In its latest filing with the Public Service Commission, Delmarva Power and Light (DP&L) has announced that the Bloom Energy subsidy, or as some of us like to call it, the light tax, will hit another record level on DP&L’s rate payers April bills, this will pass exceed  the last record set in March, that’s right, the month that just started.

In March every DP&L rate payer using the average of 1,000 kw hours or more in a month’s time will be paying $5.48, in April they will be paying $5.98, a fifty cent increase in one month. At this rate of increase the tax payers of DP&L could be paying $9.98 or more, by the end of the year. What could you do with ten dollars a month, or $120 a year?

Doesn’t sound like much, does it? But DP&L rate payers will be paying $3.7 million to subsidize Bloom Energy. FOR ONE MONTH!!!!!

Which again, totals up to quite a lot of money in a year, money that will have been taken out of the state’s economy and put in the pockets of Bloom Energy’s executives and investors.

And what have the DP&L tax payers gotten for this money that has been taken from them? Taken with no line item shown on their billing by the way.

Well according to an article from Delawareonline, “Bloom promised to build a  East Coast headquarters in Newark, and some of the first orders came from the 30 megawatt electric project, connected to two Delmarva substations in New Castle County, that is pouring power onto the regional grid. Delmarva ratepayers are funding the electrical project with the surcharge.”

WOW! What they are also getting is some of the highest costing power in the region, but hey, who cares if that means that even more money is taken out of the state’s economy, or that high power rates keep new businesses from coming to the state? Who cares? Not the Markell Administration that’s for sure.

Let it not be said that Delaware and DP&L don’t feel your pain. The latest filing also included the fact that DP&L has lowered the amount of electricity used  by the average customer from 1,000 kwh down to 975 kwh, in doing so they increase the number of rate payers paying the subsidy in order to lower the number to $5.83 per DP&L tax payer. This is also simply a step in the direction of every rate payer paying the subsidy, a move that has been floated by the Markell administration and DP&L.

If anyone thinks this tax will ever go away, or that it will ever find its level, look up US Subsidy Fund For Rural Phone Service.

Bloom, like Fisker is just another Markell shell game to reward his green energy fellow travelers, it remains to be seen if, like Fisker, the people who have paid the cost, will ever see any type of benefit or return. Doubtful.

The quote was, “If I can’t win and get justice in the state of Delaware, then I’ll pick my family up and I’ll move out of this godforsaken place.”

This was a quote by the current Sussex County Sheriff, Jeff Christopher, which he made prior to a decision by the Supreme Court of Delaware, a decision that handed Sheriff Christopher his second court defeat in his attempt to convince the judicial system that his interpretation of the state constitution was the correct one.

Sheriff Christopher had contended that the simple phrase within the constitution, “conservator of the peace”, empowered the office of sheriff with full arrest authority, and all law enforcement powers.

It would seem as though not only did the Delaware Legislature not see it that way, since they passed legislation that completely revoked such authority, but both high courts in Delaware also did not see it that way, and upheld the Legislature’s actions.

Unfortunately, the way that Sheriff Christopher constructed his court argument, there is little chance that the U.S. Supreme Court will ever take up the case, since the argument was based on a state constitution.

In a quote from Delawareonline, the sheriff said, “I think the people understood,” Christopher said. “It’s not injustice from the people. It’s the corporate system of courts that are not paying attention.”

So you can see, that like others on the hard right, Sheriff Christopher has a built-in excuse why his case failed, because we have a corporate court system, or in other words, the courts are corrupt and filled with liberals. This built-in excuse allows the hard right to say and do some outlandish things, and when it is shown to be outside the mainstream of American thinking, well they just say it is because this or that group is crooked.

In the same Delawareonline article Sheriff Christopher announced his intentions to once again run for the office of Sussex County Sheriff, as a Republican, for now anyway. It seems as though Sheriff Christopher has an affinity for the Indpendent Party of Delaware (IPOD).

Sheriff Christopher had this to say about the IPOD, “”I’m on the GOP ticket at this point. I support the Independent Party as well. I know a lot of them. Everything I do is constitutionally based, and I think we have something in common,”

I guess the Sheriff is talking about this plank in the IPOD’s 2012 platform, “”full restoration of the constitutional role of the Sheriff as elected Conservator of the Peace.”

Well Sheriff Christopher, once again that role has been clarified by our legislative branch and  in our judicial system, but that’s right, you have your built-in excuse.

