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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?
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.
Christina Fights Back – Delay Granted, But The End Game Remains The Same
So… last night this happened:
The Christina School Board again delayed a final decision on its three Priority Schools on Tuesday night, saying they wanted to give the school communities time to study a new compromise proposal worked out between district and state officials.
[…]
Originally, the state had said the state and district needed to work out an agreement by last week or Gov. Jack Markell would
shut the schools down orhand them over to charters or other outside operators. Some board members originally believed they had to vote Tuesday night or that takeover would occur.But Sen. Bryan Townsend, whose district includes Christina, said he called Markell’s office during the board meeting and the governor’s staff said they were willing to further extend the deadline.
The strike through words are my doing, and it would be refreshing if someone asked how closing these schools would actually work. Until that question is asked and answered I’ll file “closure” under meaningless threat. Unless someone thinks redrawing attendance zones that bus these children out to suburban schools is actually on the table. No? Well, neither do I.
The 2014 MVP Awards! And the winner is…. Mike Matthews.
Granted, it wasn’t a great year for progressives in Delaware, to put it mildly. A business uber alles governor, a congressional delegation that aids and comforts the enemy, more shenanigans from narcissistic elected officials, and a refusal by the General Assembly to address financial shortfalls that will soon impact Delaware’s infrastructure.
However…we began to see the emergence of coalitions that may well have a profound and positive impact on our future. We also saw some elected officials step up their game. And we saw members of the public lead in challenging some of the most wrong-headed assumptions of our elected officials.
So, here they are: The 2014 Bob Stachnik Memorial MVP Awards. Dedicated to a man who epitomized the spirit of those who created this very blog. A man who, literally and figuratively, sought to ‘re-twinkle the stars’.
El Somnambulo Predicts ‘Em All For You!
The tough races are really tough, the easy races are really easy. I know I’m not running the table, but I don’t know where I’ll falter. I just know that I will. If there’s a unifying theme, I think it’s that D’s will struggle in Delaware more than usual, which is exactly what I expect to happen nationwide. Hope I’m wrong. These predictions are also going up a week out, and there’s plenty of movement in some of the races.
With that depressing, but not hopeless, forecast out of the way, here we go:
United States Senate: Chris Coons over Kevin Wade, 58-40%, with Andrew Groff of the Green Party at 2%. I’ll be among the 2 percenters.
US Representative: This provides the true measure of how many people will vote Republican no matter what. Does Rose Izzo get over 30%? I’m going Carney 67%, Izzo 29%, with the Green and Libertarian candidates maybe getting 4%. For me, it’ll be August in November.
Attorney General: Matt Denn will win, does he break 60%?
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., June 17, 2014
Roads Held Hostage: Day…um, I Lost Count. Seven legislative days remain, still no word of any sort of fix to the $70 (or $90) million hole in the State’s transportation/infrastructure budget. Looks like we’re getting in ‘patch, then kick the can down the road’ territory. The very idea that D’s can’t or won’t tout a needed $70 (or $90) mill road repair/jobs program pretty much defines what’s wrong with Delaware’s brand of ‘Democrat’. BTW, since it looks like the 495 repair will cost somewhere around $20 mill, I’m hedging my bets as to whether the hole in our transportation funding is $70 mill or $90 mill.
OK, there are only a few ways that I can write the same story day after day. Whether I’ll run out of ways to write it before a fix is arrived at remains to be seen. Check back tomorrow.
Oopsies. Did I say tomorrow? Breaking news, and it ain’t good. A real bleak fiscal picture, must-reading for anyone interested in what’s gonna get funded and what will not. Here’s the takeaway quote:
“The problem is that no one wants to raise taxes for anything. You don’t want to raise the gas tax. You don’t want to raise income taxes. You don’t want a sales tax. You don’t want any of these taxes, but you still want the infrastructure,” Bhatt told lawmakers.
Speaking of infrastructure, DELDOT’s capital proposal is $128 mill, $70 mill less than last year’s. Revenue-shifting and the General Assembly’s refusal to even consider a gas tax will mean deteriorating roads, bridges and infrastructure. Hey, hopefully they’ll be out of office when stuff actually falls down. Then they can blame it on someone else. Cowardice. Proof that these election-obsessives don’t live in a reality-based world.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., May 14, 2014
Here we are in mid-May, and it’s been weeks since we’ve heard anything about a gas tax for transportation funding and/or a revenue stream to clean our water. Is this a game of political chicken, or has everybody chickened out? Assuming no new revenues for transportation projects, there will be roughly $70 million less to spend next Fiscal Year on fixing our roads and bridges than has been allocated in the current Fiscal Year. This after one of the most brutal winters in recent memory. This also means $70 million less to invest in our workers and our state’s economy. Is this really (not) going to happen? What a pathetic demonstration of what passes for political leadership in Dover. There’s still time, but is there political will?
The Vote Tracker is Back and Updated.
To break this down succinctly, the 147th General Assembly has two months of life left to it. (Quick, sci-fi fans, what movie is that paraphrased line from?). At the beginning of this session, all the way back on January 3, 2013, Delaware Liberal and the Progressive Dems began keeping track of our how legislators voted on legislation of interests to Progressives.
Come inside to see our Vote Tracking Charts.
