Tag: Featured
If I Could Have A Moment Of Your Time…
I canvassed with Eugene this past fall and was impressed with his grasp of the issues and his solutions. I’m impressed by the broad coalition of volunteers and staff he has been surrounded himself with — people who are energizing their networks and creating one of the most professionally run campaigns I’ve ever seen in the city. It is gratifying to see (and work with!) younger people energized by stepping up to do the work of making sure that Wilmington is a great place for them to live in and work in.
The diversity and outreach in this campaign is awe-inspiring. Eugene is campaigning across the entire city, in every community. That’s refreshing and smart. Far too often candidates for mayor focus solely on certain communities. Even worse, a few pit communities against each other by employing fear and the familiar “tough on crime” stance, dividing the city into “us and them”.
It’s also no secret that campaigns need contributions. It’s also also no secret that our city needs a new direction and vision. I believe the person capable of setting us on a new path is Eugene Young. So I’m calling on (really, asking) the DL statewide community (because you guys are awesome!) to contribute to Eugene’s campaign. In order to keep track of our awesomeness please add .16 to your contribution. (You know… 25.16)
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’.
The Delaware Liberal General Assembly Progressive Rankings
Matt Bittle of the Delaware State News recently did a story on the “Mostly True Blue State of Delaware,” that partly focused on the the legislative ideological rankings of the various party legislators, as judged by the Delaware Chapter of the American Democratic Association (ADA) and the American Conservative Union (ACU). The ADA picked 10 pieces of legislation which they deemed important pieces of progressive legislation. All of them are included in my list of legislation below. The ACU also picked several pieces of the same legislation, though their favored position was opposition.
In reading that Matt Bittle story, I felt inspired to compile our own Delaware Liberal Rankings of all of our lawmakers in Dover. From John Kowalko to Timothy Dukes. From Bryan Townsend to Colin Bonini.
I have primarily used the Delaware ADA’s list of priority progressive legislation from the past two legislative sessions (148th and 147th, covering the years 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016) in order to judge each lawmaker’s actions regarding such legislation.
State Chamber Fixes Its Guns On Coastal Zone Act
Having apparently despoiled all there is to despoil within the law or, to be more accurate, within the see-no-evil boundaries ignored by DNREC on a daily basis, the big business boys are now targeting Delaware’s Coastal Zone Act. Here is the article from the Delaware Business Magazine, titled ‘Modernizing the Coastal Zone Act,’ that a wonderful tipster shared with me. You see, the CZA has created a ‘logjam’:
Whether it was meant to eventually force manufacturing and industry to “wither on the vine” or to balance the types of allowable companies with keeping our natural resources pristine, it has created a logjam in the process. Regardless of the intent of the legislation, it is clear (to the Chamber) that Delaware’s Coastal Zone Act must be modernized in order for Delaware to grow.
You already see the false meme, don’t you? The implication that perhaps, just perhaps, such radical environmentalists as DuPont Company alumni former Gov. Russell Peterson and former State Senator Andy Knox must have wanted to force manufacturing jobs to wither on the vine. Don’t worry, there’s more.
Delaware Political Weekly: Feb. 12-18, 2016
Some people have a pathological need to run. I don’t know why. (Well, actually, yes I do. Every now and then, the stars align and one of these losers gets elected. Including Williams. And, uh, Karen Weldin Stewart, anyone?) Dennis E. Williams is one of those people. No, he’s not running for Congress, his nascent candidacy apparently having died aborning. Instead he’s gonna give the voters of the 10th Rep. District a chance to admit they were wrong when they threw Williams’ sorry ass out of the General Assembly in 2014. Problem is, Sean Matthews proved the voters right. Even with Pete & Val parking political operatives in the 10th to save one of their lackeys, Matthews defeated Williams by a 55-45 margin. It will be much larger this time, but, hey, Dennis, thanks for the filing fee. Although I now must dig into my pockets to send some $$’s Matthews’ way. He is already one of the most valuable legislators we have in Dover, especially on education.
A Literal “Yes” or “No” Question
If you’re like me, you know the law states the State Board of Education must vote yea or nay on WEIC as a whole package, as it is submitted by the Commission. No amendments, no language changes, just a straight yes or no, and they had to vote. If you’re like me, you may also remember that in January the State Board decided to not vote at all on the plan, as they were legally required to do, and handed it back to Tony Allen with their reasoning for not supporting it. Remember that part about having to vote? Pepperidge Farm Remembers.
