Delaware
Representative Mike Ramone, Charter School Lobbyist
Mr. Ramone needs to read the regs pertaining to per student funding in public education. When a student moves from a District school to a Charter school, the tax money collected by the original district for spending on that student goes with the student to the charter. There is no fiscal “responsibility” borne by the Charter, the sending District is paying that child’s per-student expense. If Mr. Ramone doesn’t believe that, I have a $21 million charter bill Christina School District is paying this year for him to look at. Email me, Rep Ramone: brianstephan@gmail.com and I can help you understand how public schools are funded in this state.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., Jan. 27, 2016
We could still have an epic week in store–or it could turn into a nothingburger. The minimum wage bill still awaits Senate action, and death penalty repeal maybe gets considered in the House. Or not. Probably depends on whether the respective sponsors think they have the votes. If you haven’t contacted YOUR legislators, what are you waiting for?
The minimum wage bill has already been amended primarily to reflect the fact it wasn’t considered last year. Senate Amendment 3, which passed by a 13-8 vote, adjusts the effective dates for the increases, and accordingly delays the implementation of the COLA increase until 2021. Pure party line vote. The bill appears to need at least one more D vote to pass. DINO Brian Bushweller is one of the holdouts. Who are the others? BTW, check out Colin Bonini’s amendment to the bill. The guy is a joke.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., Jan. 26, 2016
Undaunted by the prospect of blowing yet a greater hole in the budget for the next few years, the State Senate joined the House in passing legislation that would ‘remove disincentives’ for job creation for the corporate overlords. The Senate passed the bill with only one ‘not voting’ (Townsend, who was a co-sponsor on the bill), and the bill goes to the Governor. Keep this in mind in June when the Honorables (ongoing h/t to Ralph Moyed) shrug their collective shoulders and lament the ‘tough choices’ (read screw anybody but the corporate overlords) they had to make. They, of course, didn’t have to make them. They made clear that bowing to their corporate overlords is business as usual. A projected $50 mill shortfall to the budget over the first 2 1/2 years the legislation is in effect. Just curious: Who, if anybody, will keep track of all those new jobs the corporate overlords will create now that the ‘disincentives’ have been removed? Based on previous experience, my prediction is ‘Nobody’. A pure unvarnished giveaway.
Delaware’s ‘apology’ for its role in perpetuating slavery passed the Senate. Three no votes. Hocker, Lawson, and Bonini. None of whom have likely ever cracked a history book and read of Delaware’s role in perpetuating slavery.
Wilmington Mayor Race Cattle Call — Show Me the Money Edition
Campaign finance reports for the year ending 31 December 2015 were due into the Department of Elections by 20 January 2016, so let’s take a look at what those reports might tell us about the race for Mayor of Wilmington:
UPDATED: NCCo President Chris Bullock Not Running for a Second Term?
That’s what my sources tell me this evening. I talked to a couple of typically excellent sources this evening who tell me that NCCo President Chris Bullock will not run for a second term. A variety of reasons were offered, not the least of which is that his church is experiencing some turmoil and he wants to address that full time. According to these same sources, NCCo Rep Penrose Hollins would run for NCCo President. If so, I’d say it’s about damned time. Announcements from both men are expected as early as tomorrow.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., Jan. 19, 2016
You didn’t read about it in the ‘Paper of Record’, but the so-called ‘Delaware Competes’ bill flew through the House (only two no votes, Kowalko and Williams) and is now poised for equally-swift consideration in the Senate. Actually, you didn’t read about it in the daily Session Activity Report, either. Unless…you scrolled all the way down and saw that the bill had already been assigned to the Senate Executive Committee. Stealth all the way. So, I’ve got a legit question to some of our progressive legislators: Did you vote Yes because you’ve been informed as to how the bill will be paid for? If so, would you care to share it with us? If not, why did you vote yes? These are not snark questions, I really want to know. I’m missing something (insert joke here), just don’t know what.
HJR 10 (Bolden), in which Delaware apologizes for its role in slavery, also passed the House. The one ‘no’ vote was John Atkins’ replacement, Rep. Richard Collins.
Delaware Political Weekly: Jan. 8-14, 2016
Denise D. Bowers has filed to run against State Senator Cathy Cloutier for the 5th SD seat in Brandywine Hundred. Based on registration, this projects as a competitive race. Current figures: 13,703 D; 11,169 R; and 8790 I.
Her candidacy does not come without questions. She is a 21-year veteran of the Wilmington Police Department, although it’s not entirely clear that she was on duty for all that time. She filed at least two legal actions concerning her job during her time on the force. The first deals with compensation for a scar on her knee, aka a ‘ serious and permanent disfigurement’. The second was a prolonged litigation concerning her ‘involuntary retirement’ from the force. In fact, even though she allegedly was a police officer until 2008, it is not clear whether she was on the job after 2005, when she suffered the knee injury mentioned in the second suit. A swift Google search also reveals several actions brought against Bowers and her husband for unpaid taxes on rental properties in Wilmington. OTOH, Bowers is president of the Northwood Civic Association and is currently the State Director of the Treatment Access Center, the liaison between the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health and the courts system. I’m sure that some of you must have met her. I need feedback, pipples!
