Category Archives: Delaware

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., June 12, 2014

There’s always a story. And sometimes I don’t know what it is. I know that there’s a story concerning HB 81(Mulrooney). The bill “lowers the number of full-time employees from 25 to 3 for the Police Officers’ and Firefighters’ Employment Relations Act to apply to a public employer”.  I think that means that teeny tiny municipal police forces would qualify should the bill pass. Which, based on the House vote, they don’t want. The bill had passed the House, 24-14, in May, with Rep. Atkins joining with the R’s in voting no. What intrigues me here is that the bill was defeated in the Senate yesterday, 10 Y,  7 N, 3 NV,1 A. Here’s what interests me. Blevins went not voting, Peterson voted no, and Sokola, who was in attendance yesterday, was absent for the roll call. Like I said, I don’t know what the story is, but I know that there is one. Who wants to fill in the blanks for us?

Yeah, yeah, I know, if that’s the lead story, then I’m reachin’.

Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report.

Well, here’s a potentially more important lead story. In a rare Thursday committee meeting, the House Administration Committee will consider HB 331(Kowalko), which ‘removes the exemption from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and thus fully applies FOIA to the University of Delaware and Delaware State University. Currently FOIA applies to their Boards of Trustees and their documents relating to the expenditure of public funds’.

I think there are two possibilities. (1) This is merely a pro-forma meeting to comply with House rules, and the bill will be tabled in committee. I suspect this is the reason it’s being considered, as the bill has sat in committee until after the last regularly-scheduled committee meeting. (2) Perhaps consideration of this bill is designed to put even further pressure on the University of Delaware to commit to the data center/energy plant project. Based on the individuals involved, I know that this bill isn’t being considered on its merits. Although it should be.

A brief interlude. So, the I-495 bridge repair is gonna cost $20 million or so. About 60,000 vehicles, a lot of them trucks,  are now grinding other  Delaware roads, further degrading those road surfaces. Not so much as a peep out of the General Assembly as to how they’re gonna fund the $70 mill hole in the road/infrastructure funding. Which may now be $90 mill. Rethug signs still litter New Castle County, proclaiming ‘No New Gas Taxes’. Is anybody gonna do anything?

Today’s Senate Agenda doesn’t excite me, but I’m on deadline as work beckons. Let me know what I missed.

The House Agenda features a good whistleblower protection bill.  HB 300(Baumbach)  essentially outlaws  retaliation against an employee by an employer due to (a) the employee’s refusal to take part in an offense and/or (b) the employee’s ‘reporting or participating in an investigation, hearing, trial or inquiry of an offense’.

Consensus legislation addressing workers’ comp insurance will also be considered.  By consensus, it looks like virtually every legislator is on the bill as a sponsor.

I really like HB 264(J. Johnson), which ‘enable(s) the Department of Correction to offer casual seasonal employment for up to 6 months to ex-offenders who demonstrate exceptional job skills while enrolled in a Level 4 or Level 5 vocational program.

HS 1/HB 302(Jaques) purportedly ‘establishes a more efficient structure for the administration of Delaware’s campaign finance laws, establishes a mechanism for citizens to report possible violations, and gives the State Election Commissioner the resources necessary to investigate potential violations.’. This is major legislation that reorganizes the operation of Delaware election law. Read the bill and see if you agree with the synopsis.

OK, gotta go. Feel free to write up anything I overlooked. Or got completely wrong.

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., June 11, 2014

OK, let’s talk about Delaware’s position as the nation’s corporate leader.  Our lofty perch is not based on having ‘better’ lawyers, ‘better’ judges, or having the abiding respect of the corporate community. We’re in this position because we’ve passed laws that enable corporations  to engage in unsavory practices that otherwise would be considered criminal activity. We make it impossible for people to know who are behind straw corporations, or why these shells exist in the first place. We enable the worst kinds of criminal activity, including arms sales, drug-running, and, yes, human trafficking, by enabling corporations to create impossible-to-follow paper trails. The entire political establishment props this up by worshipping at the feet of the Court of Chancery and by placing those who are its most effective defenders in positions of power. It’s no accident that the preponderance of judgeships go to those from the corporate law community . It’s no accident that people like Ed Friel and Jeff Bullock, both from Carper Cyborgenics, have served as Secretaries of State. They’re all in on Delaware’s dirty secret: Our vast revenues generated by Delaware’s corporate hegemony are derived from Delaware’s willingness, no, eagerness, to enact laws that benefit even the worst actors at the expense of, well, people. In Delaware, corporations are not merely people, they have rights superior to people.  You can put suits on these people, and they can be heralded as Delaware’s best, but they are merely well-learned shills and shysters.

Hey, it’s no surprise that Delaware was the state to legalize usury. We were the most experienced when it came to legalizing criminal activity via corporate shell games.

So it was no surprise that HB 327 and HB 328 flew through the House yesterday, it’s what we do. Every year. In June. A package of bills emerges from the Corporate Section of the Delaware Bar every year. Proponents cite them as necessary to continue Delaware’s pre-eminent position in corporate law. But now you know just what kind of stuff is in these bills. Thanks to the ADA, League of Women Voters, and the Delaware Alliance for Community Advancement, for shining a light on Delaware’s dirty secret. Maybe, just maybe, this will start a debate that should have been taking place all along. If you’re late to this discussion, check out yesterday’s post/pre-game.

