The Vote Tracker — Final Update for the First Session of the 148th General Assembly

Filed in National by on July 7, 2015

Every time I update the vote tracker, I change it. This time is no exception. I am done with the Excel spreadsheets. I don’t like the way it presents in the embed windows, and I did not like other technical aspects. So we are back to Word, and I have further divided the Vote Tracker into five different documents based on the statuses of the bills: PASSED, ONE CHAMBERED HAS VOTED, WAITING FOR A VOTE, STILL IN COMMITTEE, and REJECTED.

Bills that have PASSED are obviously bills that have been passed by a majority of both Houses of the General Assembly, and which may have been signed by the Governor (not necessarily).

The ONE CHAMBER category covers those bills which have been passed by a majority of one chamber, but which have not yet been considered by the other House.

The WAITING category covers those bills that have been considered by a committee in one of the Chambers, have been released from that committee, and are now ready for a vote in that Chamber.

The STILL IN COMMITTEE category is self explanatory, as these are bills that have been placed in a committee but have not been considered yet. A lot of these bills are evil Republican bills that we hope never see the light of day. But some are good progressive bills that are being held back.

And finally, we have the REJECTED category, and in this category I include bills that have been defeated (whether on the floor or in committee), or that have been stricken, or that have been tabled in committee.

We are not tracking all the bills, just the bills of progressive or liberal interest, including evil bills sponsored by Republicans that we want to see defeated or never considered, like the Estate Tax Repeal bill or the Right to Work for Less bill. You can download the documents in the form of a Word Doc file by clicking on the menu button in the lower right corner of each box.

As we have already discussed here and elsewhere, this has been a disappointing first session of the 148th General Assembly, especially on the budget. And given the drastic budget shortfall that faces the next session, drastic measures are called for among the Democratic leadership. But I will get to that in a second. Let’s first review our list of progressive priorities and how they fared:

Death Penalty Repeal, SB 40— Passed the Senate but failed to clear the House Judiciary Committee. The bill was not petitioned out of the committee, which means there are not enough yes votes for it in the House (if there were, then the bill would have been petitioned out). Therefore, I consider this bill defeated.

Marijuana Decriminalization, HB 39 — Passed both the Senate and House and signed into law by the Governor.

No Excuse Absentee Voting, HB 105 and Same Day Voter Registration, SB 111 — Both bills were released from their respective committees in each chamber and are awaiting votes. But the lack of votes on both of these bills as an actual defeat of these bills. And the reason for that is you enact election reforms in non-election years. The lack of consideration for this bill this year means it is likely dead for next years “election year” session as well. And I condemn all the Democrats in the General Assembly for that.

Opt Out Bill, HB 50 — After some complicated back and forth between the House and Senate, the bill eventually passed both chambers and is now awaiting the Governor’s signature. Of course, Governor Markell has promised a veto.

Minimum Wage Increase, SB 39 — Waiting for consideration in the Senator Labor and Industrial Relations Committee.

Death with Dignity, HB 150 — Considered in committee and tabled, though that is not really a defeat since sponsor Paul Baumbach waiting to jump-start discussion this session and then really push for the legislation next year, much like Helene Keeley did with Marijuana Decriminalization last year.

Last time, I said it was likely that only Marijuana Decriminalization and maybe the Opt Out bill would pass. And I hate it when I am right.

In the next session, we will only have one progressive priority: the passage of a Progressive Income Tax Reform. The two bills are there: House 181 (Kowalko), which simply creates a new tax bracket at $125,000 with a rate of 7.10%, and an additional bracket at $250,000 with a rate of 7.85%; or House Bill 196, which also establishes the two new brackets, but then gives all brackets a 0.05% tax cut.

The passage of one of these bills in non-negotiable. And it must be the first order of business. No other bill or resolution or nomination can be considered by either House until one of these two bills is passed and sent to the Governor’s desk for signature. No committee hearing on any other topic can be held until that time.

There is no other settlement money for you to raid, Democrats. It is time to stop being cowards, and time to make the wealthy pay just a fraction more.

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  1. Real Deal says:

    “The passage of one of these bills in non-negotiable. And it must be the first order of business. No other bill or resolution or nomination can be considered by either House until one of these two bills is passed and sent to the Governor’s desk for signature. No committee hearing on any other topic can be held until that time. ”

    When did you become the dictator of Delaware? You are not the real deal. The votes do not exist to pass this now, let alone in an election year.

  2. Nuttingham says:

    Maybe my math is off, but didn’t withholding a half dozen progressive votes from a budget force the leadership to go find some Republican votes to get something passed and therefore make it a less progressive budget?

    And maybe my history is off, but doesn’t having as your prime sponsor of the Income Tax bill the legislator who calls the leadership and every member of the budget writing JFC all kinds of terrible things massively reduce the chance of it ever passing?

  3. Jason330 says:

    Maybe. But there is a moral imperative to the pursuit of fairness that transcends personalities. At least it should.

  4. Schwartzkopf’s disdain for Kowalko in particular and progressives in general led him to bury consideration of bills that could/should have been the basis for tough negotiations with the R’s. In so doing, he went into negotiations with one hand deliberately tied behind his bacl.

    So, he caved to the R’s on ‘right to work for less’, $1.2 mill for Sussex cops, and $3 mill for aglands preservations ( a wasteful government program if there ever was one) rather than force some concessions on new revenue. He couldn’t force concessions b/c HE REFUSED TO EVEN ALLOW VOTES ON THE TOP RATE FOR DELAWARE’S WEALTHIEST. Make no mistake, he/they could have whipped the D’s into voting for this. Instead,he had nothing to bargain with due to his own decisions. More than any other legislator, he is responsible for this disastrous deal.

  5. Jason330 says:

    That checks out.

  6. Nuttingham says:

    So your operating assumption is that there are a supermajority of votes to make a new bracket? Or even a majority?

  7. Jason330 says:

    Yes.

  8. Jason330 says:

    This has been established time and time again. The only people who don’t buy it are corporatists Dems and Republicans on the make:

    “According to the poll, 68 percent of those questioned said wealthy households pay too little in federal taxes; only 11 percent said the wealthy pay too much.”

  9. Another Mike says:

    It’s good to see there are some sane folks in Dover who want to outlaw Sharia law. I’d hate to see a group of radical Muslims take over Ocean View.

    One other thing (among many) I noticed is that Rep. Jack Peterman was absent for a whole bunch of votes. That seems kind of odd for a “retired farmer, full-time legislator,” according to his own official GA bio. I guess the people of Milford deserve the person they elected.

  10. puck says:

    What exactly were the concessions on right-to-work-for-less and prevailing wage? The media accounts were kinda vague on that and I didn’t catch it.

  11. Another Mike: I’ve pointed this out before, but Peterman was ill when he was reelected, and has remained ill or, as the bros in the hood might say, ‘iller’.

    And, yes, the voters knew it when they reelected him. They get the government they deserve.

  12. Another Mike says:

    Don’t mean to pick on a sick guy, but if you can’t do the job, don’t sign up for it.

  13. Well, I agree. But the R’s had a primary and they opted for Peterman.