General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tues., June 27, 2017

Are you bleeping kidding me? ‘Leadership’ has announced that the General Assembly will not tackle anything controversial during the last week of session. Meaning that, for the most part, legislators will presumably twiddle their thumbs while ‘leadership’ tries to hammer out a budget deal.  Can someone please tell me which bleeping Democratic senator(s) won’t even vote for a minimum wage increase that would pay $10.45 after four years. That (those) person (persons) need to be primaried and put out to pasture.  Put the goddamn bill up for a vote and let us all see who opposes it. Besides, does anybody think that controversial bills will be easier to pass in an Election year as opposed to the off-year?  I do not understand the reasoning for this announcement at all.  Why not just save the State some money and tell the legislators and staff to stay home until a budget deal is reached?

Ho-kay. We all know that we’re in the Kabuki Theatre phase of budget negotiations. None of the bills on either the House or Senate Agendas deal either with tax increases or cuts.  I still think that they’ll get it all done by June 30/July 1. However, in addition to reaching agreement, it’s gonna take awhile to craft the Budget Bill once an agreement is reached.  Keep in mind that all JFC activity was halted when news of the draconian cuts surfaced.  While there’s a lot of boilerplate in a budget bill, the numbers have to be added, and Epilogue Language has to be written.  Whenever they can start work on the Budget will in part determine when they can finish. The hardest-working people in Dover will be those on the Controller General’s staff who have to put the numbers and language together.

 Here’s what happened last Thursday.  Of particular note, Rep. Williams’ bill  to ‘eliminate(s)the use of an enrollment preference for students living within a 5-mile radius of a charter school’ passed. An amendment that would have eliminated the de facto segregation of the Newark Charter School was defeated. D’s voting no on the amendment: Bushweller, Ennis, Sokola, and Walsh. R voting yes: DelCollo.

I’ve long considered Rep. J. J. Johnson to be perhaps the most underappreciated excellent lawmaker in Dover.  These two bills, HB 187 and HB 188, illustrate why. Both unanimously passed the House and head to the Senate.

I’ve been holding off. Time to look at today’s alleged controversy-free agendas. First, kids, a reminder about the last week a General Assembly is in session: Consideration of legislation must conform to legislative rules except when they don’t. The acronym ‘MTSR’ means Motion to Suspend Rules. You will see several bills being considered under that motion. Meaning, they don’t have to be assigned to committee, they don’t have to go through committee, they don’t have to appear on an agenda, and several other scenarios. In other words, rules don’t apply to the consideration of said bills.  This is often how bad legislation sneaks through. You. Have. Been. Warned.

Today’s House Agenda  includes a Consent Agenda. A Consent Agenda consists of bills that are generally deemed noncontroversial to the nth degree.  Any legislator may request that a bill be removed from the Consent Agenda, and it will be removed. Bills of interest to me:

*I’m a big fan of HB 204 (Johnson), which seeks to address these issues with bail:

An analysis of data for pretrial detention and bail shows that Delaware’s bail system is failing in two ways: we unnecessarily detain individuals who lack funds for their release, and on the other end of the spectrum, we release defendants who fail to appear or remain law abiding during their period of pretrial release.

*Charles Potter’s awful bill on ‘legalizing fantasy sports gaming’ is also on the Agenda. Which is great as I get to explain why it’s so awful all over again. First, the bill’s premise is based on a lie. This lie, to be specific: “An estimated 100,000 people in Delaware participate in some form of fantasy sports, whether it is a football or baseball league with their friends and family, or more recently, a daily or weekly contest against players from across the country.”  Actually, it’s not a lie, but it’s incredibly deceptive.  It may well be true that there are that many Delawareans engaged under that definition of fantasy sports.  But this bill doesn’t address those friendly leagues that most of us engage in.  This bill is specifically designed to give cover to “…a daily or weekly contest against players from across the country.”  We are talking about two companies, Draft Kings and Fan Duel. These companies have been successfully sued by some state Attorneys General for essentially running a scam. Why? Well, among other reasons, it turns out that employees from these companies were privy to inside information and then bet and won based on information not available to its customers.  There was a time when it seemed like every other commercial on ESPN was for one of these companies. But ESPN, as did virtually every other media outlet, banned the advertising after news of the companies’ scuzziness surfaced. This is what Charles Potter seeks to legalize in Delaware. For the second consecutive legislative term. Members of the House: Potter’s trying to slip a fast one past you.  Don’t let him do it.

Highlights from today’s Senate Agenda:

*SB 112 (McDowell) creates a Delaware Student Entrepreneur Program Fund.  The purpose of this program:

(1) To attract and retain high-skilled, entrepreneurs, including immigrants to the United States, that graduated from Delaware higher education institutions (2) To help fund and develop new businesses in Delaware and create job opportunities in Delaware for Delaware’s young citizens in the areas of innovation and technology that are poised to grow in the 21st century economy; (3) To attract global entrepreneurs to Delaware higher education institutions, to grow businesses, create jobs in Delaware, and provide employment opportunities for the graduates from these institutions; and (4) To support entrepreneurship and innovation in Delaware.

The $2 mill cost is, of course, not even a drop in the bucket of the supposed ‘public/private partnership’.  I love this bill in inverse proportion to how much the Chamber’s greedy grubsters dislike it. PASS IT!

Also, remember, kids, Coastal Zone Act Permit Conversion bill tops Thursday’s Senate Agenda. Oh, and as a prelude, the bill will be considered at Wednesday’s meeting of the Senate Environmental, Natural Resources, & Energy Committee.