After a major amendment that was more like several amputations, Pete Schwartzkopf’s bill to substitute the judgment of the General Assembly for that of local elected officials on the issue of taxes passed. In its original form, the bill ‘… makes it clear that a municipality may only impose a tax within its jurisdiction if such tax is expressly authorized by an Act of the Delaware General Assembly’.  Following a substantive amendment, HB 333 now exempts various licensing fees from the ban, provides that the bill grandfathers in previous increases and does not revisit them, and, now here’s where it gets interesting, provides  ‘that (the bill) does not apply to any municipal corporation that obtained a home rule charter prior to June 1, 1966’. Got that? I can only take this to mean that we’ve now created a two-tier system: Municipalities incorporated prior to 1966 have the collective wisdom to decide for themselves what’s best for their residents, those chartered AFTER 1966 do not.  Sez Speaker Pete. A truly awful bill. Maybe the Senate will deep-six this mess.

Here’s yesterday’s Session Activity Report.

The Senate is scheduled to run an agenda today. Mostly House bills.

Before I move on to committee meetings, allow me to point out that, on June 10, Colin Bonini introduced SB 250, creating a ‘Right to Work’ law in Delaware. Kids, when something like this is introduced on June 10, it’s not legislating, it’s politicking. Look for it on virtually every Rethug campaign brochure (as well as on Bob Venables’) this fall. They think their supporters are stupid. They’re correct.

Looks like we’re back in ‘Escheators Never Win’ territory. Two bills dealing with yet another one of Delaware’s dubious income sources will be considered in today’s Senate Banking Committee meeting. SB 228(Blevins) makes information harder to come by. Or at least codifies the keeping secrets nature of the escheat process. Of course, such secret-keeping is already happening. The bill ‘merely’ ‘codifies the longstanding practice of the Department of Finance and the Secretary of State to hold as confidential the financial information obtained during the course of examinations, settlements, or voluntary self-disclosure agreements that are conducted…’. Seems harmless enough, just not to this skeptic.

SB 215(Lavelle) ‘forbids the State Escheator from paying outside auditors by commission.’ You see what the Rethugs are doing here, kids? They’re trying to cost the state money. First, we’d have to pay more in fees than commissions. Since commissions are paid out merely as a percentage of what’s collected, it’s not costing the state anything to currently pay outside auditors. Oh, and the State would almost certainly collect less. Look, the entire escheat process is yet another of Delaware’s dirty secrets which enables us to keep our personal income tax base artificially low.  Sen. Lavelle: Tell ya what. I’ll support your bill if you support a genuinely progressive income tax structure. Sen. Lavelle? Monsignor?

The Senate Health & Social Services Committee considers SB 241(Marshall), which seeks to address the meltdown of the Office of Chief Medical Examiner by creating an entirely-new operating structure with a series of checks and balances. 45 legislators are sponsoring this bill.

Here’s a good bill. SB 233(Blevins), which:

streamlines the process of mandatory (juvenile) expungements by easing some of the cumbersome requirements currently in place. This change will save the Court time and resources and is in the interest of judicial economy. This change is also in the best interests of the child who may lack the resources, knowledge, and family support to file an expungement petition and obtain a criminal history on their own.

Second, the act modifies the discretionary expungement provisions to allow more children the ability to petition the Court for an expungement. These changes allow the Court to consider an expungement where the child has demonstrated rehabilitation despite multiple youthful indiscretions. These provisions will enable a greater number of deserving youth the ability to move beyond their past and recognizes that most youth mature out of offending behavior.

A perhaps more controversial bill will also be considered in the Senate Judiciary Committee today. SB 235(Ennis)  opens up some, but not all, Family Court proceedings to the public. The synopsis confuses me, as, if I’m reading this right, some so-called public proceedings can be held in private, and some private proceedings can be open to the public. Can a lawyer please translate the following?:

The Bill provides that paternity, divorce, property division and alimony hearings are presumed to be public proceedings and that the Court has discretion to hold the proceedings in private for criteria specifically outlined. The Bill also clarifies that adoption, custody, visitation, third party visitation, termination of parental rights, guardianship, permanent guardianship, and Child Protection Registry hearings are private, except that the Court may open the hearings to the public under a specific criteria.

Okeydoke.

Greg Lavelle is in favor of less government, except when he’s in favor of more government. To (half-) wit, SB 237.  I don’t oppose the bill, just appreciate the hypocrisy. In today’s Senate Public Safety meeting. As is SB 137(McDowell), which ‘prohibits the possession, sale and manufacture of a firearm undetectable by metal detectors’.  Who could possibly oppose such a bill? Betcha you’ll find out at the committee meeting.

OK, now this is just wrong. The Senate Sunset Committee is meeting today. You know, the committee that shines a light on the operations of state agencies. Wonder what bills they’re considering today…oops, in violation of Senate rules, the committee provides no notice of what they will consider.

For you completists, here’s today’s Senate Committee Meeting schedule. Along with today’s House Committee Meeting schedule.

Yet more tax credits for business start-ups are on the agenda of the House Business Lapdog Committee.  HB 330(Q. Johnson) ‘will allow expanded early stage investment of capital into targeted Delaware businesses, thereby assisting in the creation of jobs’. Basically $500K in state income tax credits. Presumably, as with virtually all other tax breaks like this, with no empirical evaluation as to whether this break makes the state money or costs the state money.

