Rep. Jesse Vanderwende

This Act creates a tax credit applicable to personal income taxes in an amount equal to incurred motor vehicle document fees for certain lower income, working poor, individuals. This tax credit is designed to assist the working poor in obtaining a new or used motor vehicle. Section 2 of this Act makes the change effective for the tax year in which the Secretary of Finance provides the Registrar of Regulations with notice that the personal income tax release of the Integrated Revenue Administration System is implemented. This delay in effective date is necessary to ensure that tax law changes can be properly and efficiently implemented in the Division of Revenue's modernized Integrated Revenue Administration System, which is currently under development.

This act will be known as the Egregious Crimes Accountability Act. This Act revises Delaware's death penalty statute to ensure its compliance with the United States Constitution, as interpreted by the United State Supreme Court in Hurst v. Florida, and by the Delaware Supreme Court in Rauf v. State. In accord with those cases, this Act will require that before a death sentence can be imposed, a jury (unless the Defendant waives their right to one) must first determine unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt: that at least 1 statutory aggravating circumstance exists; which (if any) statutory and non-statutory aggravating circumstances alleged by the State exist; and whether all of the aggravating circumstances found to exist outweigh all of the mitigating circumstances found to exist. This Act also revises Delaware's death penalty statute to comply with the United State Supreme Court's holding in Hall v. Florida, interpreting standards set forth in Atkins v. Virginia. This Act adopts the term "intellectual disability" used by the United State Supreme Court. This Act recognizes developing trends in death penalty jurisprudence and the American Bar Association's Resolution 122A (2006), of August 8, 2006, by prohibiting the imposition of the death penalty upon a person who has been found "guilty, but mentally ill", as defined by Title 11 § 401. This Act also limits the statutory aggravating circumstances to four aggravating circumstances: 1. Mass Murder: The defendant’s course of conduct resulted in the deaths of 3 or more persons where the deaths occurred in a place of public use and the deaths are the probable consequence of the defendant’s conduct. The threshold number of 3 deaths is consistent with the federal definition. 28 U.S.C. § 530C. 2. Repeat Offender: The defendant was previously convicted of another murder. 3. Horribly Inhumane: The murder was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman in that it involved torture, depravity of mind, use of an explosive device, weapon of mass destruction, or poison or the defendant used such means on the victim prior to murdering the victim. 4. Hate Crimes: The murder was committed for the purpose of committing a hate crime. Hate crime is defined in Title 11, § 1304.

This Act revises the Charter of Greenwood as follows: Section 1. Revises the procedures used by the Town to annex property. Section 2. Authorizes the Town to cancel Town Council meetings and authorizes the use of electronic communication methods to notify council members of special meetings. Section 3. Clarifies that a majority vote is needed for the Town Council to take action. Quorum is calculated based on a majority of all the sitting council members, exclusive of any vacant council seats. Section 4. Clarifies that the Town documents its proceedings via meeting minutes. Section 5. Sets $50,000 as the maximum contract amount that the Town can enter into without public bidding and clarifies the Town’s procedures for evaluating bids and awarding contracts. Section 6. Specifies that the Mayor may vote on all matters, not just when there is a tie vote, revises the Mayor’s duties, and establishes procedures for appointing individuals to committees. Section 7. Updates the duties of the Town Council Secretary. Section 8. Revises the terms of employment for the Town Manager and other employees. This section clarifies that town employees, except for the town manager and police department employees, are at will employees that are hired for an indefinite employment term. This section also eliminates duties of the Town Manager that are obsolete and clarifies that the Town Manager does not have to serve as the Town Treasurer. Section 9. Eliminates the need of the town solicitor to have an office in Sussex County. Section 10. Revises the terms of employment for the Chief of Police, including the possibility of the Chief of Police having an employment contact. Section 11. Updates the Town’s debt collection procedures to clarify the outstanding charges that can be added to tax bills and collected. This section also limits the maximum interest rate on delinquent amounts to 1.5% per month. Section 12. Eliminates duplicate language and requires the Town Council to adopt a resolution approving the final assessment list, including all additions to tax bills. This section also clarifies that the annual tax list includes additions to tax bills incorporated into the annual assessment list. Section 13. Authorizes the amount of outstanding debts to remain a lien against a property beyond the 10 year time limit if the property is still owned by the same owner against whom the charges were originally assessed. The section enlarges the time for paying taxes to 60 days and reduces the penalty for unpaid taxes to 1.5% per month. This section also clarifies the collection costs that can be recovered by the Town and eliminates obsolete collection procedures. Section 14. Eliminates the Town’s ability to regulate activities on the Sabbath Day and clarifies the Town’s ability to establish fines and penalties for outstanding water and sewer accounts. Section 15. Repeals existing procedures for opening and closing streets and enacts simpler procedures for the Town to follow. Section 16. Clarifies the Town’s ability to install new sidewalks. Section 17. Adds additional purposes for which the Town may borrow money and requires public hearing details to be included in a resolution proposing to borrow the money. This section also provides more detail on the procedures to follow when holding a special election to vote on the town borrowing money and creates procedures and authority for the Town to borrow up to $100,000 without going through the public hearing process. It also authorizes the Town to publish a notice of the borrowing that gives members of the public 60 days to challenge the borrowing. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

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 Senate Concurrent Resolution requests that the Division of Medicaid and Medical Assistance study the extension of Medicaid coverage through the first year postpartum. Insurance coverage is a critical factor in determining women's access to affordable postpartum care and is a key strategy for reducing preventable maternal mortality and to close the disparity in the maternal mortaility rate among black women and women of other races.

This Concurrent Resolution recognizes January 9, 2020, as "Law Enforcement Appreciation Day" in Delaware.

This Act makes children with disabilities who attend homeschools eligible to receive speech language pathology and audiology services in the same manner as students who attend private schools. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This act names the Delaware portion of U.S. Route 301 between Route 1 and the Delaware Maryland State line as First Responders Memorial Highway.

This Act, modeled on similar laws in Virginia and Maryland, requires a health-care provider to provide notice to a patient at the time blood is drawn to perform a laboratory test for Lyme disease that explains the limitations of the test and instructs the patient to see their health-care provider if the patient continues to experience unexplained symptoms. This Act is consumer and patient friendly.

Unmanned aircraft systems are capable of introducing contraband into detention facilities without undergoing correctional officer inspections. This bill seeks to prohibit the use of unmanned aircraft systems (drones) to introduce contraband into detention facilities. This bill makes it a class F felony to deliver or attempt to deliver contraband by use of a drone.