Our Choices for Raising New Revenue

Our Choices for Raising New Revenue

Last week, the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council or DEFAC released its latest revenue projections, reporting a $45 million dollar loss in revenue. Last Friday, the News Journal had a story on the Structural Revenue Review Committee and what they see as the reason for the revenue drop:
As the legal or corporate home for hundreds of thousands of businesses, Delaware is allowed to take intangible assets such as dormant checking and savings accounts, uncashed checks and unclaimed dividends and stocks after a certain number of years if the owners can’t be found. [...] But corporations that are required to turn over their unclaimed property have challenged Delaware’s enforcement methods, including estimating the amounts due when no actual records can be found. Meanwhile, only a fraction of companies subject to the escheat laws are complying with the reporting requirements. [Secretary of State] Bullock noted that while increased compliance might bring in more abandoned property revenue, technology has made it easier for companies to track ownership of the assets, meaning there likely will be less for the state to claim in the future. Meanwhile, the state also faces challenges when it comes to gambling revenue, as newer and bigger casinos in neighboring states continue to draw gamblers who used to come to Delaware’s three casinos, panel members were told. Lottery and gambling revenues contributed about $215 million to the general fund in fiscal 2014 but have declined steadily in recent years, with even more competition from other states on the horizon.
So the budget gimmickry that has allowed Delaware to operate on a half-flat income tax structure for decades is coming to an end. So what are our options?

The Weekly Addresses

President Obama called on Republicans in Congress to stop playing politics with law enforcement and national security and confirm Loretta Lynch as Attorney General of the United States. Governor Markell again address the defining issue of education this week, this time talking about the importance of identifying unmet student needs and developing a comprehensive plan that addresses all schools in Delaware. This week's Legislative Update from the Delaware House Democrats features Rep. Melanie George Smith and Rep. Trey Paradee talking about their new bill to help people with disabilities save for their futures. Rep. Debra Heffernan discusses her relaunched legislation to add e-cigarettes to Delaware's indoor smoking ban.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up: Week of March 17-19, 2015

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?
Tuesday Open Thread [3.17.15]

Tuesday Open Thread [3.17.15]

Now that the General Aseembly is back in full swing, so is our political calendar. Come inside to learn about some important upcoming events. First Read: “It’s unclear the exact impact that Netanyahu losing on Tuesday could have on U.S. domestic politics, especially when it comes to the Iran nuclear debate. But it wouldn’t be good news for hawks. Think about it: Netanyahu comes to the U.S. Congress to make his final argument — on Iran, against President Obama’s foreign policy — and his party loses what had seemed to be a winnable election? Right or wrong, Netanyahu getting involved in domestic U.S. politics would be blamed for the surprising loss. So [today] is going to be a big story.” Meanwhile, Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly documents the numerous incidents of Republican failure to govern, noting that the Republican Party is in total disarray. And Fred Kaplan says "It is a useful thing when a political party reveals itself as utterly unsuited for national leadership."
The Top 10 Paid Public Employees in Delaware

The Top 10 Paid Public Employees in Delaware

Here are the 10 highest-paid state / public employees from the calendar year of 2014. To be honest, with the exception of Orlando George, none of these seem out of step with their job duties and/or the employee's degrees and status (i.e. a Doctor is going to make over 200k, sorry, but that's the breaks). Even a superintendent making over 200k is not outrageous to me. That Markell is at the bottom of this list at #85 is amusing to me. People always scream and cry about cutting the jobs and salaries of educational professionals in the school districts whenever education funding comes up. But looking at this list, it would seem to be that the real vacuum cleaner of state money are the State Police and Homeland Security jobs. I guess that comes with being a Police State.
Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tues. March 17, 2015

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?