Rep. Ruth Briggs King

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

This concurrent resolution establishes a Task Force to investigate the cost of special education to include recommending strategies to improve cost efficiencies and outcomes for special education.

This resolution congratulates the class 2018-2019 Eagle Scouts for having attained the highest rank one can earn in the Boy Scouts of America.

This Act fully exempts property taxes for disabled veterans with a 100% VA rated service-connected, permanent and total disability or disabled veterans who are receiving 100% disability compensation due to individual unemployability. The 100% rating and disability compensation is determined by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. The disabled veteran must be legally domiciled in the State for 3 consecutive years and own and occupy the real property as his or her primary place of residence to qualify for the exemption. This exemption only applies to the county portion of property taxes and not school taxes.

In a case of first impression, the Superior Court ruled, contrary to "common knowledge" of Delaware Criminal laws, that criminal impersonation requires proof that a real person (a human being who has been born and is alive) has been impersonated; in other words, one cannot impersonate a fictitious person. Evans v. State, Del. Super., April 30, 2019. This Act provides that criminal impersonation occurs when one impersonates a real or fictitious person.

This Act is the first leg of a constitutional amendment to establish the right to hunt and fish in Delaware. Twenty-one other states have preserved the rights of their citizens to hunt, fish, or trap wildlife. This Act is modeled after the constitutional provisions of Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Tennessee. This Act specifically acknowledges Delaware’s valued, natural heritage of hunting, fishing, and trapping, and declares hunting, fishing, and trapping as the preferred methods of managing and controlling wildlife in this State. This Act may not be applied to do any of the following: 1. Affect rights to divert, appropriate, or use water, or to establish a minimum amount of water in any water body. 2. Lead to a diminution or abrogation of a public or private right or of the State’s power to regulate commercial activities. 3. Prevent the suspension or revocation, under a law enacted by the General Assembly, of an individual’s hunting, fishing, or trapping license. 4. Alter a burden of proof requirement otherwise established by law for a challenge to a law or regulation pertaining to hunting, fishing, or trapping the wildlife of this State.

To address concerns regarding the actual and perceived fairness of lottery admissions to choice, charter, and vo-tech schools, this Act requires that a third party approved by the Department of Education and the State Board of Education conduct the lottery. The Department of Education currently has a contract with Data Service Center to perform the choice lottery for all schools and districts in Delaware. There is no cost to the districts or charters.

This Act increases by one the number of licenses for the sale of alcoholic liquor an individual or entity may have an interest in, from two to three.

This Act extends the Automatic Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program and the Office of Foreclosure Prevention and Financial Education through December 31, 2024. The Automatic Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program and the Office of Foreclosure Prevention and Financial Education were established by 3 different Acts which each sunset after 2 years, based upon the effective date of each Act. The sunset periods have been extended for additional 2 year periods so that the Office of Foreclosure Prevention and Financial Education sunsets in September 2019; § 5062C and § 5062D of Title 10 sunset in January 2020; and § 5062A of Title 10 sunset in January 2019. In addition to providing a uniform date for the expiration of the entire Automatic Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program and the Office of Foreclosure Prevention and Financial Education, this Act makes the expiration date a new subsection of each statute, so that the effective period of the law is clear and easily identified.

The Department of Transportation is already authorized to issue multi-trip permits for pole and piling semitrailers and double-bottom vehicles, also known as “twin trailers,” on a monthly basis. This Act authorizes the Department to also issue the permits on an annual basis. The existing law provides that a monthly permit must be issued for a specified period; an annual permit, in contrast, is not limited to a specified period.