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IT'S MOSTLY LUCK: Because winning
football pools involving results of more
than one game and point spreads is more chance than skill, the proposed
sports-betting scheme now being set up passes muster under the Delaware
constitution. In an advisory opinion issued on May 27, the state Supreme
Court evidently cleared the way for the betting to begin with the start
of the professional football season in September. Observers, however,
expect a further challenge from the National Football League which, in
general, alleges that legal gambling impairs the integrity of the sport.
The key question addressed in the 21-page
opinion, requested by Governor Jack Markell and written by Chief Justice
Myron Steele, was the extent to which the scheme is a lottery. In
deciding that it is, he cites a 1974 opinion by federal judge Walter
Stapleton which held that if chance trumps skill that's a lottery. But
the Steele opinion said that the skill-versus-chance argument can go
either way when it comes to predicting the outcome of a singe game and,
therefore, he declined to say whether that would be constitutional. The
governor promoted sports betting as a new state-revenue stream to help
alleviate the budget crisis. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
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FIRST BRANCH: Credit card giant
Bank of America plans to open its first
retail banking branch in Delaware in a new building replacing an
existing one at the southeast corner of Concord Pike and Naamans Road.
County Councilman Robert Weiner disclosed that the plan, apparently
filed in March, has received preliminary approval from the Department of
Land Use. No rezoning is required. Final approval is expected "in the
next few months," Weiner said. He said he and Robert Valihura, of the
Council of Civic Organizations of Brandywine Hundred, "will be carefully
monitoring the project" during subdivision review.
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Coons administration officials briefed
County Council on its plans for lay-offs
affecting the police force, but the public was shut out from the
discussion.
"It's not our intention to publicly
discuss the number [of persons affected] at this time," administration
spokesman C.R. McLeod told Delaforum. He said negotiations with the
police union are continuing. The union so far has rejected a 5% pay cut
or an equivalent concession to help deal with the county's fiscal
situation. At what was billed as a 'public hearing', Coons's chief of
staff Nicole Majeski said the police lay-offs would 'save' the
equivalent of everyone on the force taking the 5% reduction. That was
the cue for the nine Council members present to vote unanimously to go
behind closed doors "to discuss personnel matters."
During the open part of the session on
May 18, acting chief financial officer Ed Milowicki presented an outline
of four amendments to the pending budget ordinance which would reduce
spending on operations from the requested $165 million to $161.2
million. That would be 3.7% less than $167.5 million, the most recent
estimate of expenditures during the current fiscal year. The biggest
change would be $4.4 million 'saved' by spreading an increase in pension
contributions over five years. With the amendments, the budget would
authorize taking $6.6 million from reserves instead of the $10.5 million
Coons originally proposed. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
Council is scheduled to approve the
budget -- almost certainly unchanged from what the administration is
asking, including a 25% property-tax hike -- on May 26.
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ROLLBACK:
State representative Michael Ramone reputedly has
prepared legislation reducing the
size of New Castle County Council from 13 members to nine. The six
Council districts which existed before the expansion in 2004 would be
restored and two members as well as the Council president would be
elected at-large. County Executive Christopher Coons and several Council
members have objected on the grounds that the expanded Council has
better served residents than its smaller predecessors did. Ramone did
not respond to a Delaforum request for comment.
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State government's
official forecasters expect sports
betting to bring in about $50 million next fiscal year, but about half
will be offset by continuing decline in personal income tax receipts.
In a good news-bad news discussion, the
Delaware Economic & Financial Advisory Council's revenue committee on
May 15 decided to recommend that the full council, when it meets on May
18, increase its fiscal 2010 projection by $29.1 million from a month
ago to $2,938 million. That is largely the net of a $53.5 million
increase in tax receipts from gambling and $19.7 million less from the
levy on residents' earnings. The General Assembly is required by law to
base the state budget on those figures. Governor Jack Markell's office
said the legislature must now cover an expected shortfall that has
swelled from $778 million to $800 million.
David Gregor, the state finance
department's director of research and analysis, told the committee that
he is "not aware of anything that is going to slow us up" as regulators
move to prepare the three privately-owned casinos to begin accepting
bets by the time the National Football League season opens on Sept. 10.
The league, however, is expected to mount a court challenge to the new
law. Even more significant, Richard Cordrey suggested, is the extent to
which bettors will be willing to turn away from bookmakers and go to the
casinos to make their wagers. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
Commenting on the outlook for the
underlying national economy, economist Fred Dixon pointed out that "the
same people who couldn't call this recession ... are now telling you
that it's going to be a very long mild recovery."
