2016 Vote Tracker: Still Waiting on that Minimum Wage Increase
The General Assembly spent a couple of hours, literally, at the start of the year giving corporate Delaware a massive tax break in passing House Bill 235, the Luntzly named Delaware Competes Act. But the state’s minimum wage workers still await their raise.
The Vote Tracker is back after a break. We are tracking bills that have some progressive or anti-progressive import. So, in other words, bills that we want to see passed or do not want to see passed. We don’t track all bills filed in the General Assembly.
You can download the Vote Tracker in the form of a Word Doc file by clicking on the menu button in the lower right corner of the embed box below.
To give you an idea of how this Vote Tracker is organized, I list all currently active Senate bills first, listed in numeral order. Then currently active House Bills. And by currently active bills, I mean bills that have not been passed by both Houses of the General Assembly. The following section lists Passed bills, which includes bill that obviously have been passed by both Houses of the General Assembly. And finally we have the Rejected section, which includes bills that have been defeated or tabled in committee.
The Vote Tracker lists each sponsor of the bill, and records the yes or no votes on each bill. Republicans are colored red, Democrats blue. Bills that have had recent action take place have their titled highlighted in yellow. And given that it has been six months since the last Vote Tracker, that’s going to be a lot of yellow.
Tags: Featured, Vote Tracker
So what I see is very little having gotten done. Many of those bills have sat in committee for a year or more. Way to go, GA.
The Republican authored bills are cartoon-like caricatures of bills. It is as if some right-wing talking points mill is churning out bills simply to fill the state’s legislative calendar with half-baked conservative nonsense.
Regarding HB 240 (grants to schools for after school programs): the intention of this bill is admirable, but the bill itself is poorly written and the fiscal note is a joke. There are many nonprofit and small businesses (child care) already offering these services, and doing so while complying with state regulations and meeting strong standards under Delaware Stars. Not only will this bill hurt those nonprofits and businesses, but the fiscal note grossly underestimates and misrepresents what the program will cost, especially if a significant number of eligible children enroll. Even if we take what I believe to be false assumptions in the fiscal note as true, when you apply them to the estimated number of participants from the bill’s synopsis, you end up with a cost in the neighborhood of 30 million for the first year. Where will that come from? Full disclosure: I work in the child care field and clearly this bill will impact me and my business. That aside, I assure you that, as written, this bill will create more problems than it solves unless a lot more money is allocated.
There’s also HJR 12, approval of the WEIC redistricting plan, tabled in the House Education committee. I wouldn’t expect a resolution to have a fiscal note, but this one says “F/N (InComplete).” What’s up with that?
This could be the least productive year for the General Assembly since I started caring. Nothing is generating any buzz.
Glad to see your tracker is back, DD.