This resolution extends thoughts and prayers from the people of Delaware to our sister state of Maryland, to the victims’ families, and to the first responders who are assisting with the search and recovery efforts.
This Concurrent Resolution designates March 26, 2024, as "Epilepsy Awareness Day" in Delaware and calls upon State agencies and the people of Delaware to undertake suitable efforts to increase epilepsy awareness.
This Senate Concurrent Resolution proclaims Monday, October 28, 2024, as “National First Responders Day” in the State of Delaware.
This Act extends the right of employees to inspect their own personnel files to former employees. Under this Act, an employer must permit a former employee to inspect the employee's own personnel files that exist at the time of the request. This Act does not create or change any requirements regarding the length of time that an employer must retain personnel files of former employees. This Act also updates the specific information included in personnel files that an employee may inspect and makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act creates dedicated information technology units for Delaware public schools. Currently, the State does not provide funding units for information technology employees, leaving districts and charter schools to finance these positions from a variety of funding streams. Information technology personnel are paid across various scales, including the salary scales for educators, custodians, and paraprofessionals. This creates inconsistency and impacts schools’ ability to hire other personnel such as teachers and counselors. For example, if a school or district funds an information technology position using the same unit that funds teacher salaries, that is one less teacher that the district or school can hire. This Act, which stems from the Public Education Compensation Committee’s October 2023 recommendations, prevents this scenario and ensures consistent funding for information technology staff at salary levels that are competitive regionally. This Act is effective July 1, 2025.
This Act requires all individual, blanket, and group health insurance policies to cover annual ovarian cancer screening tests for women at risk for ovarian cancer. It further expands the scope of monitoring tests available to women subsequent to ovarian cancer treatment.
This Concurrent Resolution recognizes Christian Holy Week and Passover in the State of Delaware.
This House Concurrent Resolution recognizes the month of March 2024 as “Multiple Sclerosis Month” in the State of Delaware.
This Act requires personal income tax brackets to be annually adjusted for cost-of-living increases. This will prevent tax rate increases resulting from cost-of-living pay increases that push lower income taxpayers into higher tax brackets. This is referred to as "bracket creep". Cost-of-living pay increases are intended to offset inflation and not create a greater tax burden on lower income taxpayers. Social justice requires that lower income taxpayers should not face both inflation and higher tax rates at the same time. This Act will be effective for tax years beginning after December 31, 2024.
Section 1 of this Act increases the burial benefit for individuals eligible to receive a pension under the State Employees’ Pension Plan (Chapter 55 of Title 29 of the Delaware Code) from $7,000 to $8,000. The burial benefit has not been increased since 2001 (See 73 Del. Laws, c. 146, § 5). This increase will also apply to funeral benefits that reference the amount in this section. Section 2 of this Act increases the funeral expenses paid for a deceased member of a volunteer fire company, volunteer fire company ladies auxiliary, or volunteer ambulance and rescue company from $7,000 to $8,000. This burial benefit has not been increased since 2004 (See 74 Del. Laws, c. 339, § 1). Consistent with a legal interpretation of the existing law by state agencies, this Act continues to enable the payment of funeral expenses for the funeral of a deceased member of a volunteer fire company, volunteer fire company ladies auxiliary, or volunteer ambulance and rescue company even if the member was also a state employee entitled to burial benefits under § 8331 of Title 11, § 8395 of Title 11, § 8846 of Title 11, § 5316 of Title 29, or § 5546 of Title 29. However, this Act makes changes to existing law to make this legal interpretation clear and to specifically identify the state employee burial benefits to which this provision applies. This Act takes effect on October 1, 2024, to provide time to implement this Act after the enactment of the fiscal year 2025 appropriations act containing the funding for this Act. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
