Rep. Danny Short

This Act allows Sussex County, by duly enacted ordinance, to impose a local lodging tax of no more than 3 percent of rent on rooms in a hotel, motel or tourist home located in the unincorporated areas of the County. Such funds may only be used in Sussex County for the capital and operating costs of beach nourishment, waterway dredging, economic development, tourism programs, recreational activities, and water quality and flood control projects.

This Act reinstates the requirement that the Clerks of the Peace in each county maintain a registry of clergypersons or ministers who perform marriages in Delaware. Clergypersons or ministers of any religion desiring to perform wedding ceremonies must register with the Clerk of the Peace. Upon registering, he or she will receive an identification number that he or she must enter on the Certificate of Marriage for each wedding ceremony he or she performs. If the clergyperson or minister registers with the Clerk of the Peace in one county, he or she will be added to a statewide registry and will be able to perform weddings statewide. If a clergyperson or minister performs a wedding without being registered, the Clerk of the Peace can suspend or revoke that clergyperson or minister’s ability to perform further weddings in Delaware.

This Act ratifies the National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact, 34 U.S.C. §40316 (formerly cited as 42 U.S.C. § 14616), a requirement that allows Delaware to join the Compact as a Party State. The Compact serves as the infrastructure by which states can exchange criminal records for noncriminal justice purposes according to the laws of the requesting state and provide reciprocity among the states to share records without charging each other for the information.

This Concurrent Resolution confirms Mark J. Cutrona as the new Director of Research of Legislative Council.

This bill changes the earned income tax credit from nonrefundable to refundable. For tax year 2020 and thereafter, the rate of the credit is in the amount of 5.9 %.

This Act exempts a number of nonprofit corporations from property taxation or assessment by a county or other political subdivision of the State.

This resolution establishes the Interagency Fines and Fees Task Force to study and make findings and recommendations on the impact court-imposed fines and fees have on defendants and the imposition and collection of court-imposed fines and fees.

This concurrent resolution encourages the Department of Education to establish RAVE security systems in all public and charter schools.

This Act amends the Delaware Governmental Accountability Act to make the annual budget process part of a performance management system of strategic planning, performance metrics and performance budgeting, dedicated to continuous process improvement that makes government more efficient, reduces costs and eliminates waste in the process and operations that deliver goods and services to taxpayers, customers and employees of State government.

Currently, a municipality other than the City of Wilmington must be granted the authority to impose a lodging tax by an amendment to the municipality’s charter through a special act of incorporation passed by the General Assembly. This Act authorizes all municipalities to impose a lodging tax, if a municipality chooses to do so. Because some municipalities currently have this authority, this Act makes clear that a provision in a special act of incorporation that authorizes a municipality to impose a lodging tax controls over the authority granted by this Act, whether the special act of incorporation is enacted before or after the effective date of this Act.