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PAY REVEALED:
Dane 'Andy' Brandenberger will be paid the hourly-wage equivalent of
superintendent Jim Scanlon's $170,417 salary for the time he spends on
the job as acting superintendent of Brandywine School District until
Scanlon's replacement takes office. But, according to chief financial
officer David Blowman, Brandenberger will not receive health care and
other employee benefits. Blowman also disclosed, in response to a
Delaforum inquiry, that the University of Delaware's Institute of Public
Administration will be paid $16,100 to conduct the search for a
'permanent' superintendent. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
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ONE-TWO PUNCH: Not only did the
slumping real estate market buffet county government finances, but the
decline in investment values also dealt the county a body blow. As a
result, the soon-to-be-enacted fiscal 2010 budget will provide $11.8
million, or 12.2% of payroll, to support its employee pension plans.
That's not as bad as it could be, County Council's finance committee was
told on May 11. The 'contribution' would have to be 19% if the full
deficit were to be covered. On the advice of the autonomous pension
board, the make-up is being spread over five years.
Acting chief financial officer Ed Milowicki
told Delaforum that the pension fund lost about $130 million in assets,
about a third of their value. Council approved a resolution setting the
new contribution rate, up from 10.4% of payroll in the current fiscal
year. Absent a dramatic recovery in the investments market, it probably
will have to rise to somewhere in the neighborhood of 14% in fiscal
2011. Council president Paul Clark suggested that pension plans might
have to be adjusted to spread the risk, but Councilman
David
Tackett cautioned against emulating private companies in trouble which
"first go after their pension plans."
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Incumbent Cheryl Siskin easily won a
full five-year term on the Brandywine school board, defeating challenger
Aletha Ramseur by a comfortable 59%-to-41% margin. As is usual, the
election on May 11 attracted a sparse turnout -- 10,030 votes.
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Unless the state Senate agrees to a law
permitting sports betting, there can be "no
hope" of reducing the proposed 8% across-the-board pay cut for state
workers, Governor Jack Markel said.
Speaking to an overflow audience at the
University of Delaware Academy of Lifelong Learning, he indicated he
would like to trim that rate, but, with the prospect of the fiscal 2010
budget shortfall possibly growing between now and June 30, it could
actually have to be increased absent offsetting revenue, he said.
Responding to questions at the session on May 11, he unequivocally
rejected a sales tax as an alternative and said he will not tap the
'rainy day' emergency fund. It would be necessary to lay off 1,500 state
employees to achieve the spending reduction that will come from the
much-disputed pay cut, he said.
The bottom line, Markel explained, is
that the legislature must enact a balanced budget on or before June 30.
"There [can be] no continuing resolution; we can't afford the old
budget," he said. "If the General Assembly doesn't do it, the government
will shut down." With an uncertain economy as far as most observers can
see, Delaware's long-term future lies in aggressively promoting economic
development. On the other hand, he warned, "we have a lot to be
concerned about" with stirrings in Congress toward a federal role in
corporate governance which would "significantly impact" the state's role
in chartering companies.
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TEACHER CUTS:
Five Brandywine district teachers are being notified that their
contracts will not be renewed for the coming academic year. Chief
financial officer David Blowman said that is considerably fewer than had
been expected. Retirements and resignations will account for the other
40 positions that are expected to be lost as a result of budget cuts.
Some vacant administrative positions will not be filled, he said. Under
state law, teachers must receive 'reduction-in-force' notification
before May 15. In past years it has been the practice to recall some
when enrollments and financing are later determined.
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HE'S BACK: Dane 'Andy'
Brandenberger, who began his teaching career
in a predecessor district and who spent many years in administrative
positions in the Brandywine School District before moving to the Cape
Henlopen district from which he retired as superintendent, will serve as
interim superintendent until Brandywine finds a successor to Jim
Scanlon. "It's like coming back and helping out an old friend," he told
Delaforum after the school board voted unanimously to hire him. Three
years ago he filled the superintendent's post while Scanlon was being
recruited and hired.
The board also agreed unanimously to
engage Jim Flynn, a consultant with the University of Delaware's
Institute of Public Administration, to conduct a search for Scanlon's
successor. Board president Debra Heffernan said the community will be
involved in that process, beginning with a survey conducted on the
Internet. There was no discussion in public about either decision before
the formal votes were taken during the May 11 board meeting, which
followed a closed-door executive session. Delaforum could not
immediately learn either Brandenberger's compensation or the charge for
conducting the search. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
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The Catholic
Diocese of Wilmington has spent
nearly $6.7 million to settle 19 suits arising out of sexual abuse of
children. There are 28 cases still pending in the courts.
