Post Your Legislative Wish List Here!
Tomorrow, the Delaware Legislature goes back into session in Dover. Two things seem a good bet — getting a budget this year when there are still revenue shortfalls is going to be brutal and the legislature will continue their dysfunctional behavior to get to that budget. We keep hearing about detailed reviews of state agencies to look for efficiencies or even eliminations. I’m definitely expecting to see that in some detail this year. And I fully expect that repubs will stamp their feet over it all while offering nothing to fix the budget problems. I’m also curious about the package of reforms that will be proposed to be able to compete for Race for the Top funds.
Use this thread to tell us what your top priorities for the legislature to accomplish this year. On my wish list:
- Reform redistricting
- Some consolidation of the 19 school districts
- Approval of medical marijuana
- Everytime a repub says cuts aren’t enough, make them say what else they’d cut. Do not let them get away with the usual handwaving.
Tags: Delaware legislature
Get Harris McDowell to take out of his desk drawer: SB 120 Delaware Health Care for all. It has 18 co sponsors on it. We demand there be a “cost analysis” comparing the Federal plan (whatever it is) to a single payer system the State could adopt.
Every stimulus dollar coming into this state, for jobs or job training must go FIRST to Delaware citizens and Delaware small business’s. No more permitting big companies to set up shop in Delaware bring in out of state people rather than hiring those on our unemployment lines. Matt Denn put in charge of making sure it happens, with a public report every 6 months how thats working.
Well, I’d have asked for a real bottle bill, but I see we have no chance of that, so I’ll restrict my list to a legislative correction that permits homeschooled children to (once again) get special ed assistance if they need it, and doesn’t make it impossible for them to get drivers ed.
Is this too much to ask? Would legislators consider removing the FOIA exemption for emails between legislators? I see this blanket exemption as an invitation for them to do their business this way as a way of circumventing the new law.
Personally, I think all emails should be included in FOIA. There are plenty of ways to make sure information that should be kept private is.
Textbooks for our kids. A permanent funding stream that allocates for textbooks/technology that replaces textbooks.
Despite the fact that there are many bigger fish to fry, I would like to lift the ban on mail-order alcohol sales. I would like to have the ability to join the Wine-Of-The-Month club.
Also, we should allow same-sex marriages and boost Delaware’s wedding industry. And allow medicinal marijuana use under restrictions similar to other states.
And for the record, I have never had a desire to marry a man, and I have never smoked marijuana. Seriously.
Tough Democrat-designed spending cuts, coupled with a modest progressive tax increase.
Publicly invite the Repubs to endorse the spending cuts, so they can’t pull a Cathcart next fall.
There are some great ideas here. I especially like the idea of ending the mail-order wine prohibition.
Count me in for wishing that the ban on mail-order alcohol was lifted. There are plenty of wine clubs that I would love to be able to join and just can’t.
http://www.freethegrapes.org/
Of course, we have seen in the past, just how powerful the distributors and liquor stores are. If they don’t carry it, we shouldn’t be able to get it.
That said, there is an argument to be made that allowing mail-order would impact local liquor stores. But the argument that will be made is that kids will be able to get liquor. Because nothing kills a bill faster that “protect the kids!”
Get Harris McDowell to take out of his desk drawer: SB 120 Delaware Health Care for all. It has 18 co sponsors on it. We demand there be a “cost analysis” comparing the Federal plan (whatever it is) to a single payer system the State could adopt.
I support this plan (what I know of it) but there couldn’t be a worse time to introduce it. This year, Delaware should focus on making sure it gets its share of all the Federal health care money on the table.
Harris McDowell is the PRIME SPONSOR of SB 120, and he’s not holding it up. It’s in the Senate Finance Committee, aka the personal domain of Nancy Cook.:
Here’s the link:
http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/LIS145.nsf/vwLegislation/SB+120?Opendocument
As far as I know, McDowell has always supported and sponsored single payer.
So… just kiddin’ is wrong again? I’ve developed a nasty habit of skipping over most of his/her comments – just like I do with Lizard.
