Delaware Bills

This bill creates a new loan guarantee program in Delaware to help small businesses with fewer than five employees and annual revenue under $1 million that lack the funds to start or grow. The state will guarantee up to 90% of loans provided by community development financial institutions or other approved lenders, with individual loan amounts capped at $100,000 and repayment terms extending up to 10 years. To assist borrowers, the program includes features like deferred initial payments for up to two years and interest rates limited to the Federal Funds Rate plus 3%, while also offering access to education, training, and mentoring. The initiative is administered by the Delaware Division of Small Business and becomes effective once funding is allocated to the new Microbusiness Loan Fund.

This Resolution directs the Department of Health and Social Services to prepare reports on the Purchase of Care Program and directs the Department of Education to prepare reports on the child care capacity.

This Act protects Delaware’s fresh water supply while also reducing costs for small businesses and single-family residential homeowners by eliminating the requirements for installation and yearly inspections of backflow preventors on low-hazard water users. However, an otherwise low hazard property that has fire sprinkler systems, in-ground lawn sprinklers, swimming pools, hot tubs, or similar systems connected to its fresh water supply will be required to install a backflow preventor. Under § 1 of Article IX of the Delaware Constitution, this Act requires a two-thirds majority vote because it constitutes an implicit charter change, as the ordinances it seeks to override derive their authority from municipal charters. This Act also makes a technical correction on line 16. The word “shall” is changed to “must” to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Concurrent Resolution requests that medical professionals who engage in the provision of prenatal or postnatal care, delivery, or infant care services to provide parents and caregivers resources on infant and child CPR and basic first aid training.

This bill officially sets the estimated revenue and available funds for the state's Fiscal Year 2024 budget. It establishes the specific financial figures that government agencies will use to plan their spending for the year. The measure was passed by both the House and Senate and signed into law by the Governor.

This bill officially sets the projected revenue, refunds, and available funds for the state's General Fund for the upcoming fiscal year 2025. It serves as a formal estimate to guide budget planning and financial management for state agencies and departments. By establishing these specific numbers, the legislation provides a baseline for how much money the state expects to collect and spend in the coming year.

This is a substitute for Senate Bill No. 11. Like Senate Bill No. 11, this Act is the first leg of a constitutional amendment to modernize the bail provisions within the Delaware Constitution and clarify the power of the General Assembly to enumerate certain felony offenses for which, or circumstances under which, pretrial release on bail may not be allowed. And, like Senate Bill No. 11, any statute designating a felony offense for which a person can be subjected to pretrial detention without bail must be enacted by an act of the General Assembly that receives the concurrence of a two-thirds majority of each House of the General Assembly. This Act differs from Senate Bill No. 11 by providing that if a law designates a felony offense as potentially not bailable under this Act, a law removing that designation must also be enacted by an act of the General Assembly that receives the concurrence of two-thirds of all the members elected to each House of the General Assembly. The current constitutional provision providing that only “capital offenses” are potentially not bailable first appeared in its present form in the Delaware Constitution of 1792. At that time, “capital offenses” included many more offenses than the term does today. For example, manslaughter, rape, robbery, burglary, and assaults with weapons were capital offenses, and therefore included as crimes for which a court could order pretrial detention. Thus, over time, certain crimes that the Framers included as potentially not bailable are currently bailable. Presently, a Delaware state court judge cannot order preventive detention in any non-capital case. Instead, the judge can only attempt to set the bail so high that a defendant cannot make it, which means that any defendant, no matter how dangerous and no matter the circumstance, can obtain release if the defendant can fund the bail—even if that defendant poses a certain flight risk or a known threat of harm to the public or to a specific person, such as a witness or victim. Like Senate Bill No. 11, this Act is one step toward completing a pretrial release-detention continuum requiring specific evidence-based detention decisions that seek to maximize public safety while minimizing pretrial detention for those for whom detention is not required. Specifically, this Act, like Senate Bill No. 11, will do all of the following: (1) Retain the express declaration of a general right to have bail set in a criminal case. (2) Provide that the crimes for which bail may be withheld are capital murder, where the evidentiary proof is positive or presumption of the accusation great, and other specifically identified felony offenses determined by and under procedures prescribed by law where the evidentiary proof is positive or presumption of the accusation great. (3) Ensure that an additional condition precedent to bail being withheld in non-capital cases is a finding by clear and convincing evidence that no condition or combination of conditions of release will reasonably assure the person’s appearance at court proceedings, reasonably assure the protection of the community, victims, witnesses, or any other person, and reasonably maintain the integrity of the judicial process, such that the defendant will not obstruct or attempt to obstruct justice. This constitutional amendment, by itself, would not allow that a person charged with a non-capital crime could be held without bail. Rather, no person could be subject to a preventive detention hearing in a non-capital case until the General Assembly revises Chapter 21 of Title 11 of the Delaware Code to prescribe by law the specific felony offenses, circumstances, and procedures under which detention without bail may occur. With this change, though, Delaware can progress toward the type of modern bail system that has been increasingly adopted by our sister states through amendment of their state constitutions, when needed, and the development of statutory procedures that provide, in appropriate cases, pre-trial detention without bail. And this change does so by adopting the standards recommended by authoritative sources including the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Uniform Law Commission, the National Center for State Courts, the American Bar Association, and the numerous state legislatures and court systems that have studied pretrial detention and retained or incorporated them in their own state constitutions and laws. Any legislation subsequently enacted or court procedures adopted to implement this constitutional amendment would have to require individualized, fact-governed decision-making by any court considering preventive detention to pass muster under the United States and Delaware Constitutions. Senate Bill No. 12, as introduced, is intended to do this. This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 1 of Article XVI of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to amend the Delaware Constitution. Amending the Delaware Constitution requires not only the passing of the changes in this Act, but also passage of the same changes after the next general election by the next General Assembly.

This Act updates the definition of child care facility to reflect the move of the Office of Child Care Licensing from the Department of Services for Children, Youth & Their Families to the Department of Education.

This bill eliminates the requirement that Justice of the Peace Court constables reside within the State of Delaware. The residency requirement was established when Constables were independent officers, and had their own bonding requirements and penalties for failure to do the business of the Court. Constables are now employees of the Justice of the Peace Court and the residency requirement is no longer needed. The removal of the requirement will allow the Justice of the Peace Court to recruit from a larger pool of candidates and to retain existing trained and skilled employees.

SB 325 allocates state funds for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, covering expenses for various state government agencies and departments. The bill also establishes specific rules and limits on how these funds can be spent and updates related laws to reflect those requirements. By passing both legislative chambers and receiving the governor's signature, the act officially authorizes the release of money to support state operations for the upcoming year.

This bill provides a one-time funding allocation of $168,362,517 to the Office of Management and Budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025. The money is designated to support specific one-time projects managed by that office. The legislation was passed by both the Senate and the House and was signed into law by the Governor.

HB 475 authorizes the State of Delaware and the Delaware Transportation Authority to issue bonds and allocate funds for capital improvements during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025. The bill allows the state to sell general obligation bonds and the transportation authority to sell revenue bonds to raise money for infrastructure projects. It also directs the use of existing funds from the Transportation Trust Fund and other state accounts to support these initiatives. By amending relevant statutes, the legislation sets specific rules and limits on how these financial resources can be spent.