Yet another nominee for Worst Bill of the Year is in today’s House Education Committee meeting. I just love it when the representative from Delaware’s Wealthiest District sponsors something called the, wait for it, Parent Empowerment Education Savings Account Act. Sounds like something enabling indigent parents being able to afford college, but it’s not. Just another Rethuglican scam designed to divert money from public education to give a tax break to parents who choose to send their kids to private schools. They have no shame.

Speaking of which, should HB 293(D. Short) pass, food stamp recipients would be restricted to purchasing only those foods that the Delaware Department of Health & Social Services deems as sufficiently nutritious. You see, food stamp recipients are incapable of making these decisions on their own. Or so think a buncha Rethugs used to stuffing shrimp and fried chicken down their gold-plated gullets at weekly political fundraisers. In today’s House Health & Human Development Committee.

The House Sunset Committee, which does have a posted agenda, considers HB 381(Brady), which requires that appointed members of the Cash Management Policy Board file financial disclosure forms. Something Chip Flowers wants. Along with getting financial institutions to pay for his travel. Uh, Chip, can we talk? The issue isn’t whether people were upset with your travel, the issue is that the Treasurer, aka YOU, couldn’t account for your expenses. It’s unethical for you to force corporations who do business with you to keep you traveling in the manner to which you’ve become accustomed. This isn’t about saving the state money, it’s about an improper alliance between the Treasurer and the banks who receive contracts from his office. I remember former Insurance Commissioner Dave Levinson getting into trouble for something similar. Not sure why an ethically-challenged official like Flowers would do something that would make him look even less ethical, if that’s even possible. But, I digress.

Finally, I’ll be interested in the fate of HB 386 and HB 387, both sponsored by Rep. Kowalko. Why? Because Kowalko chairs the House Energy Committee. I’m sure that when he introduced these bills, he had at least a reasonable expectation that these bills would be assigned to his committee. But they weren’t. Instead, leadership assigned them to Lumpy Carson’s Transportation/Land Use/ and Infrastructure Committee. Why? Because the Speaker can assign a bill wherever he wants. So let’s see whether these bills get buried or not. If Pete wants ’em buried, they’ll stay buried. If not the best exercise of raw power, it’s an exercise of raw power.

 

 

John Carney Adding the Koch Brothers to the Banking Interests He Represents

The House is currently working on a bill that would re-authorize the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, usually not a controversial event, but this year, those who are looking to unravel Dodd-Frank have wrapped into this bill a number of items that specifically work to give banks more freedom to bankrupt us again. John Carney is right in the middle of this effort to continue to destabilize Dodd-Frank, and in the process, give the Koch Brothers an assist. Here’s the earlier Huffington Post front page announcing how Democrats — even our Democrat — are working to help the Koch Brothers:
Carney.Koch

In a bitter irony for Democrats, two of the people who stand to gain the most from the fracas are none other than Charles and David Koch, the Republican billionaires who have tapped one of the world’s largest fortunes to cut down Democrats in elections and fuel conservative reforms. According to a lobbying disclosure form, lobbyists for the Koch empire have pushed for four of the most controversial deregulation provisions in Cantor’s latest endeavor.

The Koch and Wall Street-backed deregulation items have all been folded into a bill formally reauthorizing the existence of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — the regulator that oversees the multi-trillion-dollar derivatives market. The agency has been functioning without authorization since October, and financial oversight advocates are confident that it can continue to do so unless the GOP passes legislation to defund it.

By lumping a host of bipartisan bills together, the CFTC bill is Wall Street’s best chance yet to defang Dodd-Frank. The most consequential deregulation bill in the package was introduced in early 2013 as HR 1256. Critics on Capitol Hill blast it as the “London Whale Loophole Act,” because it allows U.S. firms to skip Dodd-Frank’s trading rules on derivatives, provided they conduct trades in other countries with supposedly similar regulatory regimes.

The bill’s two Democratic co-sponsors Reps. David Scott (D-Ga.) and John Carney (D-Del.), denied meeting with Koch lobbyists, as did two Democrats who co-sponsored a previous version of the bill in 2011, Reps. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) and Jim Himes (D-Conn.). Of the 17 Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee who voted for the bill in committee last spring, 10 denied meeting with the Kochs, and seven did not respond to requests to comment. Most insisted they had no idea the Kochs were pushing for the bill.

This election cycle, Moore has collected $243,400 from the financial industry, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics — nearly triple the $89,750 she’s raised from organized labor, her next-highest backer. Scott has pulled in $220,160 from finance, compared with $68,000 from unions. The $353,632 Carney has drawn from the financial industry is more than five times what he’s received from his next-biggest supporter, lawyers and lobbyists. Himes, who has been in charge of national fundraising for House Democrats since early 2013, has secured $733,600 from the banking sector for his own war chest and political action committee (the Center for Responsive Politics categorizes his next-highest sector as simply “other”).

You should read the whole thing to get the entire context. But keep in mind that John Carney is doing more work to make sure that Too Big To Fail is permanent government policy than he is in making sure that your Social Security is secure and available to you. He will tell you that your Social Security benefits need to be reduced for the good of the system, yet making it easier for Banks to make their way to the trough is the (not very fiscally responsible) work he is committed to doing.