Right: Harris McDowell has “always” supported single payer. However he has had control of the bill for at least 2 legislative sessions and it never got anywhere. Why does he support single payer? Simple, because at least one of the candidates who will run against it, not only supports it, but does so publicly. We have been told for months that it was in the Senate Finance Committee….right in someone else’s desk drawer. Thats your answer? Just kiddin wrong again, would you like to expand on other issues “where I was wrong again”?
SB 20, for fair redistricting (re-apportionment), aka the End the Gerrymandering bill, prime sponsors Blevins & Kowalko, with ten co-sponsors.
My favorite argument against this bill comes from Bob Gilligan–“but they did it first! Waaaaaaaah!”
The bill has a $50K fiscal note. It’s free to screw the state with gerrymandered districts, it might cost something (one-time) to do it right. Any guess on what our spineless leaders will do?
This is at the top of my wish list for Dover for 2010.
You are full of shit, ‘Just Kiddin’, and I’m calling you on it.
The reason that the bill has ‘never gotten anywhere’ is b/c the same special interests that fought tooth-and-nail against reform at the national level have succeeded in bottling ‘single-payer’ up at the state level. I’m not here to carry any water for McDowell, but he was the first legislator who embraced single-payer over a decade ago. He also proposed ‘pay at the pump’ auto insurance as a means of keeping insurance company red tape out of auto claims. The insurance companies made sure that that one went nowhere.
I know b/c I worked there.
And, yes, the bill is in Nancy Cook’s committee. Did you even bother to click on the link? Sponsors don’t get to choose what committees bills get assigned to, you idiot. If they did, there would be no such thing as a ‘desk drawer veto’ to begin with, now would there, Einstein?
Oh really el som! I know more about this bill and how it came to pass then you ever will. So keep thinking you got all the marbles, you got nuttin. I know the players, I read the emails back and forth between very few people which you have no knowledge of, so stuff your so called credentials on this one.
Full of shit again el som: Harris McDowell was NOT the first who wanted to sponsor this bill. He wouldnt give it up so he could control it. Again, you little late comer thinking you know it all. you havent got a clue on the years of history on this one.
PaulB–is the cost a recurring one or a one time implementation? I’m with you in wanting this done. These people can hardly do their yearly work, much less redistricting.
Just Kiddin’-I was THERE when the bill was first introduced. I spent 25 freaking years in Legislative Hall. I have no idea who you are however, even considering the usual standards of idiocy of some of the Mindless Minions who post here, you are far beyond them. You are simply lying for the sake of lying. If I’m wrong, then PROVE it.
If some legislator other than McDowell was pushing for single-payer and pay-at-the-pump over a decade ago, name the names or STFU. Floyd McDowell (no relation) and Harris McDowell put together the first bill, for cryin’ out loud.
Jeez, I’m not here to defend McDowell, but out-and-out lying is not a standard that should be permitted on this blog. And that’s exactly what you’re doing. Either bring facts to the table or slink back to your lair.
What jk doesn’t know would have enough room to dance on the head of a pin and have plenty of room for the disco ball too. She’ll go back to that pin shortly.
reapportionment fiscal note–all really one time
$100K, two one-year staff equivalents
$50K, attorney fees
$6K, other costs
that’s it
they mention use of state govt building space
there is mention of other costs which are inherent with the current system, which don’t cost more/loss with the proposed system
Legalization of marijuana, tax the crap out of it, free the prisoners ONLY in on pot charges and BAM, the budget damn near fixes itself – more revenue AND less expenditures. Ohh, and we can add it to DUI charges, which carry heavy fines as well. Realistically, the stuff is no worse than alcohol (probably better, since it doesn’t make one violent if they are having a bad day). It’s a pity the Feds are too damn stubborn and the attitudes are too damned backwards to allow for something like this.
I don’t really understand why pandering to peoples’ vices is supposed to get us a better state.
