This bill protects non-profit organizations that accept and persons who donate wild game to non-profit organizations or provides services related to the processing of such donated wild game from certain types of liability.
This Act establishes a framework for assessing needs, planning and implementing projects, and providing a funding source to enhance and accelerate Delaware’s efforts in cleaning up its contaminated water resources, ensuring that all our citizens have safe drinking water, reducing flooding, and protecting jobs in agriculture and tourism. Most of the State’s waters do not meet water quality standards to support their designated uses, such as for drinking, swimming or supporting aquatic life. This Act increases the level and reliability of funding available to restore Delaware’s streams, rivers, bays, and groundwater through construction of much needed wastewater, drinking water, and drainage projects and increased use of agricultural best practices. Over the next 5 years, more than $500 million in water and wastewater system upgrades are needed statewide, including systems for underserved communities and numerous at-risk systems currently operated by homeowner’s associations in Sussex County. More than $150 million in stormwater upgrades are needed throughout the State along with more than $75 million for removing toxic pollutants from various waterways. In addition, demand for agriculture cost-share funds used to reduce pollution from nutrients far surpasses available resources. This Act creates a Clean Water Trust, supported by dedicating several existing revenue sources and a proposed new dedicated Clean Water Surcharge that will be levied on personal income tax payments and business license fees. The surcharge will be capped at $40 for individual tax filers, $80 for individuals filing a joint return, and $45 for business licenses. The Clean Water Surcharge will be used for capital projects, not to grow government; the allowance for administrative expenses is capped at 10% after the first 2 years and companion legislation creating a constitutionally protected “lock box” is being introduced to provide permanent protection against the fee being diverted for operating expenses. Total revenues from the surcharge are estimated to be approximately $20 million annually. The dedicated Clean Water Surcharge could leverage as much as $50 million in total financing annually for clean water investments and support more than 800 direct and indirect jobs per year. The Trust will be managed by a 5-member Board comprised of the Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, the Secretary of Finance, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Health and Social Services, and an appointed member with financial expertise. The Trust is authorized to issue Clean Water Revenue Bonds for projects approved by the General Assembly and will administer the funds through the already existing Water Infrastructure Advisory Council with the goal of assisting municipal and county governments and others in implementing more affordable water quality projects through low-interest loans, grants, and public-private partnerships. The Trust and the Council are required to develop a Clean Water Plan with an annually updated 5-year Strategic Plan. The Trust is required to undergo an audit each year and to report annually to the General Assembly on its activities and its progress toward meeting the goals of the Clean Water Plan.
Confessions are powerful evidence of guilt. This Act adopts the Uniform Law Commission's Uniform Electronic Recordation of Custodial Interrogations Act to promote truth-finding, promote efficiency, and protect constitutional values. To accomplish this, this Act mandates audio recording or audio and video recording of the custodial interrogation process by law enforcement when the interrogation relates to a crime described in § 4201(c) of Title 11, which designates certain crimes as violent felonies, or to a delinquent act. Recognizing that a blanket requirement of recording electronically all interrogation is not feasible, this Act provides 6 exceptions to the recording mandate: (1) exigent circumstances, (2) an individual's refusal to be recorded, (3) interrogations occurring in other jurisdictions, (4) when the interrogator reasonably believes that the offense involved is not one the Act mandates must be recorded, (5) when the interrogator or interrogator's supervisor reasonably believes electronic recording would reveal a confidential informant's identity or jeopardize the safety of the officer, the person interrogated, or another individual, and (6) equipment malfunctions. Further, this Act requires the prosecution to notify the defense of an intention to introduce an unrecorded statement and of the exception that permitted the lack of recording. This Act requires the prosecution to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that an exception applies. This Act also prescribes remedies for violations of the electronic recording requirement, including the giving of a cautionary instruction to the jury. Finally, this Act requires the Attorney General to adopt rules to implement this Act, which are to be enforced by each law enforcement agency.