So, is this nod towards the IPOD just the latest built-in excuse? Is this the Sheriff’s fall back position when he fails to receive support from the GOP? Will he simply switch to the POD people party and say he has more in common with them?

Well come to think of it, maybe he does.

You see, in my opinion the GOP is a party that believes in the rule of law, and respects our system of government, and realizes, that while it is flawed, it is still the freest form of government in the world, and to have its elected officials running around claiming that every branch and office is corrupt and tyrannical, all  except their own office, held by themselves, is not only counter to being free, it is extremely dangerous.

The IPOD on the other hand has no problem running around crying that the sky is falling at every turn, that all of the state’s judges are corrupt, that every agency is corrupt and that every elected official is corrupt, well all except Sheriff Christopher that is.

But beware Sheriff, they will turn on you as well!

One has to question the logic of making such a statement, could it simply be that the Sheriff already plans to move to the IPOD?
One thing is for sure, a statement such as this has the potential to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. How much support will, or should, the Sheriff receive from loyal GOP members? Why should they donate, or work for him, after floating this political balloon?

It is for sure that the Sheriff will have to run on his view that the office of the sheriff is constitutionally empowered with full law enforcement powers. This election will be centered around this idea. This election may well end this question for quite sometime.

The real question is, are the voters of Sussex County weary of this seemingly never-ending round and round debate? Time will tell. Time will also tell whether the Sheriff will face a GOP primary, and whether when faced with one, will the Sheriff stand and fight, or change horses and ride away from the GOP?

     It seems as though Lt. Governor Matt Denn (D), wants to take Delaware deeper and deeper into the federal hole. It also seems as though he is attempting to look like a governor, maybe for his 2016 primary run against his as yet unknown, (wink, wink) Democrat challenger.

Mr. Denn, at a meeting of the, Work Force Investment Board   floated the idea of having the state of Delaware pay 90% of a new hire’s wages during a training period, if, the new hire had been unemployed for more than twenty-six weeks, and if the business employs less than fifty people.

When I first heard this as a news report, my  first reaction was, “we are going to need a lot of toll roads to pay for this”.

But it seems that the federal government will be paying for it, and since  we here in Delaware don’t pay federal taxes, this won’t affect Delaware tax payers at all. Right?

This plan is already in effect in Delaware, but the state only pays 50% of the wages, and so it is not widely used, so like all Democrats, when spending the tax payer’s money doesn’t gain the result hoped for, what do you do? Why you spend more of the tax payer’s money of course.

It seems as though all that is keeping Delaware from implementing this wonderful waste of tax dollars is federal approval from the U.S. Dept. of Labor, and we all know how the federal government hates to waste tax dollars.

So some may be asking, “what’s the problem here?”, sounds like a good way to stimulate hiring.

Well one problem is that it can be seen as being opened ended. One of the provisos of this monumental feat of fascism is that the state will continue to pick up the tab for 90% of the employee’s wages as long as the employee is receiving specialized training from, who? The employer. And what defines “specialized training”?

This is nothing but a blank check for unscrupulous employers to soak the state and federal governments, and in doing, the tax payers. All they need to do is to continue to “TRAIN”, these employees and they get basically free labor. Now they do have to commit  to retaining the employees past the time that the wages are paid by the state and the training period.

There are other problems as well. This is nothing more than another unfunded mandate. If employers are in a position of need to hire new employees, due to an increase in work or sales or whatever, then they should have already factored in the cost of the new hire and whether they can afford the cost. If they cannot afford the cost of the new hire on day one, what makes them think they will be able to afford the cost on day ninety-one?

And if they cannot afford the cost on day ninety-one, what happens when they have to let that employee go? Remember, they have “COMMITTED”, to the state to keep this person on past the training period. How long are they forced to keep this employee? Forever? Could this lead to employers being forced to let employees go who were not hired under this program, but who have been with the company longer, and who are more experienced? What does that do to our work force here in Delaware?

An even larger problem, in my view anyway, with this plan, is that it would invite both the state, and federal governments, deeper, and deeper into  private businesses, business.

Do you think that the state will simply hand out these checks to employers with no documentation of who is hired and for how long? Do you think the federal government will simply send money to Delaware without stats on how it is spent? No.

What this will end up being is an open invitation by the employers for the government to come in and take control of your book-keeping, your hiring and firing practices, in essence, your businesses. If you don’t believe it, just look at your local school districts, they take state and federal money and have lost all control of the decision-making process.

