This Act is a short-term response to the recent tax reassessment that protects homeowners, who have received substantially increased property and school tax bills for the 2025-2026 tax year, from legal action while the General Assembly and New Castle County explore long-term solutions. Many Delaware homeowners have raised several troubling questions and concerns about the property reassessment process. After the reassessment, the tax burden has drastically shifted to homeowners, which has hit vulnerable groups the hardest, including seniors, low-income families, and long-term residents. This Act requires the tax collecting authority for New Castle County (“County”) to offer payment plans to all taxpayers to pay county property and school taxes assessed to residential properties for the 2025-2026 tax year. After offering the payment plan, the County must give a taxpayer at least 30 days from the date of the offer to enter into the payment plan. If a taxpayer enters into a payment plan and makes payments in compliance with the payment plan, the County may not collect the taxes owed out of the taxpayer’s real or personal property, including by filing a civil action to collect the taxes or by seizing or selling the taxpayer’s property. Additionally, the County may not charge fees, penalties, or interest on taxes owed by taxpayers who make payments in compliance with the payment plan. This Act sunsets on December 31, 2026, unless otherwise provided by a subsequent Act of the General Assembly. But the prohibitions on collecting taxes out of the taxpayer’s real or personal property and on charging fees, penalties, or interest on taxes continue to apply to payment plans that extend on or beyond December 31, 2026, so long as the taxpayer remain in compliance with the payment plan.
This Act requires counties to void all tax bills already issued to taxpayers in the county for the 2025-2026 tax year and to reissue property and school tax bills for the 2025-2026 tax year using the previously assessed value of the real property for all property subject to county taxation under Part V of Title 9 and all property subject to the local school tax under Chapter 19 of Title 14. This requirement does not apply to tax bills for new construction completed during the 2025-2026 tax year. Within 10 days of enactment of this Act, school districts must deliver a new tax collection warrant to the county calculated using the previously assessed value of the real property for school tax, so tax bills for the 2025-2026 tax year can be reissued. The deadline for payment of the reissued tax bills is extended to October 30, 2025, and counties must refund or credit overpayments of taxes for the 2025-2026 tax year to taxpayers who submit payment in accordance with previous tax bill. A school district may request and borrow from State Division I funds in the event of a cash flow shortfall of local school funds due to the extension of the deadline for tax payments for the 2026 fiscal year.
HB 248 changes Delaware's tax payment rules to allow all three counties (New Castle, Kent, and Sussex) to accept tax payments on a quarterly or monthly basis instead of only annually. This directly affects property owners and businesses paying county taxes by giving them more flexible payment options. The key mechanism is amending Title 9 of the Delaware Code to permit local tax collectors to set up these shorter payment cycles. The bill creates a concrete policy change in how county tax payments are structured, without specifying which tax types are included.
Section 1 of this Act requires modifications to exemptions from county taxation to reasonably reflect changes in property value and inflation. This Act also requires New Castle County to use the same eligibility criteria and calculation formula for exemption from school taxes that it used for county taxes as of June 1, 2025. Section 2 of this Act provides that upon passage of House Bill No. 242 of the 153rd General Assembly, the expanded school tax exemption will be applied during the 2025-2026 tax year in any New Castle County School district that reissues its tax warrant in accordance with House Bill No. 242.
This Act authorizes school districts to set different tax rates for residential and non-residential property. The non-residential rate must be at least as great as the residential rate and may be no more than twice the residential rate. The school district must set both rates so that it is not realizing any more revenue than it was authorized to collect by law if it were using a single tax rate. This Act also makes a change to the additional amount a school board may approve to the tax rate to account for delinquencies and costs of collection. Under current law a school board is required to add 10% to its authorized tax rate for delinquencies and costs of collection. This Act allows, but does not require, a school board to add up to 10% to its tax rate for delinquencies and costs of collection. Technical corrections are also made to align these sections with the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act requires the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association to promulgate regulations requiring all coaches to have CPR, first aid, and automated external defibrillator (AED) training. It also requires schools with an athletic program or department to have an Emergency Action Plan for responding to a cardiac arrest event at an athletic event or practice. It requires that an AED be accessible in a clearly marked, unlocked location at any athletic event or venue. Finally, the regulations must require testing and maintenance of AEDs and notification to the Office of Emergency Medical Services regarding the AED acquisition and its location.
