Delaware General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up & Pre-Game Show: Tues., June 16, 2015

Miracle of miracles. The Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council DEFAC), which provides the official estimate of state revenues, has upped its revenue projection by $33 mill, which makes balancing the FY ’16 budget easier. Funny how often that happens. Some claim that it’s BS, or DEFACating. But, it’s OFFICIAL BS.  This comes as some of Delaware’s most progressive legislators propose higher income brackets for Delaware’s wealthiest. Now, here’s the problem.  The budget deficit for the following fiscal year is projected to be steep. Next year also just happens to be an election year. If the General Assembly is going to pass a more equitable income tax bill and create more revenue, it will have to be this year, not next year.  Will the General Assembly finally restore some equity to the tax code, or will it wait and find itself in an almost impossible fiscal position next year?  As usual, what I think will happen and what I hope will happen are the diametric opposites of each other. An increase in taxes on the wealthy provides a sustainable stream of revenue.  Using one-times and combining them with rosy DEFAC projections simply kicks the can down the road.  In this case, the road does not go on forever. Act now. Because it ain’t happenin’ in an Election Year.

The killing of the gray fox tops today’s Senate Agenda. However…should either or both of these two amendments ( SA 1, SA 2) be passed by the Senate, either/or will kill the wanton ‘harvesting’ of the gray fox. I think that that’s what’s gonna happen.

I look for a unanimous vote in favor of HB 102(Barbieri), which seeks to discourage witness intimidation.

Today’s House Agenda  features legislation that, surprisingly enough, would enable legislators (and others) to collect more money from each individual donor and their Party for their elections.  Because, you know, the public demanded it. Here’s what it does in its own words:

This bill raises campaign contribution limits.  Specifically, the individual limit for a statewide election goes from $1,200 to $2,000 and, for a non-statewide election, from $600 to $1,000.  The bill also raises the limit of contributions from a party to a House of Representatives candidate from $3,000 to $5,000, equal to the State Senate.  The bill raises the individual contribution to a party from $20,000 to $30,000. In addition, this bill would also exempt the cost of postage from counting as a donation from a political party to a candidate or candidate committee (even though that’s what it is).

The House will also consider HB 2(Keeley), which requires on-going sexual assault training for police officers and Deputy Attorney Generals in the Criminal and Family Divisions.  OK, kids, what’s strange about this bill? No, it’s not the bill itself, which seems like common sense to me. No, the question is, Why was HB 2 ‘introduced’ on June 3?  The answer is that sometimes bill numbers are reserved at the beginning of session.  I suspect that the intent had been to introduce this bill in January, but perhaps there were some difficulties in getting the language just right.

HB 130(K. Williams)  ‘creates a felony level offense for a person that is a health professional and in the course of providing professional health services to the victim, intentionally has sexual contact with the victim.’  As supportive as I am of the intent of this bill, it’s not like there aren’t already a litany of charges that can be brought against the offending health professional.  This just adds one more. Same charge, different language.  It’ll pass unanimously, though. On today’s House agenda.

Some interesting tidbits from last  Thursday’s Session. HB 50 (the ‘opt-out’ bill)   was voted out of the Senate Education Committee and can now be placed on a Senate Agenda. Too late, of course, to permit a veto override in both houses should the Governor veto it. Which I now think he will.

HB 5, which places e-cigarettes on the list of substances prohibited under the Clean Indoor Air Act, passed the Senate (seven no votes), and heads to the Governor.

Monsignor Greg Lavelle was the only Senator to oppose SB 122(Henry), which ‘would give the State Board of Education the authority to change school district boundaries in New Castle County in a manner consistent with the final report of the Wilmington Education Advisory Group.’ Hey, when you represent the privileged, you don’t give a crap about anybody else, something Lavelle has demonstrated time and time again. He may well hit the #62 spot on my rankings before he and I are done.

Finally, Sen. Lopez’ bill to permit the use of medical marijuana for the treatment of ‘intractable epilepsy’ unanimously passed the House and heads to the Governor.

There are so many important bills in committee that I’ll dedicate another piece to them tomorrow.  Meanwhile, I leave you with one of the great promos from the late great Dusty ‘The American Dream’ Rhodes, who passed away  just a few days ago (check out today’s Al Show for more on Dusty from his pal, El Somnambulo):