General Assembly decides to take a gamble on nearly $50 million of the budget

For those of you who have not heard, the General Assembly approved today an emergency measure to address the budget shortfall this pending fiscal year. In a questionably close, bipartisan measure, the Senate approved by a narrow vote of 10-7 (with 4 abstentions) to pass House Resolution 214, what I am calling "The Blackjack Bill," which, according to the title, is "an emergency act to close the gap between the FY2009 budget." Governor Minner is expected to sign the blackjack bill tonight.

Presuming her approval, a group of nine Delaware delegates (3 from the House, 3 from the Senate, the Governor, Lt. Gov., and the Treasurer) will take $42.5 million from the general fund to Atlantic City tomorrow morning. According to the measure, gambling will commence no later than 1:00 EST. Although the press seems silent on where they are going (which I must assume is to keep away the riff-raff), my guess is they are going to Borgata.

Most of the blackjack bill looks like it deals with how the nearly $50 million can be gambled. For example, the money will be divided evenly among the delegates and left to various games of chance. Particularly, H.R. 214 limits the contingent to roulette, craps, and blackjack. Because Atlantic City casinos will not permit the entire $42.5 million to be bet at once, some minimum maximums have been set. Interestingly, any money bet at roulette must be either bet on red or black. I just hope they don't simply place $1 million on red and another million on black in the same spin.

An amendment to the resolution originally provided for an additional $2.5 million for slots, but after a questionable and then devastating $100,000 bet on a Wheel of Fortune machine earlier this afternoon, the Senate Revenue & Taxation committee rejected any further games of chance from being played. Surprisingly, however, another amendment provides for an additional $50 million to be allocated in case the committee comes back with over $200 million.

According to one senator, he expects the majority of the money to be spent on blackjack and roulette: "Even if we lose a million on one spin of the roulette wheel, the odds are in our favor that we'll win it back on the next spin." Another representative predicted that the measure could "yield results of at least 75%, if not 150% of the money we have allocated toward this process."

Creativity of fixing the budget appears to have no bounds. I hope the group is able to double up. Not sure what is going to happen if they lose their shirts.

Tags: delaware assembly gambles away its budget

Chick-Fil-A's clever marketing scheme

I usually don't give away anything for free, but I have to give props to the marketing team of Chick-Fil-A. According to the radio yesterday, and as talked about at work by nearly everyone I spoke with, there is a new "free-standing" Chick-Fil-A opening in Camden (a town five minutes south of Dover) near the super Walmart. While that isn't that interesting, this certain is: part of their "grand opening" was to offer free meal combos once a week for a year for the first 100 people that showed up when it opened today at 6 AM. And what is even more quirky is that people started camping out around 8 am yesterday morning. I drove by the place last night to get a frame of reference and I counted 15 or so tents. I would say that their marketing ploy worked like a charm.

Now, the trick was that you would get 52 combos of choice, or one per week for one year. I'm assuming they are only good at that Chick-Fil-A. So on its face, this would cost the national office/local chain (assuming a $5/meal average) around $250 person (assuming they used up all 52 coupons). Multiply that for 100 people and the total incurred cost (less advertising and other related marketing expenses) is roughly $25,000. I would guess the actual cost will be about half that, if not less, for a number of practical reasons. Regardless, this free-combo-a-day-giveaway is marketing cleverness worth mentioning and a relatively inexpensive campaign for the buzz they created by this gimmick.

Tags: chick-fil-a camden delaware, chick-fil-a giveaway, eagle 97.7 morning show

A quick budgetary fix: Increase the bottle deposit

Under certain Delaware legislation, certain bottles are subject to a bottle deposit. In most cases, this deposit (which effectively operates as a tax) makes one's purchased bottle of soda go from being $.99 to $1.04. Whether this money goes into the state general fund, or in the hands of the store, I am not sure. Whether the bottles actually get recycled when they are returned is also questionable. While I can't find it, I think there's also a deposit for wine or beer now also, but that may also depend on where you buy.

My point is with this 5 cent deposit is that it only represents approximately 5% of the cost of the item, at least if we're talking about soda bottles. Wasn't the bottle deposit either 3 or 5 cents when sodas were half that price, or even a fraction of that price? Let's say for my argument's sake that years ago, the bottle deposit on a 15 cent bottle of soda was 3 cents. So way back when, the bottle deposit was about 20% of the cost of the drink. Given that everything else has increased or at least kept pace with inflation, why not this bottle deposit? Nobody cares about 5 cents. The trick is to figure out the line just below where people will stop caring. I see it probably at 15%, but argue a point why it could be even higher.

If the bottle deposit was 20% or even 25% of the cost today, per bottle, I think a lot more people would be inclined to recycle. And if not, the state could figure out a way to account for the money and the increased bottle deposit would be an easy and straightforward solution to inject a few million into the general budget. Soda sales alone should generate this - if they did the same thing for newspaper, beer bottles and other things DNREC wants everyone to recycle, maybe it would align the financial interests of both the purchasers and the environmentalists. Just a thought.