Not included in the charts below are four bills that were just released yesterday concerning strengthening Delaware’s FOIA statute. And I got a little excited when I saw the emailed press release come across my inbox, until I opened up the press release and saw the subtite: “Four bills sponsored by Reps. Atkins… ” I actually felt a physical drop, sitting there at my computer. Because how good can an Open Government bill be if it is sponsored by John Atkins?
I read further and discovered that this was a package of bills sponsored by four very different legislators, some of which are good, some of which are meh, and some of which will roll your eyes.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., May 6, 2014
Ban the Box passes! HB 167( J. J. Johnson), which would ‘prohibit a public employer from inquiring into or considering the criminal record, criminal history or credit history or score of an applicant before it makes a conditional offer to the applicant‘, passed the Senate 15-5 on Thursday. As we’ve previously mentioned, the bill does:
specif(y) that once a background check is conducted an employer shall only consider felonies for 10 years from the completion of sentence, and misdemeanors for 5 years from the completion of sentence. Further, employers are required to consider several enumerated factors when deciding whether to revoke a conditional offer based on the results of a background check.
HB 167 does not apply to those positions where a criminal background check is statutorily mandated (law enforcement, the courts), but it does apply to contractors with state agencies. Sens. Greg Lavelle and Ernie Lopez were the only Rs to vote yes. Credit where credit’s due. The bill now heads to the Governor’s desk. BTW, Rep. J. J. Johnson is one of our most effective legislators. He is low-key, doesn’t call attention to himself, but he quietly gets things done. Apropos of nothing, he’s also a serious jazz buff. He deserves to be better-known.
Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tues., March 18, 2014
Assuming that neither snow nor St. Paddy’s Day waylaid them, the legislators return en masse to Dover today.
I expect the Governor and his staff to be meeting with legislators both to push for the infrastructure package (10 cents a gallon increase) and the clean water package ($45 on average per homeowner). This, to put it mildly, is a tough sell in an election year. I have to wonder why the governor didn’t do this at the beginning of his second term rather than throwing out a not-well-thought-through proposal late last session. It makes passage less likely. Although…a compromise on the infrastructure package could well be reached. One respected legislator suggested a phase-in, a nickel and more state borrowing the first year, and an additional nickel and less borrowing the second year. This is, after all, among other things, a jobs bill. If proponents can message this properly and emphasize this fact, reluctant D legislators could well be brought along.
I also expect caucuses to get briefings from their Joint Finance Committee members as to where things stand following the agency hearings (Oops. DEFAC says we’re down another $40 mill). Keep in mind that the budget bill likely won’t get marked up until around Memorial Day, so there will be a lot of dickering between now and then. And more DEFAC numbers.
2013: The Good, The Bad, the Ridiculous
I am El Somnambulo, and I’m a listaholic. Today, one of my faves, my Delaware year-end review. I went back to January, and chronologically went through our Delaware Liberal archives. Man, our bloggers were en fuego this year. Incredible work from all corners. Cassandra on Wilmington and loads of other stuff, Pandora on education, Jason330 on the suckitude that is our congressional delegation, our beloved leader DelDem liveblogging from the Hall and covering national politics like no other, great Rob Tornoe cartoons. And, next year, ProgressivePopulist will have loads of great entries. Anyway, y’all could do a lot worse than to go back to January and enjoy the journey like I did. You can just click on ‘archives’ at the bottom of the page, and enjoy the journey.
Would it surprise you to learn that I considered only 12 possible entries for the Good? Didn’t think so. I had lots more to choose from in the other two categories, but I’m kind-of a negative person. So, here we go, have at it!
The 62 Project: #’s 24 & 38
Kim Williams is among three newcomers who have displayed extraordinary promise during the 2013 legislative session. Consider the number 24 as merely a placeholder as it reflects her lack of time in Dover. She’s moving higher. Not only does she have the right profile for a citizen-legislator, she has demonstrated that conscience and effectiveness are not mutually exclusive.
Trey Paradee has been the single greatest disappointment to progressives among the 2012 newcomers. Despite expressing support for equal rights for same sex couples back in 2008, Paradee voted against marriage equality. He largely opposed most gun control measures. He has helped to bury a minimum wage increase in the House Business Lapdog Committee. Now, while he technically did not ‘go back on his word’ on gay marriage (the initial comments dealing with civil unions), he diligently ‘worked the refs’ to create at least a sense of good will from progressives, including me. He convinced me that this district was not the stereotypical Kent County district of 20 years ago, and then voted as if it was. Fool me once…
Red Clay School District Bucks The Class Size Law
So this happened:
Parents and educators have fought for years to keep class sizes small. But as school populations grow, those efforts run into physical and financial barriers. Sometimes schools run out of space and face difficult decisions. In most cases, there are two solutions: Build more classroom space and hire more teachers (which usually means raising taxes or moving money from other priorities) or approve a waiver allowing more students in classes than the law says is ideal. In the past few years, most Delaware districts have asked their school boards to approve waivers – and boards have always agreed. That changed last week when the Red Clay School Board rejected its district’s request, deadlocking in a 3-3 vote.
Color me surprised. And while I completely understand the difficulties districts face following this law, it is a law. An unfunded, feel good law, but a law nonetheless. That said… I like what the RCCD board did.
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