Posts by El Somnambulo

The filing deadline is this Tuesday, July 12 at 12 noon. After Tuesday, parties may file candidates, but individuals cannot file on their own separate from the party.  The deadline for withdrawing one's candidacy and getting one's filing fee returned is this Friday, July 15 at 4:30 pm.  Friday is also the deadline for candidates to switch from one race to another.  I'll likely be out campaigning for the candidate of my choice (Bryan Townsend) at the Tuesday deadline, so please keep us posted on any last minute developments.

It looks like the General Assembly has scrounged up enough money for the Bond Bill by finding figurative money under the seat cushions. Complete, of course, with dire warnings from Chamber worry trolls:

"It tells me that they are clearly focused on short-term remedies for something that is a long-term problem," said Robert Perkins, executive director of the Business Roundtable and a former aide to Republican Govs. Pete du Pont and Mike Castle. "This is the equivalent of looking under the cushions of your sofa to find loose change to pay your electric bill."

The Roundtable, which represents various Delaware business owners, released a study late last year that called for legislators to find more stable sources of revenue and stop the continually growing cost of things like education, Medicaid, and employee health care costs. "If people did not recognize last August when we released that study that there was a structural problem then, they must now," Perkins said. "Cobbling together a state budget, which has many, many important programs that must be funded, is not a practice that is sustainable in the long-term."

You remember that 'study', don't you? Paid for by the Business Roundtable to provide pro-business talking points. Cut corporate taxes, do away with the estate tax, raise taxes on seniors.  That's the one.  No mention of raising taxes for Delaware's wealthiest.  And not a peep from the General Assembly this year.

Final three days for this General Assembly. Here’s what HAS to happen: Pass Budget Bill, Pass Bond Bill, Pass Grant-In-Aid Bill. (Actually, they don’t have to pass a grant-in-aid bill, but who wants to tell the local volunteer fire companies and senior centers that they didn’t pass the bill?) The budget is a done deal. The bill has been introduced and has been laid on the table, aka DeLuca’d, in the Senate. It can be lifted any time via a motion. I expect the bill to reach the Governor’s desk before Thursday. The final DEFAC numbers are causing some issues with the Bond and Grant-In-Aid bills, but nothing that some kick-the-can-down-the-road fiscal legerdemain can’t solve. Before we examine today’s agendas, let’s look at a last-minute bill that made me go ‘Hmmm’.