Rep. Bill Bush

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.

House Bill No. 292 of the 149th General Assembly established a 3 year pilot program (“program”) to implement the recommendations in the 2015 Autism Educational Task Force report. The pilot program revised the Delaware Autism Program toward a system where the statewide Director works in collaboration with a team of experts to provide technical assistance and training to districts and educational entities. This Act makes the pilot program permanent and revises the program as follows: 1. Requires the Department of Education ("Department") to administer the program, including hiring the Director. 2. Revises the terminology in the qualifications for the Director to include autism spectrum disorder (“ASD”). 3. Requires the Department to hire 5 training specialists instead of the current hiring requirement that is based on the number of students with an educational classification of ASD. 4. Renames the Parent Advisory Committees to clarify that they are statewide. 5. Revises the responsibilities of the Peer Review Committee to conduct reviews without a request of the Department, to include behavioral procedures in the review, and at the request of the Department, review procedures and programming for students with other educational classifications served in the program. This Act takes effect on July 1, 2021. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act is intended to promote, maintain, and bolster the public’s confidence in the integrity of State government, particularly as it relates to the employment of former members of the General Assembly within State government. This Act achieves this goal by prohibiting a former member of the General Assembly from being appointed to or employed in a position in a State agency for 1 year after the former member’s final term of office if either of the following applies: (1) The position was created during the former member’s final term of office. (2) The compensation for the position was increased, other than by an appropriation by the General Assembly that applies to all similarly situated State employees, during the former member’s term of office and the former member did not hold the position during the former member’s term of office. Existing law provides that a former member who knowingly or wilfully violates this Act is guilty of a misdemeanor and may be punished by imprisonment of not more than 1 year and by a fine not to exceed $10,000.

This Act fully exempts county property taxes and local school taxes for a disabled veteran with a 100% VA rated service-connected, permanent and total disability or for a disabled veteran who is receiving 100% disability compensation due to individual unemployability. The 100% rating and disability compensation is determined by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. This Act sets forth the minimum requirements that a claimant in any county must meet in determining eligibility for the exemption. Each county may impose additional requirements as necessary for eligibility. The minimum requirements are as follows: (1) the disabled veteran must be legally domiciled in the State for a period of time established by the county; and (2) the property for which the exemption is sought must be solely owned by the disabled veteran (or jointly with spouse) and used as his or her primary place of residence.

This Act suspends the educator evaluation system during the 2020-2021 school year and replaces it with an observation and feedback cycle that provides educators with coaching and support related to hybrid and remote learning practices. This Act provides for all of the following during the observation and feedback cycle: 1. An initial goal setting process, classroom observation, and end-of-year conference. 2. Feedback provided to an educator must be recorded in the Data Service Center platform. 3. Evidence collected and feedback provided during observations may not be used as part of the evaluation cycle or to assign a summative rating for the 2020-2021 school year. 4. Recommendations on performance may not result in a formal improvement plan. 5. Educators must complete only the goal setting form and a verification form. This Act also provides that formal improvement plans in place for the 2020-2021 school year remain in effect through the next evaluation cycle under this section.

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.

This bill provides COVID-19 related relief to both claimants receiving unemployment benefits and employers who are assessed unemployment taxes, and extends the end date of the Secretary of Labor’s COVID-19 related rulemaking authority. Section 1 waives the 13-week waiting period for the state to "trigger on" to pay extended unemployment benefits in periods of high unemployment. Section 2 establishes the 2021 new employer assessment rate, average industry assessment rate, and average construction industry assessment rate at the same rate as 2020 in order to avoid an increase in these rates as a result of the increase in unemployment claims due to COVID-19. Section 3 extends the provisions in H.B. 352 from the 150th General Assembly authorizing the Delaware Secretary of Labor to issue emergency rules amending the Delaware Unemployment Insurance Code to deal with the effects of COVID-19 and implement federal programs providing unemployment benefits to respond to COVID-19. Section 4 exempts unemployment compensation benefits received in 2020 from the calculation of Delaware adjusted gross income so that unemployment claimants will not have to pay state taxes on the benefits they received during the pandemic.

This Act is the second leg of a constitutional amendment to add race, color, and national origin to § 21 of Article I of the Delaware Constitution to explicitly declare that protection against discrimination based on race, color, and national origin is one of Delaware's fundamental rights. The first leg of this constitutional amendment was Senate Bill 191 of the 150th General Assembly, published in Chapter 287 of Volume 82 of the Laws of Delaware. On passage of this second leg by this General Assembly this amendment will become part of the Delaware Constitution. Since the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, with Delaware ratifying it in 1901, at least 15 states have added a provision to their state constitution that prohibits the denial or abridgement of equal rights under the law based on race, color, or national origin. In 2019, Delaware amended the state constitution to prohibit the denial or abridgement of equal rights under the law based on sex, but no such prohibition exists as to race, color, or national origin. 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 when the General Assembly amends the Delaware Constitution.

This Senate Concurrent Resolution proclaims January 23, 2021, as "Maternal Health Awareness Day" in the State of Delaware.

This bill requires that inadvertent out-of-network services be included in individual and group health insurance policies as well as group and blank health insurance policies. This bill defines inadvertent out-of-network services are those services that are covered under a policy or contract of health insurances, but are provided by an out-of-network provider in an in-network facility, or when in-network health care services are unavailable or not made available to the insured in the facility. Inadvertent out-of-network services also includes laboratory testing ordered by an in-network provider but performed by an out-of-network laboratory.