware center will employ about 60 to 70 people.
Val Longhurst and Nicole Poore are the legislators representing that area. While Poore’s opposition will likely not sink SB 51 (Paradee), which is on today’s Senate Agenda, it remains to be seen whether Our PAL Val will single-handedly bury the bill when it gets to the House. Might I state the obvious?: Only a miniscule scintilla of the plastic product from Dart goes to Delaware businesses. Passage of this bill will in no way disadvantage the company. And they’re not going anywhere, since the Prosperity Partnership has thrown a whole bunch of taxpayer money at them.
SB 52 (Pinkney), which ‘directs the State’s current needle exchange program to take a needs-based approach’, is also on the Agenda. It appears that the cost of this initiative, which is only around $100K annually, has been approved by the Joint Finance Committee.
Today’s House Agenda features HB 78 (Morrison), which seeks to address the spate of catalytic converter thefts.
Almost forgot yesterday’s Session Activity Report. In typical bass-ackwards fashion, the House Education Committee released Rep. Hensley’s increase to the senior tax credit and did not release Rep. Morrison’s bill enabling those 16 and older to vote in school board elections. Wrong. And wrong.
I like the Morrison bill, I don’t know how you would do it, but getting PA, NJ, and MD legislatures to do the same thing would be a huge step in the right direction.
Nicole Poore just spilled the beans. You, and by ‘you’ I mean the taxpayers, handed $3 mill to the Dart Corporation, the plastic utensil/cups/etc. polluters. ‘You’ also had, and have, no say on how your $$’s are spent. Because the Prosperity Partnership is a non-governmental agency, thanks to Carney and the General Assembly.
Time for that to change. As soon as we get a new governor.
SB 51 passed the Senate, 14 Y, 5 N (all Rethugs), 1 NV (Poore), and 1 Absent (Lawson, who has been absent a lot lately).
It’ll be interesting to see what House committee Speaker Pete assigns it to.
If Val had any vision, she’d arrange more money for the Dart plant to convert some of its manufacturing capacity to make the eco-friendly products that would see an increase in demand if Trey’s bill becomes law. I don’t support corporate welfare at all, but since Carney likes giving money away, might as well see it go to something like that.