Why Should Delaware Care?
Government works best when its citizens are knowledgeable and engaged. Delaware’s government has scores of commissions, working groups, agencies and legislative committees. All must hold meetings that are open to the public.
Delaware’s Senate Republicans successfully blocked the passage of the state’s nearly billion-dollar bond bill last Thursday, setting up Monday – the final day of the legislative session – to become a showdown over a separate bill that would clear the way for development of a massive offshore wind farm.
As is the case for all legislative hearings, lawmakers’ meetings to consider the bills on Monday will be open for the public to attend in person, or to watch virtually. The exception is intra-party caucus meetings, which are held in secret.
Delaware Public Media was first to report last week that Republicans’ decision to block the bond bill was not necessarily out of opposition to the scores of capital projects outlined within its 101 pages.
Instead, it was a bargaining strategy aimed at defeating separate legislation that would retroactively strip Sussex County of its ability to deny a permit for the offshore wind farm.
Over the past year, plans to develop a power plant with more than 100 wind turbines off the Delmarva coastline has rapidly become one of the hardest fought political battles in Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Late last year, the Sussex County Council caused the project to stall when they voted to reject a permit that would have allowed U.S. Wind, the energy company behind the proposal, to build a substation near Dagsboro.
In response, Sen. Stephanie Hansen (D-Middletown) sponsored Senate Bill 159, the offshore wind bill that legislators are now fighting over. The bill, which would reverse Sussex County’s decision, passed the Senate earlier this month and will be before the House of Representatives on Monday.
As in the Senate, Republicans in the House don’t have large enough numbers to vote down the bill.
Instead, the GOP has one piece of leverage. Legislative law requires a three-quarters supermajority to pass the bond bill. In Delaware’s 21-member Senate, Republicans hold six seats – or just enough to force Democrats to negotiate with them.
In order to get consent on the bond bill, the Republican senators want Democratic lawmakers in the other chamber to reject Senate Bill 159.
On Monday at 2 p.m., the House is scheduled to convene to consider Senate Bill 159 as well as dozens of other pieces of legislation.
Those other bills include ones to create a government watchdog to investigate fraud; to mandate that the state study the feasibility of modular nuclear reactors; and to require that water utilities report the amount of forever chemicals found in their systems.
Though not listed on its agenda, the House will also consider the state’s bond bill and its grant-in-aid bill, which would send about $100 million in taxpayer money to nonprofits.
The last-minute grant-in-aid bill was only introduced Friday, but includes dozens of appropriations to private, nonprofit companies. Among the larger, million-dollar-plus appropriations are outlays to organizations run by Sen. Nicole Poore (D- New Castle), and by Rep. Krista Griffith (D-Fairfax).
The bond bill includes appropriations largely to governmental entities, such $50 million to shift state computer systems to the cloud, $10 million for the Delaware Sports Tourism Fund, and $20 million for the design and construction of Biden Hall at the University of Delaware.
You can watch the House proceedings in person from the second-floor House chamber gallery at Legislative Hall in Dover. For information about watching online, click here.
Before the House can consider the Bond Bill, it will first be reconsidered in the Senate.
And that chamber also will have a packed schedule Monday, beyond the required budget bills.
Listed on its agenda for the last day of their legislative session are bills to prohibit local police from partnering with federal immigration authorities; to require companies to list pay ranges in job posts; and to ban the sale of a substance commonly called “gas station heroin.”
You can watch the Senate proceedings in person from the second-floor Senate chamber gallery at Legislative Hall in Dover. To watch the proceedings online, click here.
Water rate increases
Outside of the legislature, a handful of Delaware public meetings will occur this week, including one on Monday of the state’s Council on Development Finance, which doles out taxpayer dollars to private companies.
On the agenda for the meeting is a roughly $241,000 state grant to a fencing company, called Patriot Aluminum LLC, to expand its Seaford operations.
Later in the week, state utility regulators will hold a hearing to consider a request from Tidewater Utilities Inc. to raise its southern Delaware customers’ water rates by nearly 26 percent.
The hearing of the Delaware Public Utility Commission will occur Wednesday at 1 p.m. at the Cannon Building at 861 Silver Lake Blvd in Dover. To participate virtually, click here.