This Act creates a background special license plate for the William Penn High School to support scholarships and community events sponsored by the high school. A background special license plate supports a cause and is available for purchase by the public at large, including members of the organization. The numbers, letters, or both, assigned will be the same as the license plate assigned to the owner’s vehicle at the time of the application for the plate. This Act requires a greater-than-majority vote for passage because § 11 of Article VIII of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of three-fifths for the members elected to each house of the General Assembly when a new tax or license fee is imposed.
This substitute for House Bill No. 128, like House Bill No. 128, does the following: This Act provides that the Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program is the primary payor, and other paid leave benefits must be coordinated with this benefit according to the terms of the policy or procedure governing other benefits. This Act also allows disability insurance benefits to be offset by family and medical leave benefits paid to an employee pursuant to the terms of a disability insurance policy. This Act addresses private plans, and clarifies that an employer that meets its obligations under Chapter 37 of Title 19 through a private plan does not need to provide claim documentation to the Department except if there is an appeal, complaint, audit, or specific inquiry from the Department. Private plan employers with fewer than 25 employees that voluntarily elect to provide coverage under the Chapter that is otherwise exempted due to the size of their companies will be subject to all of the provisions of the Chapter. This Act establishes a Paid Leave Advisory Committee to review issues related to the implementation and administration of the Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program and to review proposed statutory and regulatory amendments to the program. This substitute differs from House Bill No. 128 as follows: This substitute does not change the calculation of an application year or change the 24-month benefit period to a 12-month benefit period. This substitute adds provisions for child support garnishment of PFMLA benefits. This substitute prohibits the practice of requiring employees to use unused accrued paid time off before accessing PFMLA benefits. This substitute allows the Paid Leave Advisory Committee to begin meeting once the Delaware LaborFirst system is functional and the steering committee has been dissolved. This substitute specifies that family and medical leave benefits cannot be assigned and are exempt from the claims of creditors. This substitute sets forth procedures for executing upon judgments for amounts due under Chapter 37 of Title 19 or other titles subject to this chapter.
This Act provides that the Secretary of the Department of Safety and Homeland Security (“Secretary”), or the Secretary’s designee, is a member of the Enhanced 911 Emergency Reporting System Service Board (“Board”) by virtue of the Secretary’s position. This Act also makes the Secretary, or the Secretary’s designee, the Board Chair. The Secretary is currently, and historically, an appointed member of the Board and this Act would codify that practice. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act adds the existence of the Division of Legislative Services and the Office of the Controller General into Delaware Code. Chapter 11 of Title 29 details the creation of Legislative Council, as well as the authority of the Council to appoint a Director of the Division of Legislative Services (Director) and a Controller General. Chapter 11 further states that the Director shall organize and supervise the Division of Legislative Services and that the Controller General may be provided with additional employees to enable the Controller General to perform their duties. However, our Code does not create the Division of Legislative Services or the Office of the Controller General, which are the offices overseen by the Director and Controller General, respectively.
This Act adopts a recommendation made by the Delaware Compensation Commission in its January 6, 2025, report. Specifically, this Act changes the minimum amount of pension payable to a member of the General Assembly elected after February 28, 2025, because the pension amount will no longer be calculated by multiplying the elected official’s years of service as an elected member of the General Assembly times the highest rate of payment being paid to any retired member of the General Assembly. Instead, the pension payable to an elected official of the General Assembly elected on or after February 28, 2025, shall be computed under § 5527(a)(1) of Title 29.
Presently, Title 29 of the Delaware Code § 5813(c) requires public officers to file financial disclosure forms on March 15 of each year. However, in certain years, for example, 2025, the statute calls for financial disclosures to be filed over the weekend, because March 15, 2025 fell on a Saturday. On weekends, the assistance of the Public Integrity Commission may not be available. This Act changes the deadline for filing financial disclosures to “on or before the third Wednesday of March” which will be a weekday and a regular business day. This Act also clarifies the statute by expressly stating that the financial disclosures may be filed “on or before” the new deadline, in keeping with the current practice of the Public Integrity Commission.
