Delaware General Assembly Post-Game Show: Week of Jan. 20-22, 2015

Breaking News! the first bill of any substance this year passed the Senate yesterday.

SB 11(Townsend), which seeks to restore (real and/or perceived) fairness to the abandoned or unclaimed property (escheat) process, unanimously passed the Senate yesterday.  Pretty much everybody recognized that the process had become too heavy-handed.  Rather than risk (a) lawsuits and (b) damage to Delaware’s reputation, a task force had recommended dialing back the most blatant aspects of the program. This bill does that.  Yes, it probably means less revenue to the state, but continuing to administer the program the way it had been administered would likely have led to even greater losses.  Pretty sure that the House will fast-track this bill next week, and that the Governor signs it by Thursday.

I’ll leave it to our education advocates to determine what effect this bill might have.  It appears to give the Delaware Performance Appraisal System (DPAS) II Advisory Committee more resources, and clarifies its mission. Of course, since an advisory committee can only advise, the question is usually: Will anybody listen? Nevertheless, it passed the Senate unanimously.

One of our readers pointed out the delicious, in more than one sense of the word, irony of the juxtaposition of these two resolutions:

HCR 1 (Longhurst): PROCLAIMING THE WEEK OF FEBRUARY 8-14, 2015 AS “CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS WEEK” AND REQUESTING THE GOVERNOR TO ISSUE A PROCLAMATION FOR “CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS WEEK.”

and

HCR 3 (Spiegelman): PROCLAIMING FEBRUARY 2015 AS WINE MONTH IN DELAWARE.

All I can add is my toast to one of the most famous Royal Family couples of all time: “Drink up, Chuck and Di.”  Repeat that phrase about three times. You’ll get the message.

Here are what I found to be the most interesting bills introduced this week:

HB 10 (Barbieri): “Stand By Me is an innovative financial empowerment program that has been operating within DHSS for the past two years. Stand By Me is designed as a partnership model, integrated into the culture and operations of businesses, educational institutions, state agencies, and non-profit organizations, funded almost exclusively by the private sector and is a robust program based on collaboration and best practices. In just two years since start up, the program has made great strides and has helped many individuals and organizations. Codifying a State Office of Financial Empowerment, housed within DHSS, will ensure the sustainability of the Stand By Me program and other financial empowerment prograns.”

HB 6 (Baumbach): “This Act amends the Charter of the University of Delaware to clarify that it is the intent of the General Assembly that the Board of Trustees of the University of Delaware have exclusive control over land development, and that the University of Delaware be immune from zoning laws and regulations, only to the extent that the University of Delaware’s land development relates to structures associated with providing for student services or academic research. ”  This bill may never see the light of day.  It has been assigned to the House Administration Committee, meaning that Pete ‘n Val will decide if this bill even gets a public hearing.

SB 16 (Ennis): This is the proposal by Attorney General Denn to strengthen prohibitions against those who illegally possess firearms.

OK, I’ve been putting it off long enough. I suppose I should briefly discuss Governor Markell’s State of the State Address.  Here’s the meat of the address, the ‘Delaware Promise’:

But we know we must do more, so today I’m announcing three parts of our strategy to fulfill the Delaware Promise.

First, we will create an initiative called Pathways to Prosperity, which will establish partnerships with Delaware employers, universities, and our K-12 system to prepare students for a bright future in key industries. High school students will take hundreds of hours of specialized instruction and hands-on training. They will graduate with industry-recognized certificates and college credits.

This fall, we will launch pathways statewide for the IT and hospitality industries. We will also expand to southern Delaware the manufacturing pathway we started last year with Colonial and New Castle County Vo-tech School Districts. Those manufacturing students are already making great progress and will get paid internships this summer at companies like Agilent Technologies, PPG, Kuehne and Siemens.

The following year, we will expand the network to include two more of our fastest growing industries – financial services and healthcare.

I want to thank President Mark Brainard for his personal commitment to this initiative. (Del-Tech has never opposed an initiative that will line its pockets.) These pathways will transform opportunities for our young people for years to come. But we must also address our employers’ immediate needs for skilled workers.

The second initiative I’m announcing is that Delaware Tech will partner with the national consulting firm McKinsey to significantly accelerate the training of entry-level healthcare workers. Employers have committed dozens(!!) of internships for young people who have already completed our terrific Jobs for Delaware Graduates program. As a result of this new training, they will be working in the field within months rather than years. (Markell inadvertently gives away the truth about JDG here. Taken at Markell’s word, JDG grads work within a chosen field, if at all, years after leaving the program. What a terrific program.  Sen. Nicole Poore is already earning her six-figure salary.)

Third, many of our employers have told me that they can’t find enough qualified IT workers and must resort to hiring them away from each other. We need a new pipeline of Delawareans trained to do these jobs. I’m pleased to announce that eight major employers are joining with us to train and hire hundreds of IT workers in our state. Through accelerated education programs and a “coding school” launching this fall, these employers will have access to a new cohort of skilled software programmers. Again, this training will take months rather than years.”

Markell also repeats in the address that he is open to all sorts of proposals for bridging the infrastructure funding shortfall, but he’s not gonna lead on this, he’s gonna wait until the General Assembly comes up with something, um, concrete.

Markell embraced Matt Denn’s proposals for addressing crime and its causes, particularly in Wilmington. And he supported a (wait for it) fact-based task force (as opposed to other task forces). Well, a ‘commission’, not a task force:

So today, I am urging you to support a rapid, fact-based, intensive examination of public safety strategies in the City. The entire Wilmington delegation is sponsoring a Joint Resolution to establish a commission co-chaired by Public Safety Secretary Lew Schiliro and New Castle County Public Safety Director Joe Bryant. Working with an outside expert, the Schiliro-Bryant Commission will make recommendations that can be acted on by the City of Wilmington and by the General Assembly this session if necessary. Its success will require a joint commitment from city and state leaders and I thank the Mayor for his support.

While I don’t oppose this, what are they going to discover that we don’t already know?

I admit it.  I now read Markell’s words with a jaundiced eye. I’m almost a total skeptic, based on his record.  I’m open to those of you who want to highlight what you consider to be positives in the Governor’s address. I’ll be back next Tuesday as we preview what might happen during the final legislative week before a six-week break for Joint Finance Committee meetings.