Currently the US FDA is reviewing a New Drug Application (NDA) of a pharmaceutical product containing cannabidiol (CBD) to treat patients with rare pediatric seizure disorders. If approved, this drug will be required to be prescribed and dispensed like other FDA approved products. However, to make sure that this product and future FDA approved marijuana containing products are available to patients as soon as possible, a change in Delaware law is required. This bill would exempt federally lawful FDA approved marijuana containing products from Schedule I of the state’s Controlled Substances Act until they are rescheduled under Delaware law. This would allow patient access to new therapies without an administrative delay, and allow FDA approved marijuana containing medicines to be prescribed, dispensed and regulated like other FDA approved pharmaceutical products. Illegal possession or sale of these drugs would be prosecuted as any other violation of the Controlled Substance Act.
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This bill will increase the public transparency of education funding information by directing the Department of Education to: 1. Establish, in collaboration with stakeholders, a statewide approach for districts and charter schools for reporting expenditures at the school level and the school’s share of central office expenditures so that per-pupil expenditure data is consistent and comparable across the State. 2. Report per-pupil expenditure data with key information that provide context on differences in funding such as school type, student demographics, and student outcomes. 3. Provide optional trainings to increase understanding of the data. As a result, this bill is intended to enable all taxpayers, parents, and schools to understand their school spending and resources in order to make data-driven decisions for students.
This Act provides county and municipal police and firefighters with the same pension burial benefit that is provided to state employees effective July 1, 2016. This Act is named for Wilmington Firefighters Captain Christopher M. Leach, Lieutenant Jerry W. Fickes, and Lieutenant Ardythe D. Hope, who lost their lives fighting a house fire on September 24, 2016.
This Act increases the maximum tax credit available for owner occupied historic property by $10,000. This Act also makes a technical correction to the existing law.
This Act relates to police and fire pension funds created under Title 18 of the Delaware Code. The General Assembly created a special fund in the hopes of ensuring adequate pensions for affected police officers and firefighters, and their surviving spouses. This has not come to pass with regard to all pensions, however. By way of example only, the average surviving spouse in the Wilmington Police and Fire retirement plan receives a pension of only $10,080, which is $1,090 dollars below the 2012 poverty level. Moreover, there have been only five disbursements under the special fund in its 48 year history. To address this, the Act would allow for an additional manner of providing distributions from the related special fund established for Police and Fire pensions. Specifically, disbursements from the fund to be made under this Act would be biennial and structured in 3 categories. The 3 categories are based upon length of retirement and whether the eligible individual is a surviving spouse or receiving a disability pension.
This Act makes a technical correction to SB 169 by changing the designations of the new statutes and incorporates Senate Amendment No. 1 to Senate Bill No. 169.
This bill authorizes the creation of a Delaware Voluntary Property Assessed Clean Energy (D-PACE) program to establish a clean energy financing program for the installation of energy efficiency technologies and clean energy systems for qualifying commercial real properties statewide. PACE programs are authorized in more than 30 states nationwide. The financing will be secured by and payable from a voluntary assessment imposed on the property benefited by the qualifying energy improvement. The bill calls upon the Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU) to administer the program and establish a statewide financing program to aid counties in expanding clean energy projects in their jurisdictions. Projects under D-PACE can be financed through the SEU or other participating financial institutions.
This bill adds glaucoma, chronic debilitating migraines, pediatric autism spectrum disorder, pediatric sensory processing disorder to the list of debilitating medical conditions which may qualify a person, upon certification by a physician, to be eligible for the use of medical marijuana in accordance with the terms of the Delaware Medical Marijuana Act.
This bill allows first-time home buyers to pay their portion of the realty transfer tax at the rate that was in effect prior to the increase that took effect on August 1, 2017. The credit is calculated as 0.5% of the first $400,000 in home value, with a maximum allowable credit of $2,000. This legislation is retroactive for any first-time home buyer who entered into a transaction for the transfer of real estate on or after August 1, 2017. The seller in any transaction with a first-time buyer will still pay the current tax rate. The bill also removes a provision that applied to contracts entered into prior to 1971, since such provision is no longer relevant. For ease of application, the new definition of "first-time home buyer" is cross-referenced in the already existing Code provision directing the counties to exempt such buyers from any county-imposed realty transfer tax. This reduction in the tax rate for first-time home buyers will be effective for transactions entered into on or after the effective date of this Act.
This Act establishes that a contract between a pharmacy benefits manager and a pharmacy may not prohibit a pharmacy or pharmacist from doing any of the following: (1) Providing an insured with information regarding the retail price of a prescription drug or the amount of the cost share for which the insured is responsible for a prescription drug. (2) Discussing with an insured information regarding the retail price of a prescription drug or the amount of the cost share for which the insured is responsible for a prescription drug. (3) If a more affordable, therapeutically equivalent prescription drug is available, selling the more affordable, therapeutically equivalent prescription drug to the insured. In some cases, contracts between pharmacy benefits managers and pharmacies have provisions that prohibit pharmacies or pharmacist from informing consumers that they have options related to a prescription drug they want to buy and that the prescription drug could be purchased at a lower cost if the consumer paid out of pocket rather than through their health insurance plan. These provisions are often known as “gag clauses.” At least 7 states have enacted laws prohibiting these “gag clauses.”