El Somnambulo's Latest Posts
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes (Plus One Anti-Fave): March, 2015
Quality over quantity this month. Or maybe I get more jaded as the year goes on. Good stuff’s still really good, though. Unless you’re Jason330…
Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Week of March 31-April 2, 2015
Kids, imagine that you’re the governor of a state. Assume that you’re, oh, around 54 years of age. Imagine that you’ve grappled with numerous issues of enormous complexity during both your private and public careers. Imagine that debate over the death penalty has been a constant during your entire adult life. Is it plausible to […]
Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Week of March 24-26, 1015
Yet another sneaky maneuver from Markell’s Merciless Minions in their ongoing war on state employees. After agreeing to postpone their plan to screw state employees and retirees by shifting more health costs onto them, Ann Visalli and her henchpersons nevertheless convened a meeting of the ironically-named State Employee Benefits Commission to ‘temporarily’ increase premiums. In other words, shifting more costs onto the workers. And going back on their public promises. When it comes to state employees, Markell is taking his cues from Scott Walker. Or perhaps vice versa. From Day One, Markell has done little to hide his disdain for the worker bees. Guess he admires smooth-talking used car salesmen like himself much more. Right back at’cha, Jack. Glibness made you rich and made you governor. Hey, maybe that’s why Jack looks down on state employees…not glib enough for him and, of course, not wealthy enough for him. Memo to the General Assembly: We’re watching. It’s time to tax Jack’s pals. They collected all the spoils of the so-called economic recovery. Stop Markell’s transfer of more wealth to the wealthy. This. Is. Unconscionable.
The Delaware General Assembly has a new easy-to-navigate website. It’s really really good, but does not lend itself to linking as well as the previous website. Rather than doing a cut-and-paste of huge swaths of text, I’ll post highlights and encourage you to check out the site. It’s definitely much easier to access and search than it used to be, which makes me even less essential (I know, I know).
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up: Week of March 17-19, 2015
That was quite the dust-up between Sen. Karen Peterson and Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf this week. The argument? Why won’t Schwartzkopf allow a floor vote on legislation eliminating the death penalty? Both legislators make legitimate points.
Pete Schwartzkopf by and large does control the fate of the bill. As Speaker, he not only decides what committee receives the bill, he determines the members of the committees. Put the bill in a committee in which the majority does not support death penalty repeal, and the bill isn’t coming out unless petitioned out. Going against the Speaker to petition a bill out has its own set of perils. So Peterson is correct there. Pete has taken steps to stop the bill, his protestations to the contrary notwithstanding.
However, Schwartzkopf has offered a compromise:
Schwartzkopf has said that he would oppose any repeal legislation that did not include exemptions for those inmates convicted of killing members of law enforcement, including correctional officers.
Not including those exemptions would endanger every correctional officer working in the state’s prisons, he said. He added that he offered amendments to repeal legislation last year, but those requests “fell on deaf ears.”
He said that compromise is needed on the bill. Peterson, he said, is not willing to compromise.
“This building is bigger than one bill,” Schwartzkopf said.
This raises two questions: (1) Would Schwartzkopf take steps to ensure the bill’s consideration if this compromise was accepted; and (2) is it worth it to have a repeal bill with these exceptions?
Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tues. March 17, 2015
The key question facing the Delaware General Assembly as it returns from its six-week hiatus for Joint Finance Committee hearings is: On what issues, and to what extent, will the General Assembly push back on Gov. Markell’s policies?
We already know that the House Democratic Caucus has raised the alarm over Markell’s efforts to impose more hardships on state employees and retirees when it comes to health care.
We already know that many legislators are pushing for a pay increase for state employees, something that Markell has refused to do during his time in office, (Memo to Jack: I heard your interview on the Al Mascitti Show on Friday. Cutting wages during a crisis, then restoring them, does not count as an increase.) I highly recommend you listen to the interview. Note the number of times that Markell dodges Al’s questions and goes off on a different tangent. One notable example. Al asks Markell about not proposing any raises for state employees. Just listen to his response. Something along the lines of, “Well, I’d really like to, but what parts of my sacrosanct budget would you have me cut?” In other words, he hasn’t spent one minute of his time in office seeking ways to pay state employees a living wage. He’s glib, and he’s got his lines down pat. But he only answered the questions he wanted to ask and answer, not the ones that Al posed.
We know that the Joint Sunset Committee, with Sen. Bryan Townsend taking the lead, is trying to determine just what the state has gotten for its $200 million-plus that they’ve given to business in one form or other over the past few years. (Memo to Jack: Asking whether we’d rather have the oil refinery or not, as you did during your response, is not answering the question. Fact is, your administration and the Delaware Economic Development Office have provided next to no empirical evidence to show that the preponderance of this money is paying off at all.) In fact, allow me to once again link to this New York Times survey which demonstrates that there is next to no verification nationwide, including in Delaware, that these dollars are doing anything more than acquiescing to extortion.
We know that we’re starting to reach a critical blowback on the Markell/Murphy team’s attempt to destroy public education in Delaware as we know it. Will the General Assembly intervene?