This Act includes Department of Transportation employees who work on interstate, expressway, arterial, and collector roads in the classification of employees who are eligible to receive hazardous duty pay. This Act contains a delayed effective date provision to ensure this Act takes effect in fiscal year 2019. Funding for this Act will be drawn from funds that would not violate Article VIII, § 12. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Resolution recognizes March 19th as Celebrating Women in Public Office Day in Delaware.
This Senate Resolution designates March as “Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention Month” in Delaware and encourages the Department of Health and Social Services to research methods to prevent and raise awareness of eating disorders.
This Concurrent Resolution does all of the following: (1) Expresses the General Assembly’s opposition to the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of net neutrality rules (“the repeal”). (2) Urges the United States Congress to either review the repeal as permitted under the Congressional Review Act, within 60 days of receipt of the Federal Communications Commission’s order as required by the Act, or enact legislation reinstating and requiring the preservation of net neutrality. (3) Requests that the Secretary of the Senate to send copies of this Resolution to the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader, U.S. Senate Majority Leader, U.S. Senate Minority Leader, and the Members of Delaware's Congressional Delegation.
In 2011, as part of a general overhaul of Delaware’s drug laws, this provision was inserted into Title 16 to allow juvenile adjudications to count as prior qualifying offenses for purposes of increasing the sentence of certain drug offenders. Pursuant to this provision, some defendants convicted of certain drug crimes who have one prior adult drug conviction and one prior juvenile adjudication within the past 10 years face a drastic increase in sentence as follows: A defendant convicted of “drug dealing – aggravated possession”, a class D felony, will be sentenced as if he had committed a class B felony. The sentence for a class D felony is up to 8 years imprisonment. For a class B felony the sentence can be up to 25 years, and 2 years is the minimum mandatory. A defendant convicted of aggravated possession – class E will be sentenced as if she had committed a class B felony. The penalty is elevated from a maximum of 5 years incarceration to, again, a maximum of 25 with a 2 year minimum mandatory. A defendant convicted of aggravated possession – class F will be sentenced as though he committed a class C felony. Class C felonies are punishable by up to 15 years, rather than the maximum of 3 years for a class F. There is no other part of the criminal code that uses a juvenile adjudication as a statutory sentence enhancement in an adult conviction. While repeat drug offenses are a legitimate concern for communities and the criminal justice system, the elevation of the punishment for a crime based on a juvenile adjudication, which was not tried before a jury, and which may be relatively remote in time is of questionable legal merit. Furthermore, in two of the above scenarios, the crime is elevated to one which requires a minimum mandatory sentence, thus reducing the discretion entrusted to judges. This bill removes that portion of Section 4751B that allows a juvenile adjudication to be used as a second “prior qualifying Title 16 conviction.” Prosecutors may still apply the sentencing enhancement for the single qualifying adult conviction that meets the criteria set out in that section, and may use the enhancement for two prior convictions where both convictions occurred when the defendant was an adult. Judges will continue to be able to consider the defendant’s juvenile record as a factor in determining the appropriate sentence. Finally, where a juvenile was tried and sentenced as an adult, that conviction may still be used for the sentencing enhancement.
This Act restores the Delaware Prescription Drug Payment Assistance Program which was eliminated in the Fiscal Year 2018 Annual Appropriations Act.
This bill allows judicial discretion when juveniles are charged with any of the five specific offenses carved out in state code that say a juvenile of 16 or older, or 15 in the case of § 1447A, must be prosecuted as an adult. The bill simply changes the language from ‘shall’ to ‘may’ to allow judges to weigh the possibility that the juvenile may be better served in Delaware’s Family Court system via the amenability process already enumerated in Title 10 § 1010 and § 1011. Four of the five statutes date back to 1972. The most recent change pertaining to the ages of juveniles affected was in 1996 when lawmakers dropped the age requirement on Section 1447A from 16 to 15. This bill also raises the age in § 1447A to 16, as well.