We’re Going To Have To Talk About Sexism Because It’s Surrounding Us
Basically, everyone needs to stop the sexist behavior, whether it is in the form of BernieBros or the Women on Women Crime that Gloria Steinem and Madeline Albright engaged in. If we did, perhaps, we could discuss issues like Climate Change, reproductive rights, immigration, Police brutality, improving our education system, Foreign Policy (altho this was touched on in the last debate) our crumbling infrastructure – you know, things that our candidates aren’t discussing. Personally, I’d like to hear about these issues, as well as income inequality. Hopefully I get my wish because these things matter, too.
Income inequality is an important issue, but it isn’t the only one, and right now I’m not sure where the candidates stand on other issues that matter to me. That’s a problem for me. A BIG one. It’s probably the reason I can’t pick a candidate. I need more, because the office of President is about more, but you wouldn’t know that by listening to the debates. Guess I’m saying, I completely understand where each candidates stand on income inequality… can we start to include other things? There actually are other things.
Meanwhile, can we step up our game and drop the sexism on both sides?
Have We Witnessed the De Facto Repeal of the Death Penalty in Delaware? Yes. Maybe.
Hear me out. This is exciting.
As you may be aware, a hold has been placed on all death penalty cases in Delaware by the Delaware Supreme Court.
The reason? The U. S. Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional part of a Florida statute that grants exclusively to judges the right to determine a sentence of death in capital cases.
Guess what? Delaware has the exact same provision in its statute. The irony is that it didn’t used to be that way. No, AG Jane Brady, Sen. Tom Sharp, Sen. Jim Vaughn and others demagogued the sheep in Dover into taking the power away from juries and giving it to judges. Why? ‘Coddling criminals’, blah blah blah. How great would it be if they ended up sowing the seeds for death penalty repeal?
I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t see how Delaware’s statute can be constitutional if Florida’s is not.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Only the Delaware General Assembly can change the statute. Come inside to see why that’s important….
The Cause Endures
It is in these moments that people who are novices or who are inexperienced in the way of politics, and the long arc of history get frustrated and often walk away. For example, I saw one commenter on Facebook blame the Democrats in the General Assembly for the vote. That person is probably the same type of person who blames President Obama for Republican obstruction. And he, and those like him, need some education on how long and involved a process politics and change is. If you are getting into politics for instant gratification and neverending victories, you will be bitterly disappointed.
Yesterday, the defeat of the Senate Bill 40, which would have repealed the death penalty, by an official vote of 16-23-2, was not a defeat. It was a victory when you look at change and politics from a longer view, or a higher altitude. Over the course of three years, we went from no bill for repeal even being considered, to having it be introduced, pass through the Senate, and die in the House Judiciary Committee, to having it pass the Senate again, and get debated and voted on on the House floor.
Yesterday was a step forward. To be sure, the vast majority of the Democratic caucus voted for the repeal of the death penalty. Step back and think about that for a second, while looking at this vote roster (I have excluded the Republicans voting no, because they are irrelevant to this conversation, well, are irrelevant to most things really).
Representative Mike Ramone, Charter School Lobbyist
Mr. Ramone needs to read the regs pertaining to per student funding in public education. When a student moves from a District school to a Charter school, the tax money collected by the original district for spending on that student goes with the student to the charter. There is no fiscal “responsibility” borne by the Charter, the sending District is paying that child’s per-student expense. If Mr. Ramone doesn’t believe that, I have a $21 million charter bill Christina School District is paying this year for him to look at. Email me, Rep Ramone: brianstephan@gmail.com and I can help you understand how public schools are funded in this state.
Wilmington Mayor Race Cattle Call — Show Me the Money Edition
Campaign finance reports for the year ending 31 December 2015 were due into the Department of Elections by 20 January 2016, so let’s take a look at what those reports might tell us about the race for Mayor of Wilmington:
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., Jan. 19, 2016
You didn’t read about it in the ‘Paper of Record’, but the so-called ‘Delaware Competes’ bill flew through the House (only two no votes, Kowalko and Williams) and is now poised for equally-swift consideration in the Senate. Actually, you didn’t read about it in the daily Session Activity Report, either. Unless…you scrolled all the way down and saw that the bill had already been assigned to the Senate Executive Committee. Stealth all the way. So, I’ve got a legit question to some of our progressive legislators: Did you vote Yes because you’ve been informed as to how the bill will be paid for? If so, would you care to share it with us? If not, why did you vote yes? These are not snark questions, I really want to know. I’m missing something (insert joke here), just don’t know what.
HJR 10 (Bolden), in which Delaware apologizes for its role in slavery, also passed the House. The one ‘no’ vote was John Atkins’ replacement, Rep. Richard Collins.
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.
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