We know that the General Assembly has already stopped listening to Markell when it comes to funding infrastructure repairs and projects. Are both sides really gonna play ‘chicken’ again this year?
Is Jack Markell Fighting His Ongoing War Against State Employees By Himself?
8-ball sez: Signs point to ‘yes’. From 2008 to today, Governor Jack Markell has never, repeat, never, proposed a raise for state employees and retirees. He has, on several occasions, proposed shifting costs from the state onto the workers and retirees. Jack Markell is a putative Democrat. When it comes to who gets rewarded and […]
‘Bulo’s Fave New Tunes: February, 2015
Two great months of music in a row featuring both quality and quantity. This month features an almost-certain end-of-the-year Top 10 song, and several worthy contenders.
DL Exclusive: Hundreds of Politicians/PACs in Violation of State Campaign Finance Law. Nobody’s Collecting the Fines.
Deadbeat campaigns, committees and PAC’s currently owe the Delaware Department of Elections (long pause to change the batteries in my calculator)…$769,240. I count 258 individual fines that have been assessed, but never collected.
Some of the outstanding fines are gargantuan. Some appear to have close correlation to key political events, so the committees involved not only owe the money, they have some ‘splainin’ to do.
Since the largest fines have been imposed on the Sussex County Democratic Executive Committee, and since they date back to the year (2008) when an incredible array of resources were poured into the race to elect John Atkins to the General Assembly, possibly cementing a D majority in the House, and since not a nickel has been paid back, I can only ask, “Why?”. Why no action? (Late-breaking news: According to both the Commissioner of Elections and the current Sussex County chair, that $160,000-plus fine has now been labeled an ‘error’. Because, as we all know, $160,000 fines are levied in error every day. Where is Rose Mary Woods when we need her?)
Here’s how the system is supposed to work, according to sources both within the State Department of Elections and the Office of the Attorney General. After about 60 days or so, uncollected fines/violations are turned over to the Attorney General’s office for follow-up, according to Elaine Manlove, Commissioner of Elections. It is clear that little to no follow-up has occurred since, well, 2008, at least. Multiple sources have told me that they have not even received any notification from the AG’s office that they are in violation. Not that they shouldn’t already know, but still…
Here’s what Carl Kanefsky of the AG’s office says of the way it’s supposed to work….
Breaking News: UD’s Harker Gets Out While the Gettin’s Good.
Going to…the Philly Fed. Guess someone else will have to address campus diversity.
Guess Who Pocketed ALL Of Delaware’s Income Growth During the Recovery?
Inexplicably buried at the bottom of page A-3 of the News-Journal’s dead tree edition is one of the most important stories of the year. This Jonathan Starkey story tells us the following:
Delaware’s wealthiest residents hoarded all of the income gains as the state recovered from the recession, according to a study from the Economic Policy Institute that provided yet more evidence of an imbalanced economic recovery.
From 2009 to 2012, the top 1 percent of Delaware earners saw income growth of 15 percent.
The bottom 99 percent? Their incomes fell 1.6 percent. The study was based on Internal Revenue Service data of adjusted gross income.
Got that? Yet Jack Markell opposes a decent living wage and opposes restoring progressivity to the tax code. The policies he put into effect during the so-called ‘recovery’ led to more, not less, inequity in income growth. Actually, you can’t call it income growth for the 99% who saw their income shrink by 1.6%. This is obscene.
‘Bulo’s Fave New Tunes: January, 2015
Wow. A lot of great music this month, including several songs that are guaranteed to make Best of the Year lists. At least one contender for the top spot and, no, I’m not gonna tell you which one. Which is why I’m presenting them in alphabetical order. Memo to Jason330: If the rest of the […]
Delaware General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up: January 27-29, 2015.
As a would-be oligarch, Jack Markell introduced a proposed budget that will make him a welcome guest at Chateau Country’s finest soirees. As a putative Democrat, his budget is disgraceful and indefensible. Guess whose taxes will increase? Seniors who get a modest tax break on their homes. That’s it. You know why that break was implemented in the first place? To make seniors less likely to oppose public school referenda due to the impact it would have on their fixed incomes. For Markell, it’s a two-fer: Screw seniors on a fixed income and make it harder for public school districts to raise funds. BTW, it’s time we face reality. We really are an oligarchy and not a democracy. Take some time to read this, and then come back.
Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: January 27-29, 2015
I would first like to thank the meteorologists for making this article necessary. Was this the new ‘faith-based’ meteorology? Rest assured I won’t be watching the insipid smile-meisters on the Weather Channel to find out what went wrong with their model. Don’t have the time. (Personal to Al Roker: Eat something, willya? The human shar pei look is disconcerting.)
I’m now assuming the General Assembly will meet today, so you’re gonna get the Full Monty weekly preview. The last preview before the six-week break for meetings of the Joint Finance Committee meetings. Which reminds me, the Governor will submit his proposed budget later this week, which, of course, plays a central role in the work of the JFC.
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