Memos at Random


	A potpourri of miscellaneous news SCRIBBLED IN A REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK

A banner income tax season will lead official forecasters to again ratchet up the revenue estimates on which the state's spending plan for the coming fiscal year will be based.

Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council on May 16 will add $19.5 million to its month-earlier revenue forecast for the current fiscal year and $74.7 million to the one for the year which begins July 1. That brings estimated revenue to $2,871 million and $3,033 million, respectively, compared to $2,736 million in fiscal 2004. State law requires that the General Assembly use those forecasts for the income side of the budget with spending limited to 98% of that. The council, which has been periodically increasing the forecasts all year, will have another meeting in June before the Assembly takes action.

The Department of Finance said personal income tax receipts, net of refunds, were a whopping 13.5% higher than a year earlier. More significantly, the amount that taxpayers had to ante up with their returns was up 40.6% this year. According to David Gregor, the department's liaison with the council, that indicates a stronger-than-expected economy with higher-income taxpayers and small business owners underestimating their obligations. State tax returns were due by May 2. He said a similar pattern was observed with federal income tax and in other states. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

Overall, the council now expects the revenue growth rate to come in at just under 5% this fiscal year followed by a 5.7% gain in fiscal 2006.

SCHOOL PLAN ENDORSED: Newly elected Brandywine school board member Debra Heffernan said her immediate priority is to work to obtain voter approval of the district's proposed capital spending plan, which goes before residents in a referendum to be held on May 24. "It's very important that we muster support" to have all four questions on the ballot approved, she told Delaforum. When she takes her board seat in July her priorities will include establishing 'benchmarks' to measure gains in student achievement and improving the delivery of services to special-education students, she said.

In a separate context, Charles Landry, the Council of Civic Organizations of Brandywine Hundred's education committee chairman, asked attenders at a meeting on May 12 to personally solicit favorable votes at the referendum. After Daniel Bockover, the civic group's president, ruled against its making a public endorsement, Landry, who also serves on the district's referendum committee, said, "If you want to endorse it, do it in the election booth." Brandywine superintendent Bruce Harter told the civic meeting that approval of plan would result in "a lot of improvements for very little money."

OFF AGAIN: The county Board of Adjustment has again put off a hearing on an appeal by Edgewood Village l.l.c. of a Department of Land Use order that it rebuild an historic stone wall in the Paladin Club condominium complex. It was the second postponement and was made shortly before the board's May 12 session. No reason was given other than that it was at the applicant's request. James Jones, president of Friends of Paladin said the civic group, which sought the order, was not notified. "Something is forcing the postponements and we need to know why," he said. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

With all your friends and acquaintances agreeing about the conduct of 'other drivers' on Interstate 95, don't you wonder who it is doing all the speeding and tailgating?

Olivia Johnson-Harris intends to be a 'team player' who wants to "keep the momentum of the [district] going in a positive direction" when she joins the Brandywine school board in July.

With 17 years of volunteering for school-related activities as her two children were growing up on her resume, she has a wide range of ideas which she summarized as advocating quality education for all students. She isn't going into her new role advocating a specific personal agenda. "If you do that, you're not going to get anything accomplished for the children," she told Delaforum. Rather, she wants to see students well prepared for college, but, recognizing that not all will go on to higher education, ready for whatever life after high school holds.

She attributes the margin by which she was elected to her reputation among those active in district affairs. "People know me and know how I am committed to children," she said. The prospect of five years of unpaid service is not daunting she added. "You see [graduates] become productive citizens. That's when I get my reward." Board president Nancy Doorey said Johnson-Harris is "known and respected by a lot of people" and is a welcome addition to the board. Doorey said that the estimated 2% turnout for the election was disappointing, but larger than any other district achieves absent a pending contentious issue. [CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.]

BRANDYWINE ELECTION: Olivia Johnson-Harris was elected to the Brandywine Board of Education, taking 57% of the vote in a three-candidate race. Debra Heffernan won the other soon-to-be-vacated board seat by 122 votes. The election drew about 1,800 voters, which is about 2% of the estimated number of district residents eligible to vote. The Department of Elections tallies: Johnson-Harris, 1,037; James Garrity, 515; Michael Procak, 257 for one seat and Heffernan, 972; Jeanne Best, 850 for the other. The new members will be sworn into office, succeeding Thomas Lapinski and David Adkins, in July. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

Federal judges will be able to preside at weddings if the General Assembly enacts a package ofchanges to the state marriage law. Delaware is the only state where they cannot do so now.

New Castle County clerk of the peace Kenneth Boulden said that, among the changes he is seeking, one would establish a registry of those officials, including clergy, who can perform the ceremony along with conditions they apply, such as pre-marriage counseling. Registrants will have to pay an initial $10 registration fee and $25 for annual renewals. That and the addition of a second room to accommodate larger weddings, along with a general increase in fees which County Council has just approved, are intended to "generate more revenue," he said.

