Tag: Delaware General Assembly
DL Endorsements for the General Assembly
We have a few primaries in races for the General Assembly that we, as liberals and progressives, would like to weigh in on. We have an open seat in the 9th Senatorial District, a challenger to Speaker Schwartzkopf in the 14th Representative District, and a rematch between current Representative Sean Matthews and former Representative Dennis Williams in the 10th Representative District.
Delaware General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., June 14, 2016.
Today’s House Agenda leads off with a bill that increases penalties for talking or texting on a hand-held device while driving. I support the bill, although I question the assertion that ‘novice drivers’ are most likely to ignore the law. Based on my observations, virtually everybody ignores the law. The bill also adds points for a second offense and thereafter. Good.
The agenda is highlighted by two anti-discrimination bills. HB 316 (Heffernan) ‘makes it clear that an employer is expressly prohibited from taking adverse employment action against an individual based on his or her reproductive health care decisions. HB 317 (Rep. K. Williams) ‘prohibits discrimination in employment based upon an individual’s caregiving responsibilities’.
HB 400 (Baumbach) incrementally, and I mean incrementally, expands the use of marijuana oils for minors. This time, by ‘by classifying pain, anxiety, or depression, if related to a terminal illness, as a qualifying condition in the Delaware Medical Marijuana Act for patients under the age 18, who will still be restricted to using CBD and oil products.’ The only thing objectionable about this bill is that it accepts the notion that any minor who could incidentally ‘get high’ via governmental imprimatur must be prevented at all costs.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., March 22, 2016
Another week down, another 8-figure payout of taxpayer money transferred to the corporate giants. We’re told that we have to do it, otherwise someone else will. You see, the people who keep getting their pittance of health care cut, the state workers who have to beg for a pittance of a raise, they don’t count. We don’t have to do anything for them, they’re lucky they get what we give them. No, we need the big-paying jobs, or, to be accurate, the tiny fraction of those jobs that will remain, more than we need a more equitable and humane system. Oh, and to go ever-so-slightly off-topic, our sleazy County Executive is gonna throw yet millions more of taxpayers’ money at these extortionists. $7.5 mill for starters. Our money going to pay the big corporations and their biggest earners. That is what’s known as a transfer of wealth. BTW, all those Rethugs who publicly rended their garments in outrage over Gov. Markell’s efforts to at least bring new industries to Delaware? They all voted for both (so far) of these corporate bailouts. They don’t object to transfer of wealth, they just object to it not going to the usual suspects. What this Governor and this General Assembly just did is pretty much similar to throwing money at the casinos…except that these jobs pay more. More money for ever-diminishing returns. Our money.
Yes, SB 200 (Blevins) passed the House and was immediately signed into law by the Governor Thursday. Nobody even had to be late for their St. Patty’s Celebrations. Betcha there was some passin’ ‘o the green to go along with the wearin’ o’ the green that night. Only people who got screwed? Delaware taxpayers. And maybe an inebriated legislator and an appreciative lobbyist or two.
Before I move on, I have a question for my County Council member. These companies are staying, at least for now, whether or not the County hands them $7.5 mill of our money. Could you at least please vote no against this unnecessary and unwarranted giveaway? Thanks for reading. You, the reader, may want to call your Council member to express similar sentiments.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., March 17, 2016
The proposed constitutional amendment mandating that $10 mill must go to Agriculture Lands Preservation annually did not come close to a 2/3 majority in the House. 20 Y, 17 N, 4 A. The only upstate D’s to vote for the bill were Gerald Brady (?) and…Bryon Short (!). Oh, did I mention that there are 8,000 Delaware Farm Bureau members? A cheap (it wasn’t going to pass with or without his vote), politically expedient, and intellectually dishonest vote by the least progressive D candidate for Congress in Delaware.
Guess there was no controversy surrounding SB 202 (Sokola) after all. Mitch Crane was right, the bill merely reflects the self-insured nature of the state and its school buses in this matter. Bill passed unanimously in Senate.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues. March 15, 2016
This entire session has been one giveaway after another to the corporate behemoths. Thursday’s session continued the trend with the Senate voting unanimously to fatten the corporate coffers (at the expense of the state’s coffers) by $10.6 mill by FY 2019. Look, I understand that we don’t want to lose any more jobs, but the state has essentially become a one-trick pony in recent years. And, for all that we’ve doled out in corporate welfare, we’ve only retained a small fraction of the jobs that once were the backbone of our economy. And now the county is jumping on the bandwagon. And all the public officials are praising each other for moving so swiftly to ‘save’ the paltry number of DuPont jobs that were ‘saved’. What is lacking is the ‘vision thing’, to quote Bush the Elder. Plus, a thoughtful discussion as to whether the millions we’re tossing to the companies extorting us would be better spent elsewhere. Thankfully, we’ve got John Carney bringing his inspiring vision to–uh, never mind.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., March 9, 2016
In the Senate Executive Committee is yet another giveaway to business, this one the so-called (is Frank Luntz coming up with names for these bills?) “Delaware Commitment to Innovation Act”. The bill basically is yet another $10 mill or so annual giveaway to corporations in addition to all the other giveaways that have taken place in less than three months. Hey, I’ve got some time, let’s see how many of these giveaways I can list:
1. Right out of the box, THIS bill, aka the ‘Delaware Competes Act of 2016’ was specifically designed to keep Chemours, you know, the company that DuPont spun off specifically to avoid liability for its environmental wreckage, here. Passed and signed. Loss of revenue to state’s coffers? About $50 mill over three years, according to this fiscal note. Requirements that Chemours clean up its mess? Zero.
