First State Times

The 17th District state Senator who claims his family has been the target of a "smear campaign" over Kent County Levy Court's proposed hotel lodging tax to raise revenues for the DE Turf sports complex has said he'll file legislation about the controversy.

"I intend to file legislation removing DE Turf as the sole recipient of that revenue," Delaware state Sen. W. Charles "Trey" Paradee III (D-Dover) said in a recent op-ed piece published in The News Journal. "If Levy Court subsequently directs those funds to that public-private partnership at a later date, that will be their choice and their choice alone."

Paradee's announcement and his op-ed piece came shortly after he asked Kent County Levy Court to delay implementing the controversial proposal, according to a separate News Journal report. The proposal is possible thanks to legislation Paradee sponsored earlier this year.

The tax, intended only to fund the privately owned DE Turf complex near Frederica, had been the only item on the agenda for Kent County Levy Court on Nov. 5, but the meeting was cancelled just days before. In his op-ed piece, Paradee lamented the treatment he claims his family has received in News Journal coverage of the controversy.

"It is time to end the smear campaign against my family," Paradee wrote in the op-ed piece, saying that much of the The News Journal's coverage of the controversy was "the product of innuendo, willful omission and false information provided by public officials who should know better. This notion of a grand conspiracy between my siblings and I exists solely in the pages of The News Journal."

Paradee was elected last November to the state Senate District 17 seat when he defeated Republican Challenger Justin King, taking more than 64 percent of the vote. The seat previously had been held for about a decade by Democrat Brian Bushweller, who retired.  

Paradee previously served about five years representing District 29 in the Delaware House of Representatives.

Senate District 17 includes parts of Delaware and Montgomery counties, including Haverford Township, Radnor Township, Bridgeport, East Norriton Township, Lower Merion Township, Narberth, Norristown, Plymouth Township, Upper Merion Township and West Conshohocken.