Testifying at a Council budget hearing on May 9, Boulden said another proposal would strike an old law permitting marriage at any age. That, he said, conflicts with a more recent one setting 18 as the minimum age except in situations involving pregnancy, when it is 16 with parental consent. He is seeking elimination of a provision in the law denying 'paupers', alcoholics, 'mental incompetents' and others the right to marry. "We don't ask those questions any more," he said. After the hearing, he told Delaforum that he has no intention of seeking to modify Delaware's ban on so-called same-sex marriage.

Boulden said he neither favors nor opposes a bill pending in the Assembly which would empower state representative John Viola to preside at one specified wedding.

SCHOLARSHIPS: County government has donated $25,000 to the New Castle Volunteer Firemen's Association be used to provide the required 50% match for $1,000 federal college scholarships for qualified high school graduates who volunteer as firefighters or emergency medical personnel. According to a press statement, that will allow for granting 40 scholarships. Every high school in the county will be able to nominate two students with at least 100 hours of verifiable participation with the fire service. The statement attributes the donation to County Executive Christopher Coons and members of County Council.

County government allegedly is charging too much for street lights in communities which havethem and inappropriately distributing proceeds from the tax which finances them.

In a memorandum filed in Court of Chancery, Richard Korn and Andrew Dal Nogare, the two taxpayers challenging budget reserves policies, cite state law and ask the court to order that more than half of the $675,898 in excess of the actual cost of the street-lights program expected to be accumulated by the end of this fiscal year on June 30 be used to reduce light-tax rates. The rates, which vary up to 12½¢ per $100 of assessed value depending on the style of the lights and the type of pole holding them, have been 'frozen' since 1998 and have netted annual surpluses in the street-light account.

The law, they argue, specifically states that a maximum of 10% of the amount collected may be used to administer the program. The proposed fiscal 2006 budget projects revenue of $3,352,793. That would require that anything above $335,279 be used to reduce the tax rate. Moreover, the memorandum argues, more than half of the money supposedly collected to meet administrative costs would be allocated to several county units, including County Council, which have no role in administrating the program. There is no explanation for any of that in the official budget document pending before Council, they say.

Council authorizes street lights in unincorporated communities when at least half of the property owners petition for them.

KEEP CONTROL: Bellefonte is preparing a comprehensive town plan "as a foundation for zoning and building laws to make sure that Bellefonte becomes what its citizens want," David Wishowsky, president of the town commission, told a recent meeting. The first phase of the process of drafting and adopting a plan was completed with the presentation of the results of a survey of residents. The key finding was that 89% of responders want stricter enforcement of the building and zoning codes in order to maintain the character of the community. The survey had a 20% response rate, about four times higher than expected.

While three out of four responders agreed that the town needs design guidelines for building and renovation, there is little desire to opt into New Castle County's 'hometown' zoning law. Both the town commission and its planning commission are agreed that it is preferable to "maintain control over zoning" and such, commissioner Terry Thompson, who chairs the planning and development committee, said. Residents expressed preference for a restaurant, book store, delicatessen, grocery store and video store to be located in or near the town. Next step, he said, is to hold public workshops to discuss survey results.

PUT ON HOLD: The Historic Review Board postponed deciding whether to recommend historic zoning for the Paladin Club condominium complex pending further study. The issue apparently comes down to determining if the entire site deserves protection or if only specific features should be covered. "If we fail to do something to protect the entire property, what further degradation will occur?" member John Brook said at a business meeting on Apr. 27. Chairwoman Barbara Benson said a staff report recommending partial coverage failed to provide enough information on which to base a decision. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

BACK-TO-BACK: There may not be two sides to every matter that comes before County Council, but from now on there will be two sides to most of the ordinances and resolutions. They're no longer being printed in a single-sided format. Clerk of Council Betsy Jo Gardner said that nets out to $1.25 cheaper for each 100 two-page texts verses the 200 sheets it would take to print their one-page equivalents. Volume varies session to session, but 125 copies are printed of each of the 15 to 20 documents, which average about six pages each, for distribution to members and the public each bi-weekly session.

It will take about six years after its reported sale has been completed to turn the Brookview Apartments complex into an owner-occupied residential community.

County Councilman Robert Weiner denied at a meeting of the Claymont Design Review Advisory Committee on Apr. 21 that a sale has been "finalized." Delaforum, however, has learned from multiple community sources that Commonwealth Group has contracted with the Clark family to purchase the property within 45 days for $32.5 million. Weiner told the committee that any sale would require the purchaser to enter into a "development agreement" with New Castle County government. Commonwealth did not respond to Delaforum's request for comment.

According to Weiner, designing the project and other preliminaries will take about two years with construction phased over four more. The agreement with the county, he said, would require that a portion of the 950 to 1,200 units be 'affordable' housing and that provision be made for helping present residents relocate. He said about two-thirds of the complex's 637 units are currently occupied by tenants with short-term leases. In return, the developer would be assured necessary county permitting, adequate sewer capacity and could possibly receive state tax incentives. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

The area defining Claymont's 'hometown' zoning would be extended to include Brookview. That would make the redevelopment subject to its design standards.