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., Jan. 14, 2016
ALERT!! MARKELL, CHAMBER AND LONGHURST GIVE MIDDLE FINGER TO DELAWAREANS:
HB 235, the so-called Delaware Competes Bill, is the first bill the House will consider this year. What’s amazing, well, not amazing, but typical of the primordial ooze behind this, is that the bill will be considered under Motion to Suspend Rules. Here’s why. Even though the bill cleared the House Revenue & Taxation Committee, the bill was reassigned to the House Appropriations Committee (the committee is comprised of the House members of the Joint Finance Committee). That’s because the bill has a significant cost. Such bills are typically not considered until/unless JFC does the fiscal legerdemain. In this case, even though the bill will have a significant annual cost, the House will try to bypass the budgetary process. Since the bill wouldn’t even take effect until January of 2017, rushing this through serves no purpose other than to satisfy the Chamber and its millionaire minions. This is a transfer of wealth from ordinary citizens to the politically-connected corporate overlords, pure and simple. We’ll pay somehow, just wait. Last days of June when they hope that no one is watching. Hey, whaddayawant from Markell, Longhurst and their (wait for it) ilk? Call your state reps!
What’s not on the House Agenda under Motion to Suspend Rules is HB 50–the Opt-Out Bill. As opposed to HB 235, doing this under MTSR is legit. The bill has been through the committee process, was passed (twice) by the House, and it’s a veto override, not consideration of new legislation. Now, maybe the House will entertain a motion from the floor, maybe Speaker Pete won’t, but it sure as hell should be considered. Has the cynicism of Pistol Pete and Vindictive Val become so great that they can ignore the will of the members of the chamber? We’ll see.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., Jan. 13, 2016
We have two bills that somebody wants fast-tracked in January:
HB 240 (Longhurst) ‘establishes the Statewide Afterschool Initiative Learning Program. The Program will provide grants to public schools, that qualify as Title I schools, to develop afterschool engagement of students that will provide extended learning, homework assistance, enrichment, and nutrition.’ Sounds good. There is, however, no funding mechanism mentioned in the bill. Nor does the bill, for reasons I cannot understand, require a fiscal note. So, how are they gonna pay for the program? Will it be paid for from the Mortgage Settlement Funds? If not, what are you defunding in order to fund this? We may or may not find out sooner rather than later. Bill’s scheduled to be considered during today’s House Education Committee. BTW, here’s my uninformed guess as to what’s happening here: Sponsors can claim that this is merely ‘enabling’ legislation and that the funding mechanism will be determined by JFC. Which, of course, is totally disingenuous. You don’t need enabling legislation if the JFC funds such a program and establishes the criteria in the epilog language. But that would bypass touchy-feely brochure fluff. Someone, please prove me wrong.
HB 235 (Longhurst), the ‘Delaware Competes Act‘, allegedly ‘reforms Delaware’s business tax code to incentivize job creation and investment in Delaware, to make Delaware’s tax structure more competitive with other states, and to support small businesses by making tax compliance less burdensome. The principal change in the Act is to remove disincentives for companies to create Delaware jobs and invest in Delaware property that currently exists in how income is apportioned to Delaware for purposes of the corporate income tax’. In other words, tweaking the formula to remove inequities that create disincentives to job creation. Fine. Here’s what they didn’t tell you. This is not some revenue-neutral tweaking. Nope. There is a fiscal note attached to this bill, and here are the projected costs to the state’s coffers:
Fiscal Year 2017 $ 8,200,000
Fiscal Year 2018 $17,600,000
Fiscal Year 2019 $22,900,000
So, let’s be honest here. It’s yet another sop to business with not even a projection as to how many jobs will be created due to the removal of alleged disincentives. And this is annual revenue loss.
Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tues., Jan. 12, 2016.
My outlook for January: Real interesting real fast. Just like today’s Al Show will be.
The second session of the 148th General Assembly kicks off today. Since it’s not a new General Assembly, everything that was in place on July 1 remains in place today. It’s gonna be a wild and wooly month. You can look forward to:
1. Votes on overriding the veto of HB 50-the ‘opt-out’ bill. The bill passed both houses with veto-proof majorities. The House vote was overwhelming, 36-3, so it should get through the House in comfortable fashion. The final Senate vote was 15-6, so that is the chamber where Markell might be able to flip a couple of senators. I will be especially interested to see whether her run for Lieutenant Governor might play into Sen. Bethany Hall-Long switching sides. I’d like to point out that HB 50 has already had a key impact. The decision by the Department of Education to cancel the ‘Smarter Balanced’ test for juniors in favor of the SAT would almost certainly not have been made without the catalyst of HB 50. In fact, you may recall that Sen. Bryan Townsend introduced and passed an amendment extending the opt-out provision to high school juniors. That amendment is no longer necessary, for the best of reasons.
More inside…
A Wilmington Game-Changer? Former Philly Police Chief Ramsey Hired.
No, not as police chief. But as a public safety consultant. The only question is, is this a consultant that Dennis Williams will listen to? He hired him, so I guess the answer is yes, but it’s Dennis Williams we’re talking about here. Anyway, here’s what he’s supposed to do:
A State of the Union to Remember
I was essentially beyond words when Christy told me. Braeden’s been to the White House twice before, when he won in 2013 and when he was asked back to speak at the Kids’ State Dinner winners in 2014, and both trips were humbling and amazing, but this one is something else. To be asked to sit in a room with Congress, the Supreme Court justices, most of the president’s cabinet, and listen to one of the most important speeches the president can deliver, to be interviewed and featured by Time Magazine, to have your bio posted on the White House website, I don’t even know what to say. I couldn’t be more proud of Braeden and the ideas he’s come up with, the way he’s implemented them, and how he’s stuck with it for the last 3 years.
We don’t need more guns in Delaware’s state parks
If my gun-toting friends out there are so afraid to go to a Delaware state park unarmed, here’s a simple suggestion – stay home.
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