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., June 10, 2014

Big day last Thursday. Big day today. Pay attention. The devil’s in the details, sometimes, well not literally, but more than figuratively.

Our Post-Game Wrap-Up begins with the final passage of one of the best bills this session. SB 197(Blevins) puts Delaware right at the top of the list when it comes to fighting human trafficking. It passed unanimously in the House and goes to the Governor. The proliferation of ‘Asian spas’ in Delaware is but one manifestation of human trafficking happening right now in our state. We now have the tools to combat this scourge. All involved in passing this bill deserve huge props.

Here’s Thursday’s Session Activity Report. The e-cigarettes public ban passed the House, 25-12.  HB 312(Bolden), which ‘restores judicial discretion to permit the imposition of either concurrent or consecutive sentences, bringing Delaware in line with the other 49 states and the federal government’, passed with 4 no votes from neanderthal Rethugs. The ‘movie and a few beers’ bill passed the House with 8 no votes.

And Valerie Longhurst’s Fort DuPont ‘redevelopment’ bill unanimously passed the House, but the bill was amended to the point where Val’s drinkin’ buddies will not be able to impose their ‘vision’ on the project, should it be developed at all. Both the number of members of the ‘corporation’ and the required quorum have been increased, with several more state members added to the point where ‘Val’s Pals’ are now a distinct minority on the board.  Details matter.

Most of today’s action takes place in the House. To quote Willy Loman: “Attention must be paid.”

Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf seeks to give the General Assembly power to grant or withhold taxing power to/from municipalities all over the state. HB 333 ‘makes it clear that a municipality may only impose a tax within its jurisdiction if such tax is expressly authorized by an Act of the Delaware General Assembly‘. Passage would immediately render many elected officials totally subservient to their Masters in Dover.  Talk about ass-kissing and deal-cutting.  A horrible bill, in the tradition of the Solomoronic solons substituting their judgment for those heretofore charged with making those judgments. In the running for Worst Bill of the Year.

I’m also hearing alarm bells over a package of corporate bills on today’s agenda. Bills like these generally sail through the General Assembly in June, and reflect lawyerly obeisance to their corporate masters. Nobody usually knows what’s in these bills, except for the legal sharks and the corporate forces writing the bills for/with them.  Which brings me to HB’s  327 and 328.   Both sponsored by Rep. Walker, who is running them, as well as HB’s 326 and 329 on behalf of the Corporate Law section of the Delaware Bar. The League of Women Voters, Americans for Democratic Action, and the Delaware Alliance for Community Advancement have all expressed concerns regarding HB 327  and HB 328.   From the ADA:

Delaware is a leader in incorporation. As such, we have responsibilities to ensure we are supporting legitimately-purposed corporations as well as not allowing our state to be used as an easy way for people to set up corporations anonymously and then use them to facilitate drug smuggling, arms trafficking, money laundering, anonymous campaign contributions, or other nefarious activities. Our state’s reputation suffers when we allow bad actors to take advantage of our laws that enable the easy establishment of untraceable shell companies.

…However, these bills are ineffective as written. They do not require information be collected about the real people, often called beneficial owners, who ultimately own or control Delaware companies, and they do not make it any easier for law enforcement to access this information—in fact, for law enforcement to access the information that is collected, someone at the company needs to be tipped off that they are under investigation.

From the League of Women Voters:

The League of Women Voters strongly supports the citizen’s right to know. To that end, we are concerned about the problem of anonymous companies, also called the ‘getaway cars’ for financial crime and corruption.

With more legal entities than residents, our state has a responsibility to ensure that we stop allowing corporations to take advantage of our state’s laws in order to facilitate drug smuggling, arms trafficking and anonymous campaign contributions; force foreclosures on ordinary Americans and launder the proceeds of overseas corruption.

Super PACs are an increasing threat to our democracy. And, while Super PACs are required to disclose their donors, a donor can be an anonymous company. In the 2012 elections, almost 17% of all business contributions to Super PACs, a total of nearly $17 million, passed through a shell corporation that did not disclose its owners and thus could not be traced to a legitimate original source.

House Bills 327 and 328 need to be amended to require LLCs and all corporate entities in Delaware to publicly disclose their beneficial owners and keep this information up to date.

In other words, HB’s 327 and 328 create the illusion of more transparency but, in fact, they continue facilitating anonymous companies skirting legalities at every turn.  Legislators, details are important. Make these bills worthy of passage. We’ll be watching.

It’s probably not right to pick on poor ol’ John Atkins, but he brings it on himself. HB 321 is a joke of a bill masquerading as FOIA legislation. I think this bill came together because the D’s were putting together a package of FOIA bills, most of them inoffensive, if oversold. Someone realized, “We need something for Atkins.” Which is why we have a bill that:

…requires the Attorney General to engage in educational efforts aimed at FOIA coordinators for all public bodies in this State. FOIA coordinators serve an important role as the first point of contact between government and citizens seeking public records to observe the performance and monitor the decisions of public officials. By increasing the knowledge of FOIA coordinators about the Freedom of Information Act, the government can be more accountable to the citizens of this State.