My advice to small business owners who think this is a good idea for them, think again, that is unless you are tired of running your own business and simply want the state to take over.

One has to admit, this proposal by Lt. Governor Matt Denn does make him look like a governor, a real Democrat governor for sure.

For several days now, I had been having a discussion with Democrat, Delaware state Representative John Atkins, about his idea (his words, not mine), for a toll road on Rt. 404 west of Bridgeville.

The conversation was mostly on his Facebook page, though it did spill over to other places as well. And honestly, to call it a conversation is being generous, since Mr. Atkins seemed unable to defend in the most basic form, his idea(his words, not mine).

It all began when he posed the question of what would people prefer, a ten-cent gasoline tax increase, or creating a toll road on Rt. 404. He later called the toll road an alternative to the tax increase. That was until, myself and others, pointed out that there was no way a toll road could be completed in time to offset the Governor’s proposed tax increase for this budget year.

This is when it turned ugly and Mr. Atkins decided to play political hide and seek, and stopped answering direct questions about his idea(his words, not mine).

So in the absence of answers from Mr. Atkins, I decided to try to figure out why a self titled conservative would be in favor of not only creating a road tax, but also creating a huge government project, along with confiscating who knows how many privately owned acres to build this magical toll road that would solve all of Delaware’s revenue problems.

In thinking about this I came to the conclusion that I should follow the money, as with any politician. So I started looking at Mr. Atkins financial reports. And what do you think I found?

I found that in the top sectors that contributed to Mr. Atkins in 2012 you had;

#2, Labor

  #3, Lawyers & Lobbyists

   #4, Finance, Insurance & Real Estate

   #7, Transportation

   #11, Construction

When you start to break that down you see that he also receives a lot of donations from trade unions.

Some of his donors include;

 Carpenters of Philadelphia and Vicinity  

   Carpenters and Joiners Local 2012

   Electrical Workers 313

Then there is,

Associated Builders and Contractors

Which seems to be a non-union, union.

Another donor happens to be the law firm of Cozen O’Connor PC, based in Center City Philadelphia, and one of its specialties is, wait for it, labor and employment cases.

So what do we see so far?

Well we have a legislator who likes to tell everyone how conservative he is, (reminds me of someone else who used to run around talking about how conservative they were, haven’t heard from them lately though), who seems to accept a lot of money from trade unions and there affiliates.

So how does this tie into a toll road you may be asking. Well we have electricians and carpenters, both who just might find some union work on a major road construction project. You also have a law firm that handles labor negotiations. You have finance and real-estate groups that would stand to profit from land deals and maybe relocations in the area.

Another interesting donor is Murphy Marine Services Inc.. This one almost slipped past me, I thought it was just some small time marina somewhere in Sussex.

However Murphy Marine Services Inc. is actually the largest stevedoring company operating out of the Port of Wilmington. Now is it possible that if the major truck route from Maryland into Sussex, that being Rt. 404, were to become a toll road, that any shipping might be shifted to the Port of Wilmington and sent down Rt. 1?

It also seems as though Mr. Atkins has no problem taking donations from registered lobbyist, one in particular, Judson Bennett.

Now I also looked at Mr. Atkins voting record. Mr. Atkins voted yea on SB 21, this was  a bill to appoint labor union representatives to the state benefits committee. Another wink, wink to labor unions one might ask.

And while we are on his voting record and whether or not he can call himself a conservative or not, let us look at a couple of other votes cast by Mr. Atkins.

He voted yea to reinstate the Delaware estate tax.

He voted yea to raise the liquor licensing fee, another name for a tax.

He voted yes to raise the cigarette tax.

He also voted yes to re-establish the so-called sports lottery, or in other words, sports betting.

Something else I noticed about Mr. Atkins voting habits, is that he will vote for the individual tax increases and then vote no on the budget.

This is nothing more than playing both sides, he votes with his Democrat party on the increases, and gets to look good to Democrat voters, and then votes no on the budget, and tries to look good to conservative voters.

I think it may be time for the voters in Mr. Aitkin’s district to take a good hard look at who he actually is as a legislator. Oh yes, he votes conservatively on gun issues, and right to life issues, and he voted against gay marriage, he votes correctly on all the hot button emotional issues for conservatives. But when it comes to raising taxes, well his record deserves a closer look.

All financial numbers came from http://www.followthemoney.org/index.phtml

And voting records came from  http://votesmart.org/