Rep. Gerald L. Brady

The Delaware Equal Accommodations Law, Chapter 45 of Title 6 of the Delaware Code, prevents discrimination against people because of their race, age, marital status, creed, color, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin. This Act enhances the protections under the Delaware Equal Accommodations Law by prohibiting retaliatory discrimination against an individual for either of the following: (1) Opposing an act or practice that is an unlawful practice under the Delaware Equal Accommodations Law. (2) Making a charge, testifying, assisting, or participating in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing to enforce the Delaware Equal Accommodations Law.

This Act authorizes the State and its counties and municipalities to install and use vehicle height monitoring systems ("vehicle height monitoring system") to assist in the enforcement of applicable State, county, or municipal law regarding motor vehicle size. This Act is patterned after Maryland's vehicle height monitoring system law, under which the City of Baltimore recently implemented an ordinance to use vehicle height monitoring system. This Act does not create a new violation. It does establish the following: - Requirements for the Department of Transportation ("DelDOT") to conduct the initial identification of potential locations for vehicle height monitoring system and analysis of the appropriateness of each location. - Requirements for the Department of Safety and Homeland Security ("DSHS") to select a system vendor for use by the State, counties, and municipalities through an open competitive procurement process. - Requirements for DSHS to approve and install vehicle height monitoring systems on State-maintained roads. - Requirements for a county or municipality to approve and install vehicle height monitoring system on the roads maintained by the county or municipality. A county or municipality must adopt an ordinance before approving or installing a vehicle height monitoring system. - Requirements and maintenance of vehicle height monitoring system, including the designation of a vehicle height monitoring system technician to maintain a daily set-up log for each vehicle height monitoring system in use. Daily set-up logs may be admitted as evidence in any court proceeding for a violation captured by a vehicle height monitoring system. - That the owner of a motor vehicle captured by a vehicle height monitoring system is liable for the violation, unless the owner can demonstrate that someone else was in control or possession of the motor vehicle when the violation occurred. - A civil penalty under this section is limited to $250 for second violations, and $500 for third and subsequent violations. A first violation is subject only to a warning notice, with no fine. - Requirements for the information that must be included in a citation under this section and that a citation must be mailed within 30 days of the violation. - What must be included in an image recorded by a vehicle height monitoring system to use the image as evidence. - Limitations on the consequences of being liable under this section. A violation may not be used to assess points on the person's driver license, recorded on the person's driving record, treated as a parking violation, or considered in the provision of motor vehicle insurance coverage. - The State or a county or municipality may designate a contractor to administer and process citations under this section, but a contractor's fee may not be contingent on the number of citations issued or paid. - That this section does not apply to certain vehicles, such as emergency vehicles or school buses. Under this Act, the owner of a motor vehicle is liable for a violation that occurs while the owner uses the vehicle or an employee of the owner uses the vehicle for the purposes of employment. If, however, a driver other than an employee of the owner violates this Act while using the owner’s vehicle, a mechanism is in place to allow the owner to rebut the presumption that the owner was driving the vehicle at the time of the violation (see line 121).

The bill expands the qualified agencies authorized to receive grants approved by the Water Infrastructure Advisory Council to include non-profit corporations, such as the Diamond State Sustainability Corporation (“DSSC”), approved by Public Service Commission as a regulated water or wastewater utility. As a regulated utility, the DSSC assists low and moderate income residents and communities in rural areas of Delaware by acquiring and improving community-owned water and wastewater systems, many of which are aging or at risk of failure, and providing service pursuant to Commission-approved rates. This bill also expands the definition of “treatment works” to include “domestic wastewater” projects in order to allow for grants for community septic and sewage system upgrades.

This Act adds coverage for Medication Assisted Treatment ("MAT") for drug and alcohol dependencies to the mental health parity laws for health insurance. This Act requires health insurance carriers to provide coverage for prescription medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for MAT at no greater financial burden than for prescription medication for other illness or disease, without step therapy requirements, and at the lowest tier of the drug formulary. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

Currently, non-resident pass-through entities, trusts, and estates are required to pay estimated income taxes anticipated to be due as a result of real estate transactions before each deed is recorded. The payment of estimated income taxes before each deed is recorded has become a burden on entities that transfer multiple parcels and on the Division of Revenue. In order to maximize time and improve personnel efficiencies within the Division of Revenue, this Act provides the Director with the ability to exempt nonresident pass-through entities involved in the sale or exchange of Delaware real estate from the requirement of remitting estimated income taxes due with each deed to the Recorder before the deed is recorded. This act only allows the Director to grant exemptions as to the timing of the payment of estimated income taxes; it does not allow the Director to grant exemptions from paying income taxes.

Daylight saving time has existed in one form or another for over 100 years. In that time, Delawareans have become accustomed to the 8 months of daylight saving time each year. This Act provides for Delaware to permanently remain on daylight saving time. This Act achieves this by doing the following: (1) Requiring, in Section 4 of this Act, that the Governor request that the United States Secretary of Transportation place Delaware in the Atlantic standard time zone if Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland each enact a law requesting the Secretary to place their respective state in the Atlantic standard time zone. The Secretary is authorized under 15 U.S.C. § 261 to define the limits of each time zone and thus may place Delaware in the Atlantic standard time zone. (2) Exercising, in Section 2 of this Act, the discretion granted to Delaware under 15 U.S.C. § 260a to exclude itself from daylight saving time. Section 5 of this Act makes clear that this exclusion takes effect on the first Sunday in November once the United States Secretary of Transportation places Delaware in the Atlantic standard time zone. This results in Delaware permanently remaining 1 hour ahead of eastern standard time.

This Act is identical to Senate Bill No. 127 from the 149th General Assembly, which was passed by the Senate and reported out of the House Administration Committee. This Act corrects an inadvertent error in Delaware law that has permitted people younger than 18 years of age to vote in final-stage elections. People must be 18 years of age or older to be eligible to vote in a final-stage election such as general elections, special elections, school board elections, and school district referendums. However, people younger than 18 years of age can vote in any preliminary election, such as primary elections, if they will be 18 years of age at the time of the final-stage election.

This Act modifies the impact of criminal history for applicants for licensure to the Board of Electrical Examiners (Board). Specifically, this Act: (1) Permits the Board to grant waivers for felony convictions for crimes committed against a person where more than 3 years have elapsed, and more than 2 years have elapsed for other felonies. (2) Permits the Board to grant waivers for felony and misdemeanor convictions if the applicant is on Level I or II probation. (3) Precludes the Board from considering a conviction where more than 10 years have elapsed since the date of conviction. (4) Requires an applicant to submit evidence that the applicant has not been convicted of a felony sexual offense. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

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.

Delaware is one of only 3 states that does not offer some form of adult dental coverage through Medicaid (alongside Tennessee and Alabama). Dental care is health care. And, studies have shown that poor dental health care can result in serious infections and abscess in the face, neck, and jaw areas requiring some individuals to go to the emergency room where they may spend days in intensive care or even die. This ultimately costs states more money through their Medicaid program that could be saved if dental care were covered. This Act expands Delaware's Public Assistance Code to provide dental care to all eligible adult Medicaid recipients. Payments for dental care treatments are subject to a $3 recipient copay and the total amount of dental care assistance provided to an eligible recipient may not exceed $1,000 per year, except that an additional $1,500 may be authorized on an emergency basis for dental care treatments through a review process established by the Department of Health and Social Services. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Substitute Act differs from Senate Bill No. 92 (150th General Assembly) because it changes the effective date of this Act to be April 1, 2020, and removes provisions made unnecessary by the change.