You see, because ignoring FOIA must be the result of functional illiteracy, not willful ignorance. Except, of course, that’s not the case. So, the AG’s office has to train people whose jobs already require that they know the law. FOIA’s not that complicated. Might I respectfully suggest that anyone incapable of understanding the law as written should not be employed as ‘FOIA coordinators’? Teh stupid, it burns!

Today’s Senate Agenda largely features House bills. Nothing really captures my interest.

I simply can’t end today’s post without once again pointing out the policy bankruptcy of legislative Republicans. Here we are in the second week of June, and the Rethugs have just introduced legislation to drain even more money from public education.  Just in time for Election Brochure Season, HB 353  ‘creates the Parent Education Savings Account Act which would allow parents to “use funds otherwise allocated to their resident school district for an education program of the parent’s choosing. The goal of this legislation is to increase educational opportunities for students. ” No, it’s not. The goal is to further try to squeeze public schools. Oh, and to fire up the usual ignorami to go to the polls this November. Worse than useless. Between this and the so-called ‘Right To Work Zones’, they have no legislative agenda, just political talking points in bill form. Pathetic. No details, because none are really needed.

Be back tomorrow, committee previews in tow. Hey, maybe we’ll even hear something about the $70 million hole in our roads and infrastructure program…

Delaware Political Weekly: May 31-June 6, 2014

1. Whither the 41st?

Yep, John Atkins’ Rep. District.  How would you like to be Pete Schwartzkopf or Sussex County D Chair Mitch Crane as the filing deadline approaches? Do you think that Atkins has finally reached his political expiration date? Do you think that even his Sussex County constituents have had enough of the ongoing drama–and/or comedy? And what do you do about it? Do you double-down on Atkins? Do you cede the seat to a 1% propagandist like Richard Collins? Do you find somebody else and ‘urge’ John to step aside? Does Atkins step aside? How does the potential loss of this seat impact Pete’s hold on the Speaker position?

I don’t have any answers, except to point out that Atkins was vulnerable, even to someone as extreme as Collins, before the latest headlines. Even in a district drawn to spec for Atkins by Schwartzkopf for 2012, Atkins barely edged out Collins, 4421-4352. 69 votes. At this point, even in Sussex County, people may just want someone not named John Atkins. And why should the D’s in Dover care? He is valuable to Pete Schwartzkopf and only Pete Schwartzkopf. And I suspect that Atkins’ value to Schwartzkopf is approaching zero. It will be ‘less than zero’ should Schwartzkopf start hemorrhaging supporters for the speakership due to his clinging to Atkins.

Atkins has not yet filed, FWIW.

2. Sheriff of Nuttingham vs …a Black Guy?

It could happen. And what a Rorschach test it would be for Sussex County.  The Democratic candidate for sheriff is Ronald Gooch, who served 27 years in the Lewes Police Department, 14 of them as chief. Gotta love his quote from the Cape Gazette article:

“I don’t want to just win, I want to blow them out,” Gooch said to a supportive crowd of more than 100 people at Irish Eyes in Lewes.

Should Jeff Christopher survive a primary against the only other qualified candidate in the race, Seaford R Robert T. Lee, we will have a a race between ‘qualified and profoundly unqualified’ in the general election. And a race between a willfully-ignorant white guy vs. a well-qualified black guy.  What will Sussex voters do? I’ll be watching.

3. Reasons for Progressives to Vote This Year

Any general election ballot with both Matt Denn and Brenda Mayrack on it is a ballot worth filling out. For years, we, and many of you, have lamented the dearth of progressives at the highest levels of  elected state Democratic officeholders. I am convinced that both Denn and Mayrack are true progressives, and that the offices for which they’re running this year are unlikely to be the last offices for which they run.  In addition to being progressives, both are real competent. With all due respect to Beau Biden (and that’s about as much respect as he’s due), Denn is a huge upgrade in the competence department. As for Tom Wagner, is there anybody in the state, other than perhaps Dick Cathcart, even willing to make an argument about his competence? Unless one views not doing anything as evidence of competence? Now contrast him with Brenda Mayrack. As Spiro Agnew might say, “Nolo contendere”.    Speaking of Wagner and Cathcart, for those of you new to this scandal, this is must reading.  Pretty much everything you need to know in one place. Perhaps that Delaware City sycophant who kisses Cathcart’s ass (no, not Val Longhurst, the other Delaware City sycophant who kisses Cathcart’s ass) will respond to this. Wagner? I dunno. But the term ‘suspendered disbelief’ was never more appropriate. BTW, in a delicious piece of irony, the pathetic report/whitewash from Wagner that I linked to in the article…is no longer available from the Auditor’s office.

4. Filing(s)

Rep. Ruth Briggs King (R-37th RD).

That’s all I got. What’d I miss and whaddayathink?

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., June 5, 2014

Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf’s gonna earn his money today.  Look for a l-o-o-o-o-ng party caucus for the House Majority.

At a time when key legislation needs to be worked, and worked with some sense of urgency, The House D’s will most likely feel forced to confront the (former GOP) elephant in the room.  John Atkins. I can’t imagine that there will not be a serious mass of legislators outraged at his alleged actions. And, of course, this is far from the first time that the Caucus has had to address issues regarding Atkins. When you add to that the fact that Schwartzkopf personally vouched for Atkins and sold him to a skeptical caucus back in 2008 (‘People can change’), and you’ve got a real messy situation on your hands. The guy was always kinda on probation to several caucus members, and I wonder if caucus members are willing to let that continue. Yes, I know, he has not been charged with anything and he deserves his day in court. I’m just looking at the dynamics of the caucus. After all, not even the Rethugs wanted him. Betcha a majority of D’s don’t, either.