Tags: increasing the bottle deposit

A double standard for governors and the women they sleep with

This is a rather simple observation: Obviously the New York Governor Spitzer's sex scandal involving a $5500 call girl is all the rave as of late. Ultimately, the embarrassment and nature of the offense led to his resignation and political and personal humiliation. If this event basically undid his political career, why is the same society so anxious to reward his escort, the now famous and in-demand Ashley Dupre? Between music downloads, a book deal, offers from particular movie and magazine companies, she seems to be coming out on top in this situation. It just seems rather backwards to me.

I'm almost of the mindset that if she's been rewarded this much, maybe he was not as in the wrong as the media made him out to be (notwithstanding his previous prosecutorial conduct in that particular area). Almost.

Tags: govenor spitzer prostitute

Vatican damns non-recyclers to hell

The Vatican has updated the "7 Deadly Sins." In addition to the original seven deadly sins (avarice, pride, lust, gluttony, sloth, wrath, envy), the following actions subject one to, shall we say, less than comfortable afterlife conditions. The world, so it seems, is in big, big trouble.

The new sins, at least according to one article, are polluting, genetic engineering, obscene riches, taking drugs, abortion, pedophilia, and causing social injustice. I'll leave alone all but four.

Polluting: This one alone is enough to damn just about everybody who drives a car or spits out their gum. I'm not sure how far this sliding scale of pollution goes, but if it reaches into the world of electricity, we're all in trouble.

Obscene riches: Again, this seems to be a sliding scale. Don't most people with obscene riches do more for aiding social injustice than those without obscene riches? I find this one puzzling. Luckily, "obscene" depends on who you're talking to. And given that the Catholic Church and Vatican City have "priceless" works of art, I think most, if not everybody, is safe on this one.

Taking drugs: This must exclude illegal drugs, but who is to say what is illegal? Marijuana is legal in Canada but not in the U.S. Further, isn't almost everybody immunized for something, and had to have been immunized by some drug? Maybe this sin will serve to reveal what exactly is in the Coke formula to be sure we aren't drinking ourselves into eternal damnation with the drug of caffeine. This one works sort of hand in hand with the sin of genetic engineering, particularly most of our food has been genetically modified for vitamin-y goodness since the turn of last century. Case in point: corn, cotton, and any other crop that has been grown to be resistant to insects. Hopefully the mad cow disease isn't worked into this one or everybody will be in trouble for eating meat (and not just on Fridays).

Causing social injustice: I'm assuming this refers to the jackass that cut me off this morning.

At the very least, perhaps the goal behind of all this is just to get people talking about the Catholic Church again rather than other things that flood the news, such as the upcoming presidential election. I admire and respect the Church for showing that "the new seven [have] a social resonance," and maybe it will start, as indicated by these new rules, people thinking that their actions affect others. It's a good idea in practice; time will tell if this idea morphs into madness or fanatical beliefs.

Tags: new 7 deadly sins, 7 deadly sins

A couple good places to eat in Dover

I've been in Dover for a few months now, and as compared to Wilmington anyway, getting lunch down here is a bit of a chore. Rather than come up with a laundry list of the good and bad places I've found to eat, I'll highlight some of the places (non-chains) I've been to more than once that are decent.

Fancy places: Iron Gate near the Dover Air base, Cool Springs, and Michelles (at Dover Downs) are probably the top of the line places in Dover. The Buttery down at the beach is good too. Probably fancy for lunch though.

Seafood: Shuckers on 13 is pretty good and you can get lunch in a little under an hour for about $10 plus tip. Sambos is well-known as the best place to get crabs in Delaware, and in Smyrna, it's much closer than driving from Wilmington (but worth the drive in either case).

General Food: 33 West, Smithers, Lobby House, Romas all are okay. Of the three, 33 West is usually the fastest; Romas is the cheapest (and nearly as fast); and all have lunch specials that are usually around $10 including tip. There are a few other places I could lump into this list (Ruby Tuesday, TGI Fridays, Applebees, Lone Star, Buffalo Wild Wings, Olive Garden, Uno Pizzaria), but they aren't any different than any others you may have been to. Nikos is a decent pizza place that is pretty quick.

BBQ: Amish Market (Spenses) and Where Pigs Fly. The Amish Farmers Market is only open Tuesdays and Fridays, but is probably the best bang for your buck. Plus you can buy other items (ice cream, cookies, ham, cheese, bread, vegetables, etc.). Where Pigs Fly can get you in and out in an hour for around $10-12 including tip. The ribs are fantastic.

Ethnic: There is a good indian buffet place that is in a hotel, but I can never remember the name of it. There is also a great chinese takeout place on Water Street next to 7-11 near Spenses. Both of the Chinese buffets on 13 are decent for a quick buffet lunch. I'm going to lump the Dover Downs lunch buffet in this also. For sushi and other japanese foods, the Habachi and Ichiban restaurants are good times. The better sushi places (around here anyway) remain in Wilmington and the beach.

There are a few others that I'm forgetting now, but these are some that I can think of offhand. If there are others I'm overlooking or should sample while I'm down here, I'm all for taking suggestions.

Tags: places to eat in dover, delaware