2. Then we’ve had the Council on Development Finance scurry to throw yet more $$’s at the new behemoth, which may well reward the CEO’s who carved out this merger dual CEO’s with an $80 mill payoff. A relatively paltry $9.6 mill of taxpayer money.
3. In the same article, we read that:
New Castle County officials are in the process of approving their own five-year, $7.5 million commitment to DuPont. The plans, which still must pass the County Council, would create a strategic economic development fund for the first time in county history and commit tax reserves to that fund.
Once again, that’s taxpayer money.
4. But that’s not enough for the would-be chemical conglom-o:
County Executive Thomas P. Gordon last month said DuPont officials also have asked him to use his authority to lower its property tax bills.
5. We’re even acting as their real estate agent. (I know I’m missing some more. Isn’t Wilmington being extorted as well?)
6. Which brings us back to this $10 mill annual giveaway.
Practically everybody is on the bill as sponsors, so it will sail right through. Delaware and its local governments have been reduced to paying extortion in order to salvage jobs here. We used to bribe companies (the banks) to come here by throwing people who need credit under the 18.6% bus. We’re now reduced to paying any and all kinds of extortion to get giant corporations to stay here, at least until someone bribes them with even more. Guess it beats providing living wages for people who live and work here. Except, the extortion never stops, and the wages never go up. Pretty much defines ‘The Delaware Way’.
Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tues. March 8, 2016
We already know what won’t be addressed by the returning General Assembly this week: Abolition of Delaware’s death penalty. However, it’s for the best of reasons. It’s quite possible that the United States Supreme Court has already sounded the, um, death knell for Delaware’s capital punishment statute. The ironies involved in this are dee-lish. The Delaware legislative hardliners some twenty years ago decided that juries were sometimes too namby-pamby when it came to doling out the death penalty, so they decided to give the judges (who must come before the State Senate for nominations and renominations) the exclusive life and death authority.
Which is precisely why Delaware’s statute appears to have run afoul of the recent Supreme Court ruling, which ‘deemed unconstitutional part of a Florida statute that grants exclusively to judges the right to determine a sentence of death in capital cases’. Delaware has the same language in its statute, which is why the Delaware Supreme Court has placed a moratorium on any capital case moving forward until it can review the statute and determine whether Delaware’s statute can pass constitutional muster.
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…
Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tues., June 30, 2015
“HOSTAGE-TAKERS WIN. YOU LOSE.”
That will likely be the headline from the last day of session barring something unexpected.
Especially with the Rethugs seemingly determined to abdicate any responsibility to be, um, responsible. For purely id(iot)eological reasons, the R’s have tied any willingness to cooperate to screwing workers through their obsessive need to push for ‘right to work for less’. They have also abandoned any pretense of thinking for themselves, leaving all talking points to their ALEC overlords. Check out their refusal to stop the escalating infrastructure crisis from getting any funding. Check out the result. Greg Lavelle perhaps cemented (the use of ‘cemented’ is deliberate) his position as the Worst Legislator in the General Assembly by his phony demands for ‘reform’ which, for anyone paying attention, simply is a transfer of administrative costs from the Transportation Trust Fund to the operating budget w/o providing a mechanism to pay for it:
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., June 17, 2015
My, how times have changed. So much so that HB 115(J. Johnson), which ‘permits individuals subject to the supervision of the Delaware Department of Correction to effect a name change based on a sincerely held gender-related identity’, passed the Senate and goes to the Governor. Two R’s, Cloutier and Lopez, voted for the bill, leaving only the Rethug Haters to either vote no or go not voting.
Rep. Kowalko has introduced two bills providing for higher tax brackets for those making over $125K per year. HB 181 and HB 196. While HB 181 is a straightforward addition of two upper income brackets, HB 196 ‘lowers the current tax rates by .05% for each bracket. The bill also creates a new tax bracket at $125,000 with a rate of 7.05%, and an additional bracket at $250,000 with a rate of 7.80%. The bill also provides a tiered reduction of the otherwise available itemized deduction based upon the individual’s taxable income’. I hope that legislators consider these proposals this year. Otherwise, next year’s fiscal picture will make this year’s look tame by comparison. And, uh, next year is an Election Year.
BREAKING: Ex-Legislator Rewarded For Burying Death Penalty Repeal Bill
Remember Rebecca Walker? She’s the former chair of the House Judiciary Committee who buried the death penalty repeal bill in her committee for most of 2013 and all of 2014.
Remember Rebecca Walker? She’s the former legislator who claimed she was running for reelection in 2014, had actually filed, waited until after the filing deadline, then withdrew her name, thus denying the Democratic voters in her district the right to choose her successor via primary. Remember why Rebecca Walker claimed she withdrew? She said that her work would not enable her to continue to serve. As if she just found that out right after the filing deadline.
Well, guess what ‘good fortune’ has been bestowed upon former State Rep. Rebecca Walker?
If you guessed a $96K state job that required no public posting and which reunites her with her police pals with whom she scuttled death penalty repeal, you would be correct.
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