Here’s yesterday’s Session Activity Report. Doesn’t look like the casino bailout bill made it out of the Senate Finance Committee.

If they ever get to it, the House has an ambitious Agenda today.  SB 197(Blevins)  would provide Delaware with perhaps the strongest human trafficking statute in the country. It’s a great piece of legislation, one of the best of this session. In typical Rethug fashion, Rep. Smyk has introduced an amendment making the penalties even more punitive. The guy has not worked on the bill at all even though other Republicans have, but he and his fellow idiot Sen. Dave Lawson see this amendment as a way to score political points. I don’t care whether the amendment passes or not, but these guys aren’t even trying to be constructive. Just political.

Rep. Quin Johnson’s ‘A Movie and Some Beers’ legislation is also scheduled for consideration. Campaign contributions to follow.

Val Longhurst’s Fort DuPont ‘Redevelopment’ plan may move forward as well although…it looks like Jack Markell is taking most of the ownership. A filed amendment adds yet two more state officials to the ‘Corporation’ board, further dwarfing the influence of the Delaware City insiders. We’ll see if those concessions suffice to get this proposal through the House.

And we’re just getting started. Pete Schwartzkopf’s bill requiring General Assembly approval for municipal tax increases looms large. And, I think, ominous.

Finally, we have SB 222(Blevins), which names the Wilmington campus of Del-Tech in honor of Lonnie George. Stop by and visit him at the President Emeritus’ house, Xanadu.

Now, let’s be honest, kids. Even were there not issues to be addressed in Caucus, an agenda this loaded would not be worked in a single day. During the next two weeks or so, numerous bills will be added to this Agenda. Then you’ll see different agendas, each numbered, pop up. Which will take us to June 30, where ‘must-lists’ get worked, often late at night and early in the morning. While I have confidence in both Pete Schwartzkopf and Patti Blevins to avoid the worst of the June 30 horsetrading, we must be diligent in shining sunlight on the process. This is the time of year when bad stuff gets through.

A more typical, and less contentious, agenda awaits in the Senate. I’m feeling so magnanimous that I ‘m totally fine with a bill sponsored by Greg Lavelle.  SB 221 ‘allows political committees to give campaign contributions back to their donors’.  You will recall that Lavelle and other Rethugs were outraged, outraged, that committees that unknowingly received illegal contributions donated them to charity. Thus, presumably, getting some sort of ‘rub’ for their alleged perfidy. So, we now have legislation that permits giving contributions to charity, and this companion bill. Call it what it is. A crumb. In the spirit of bipartisanship. Welcome to June.

Delaware’s I-495 Closing Brings Attention to State Infrastructure

Monday’s closure of Delaware’s I-495 bridge has brought to attention the ailing state of Delaware’s infrastructure (not to mention America’s infrastructure). It’s no secret that the infrastructure of Delaware and the entire nation is in desperate need of attention and repair, and most state politicians have agreed, yet few have actually taken action on this issue. Governor Markell has repeatedly called for additional focus on Delaware’s infrastructure, and with the recent bridge closing, so have many more members of the state legislature.

The infrastructural issues of Delaware range from our roadways to our waterways, and none of it can be ignored. With a quick google search any person can find several reports and informative pieces on Delaware’s infrastructural shortcomings. 36% of Delaware’s major roadways are in poor or lacking condition, over 20% of our bridges are either structurally deficient or obsolete, and the state has 65 high hazard dams. This is nothing short of extremely concerning.

Between the many issues, Delaware would need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to actually complete renovations, but in my opinion, this is an entirely necessary investment. Infrastructure itself has a serious implication on how the economy of the state functions. No one truly becomes economically independent without first having attended the schools of the state, using its roads, drinking its water, and benefiting from its renewable energy, port trade, and more. Delaware has recently had fairly slow economic growth in comparison to a large portion of the country, and infrastructural improvements are an easy way to improve economic tension.

Now certainly the state can’t go borrowing piles of money to begin repairs, but even the Governor agrees that it’s time to act. In January, Governor Markell proposed to spend $500 million more on infrastructure over the next five years than originally planned, and this is a start.

Delaware itself has the opportunity now to catch the problem before we allow it to sink too far. Without our roadways, waterways, ports, schools, and all other aspects of the state’s infrastructure, we’ll quickly find ourselves struggling to compete economically with the rest of the nation. Hopefully Delaware can prove to be more productive in improving its infrastructure than the recent efforts by members of the U.S. Congress.

DL Exclusive: Brenda Mayrack Receives Major Endorsement from Emily’s List

BREAKING NEWS: Delaware State Auditor candidate Brenda Mayrack has officially been endorsed by Emily’s List.

Here is the press release in its entirety:

For Immediate Release
June 5th, 2014

EMILY’s List Endorses Brenda Mayrack for Delaware State Auditor

WASHINGTON. D.C. – Today EMILY’s List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Brenda Mayrack for Delaware State Auditor.

