Rep. Shannon Morris

This Resolution pays tribute to the men and women of the Delaware National Guard for their service and sacrifices in support of defending our state and nation, and recognizes the outstanding advocacy provided by the National Guard Association of Delaware.

This Act expands the crime of “criminal mischief” to include damaging an authorized emergency vehicle, defining them as vehicles of a fire department, fire company, police vehicles, ambulances, as well as vehicles used by a fire chief, chief engineer, or fire police officer of any duly organized fire company in performance of their duties. This Act also makes it a class E felony when the person intentionally damages an authorized emergency vehicle.

Through this resolution, we recognize the service and sacrifices Veterans have made for the safety of our nation and reaffirm our commitment to supporting and advocating for the needs of our Veteran community, ensuring that they receive the recognition, respect, care, and benefits they rightfully earned.

This Senate Concurrent Resolution proclaims Monday, October 28, 2024, as “National First Responders Day” in the State of Delaware.

This resolution recognizes the week of March 17 through March 23, 2024, as “National Agriculture Week” in Delaware

This Act is the first leg of a constitutional amendment that states that the power to tax should be limited and reserved solely for the purpose of financing necessary and essential governmental programs and operations and for no other purpose. The unlimited power to tax constitutes the inherent power to coerce and destroy. Such use of the government's power to tax is an abuse of power never intended or authorized by the people of the State of Delaware. This constitutional amendment is intended to protect the people of the State of Delaware from abusive, coercive, and destructive taxing schemes. 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 to amend the Delaware Constitution. Amending the Delaware Constitution requires not only the passing of the changes in this Act, but also passage of the same changes after the next general election by the next General Assembly.

This bill seeks to correct a current bias in Delaware’s election law impacting the outcome of countless races throughout the state. Numerous academic analyses have concluded that there is a considerable benefit to a candidate’s name appearing first on the ballot. In one noteworthy legal proceeding on ballot position bias, the California Supreme Court held that “a significant advantage accrues to a candidate by virtue of a top ballot position.” The High Court further concluded that without incumbents running, approximately 5% of a candidate’s vote share could be attributed to their position on the ballot. California took action in 1975 to eliminate this flaw by randomizing the listing of candidates on its ballots. The Golden State uses a system where a randomized drawing of letters of the alphabet is conducted, with the resulting order of letters constituting a "randomized alphabet" that is used for determining the order of candidates' names on the ballot. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 15 states have enacted reforms to deal with ballot position bias. Delaware law currently mandates that one political party always appear in the first column on the machine ballots or on the first line of absentee ballots. This bill proposes eradicating ballot position inequity by adopting a randomized system modeled after the one successfully employed in California for nearly five decades.

School personnel report that school safety is a significant issue that affects whether or not they stay in the profession. This Act makes recklessly or intentionally causing physical injury to an employee, contractor, or subcontractor of a public or private elementary school or secondary school an assault in the second degree. This Act may be cited as “The School Personnel Protection Act”. This Act is a substitute for and differs from House Bill No. 22 by specifying that the person must recklessly or intentionally cause physical injury to the employee, contractor, or subcontractor while on school property or at a school-sponsored event in order for the provision to apply.

This act increases from $110 to $330 each personal exemption credit for certain lower income earning individuals.

This concurrent resolution establishes the Classroom Behavior and School Discipline Task Force.