This Act is the result of the Joint Legislative Oversight and Sunset Committee’s review of the Delaware Advisory Council on Career and Technical Education (“DACCTE”), and does the following: - Clarifies that no more than 2 members may represent any 1 membership qualification. - Adds 2 nonvoting members, a representative from the Department of Education and a student enrolled in a career and technical education (“CTE”) program. - Removes the requirement that the chair represent the private sector. - Limits the chair to 2, 5-year terms. - Requires DACCTE to submit an annual report that includes advocacy efforts, a needs assessment for statewide CTE programming, and reports from on-site school monitoring visits. - Requires at least 3 meetings per year take place after regular business hours and in each of the 3 counties. - Adds quorum and member removal provisions. - Conforms existing law to the drafting standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
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The Joint Legislative Oversight and Sunset Committee approved a project to work with the Governor's Office throughout 2018 and 2019 to identify antiquated boards, commissions, and councils that need statutory updates or outright repeals. The Governor's Council on Agriculture was identified as needing updates to require 7 members rather than “up to” 7 members, and to remove the party balance requirement to make it easier to fill vacancies. Consideration must given to geographical and other diversities when appointing members. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
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.
Under current Delaware law, the county sheriff’s offices are required to appraise goods that are being levied upon to pay debts. In addition, the sheriff’s offices can be held liable to pay the debts of a judgment debtor if, for example, they inadvertently neglect to make a return on a writ of execution. The appraisal provisions in Title 10 of the Delaware Code addressed in this act are out-of-date and impractical to implement. On the subject of the liability of the sheriff's offices, it is a questionable policy to require the sheriff’s office to pay the debt of a judgment debtor for an inadvertent mistake in handling the procedure to levy upon and sell the debtor’s property. This act repeals the appraisal provisions in Title 10 related to the sheriff’s offices. It also repeals provisions imposing liability on the sheriff’s office to pay debt obligations of debtors who fail to pay their bills, when the sheriff’s office commits an error through neglect.
This Act prohibits the practice known as patient brokering, which is the practice where patient brokers are paid a fee to place insured people in treatment centers so that the treatment centers receive thousands of dollars in insurance claim payments for each patient. Increasingly, patient brokers fraudulently enroll patients in low-deductible health plans with out-of-network treatment benefits. Patient brokers target individuals with substance use disorders, who are told that they are receiving their treatment through a scholarship. Not only does this perpetrate fraud against insurers, when insurance plans are terminated for nonpayment of the premium, individuals are discharged from the treatment program with no services or housing and often in a state that is far from home.
This Act allows law-enforcement officers to share an individual's identifying information with the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health ("DSAMH") if the officer suspects the individual is suffering from an overdose or a mental health crisis, allowing DSAMH to connect the individual with behavioral health treatment services.
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.
This Bill modifies the impact of criminal history on an applicant’s eligibility for licensure. It gives the Board discretion 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. The Board is precluded from considering a conviction where more than 10 years have elapsed since the date of conviction.
This Act results from the Joint Legislative Oversight and Sunset Committee's review of the Hazardous Substance Cleanup Act Fund (“HSCA Fund”). Section 1 of the Act, which will take effect on January 1, 2021, provides that the Fund's 15% cap on administrative costs expenditures must be based on the average of the moneys deposited into the Fund over a period of the previous 10 fiscal years. The HSCA Fund tax assessment is due to expire on January 1, 2022. Section 2 of this Act removes the expiration date to ensure continued funding for the Brownfields Development Program and to address environmental liabilities assumed by the State.
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.