Well, we already do (slots, tobacco taxes, alcohol taxes, etc.), and people already use pot. Not just the low-lifes, but successful, ordinary people who would not commit any other crime. We spend MILLIONS locking up “criminals” who only use, possess, or in some cases sell pot. Now, the dealers will move on to harder (i.e. more lucrative) stuff and will still end up in jail, but fewer people with arrest records and fewer people in prison for the use of a recreational drug that hurts no one (at least not more than alcohol) cannot be a bad thing for a state’s economic vitality, nor would the potential tax revenue. People already pay absorbatant amounts for pot, so selling it a a legal market value plus a heafty tax would probably still lower the price.
Pot is worse for you than tobacco. Quite apart from the uneven psychotropic effects, it’s really bad for your lungs. Legalized, it presents a secondary smoke hazard, and a very small dose makes things like operating a motor vehicle more dangerous. As a farm product it’s unregulated and grown under conditions that are bad for farm workers, as a food product it’s diluted and unsafe.
I was speaking in broader terms, though. many of the revenue-enhancement suggestions I see involve more gambling, more drugs, etc. It’s hard for me to see why that would get me a better state.
Funny you should ask–but could someone help me out here in Delaware? Yesterday’s mail did bring a solicitation to donate for the legalization of marijuana. I have worked in an area, where we could dispense THC pills to patients (not Delaware), and we had a “smoking” lounge designated for prescribed use. The medical marijuana they are referring to here–in Delaware–which is it–and where’s the dispensary or rather who’s the dispensary? Just how Happy is Harry?
I’d like to see the concept of medical marijuana separated from a general legalization. I am actually in favor of both medical marijuana AND a general legalization, depending on the details.
When I first heard of medical marijuana decades ago, it was for the specific purpose of reducing nausea and increasing appetite in cancer patients, in particular those receiving chemotherapy.
Now I hear of medical marijuana being proposed for general pain relief of all kinds, or as an all-purpose happy pill for anybody with any sort of boo-boo. I am in favor of legalization, but I think the medical marijuana law should be science-based and not be a hobby horse for legalization.
There used to be a similar problem with narcotics. Back in those days, doctors were really stingy with narcotics even for the most horrible pain, so families of terminal cancer patients were sometimes known to score street heroin for their agonized loved ones. That situation is much better now because doctors, led by nurses, now focus on pain management as its own discipline, and the narcotics are used freely where appropriate, and better narcotics have been developed (just ask Rush Limbaugh).
The end of legal abortion, the Glasser public mental health model, a comprehensive resturcturing of state government, a path to the elimination of income tax, sentencing reform
“The end of legal abortion…”
What effect do you think this would have, David? Are you under some illusion that abortion would cease? How would you handle the new law-enforcement burden of policing this? In short, has your thought process on this gone anywhere beyond other people’s wombs?
YEAH! let’s make it a crime for a woman who has been raped to decide not to give birth to her rapist’s child. OH david, you are such a compassionate christian.
Actually, anon, I’m with you. We should decriminalize, then legalize (with appropriate controls). In the meantime, create a medical marijuana program AND encourage research. There has been a great deal of difficulty in determining just what marijuana is good at because of the limits on real clinical trials. Delaware could take advantage of that and encourage research, creating high-paying (no pun intended) jobs in that field.
A.price, I’d take it further and say no woman should ever be forced to carry a baby to term, raped or not. There should be fewer abortions, but the law and the churches should work on helping people make that decision themselves and not make it for them.
The downside of an overly broad medical marijuana law is you get quack clinics opening up in a carnival atmosphere, and eventually the whole law will be repealed.
oh i agree. But if one of these anti-choicers is willing to adopt an unwanted baby, they can scream about not using abortion as birth control (which i know doesn’t happen as much as Fixed News wants us to believe). I was making the point that it is cruel and heartless for force raped women to have the baby.
I think it is cruel and heartless to force any woman to have a baby.
basically, if i were mediating between a woman who wanted an abortion (not because she was raped, or the baby had tay-sacs, or it could kill her) but just because she didn’t want a baby, and an anti choicer, and the anti choicer said “if you give birth, i will adopt that child and raise it and care for it, I would consider that a better alternative than just getting the abortion. It would still be her choice, but i think the A.C crowd cares more about pushing their values than the actual child they are pretending to protect. If they REALLY cared about the individual baby, they would recognize that most women who make that difficult choice do so because they cant offer the baby a good life once it is born. Our foster system sucks in this country (although Rush would probably say it is the best in the world) They should work harder at improving the alternative.