In the most comprehensive public
accounting yet of the effects of the scandal which has rocked the
Catholic church nationally since 2002, bishop Francis Malooly, who took
office last September, said, "[I]t is not our desire to litigate and
possibly cause added pain, but to reach out in the name of Christ and
bring about healing." In an open letter published in the May 7 issue of
The Dialog, the diocesan newspaper, Malooly said that, in addition to an
apology and "pastoral outreach," victims are entitled to "some
reasonable financial assistance." But, he added that "no amount of money
can make up for the crimes committed."
The accounting said that court
settlements since the late 1980s, also included more than $1.3 million
paid by insurance. Related legal fees cost $968,000 in fiscal 2003
through 2008 and are estimated at $1.5 million in the current fiscal
year, which ends June 30. Settlements and fees, it said, all have been
paid from a reserve fund built up since the 1970s. That fund will be
exhausted before pending cases are ended and the diocese expects to sell
"certain hard assets" to meet its liability, it said. The accounting did
not cover cases involving priests and employees of autonomous religious
orders which operate in the diocese.
The diocese currently is conducting
its annual giving campaign, seeking to raise just short of $4 million to
finance various activities and ministries.
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The Coons administration's proposal to
'defund' $17 million worth of parks and
open-space spending drew sharp criticism as County Council reviewed
the requested capital budget.
Discussion at a hearing on May 4 was
largely academic since it centered around money the county doesn't
intend to raise during the coming fiscal year and has nothing specific
to spend it on. Acting chief financial officer Ed Milowicki said
postponing, among other things, $8.3 million previously authorized for
parkland acquisition and $3 million for farmland preservation until
later fiscal years resulted in a negative-$1.7 million proposal. "We're
not planning a bond issue for a year to 18 months," he said. That, he
explained, involves real -- not virtual -- money. It costs $80,000 a
year to service each $1 million of bonded debt, he said.
"It's huge mistake to deauthorize these
[accounts]. It's not actual money sitting out there. If something is
offered to us, we wouldn't be able to move," said Councilman David
Tackett. Councilman William Powers said, "With the [real estate] market
down, it would be a good time to acquire properties." When Brenna Gaggin,
of the Delaware Nature Society, testified that property not acquired
when available is property lost forever, Council president Paul Clark
expressed doubt that many advocates of such spending would also support
higher tax rates necessary to make it possible. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
After calling what he charged was
disproportionate deauthorization of capital spending in southern New
Castle County "discouraging," Councilman William Bell pointedly got up
and walked out of the hearing.
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Approving appointment of an interim
superintendent and engagement of a search firm to look for a new one to
replace Jim Scanlon are prime topics on the agenda for the May 11
meeting of the Brandywine school board.
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COONS TO CUT COPS:
County Executive Christopher Coons said his administration will
begin the process of laying off an undisclosed number of police
officers. Their union's rejection of his request for a 5% pay cut left
no alternative, a press statement issued late in the afternoon on May 1
said. The Fraternal Order of Police represents 365 cops and eight deputy
sheriffs. Coons previously announced that nine paramedic trainees and
rookies will be let go on May 6. More than 900 of the county's
approximately 1,500 employees have either agreed to or been told that
they will take pay cuts, the statement noted. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
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Candidates for the Brandywine
school board seat to be filled at the
May 12 election propose slightly different approaches to coping with
effects of the state's budget shortfall.
Aletha Ramseur, who wants to recapture
the spot she lost last year, said she would prefer to see limits on
class size sacrificed in order to preserve arts, music and special
programs. "What's best for the children is a well-rounded education,"
she said. Cheryl Siskin, who unseated Rumseur to fill out the final year
of an unexpired term, said she wants the board to prepare for the
proverbial worst-case scenario when it decides how many teachers and
staff members will get lay-off notices this month. "I don't want to be
in a position where we didn't cut enough." she said. "Hopefully, we'll
be able to bring some of them back."
The candidates made those comments at the
only scheduled 'meet the candidates' event -- a sparsely attended
question-and-answer session -- on Apr. 30. As is usual on such
occasions, there was considerable agreement on most responses. Ramseur
cautioned against "bringing the top down and the bottom up" in order to
close the 'achievement gap' between white and black students. Siskin
opposed pending legislation to align board elections with general
elections on the grounds that would eliminate the continuity that goes
with having board terms coincide with the academic year. (CLICK
HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)
Both said the board should recruit a
new superintendent who combines professional credentials with personal
qualities necessary to maintain effective rapport with teachers,
students, parents and the community.
Last updated on May 29, 2009
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