Rep. John A. Kowalko

This Concurrent Resolution requests that the budget bill prepared by the Joint Finance Committee keep the Senior Property Tax Credit at its statutorily enacted level of the lesser of 50%, or $500, rather than lower the maximum credit amount through epilogue language, until such time as a means-tested program can be implemented.

In the 1943 decision West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 63 S. Ct. 1178, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a public school requirement that students salute the flag or face punishment violated the First Amendment of the Constitution because it compelled students to declare a belief. Under Barnette and similar decisions, current Delaware law, which requires teachers and students to salute and pledge allegiance to the American flag every morning is unconstitutional because it is coercive. State law requires teachers and students to “salute and pledge allegiance to the American flag” every day and imposes a criminal penalty on a principal or teacher who fails to require students to participate in the salute and pledge of allegiance. A New Hampshire law requiring that time be provided during the school day to recite the pledge of allegiance and which specifically provides that students not participating in the recitation of the pledge of allegiance may silently stand or remain seated while respecting the rights of students participating was found constitutional. This Act preserves the requirement that students have the opportunity to salute and pledge allegiance to the American flag each school day but revises the Code so that the requirement complies with the First Amendment of the Constitution. Specifically, this Act does all of the following: Section 1 revises § 4105 of Title 14 to comply with the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by requiring schools to provide an opportunity for students to salute the flag and pledge allegiance to the American flag every day. Section 2 adds charter schools to § 4101A of Title 14 to be consistent with the revisions in Section 1 of this Act and makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. Section 3 repeals the penalties imposed on a principal or teacher for failure to comply with § 4105 of Title 14. Section 4 repeals the penalties imposed on a principal or teacher for failure to comply with § 4101 of Title 14.

This bill establishes a 2-year residential drinking water purification system pilot program to be administered through the Department of Health and Social Services with funding through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.

This Act changes the program for distributing payments to county seats with tax-exempt properties owned by the State. Section 8318 of Title 29 directs compensatory payments for exempt properties owned by the State to the county seats, Wilmington, Dover, and Georgetown. This Act authorizes these compensatory payments to any municipality with a population over 25,000 and more than 20% tax exempt property owned by the State. This Act also adjusts the formula under which distributions to municipalities are made. This Act improves the formulas to enable the elimination of specific dollar earmarks and to treat all higher education institutions in the State equally. The Act increases the compensatory payments under this section to each of the 3 county seats, and adds Newark to the program at a much lower payment than the payment provided to the county seats. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act adopts the Agreement to Phase-Out Corporate Giveaways, under which member states are prohibited from offering or providing company-specific tax incentives or grants to an entity as inducement for the entity to physically relocate to the state from a location in a member state. Corporate incentives are among the least effective uses of taxpayer dollars to create and maintain jobs and governments should attract and retain companies based on general conditions, not based on a specific grant for a particular company. The Agreement to Phase-Out Corporate Giveaways creates a level playing field for all employers. This Act takes effect upon the adoption of the Agreement to Phase-Out Corporate Giveaways by 2 or more states. This Act is known as the “Agreement to Phase-Out Corporate Giveaways”.

This bill repeals certain provisions in Title 11 relating to abortion including provisions which treat abortion differently than other medical procedures, and provisions which criminalize women and the sale of medical devices and medicines.

This Act prohibits the seller of consumer goods or services from refusing to accept cash payment, except in limited circumstances. It creates graduated civil penalties for violations and provides consumers a private right of action to recover double damages, including consequential damages, for a second violation of the law and triple damages for subsequent violations. The Division of Consumer Protection has authority to enforce the law.

This Act removes the broad exemption in the Freedom of Information Act for the University of Delaware and Delaware State University and creates the following specific exemptions for some records of public institutions: 1. Confidential letters or statements related to admission, employment, or honors. 2. Proprietary information related to study or research. 3. Personal fundraising strategies relating to and confidential financial and personal information about identifiable donors or prospective donors. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 1 of Article IX of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to amend a charter issued to a corporation for educational purposes sustained in whole or part by the State, including the University of Delaware and Delaware State University.

This act restores the $500 senior real property tax credit.

This Act modifies the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards Act to do the following: (1) Continues increasing the required minimum percentage of electrical energy sales to Delaware end-use customers from renewable energy sources through 2035. (2) Makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. (3) Eliminates “cost-cap” mechanism for freezing the RPS and replaces it with a market-based mechanism. (4) Clarifies the rulemaking authority for this Act.