“Brenda Mayrack is an experienced leader and proven advocate for Delaware women and families,” said Stephanie Schriock, President of EMILY’s List. “From her work to give a voice to Delaware’s most vulnerable children to her experience as a smart and skilled attorney, I have no doubt that Brenda will work hard to ensure the tax dollars of the people of Delaware are used efficiently and effectively to improve the welfare of women and families. The EMILY’s List community – now more than three million members strong – is proud to support her candidacy.”

Brenda Mayrack is a Wilmington attorney with a solo practice focused on corporate audits and audit defense. In addition, she has also worked to provide pro bono legal services to benefit Delaware’s most vulnerable residents, acting as a legal advocate for children in foster care and helping establish and serving on the Board of Directors of the Delaware Coalition Against Gun Violence. Brenda has been involved in Delaware politics for over a decade and began her career in service to the state in 1996 as a freshman at the University of Delaware, where she organized Take Back the Night marches, raising awareness about sexual assault on campus and in our communities, and arranged donation drives for shelters. After graduating with honors, she served as a fellow at the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C., specializing in ethics and transparency in government. Brenda went on to concurrently complete a Master’s of Public Affairs from the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs along with her J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School (Madison) in 2008.

EMILY’s List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $390 million to support pro-choice Democratic women candidates — making it one of the most successful political action committees in the country. Throughout its 29 year history, the organization has recruited and trained over 9,000 women to run, worked to elect over 100 pro-choice Democratic women to the House, 19 to the Senate, 10 governors, and over five hundred women to state and local office. Since its founding in 1985, EMILY’s List helped elect 97% of the Democratic women of color in Congress, including every single Latina, African American, and Asian American Democratic woman currently serving. And during the 2011-2012 cycle, EMILY’s List had the largest number of members and donors in its history and raised a record-breaking $52 million dollars. With the help of this growing community — now more than three million members strong — EMILY’s List helped elect an historic number of candidates in 2012 including 19 new women to the House, six Senate incumbents, three new Senators, and 186 state and local officials.”

Emily’s List’s mission is as follows: “We elect pro-choice Democratic women to office.”

Those elected women have become an incalculable asset to the progressive movement throughout the country.  As the Emily’s List tagline states: “More than 3 million members. Over 600 election victories. All with a single focus — progressive change that matters.”

“I am both inspired and gratified by this endorsement,” Mayrack told Delaware Liberal. “I am running for Auditor because I intend to work to ensure that each one of our hard-earned tax dollars is used well and not wasted. All Delawareans, along with those who have placed their trust in me, deserve that, and that’s the mission I will bring to the office.”

This is a big deal for Delaware. Brenda Mayrack offers the real promise of progressive leadership for Delaware. She will be a great auditor, bringing both an incisive mind and, here’s a word you don’t ever hear associated with current Auditor Tom Wagner, competence, to effectively do the job. Which, by the way, impacts every citizen of this state, even if Tom Wagner is too, um, somnambulant to notice it.

Might I also point out that this endorsement strongly suggests that the people at Emily’s List recognize Brenda Mayrack’s potential to rise to even greater political prominence? Seeing as there’s a virtual absence of credible progressive Democratic alternatives to the current largely undistinguished crop of statewide and national Delaware elected officials (Matt Denn being perhaps the only notable exception), Mayrack’s candidacy and election (now’s the time to jump in with $$’s, shoe leather, and/or whatever the campaign needs, and here’s where to do it) offers legitimate hope to liberals and progressives.

Pause for a moment to celebrate, then, let’s get to work!

News-Journal: Rep. Atkins Ordered to Stay Away From His Wife and Kids

No snark here. Just gotta hope for the safety of the wife and kids. Here are two key grafs from the News Journal story:

““His temper is getting worse and I fear that if something is not done it will effect my safety,” Heather Atkins wrote in her petition for emergency protection. “I feel that he is not able to take the best interest of our children and put that first. I am afraid that the children are at risk due to his temper and erratic behavior.”

And this:

“Court documents show Atkins relinquished 17 firearms, most of them shotguns, to Millsboro police officers Monday evening after they took a court order requiring he do so to his home.”

Scary stuff from an unstable dude.

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., June 4, 2014

We need more legislative days like yesterday.

Good bills passing all over the place. The Senate passed HB 251(M. Smith) (3 Rethug nos), SB 181(Blevins), SB 185(Townsend)(5 nos, 4 Rethugs and Venables), SB 212(Hall-Long), and SB 219(Hall-Long)(unanimous!). 

Every one of these bills is something that progressives can embrace. Both Senators Lopez and Cloutier voted yes on all of these. Check ’em out for yourself, and I think you can see an emerging progressive consensus in the General Assembly. I want to highlight SB 219.

Here’s the synopsis:

Delaware, like other states, is seeing a dramatic increase in heroin and opioid abuse and as a result is experiencing an increase in the number of people overdosing on these substances. This Legislation will increase the amount of the life-saving drug Naloxone in the community and specifically in the hands of the people most likely to discover someone who has suffered an overdose and who will be able to administer a dose of the medication while waiting for first responders to arrive. This will improve the chances that people who overdose will survive and be connected to treatment programs. Friends and family members of people with addictions to opioids can purchase Naloxone when a prescription is written for the person with the addiction. This Legislation will allow DHSS to create a community-based program that will put Naloxone into the hands of friends, family, and maybe service providers at no or low cost. DHSS will seek grant funding to support a community-based program.

