General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., April 9, 2014
Lotsa action in the General Assembly Tuesday. Here's the Session Activity Report. The Senate passed legislation moving administration of defensive driving courses from the Insurance Commissioner's office to the Division…
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., April 8, 2014
Same day registration/voting is coming to Delaware. HB 105(Viola) passed the House, 24-15, last Thursday. Two putative D's, John Atkins and Bill 'Lumpy' Carson, voted no. No R's voted yes. I look for a 12-9 yes vote in the Senate.
Karen Weldin Stewart loses yet more of her authority if SB 178(Peterson) passes. The bill 'transfers authority for state-approved motor vehicle accident prevention (defensive driving) courses from the Department of Insurance to the Division of Motor Vehicles'. A classic example of the state adding by subtracting. The less KWS can screw up, the better. When you think about it, it's pretty amazing that we have two elected public officials in whom virtually nobody in state government has any confidence. KWS and Chip Flowers. Said lack of confidence is totally justified. Weird.
Delaware Political Weekly: March 29-April 4, 2014
The choice in the R primary will be clear: Do you want your sheriff to be sane or insane? It's an R primary, so the outcome could be in doubt. But Robert T. Lee has credentials and a credible message. He doesn't dance around the Christopher issue, he takes it on. Meanwhile, Represenative Rebecca Walker gets what could be a strong challenger in the 9th RD.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs. April 3, 2014
HB 105(Viola) provides for same-day registration for presidential primary, primary, special, and general elections. Wonder how many R votes this gets? Doesn't matter, it's good policy. More legal registered voters are always better in a participatory democracy. The vote is this afternoon. Call your representatives.
The Good News About Governor Markell’s Downtown Development District Initiative
Today, Governor Markell has visited Wilmington, Dover and Bridgeville to announce the Downtown Development Initiative. You'll remember that he discussed this in the State of the State Address and it is one of the multiple revitalization initiatives proposed by the Governor this year. The goal of this plan is to have 3 municipalities (to start, one in each county) propose and apply for a Downtown Development District, where development projects in line with the plan would be eligible for up to a 20% grant-in-aid rebate on investment. Investments could be for a single home -- or for larger, transformative projects. The pool of funds available for this is proposed at $7M, shared by those doing the development. If the pool is oversubscribed, then developers would get a smaller share, but all developers would get some rebate. In addition, the Governor proposes to reserve $1.5M in the state's Historic Tax Credits for use in the Downtown Development Districts, adding some additional incentive to help re-create the State's Downtowns.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., April 2, 2014
Not a whole lot of controversy in yesterday's session. Only one bill engendered any opposition whatsoever. That bill is HB 246(Paradee) which, according to the not particularly instructive synopsis, "substitutes…