That said, i realize i just threadjacked this into an abortion thread which i think is more of a crime than turning it into a gun thread. I understand if it gets bumped to another thread (and i wont even get all conspiracy theory like JK)
Sorry, but I’m not about to give any child, let alone my own, to a couple of religious zealots (and I consider them all zealots) who intend to raise him or her to follow in their footsteps. I don’t really give a crap what their motives are — until a fetus is viable outside the womb, it is the mother’s decision and the mother’s only what happens to it.
it is the mother’s decision and the mother’s only what happens to it.
This was the conservative position, back when the conservative was Barry Goldwater.
I do think it is in society’s interest to have fewer abortions. If the rate of abortion is seen as too high, there are lots of policies government could implement to influence women’s decisions in the matter, while still respecting that it is their decision alone.
Basically, even on the issue of abortion, “it’s the economy, stupid.” Every animal including humans will attempt to suppress its reproduction during times of scarcity.
The best anti-abortion policy would be full employment and universal health care.
– A General Assembly that actually abides by the open-government law (see http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100112/NEWS02/1120323). Dropping the e-mail exemption would be so much more than I expect, I’d have a heart attack.
– Closure of state government offices in Wilmington (do the governor and LG of a three-county state really need two offices? c’mon.)
– Details on those state gov’t efficiency reviews that were promised a year ago.
ElSom: If you were down there for 25 years, you are the problem not the solution. Here are some facts: Harris McDowell held the Delaware Health Security Act, hostage from even a committee hearing for 3 sessions. Our Coalition had to put pressure on him to get into a Committee for a hearing.
This bill was first sponsored by Dennis Williams, and he held it hostage forcing our Coalition to threaten him. Harris never asked the Coalition for the bill,never asked for any clarification he just took and sat on it. He refused to communicate with the author of the bill or the Coalition Chairperson as to the status of the bill.
Even when the author of the bill pointed out the misstatements of Ruth Ann Minner and John Carney in an article in the News Journal, Harris called the author and told him to “get out of this bill and stay out”, even though the Author had spent years developing the bill, getting it nationally peer reviewed and supported by 28 statewide coalitions. Also the reason the truth was told about all this was due to the News Journals report of false statements by Minner, Carney and Wayne Smith. When the author pointed out the truth of these dishonest statements, Harris called the author and cursed him for put fact to the fiction of Minner, Carney and Smith. If El Som wants the truth about all this call Floyd McDowell the author at 832 2799, that is if you wish to be a truthful person.
Our Coalition will never again let Harris McDowell anywhere near any of the three bills in the legislature right now.
Here is the real Harris McDowell. Dr. Floyd McDowell no relation whatsover to Harris researched and author of this act, did the research, national peer reviewing, went to hundreds of meetings building coalition support for the bill, was one upped by Harris. Instead of Harris giving credit to Dr. McDowell as the author, Harris instead placed his name on the bill as author. He was a sponsor never the author. What hypocrisy! Harris McDowell would never have taken the 10yrs of time nor would he have understood the research or where to obtain the requisite research to author such legislation. He wanted to take credit not only as sponsor, but as the author. Another dishonest moment, giving credit to himelf, how pathetic.
Lets take a hard look at Harris and his so called record. It was Harris McDowell who was the author of street funds,giving all legislators hundreds of thousands of slush funds to buy votes. It was Harris behind the DP&L rate increases, adding to the stress many home owners about to go into foreclosures and all of us paying higher bills. It was Harris McDowell who wanted to bring incinerators to Delaware, and single handedly destroyed and splintered the small environmental movement. It was Harris who voted against property rights. This guy is bad news all round.
Whoever plans to run against him has a legacy of Harris McDowell’s voting against the citizens and for corporations.
Thanks, Geezer. 🙂
No women should be forced to have a baby, ever. It’s a big job and should be for volunteers only.