In my mind’s ear, I can hear Senators Tom Sharp and Jim Vaughn and AG Jane Brady not only opposing something like this,  but demagoguing those who support it as being ‘soft on drug abuse’. Let’s have a Moment of Silence for willful ignorance.  This is progress, and you can’t spell ‘progressive’ without it.

The House passed SB 209(Townsend), which ‘requires the Department of Education to promulgate regulations to further define the meaning and process for consideration of impact in the charter school application review process, to be considered and approved by the State Board no later than its October 2014 meeting. It also clarifies the conditions that an authorizer may place on an approved application, and provides that the State Board of Education may place or modify conditions to address considerations of impact.’. 24 Y; 13 N; 1 NV (Jaques!); 3 A. Here’s the roll call. Not a single House Rethuglican voted for the bill. The bill now goes to the Governor. He’d better sign it.

Today’s Senate Agenda consists of bills left over from yesterday.

The House devotes its session to committee meetings today.

And…look what’s back from the dead. That’s right, Val (Longhurst) and her drinkin’ buddies scheme to ‘redevelop’ Fort DuPont. It’s a substitute bill, folks. In order to give this scheme the veneer of respectability, the substitute specifically provides that the so-called ‘Corporation’ will now have 9 members, 5 of whom shall be state officials or their designees.

Guess what, though? Three, count ’em, three of the nine could actually constitute a majority for voting purposes. How? Here’s how, from the bill:

(d) Five directors shall constitute a quorum of the Board, and all action by the Board shall require the affirmative vote of a majority of the directors present and voting. Hey, maybe if someone is present but not voting, the so-called majority could even be less than three.

Regardless, Al Mascitti made the point real well on his show yesterday. People have been proposing schemes to  develop this ‘underdeveloped’ gem from the time that the digging of the C & D Canal was completed. Some time in the early 1820’s, or so. Yet, this  sylvan setting has yet to realize successful development in almost 200 years. Does anyone think that Val Longhurst, Dicky Cathcart, Nicole Poore, and their assorted Delaware City drinkin’ buddies have a plan that will benefit anybody but themselves? And that this bill needs to be pushed through the General Assembly in this term’s waning weeks? Cathcart and Longhurst have proven that they can neither be trusted, nor entrusted, with power to implement something like this. By dint of his illegal awarding of no-bid contracts at Delaware State University, Cathcart should be kept away from any huge sum of money and the ability to disburse it.  This stinks worse than the refinery, and should be shut down before people get ripped off. BTW, the bill, of course, is in Longhurst’s very own House Administration Committee and is on today’s meeting agenda.

Other House highlights:

I really like this provision in HB 161(B. Short):

Section 7 of this bill precludes a (property and casualty) insurance carrier from refusing to renew a policy based on a combination of claims unless 3 or more claims occur within a 48 month period.

Shit happens, y’know. Insurers are happy to insure you unless they have to pay out claims.  I actually wish this provision was stronger, but it’s an improvement for sure.

In today’s House Business Lapdog Committee.

Yet another e-cigarettes bill will be considered in the House Health & Human Development Committee. HB 309(Heffernan)  ‘adds e-cigarettes to the Clean Indoor Air Act and would prohibit the operation of e-cigarettes in all public places where smoking is prohibited under current law’. Let me once again ask the question: Is there a second-hand smoke, or second-hand ‘vapor’ issue with e-cigarettes? If so, I get it. If not, why do we need the bill?

OK, here’s the point with HS1/HB 319(Baumbach), which permits home delivery by midwives. Home delivery by midwives is happening and will continue to happen. The bill would make the practice safer. Period. It’s easy for opponents to get off on the tangent of ‘what if something goes wrong?’ The point is that the practice will continue and this bill will make said practice safer and more professional. Also in the House Health & Human Development Committee.

One can only hope that Rep. Rebecca Walker, who is allowing state cops to stonewall death penalty repeal, will be slightly less of a troglodyte today when the House Judiciary Committee considers SB 188(Peterson), which “vests judges with discretion to determine “habitual offender” sentences, rather than the Attorney General’s staff. It also permits some offenders whose sentences were determined by the Attorney General’s Office to be resentenced by judges”. In other words, it removes one of the worst excesses imposed on us by then-AG Jane Brady.

Rep. Keeley’s bill decriminalizing marijuana possession is on today’s House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee agenda. The bill recognizes reality, and will save money/manpower by eliminating wasteful demands on both law enforcement and the court system.

The most notable bill on today’s Senate Committee meeting schedule is, wait for it, SB 220(Bushweller), which provides yet another $20 million annual bailout for the Delaware’s casinos or, more precisely, the casino owners. Who, I might add, are losing money on their ill-advised investments other than the gaming portion of the casinos. The bill even provides an additional $10 mill for the current Fiscal Year which ends on June 30. A complete and utter waste of taxpayers dollars going to entrpreneurs who are richer than anybody reading this. Disgraceful. In today’s Senate Finance Committee, which was party to crafting this terrible deal.

Please let me know what bills you think I’ve unjustly overlooked.

Be back tomorrow…