Rep. Bill Carson

This Senate Concurrent Resolution designates the week of February 27 to March 5, 2023, as "Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention Week" in Delaware and encourages the Department of Health and Social Services to research methods to raise awareness of, prevent, and treat eating disorders.

This Act removes the 3 year residency requirement to qualify for the disabled veteran tax credit.

This Act expands the Disabled Veterans School Tax Credit to include a deceased disabled veteran's surviving spouse. HB 214 with HA 1, passed by the 151st General Assembly, created the Disabled Veterans Property Tax Relief and Education Expense Fund. School boards are currently authorized to create a credit against school taxes for up to the full amount of school tax liability for property owned by a disabled veteran who meets certain requirements. This Act would allow a disabled veteran's surviving spouse to maintain the credit that their deceased veteran spouse was claiming if their deceased veteran spouse, immediately before death, was both claiming the credit and had not had the right to claim the credit withdrawn and the surviving spouse meets all of the following requirements: (1) Was a titled owner of the qualified property before the deceased veteran’s death. (2) Has not remarried. (3) Owns and occupies the qualified property as their principal residence. A surviving spouse is no longer eligible to maintain the credit if they do any of the following: (1) Remarry. (2) Stop being a titled owner of the qualified property. (3) Stop occupying the qualified property as their principal residence. This Act requires the Secretary of Finance, in consultation with the receiver of taxes and county treasurer, to establish a process to determine the eligibility of a surviving spouse and to allow an eligible surviving spouse to maintain the credit without disruption after the death of their disabled veteran spouse. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act updates Chapter 15 of Title 3, the regulatory provisions for seeds, by making technical and substantive revisions. This Act makes the following corrections, in addition to technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual: 1. Updates the defined terms and reorganizes the terms into alphabetical order. 2. Corrects the names of plants. 3. Reorganizes the label requirements so there is a separate Code section for each category of seeds. 4. Updates the label requirements to align with federal law. 5. Adds references to applicable federal and state laws. 6. Corrects the enforcement provisions to align with current practices and terminology. 7. Repeals duplicative Code sections. 8. Uses gender neutral language. This Act adds all of the following: 1. Specific requirements for hermetically sealed seed. 2. That labels include a clear "Sell By" date. 3. Definitions for the terms "Department", “germination”, and “hard seed”. 4. Revises the definitions of "origin", "pure seed", and "variety".

This Act designates the Dryptosauridae as the official dinosaur of this State. Dryptosauridae bones have been found in the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. The only other dinosaur bones that have been found in Delaware are those of a hadrosaurid, most likely Hadrosaurus foulkii, which New Jersey has already designated as its official state dinosaur. Students at Shue-Medill Middle School, in the Christina School District, researched and identified the Dryptosauridae as the best choice for the official state dinosaur for Delaware. The Delaware Museum of Nature and Science assisted the students with this research and the decision that the Dryptosauridae would be the best choice for Delaware’s official state dinosaur was reached through a school-wide vote. A reconstruction of a dryptosaurid skeleton, Dryptosaurus aquilunguis, will be on display in the new PaeloZone of the Delaware Museum of Nature and Science. Using their research, the students drafted the whereas clauses for this Act to explain the basis for their decision, which includes all of the following: 1. The Dryptosauridae was bird-like but was also a predator and is related to Tyrannosaurus rex. 2. Delaware’s state bird is the blue hen chicken, so it would be meaningful to have a bird-like state dinosaur. 3. Delaware is also home to the Dover Air Force Base, and this dinosaur relied on speed to escape from predators and was incredibly fast. 4. The Dryptosauridae went to the ancient shoreline, but feasted on land like Delaware’s shore birds do now, so it is a reminder of Delaware's ecosystems and how populations, birds, and sea life must be protected.

This Act authorizes the Delaware Burn Camp Corporation created by Subchapter VII to determine its own Board of Directors. This Act will phase in the new directors as the current directors complete their terms or upon the occurrence of a vacancy.

This bill provides a mechanism to grant pension increases to retired State Employees, retired Judges, and retired “New” State police. This bill dedicates a minimum of 2.33% of payroll to be deposited annually to the Post Retirement Fund. This bill also provides for a pension increase as determined by the Board of Pension Trustees.

This act streamlines the appointment process for the Delaware Nutrient Management Commission, expands the definition of dairy farmer to include all cattlemen, consolidates the appointment authorities, and simplifies the number of representatives.

This Act establishes certification and continuing education requirements for central service technicians working in hospitals and freestanding surgical centers. Central service technicians are an important part of the healthcare team responsible for decontaminating, inspecting, assembling, disassembling, packaging, and sterilizing reusable surgical instruments and equipment. This Act requires individuals who perform the tasks of a central service technician to pass a nationally accredited examination and to hold either a certified registered central service technician credential or certified sterile processing and distribution technician credential within 18 months of hire. This Act grandfathers anyone working as a central service technician in a health care facility on or before January 1, 2023.

In 2016, Title 2, Chapter 19 was enacted to address the growing use of ride share applications also known as a Transportation Network Companies (“TNC”), which transport passengers for compensation. In 2016, the General Assembly acknowledged the importance of protecting TNC passengers as well as other drivers on Delaware roads by requiring that a TNC possess $1,000,000.00 in death, bodily injury and property damage insurance coverage when transporting passengers. Because many Delaware citizens do not use a TNC for transportation but use other forms of transportation, such as buses, taxicabs or limousines, this Act increases the death, bodily injury and property damage insurance coverage required for the Delaware Transportation Authority (i.e. DART buses) and public carriers as defined by Chapter 18, Title2 to that which is already required by a TNC. The Act also requires that public carriers, TNCs and Delaware Transportation Authority possess uninsured and underinsured insurance coverage to protect their passengers. The Act will take effect on July 1, 2022.