We may have survived the General Assembly's annual orgy of last minute legislation. The results remain to be seen. In less than 48 hours they were only able to burden us with $206,000,000 in new taxes and inflict 104 new laws upon us.

We are down to the last few days of the legislative session, when the General Assembly always goes crazy and passes more laws than they did in the preceding five months.

Here are some bills to watch out for:

Good: Tell the Speaker of the House and/or Lt Gov & Senate President Pro Tem that these are important to you and you want them placed on the agenda for a vote.

• HB 168 - Repeal of Mandatory Minimum Drug Sentences
  

The Libertarian Party of Delaware now has a Facebook Cause.

You can access it at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/284253?m=4ffa5b46.

From SURJ:

We need YOUR help!

On June 3rd, HB 168, which would repeal mandatory minimum drug sentencing, was considered by the House Judiciary Committee. The vote to release the bill to the House floor came in at 4 in favor and 4 opposed (1 Representative who was a co-sponsor was absent from the hearing, resulting in a tie). We need your help to get the bill out of committee in the House-- will you contact the four legislators who voted against releasing the bill to urge them to let the full House of Representatives consider the bill?

[Read the full article here]

At the convention I brought up the idea of having an Explorer's Club. The purpose of the club is to take the LPD to places we haven't gone before. There are two ways we can do that. By donations of your time and/or money. Both are necessary, in my opinion, to advance the LPD so, therefore, please think of this as a two-pronged approach.

One of the items on the agenda for the LPD's annual Convention on May 2nd will be a set of proposed amendments to the Party's Articles of Association.

In addition to the most bloated budget ever, Congress is rushing an alarming number of bills to a vote this week w/o reading any of them. There is no compelling urgency to any of these bills:

• H.R. 1388 - Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act
• H.R. 1171 - Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program Reauthorization Act of 2009

Tim Geithner wants to nationalize the finance industry or at least control it w/o calling it nationalization.

Why not start with the Fed?

Fellow Delaware Libertarians,

We’ve scheduled the Libertarian Party of Delaware’s 2009 Convention for May 2, 2009. It will be held at the pavilion at Killens Pond State Park’s Campground area (entrance on Paradise Alley Road east of US Route 13, south of Felton). Since the pavilion is quite large, covered, screened, and has a concrete floor this will be a “Rain or Shine” event. Outside the pavilion are horseshoe pits, a volleyball court, and a playground. There are two barbeque grills that should provide us with all the cooking surface needed. The park charges an entrance fee of $3 per Delaware-tagged vehicle and once the park is full no other vehicles will be admitted.

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University has released a detailed study ranking the 50 states in terms of how much individual freedom each permits to its residents.

New Hampshire places #1 in the overall ranking, and first in Fiscal Policy. New York comes in dead last in Fiscal Policy, Economic Freedom, and in the overall ranking.

Delaware has a lot of room for improvement. We were ranked 30th in Fiscal Policy, 16th in Regulatory Policy, 24th in Economic Freedom, 36th in Personal Freedom, and 26th overall.

Here is how the study summarizes Delaware in its state by state descriptions: