Sen. Stephanie Hansen

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.

This Act expands the membership of the Primary Care Reform Collaborative and creates an Office of Value-Based Health Care Delivery in the Department of Insurance to reduce health care costs by increasing the availability of high quality, cost-efficient health insurance products that have stable, predictable, and affordable rates. The Office of Value-Based Health Care Delivery will work with the Primary Care Reform Collaborative and the State benchmarking process. This Substitute Bill differs from Senate Bill No. 116 as follows: 1. Adds the Insurance Commissioner to the Primary Reform Collaborative. 2. Limits the definition of "carrier" to health insurers licensed under Title 18 or certified as a qualified health plan on the Delaware Health Insurance Marketplace. 3. Requires the Insurance Commissioner to promulgate regulations to implement Section 2 of this Act instead of adopting policies and procedures. 4. Removes the deadline to adopt the initial policies under this Act.

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.

This Act revises Delaware Insurance Code provisions related to the individual and group health insurance markets to directly incorporate into Delaware law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s consumer protections related to the following: (1) The prohibition of preexisting condition provisions. (2) Guaranteed issue and availability of coverage. (3) Permissible rating factors. This Act also ties references in Delaware law to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to that law as it was in effect on January 1, 2018. This ensures the ACA’s core consumer protection provisions will remain in place during the uncertainty surrounding the ACA in light of recent court challenges. Finally, this Act makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Substitute Act modifies the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards Act to do all of the following: (1) Adds a solar water heater to the list of eligible energy resources. (2) Defines “solar technology” to include both solar photovoltaic and solar thermal energy technologies. (3) Continues increasing the required minimum percentage of electrical energy sales to Delaware end-use customers from renewable energy sources through 2035. (4) Places the Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control’s Division of Climate, Coastal, and Energy, and the Division itself, in charge of certain administrative aspects of the renewable energy portfolio standards program, replacing the State Energy Coordinator and the Delaware Energy Office. (5) Grants retail electricity suppliers and municipal electric companies a credit for installing eligible energy resources on a certified brownfield. (6) Makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Substitute Act differs from the Act by: (1) Lowering the minimum cumulative percentage for solar technology by .25% beginning in 2030. (2) Removing provisions that permitted a freeze of the minimum cumulative percentage from eligible energy resources and of the minimum cumulative percentage from solar technology under certain circumstances.

Title 9, Chapter 21 of the Delaware Code provides, upon the petition of a majority of property owners of any unincorporated community or village in New Castle County, that New Castle County Council may enter into a contract with any electric, gas, or other lighting company to light the streets or highways running through, bounding, and within the community or village. Communities have requested, and this Act would provide, a narrow expansion of Title 9 to provide for other lighting, including lighting for neighborhood entrance signs. This Act also makes technical corrections to the statutes involved to conform to the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

Under current law, the possession, use, or consumption of a personal use quantity of marijuana remains a crime for those under the age of 21 despite being a civil violation for adults. This Act makes the possession, use, or consumption of a personal use quantity of marijuana a civil violation for juveniles. This Act also makes conforming amendments to subsection (i), regarding expungement of a single criminal offense under subsection (c), as, after the effective date of this Act, subsection (c) will no longer contain a criminal offense.

State economic development officials pursue economic development opportunities that, if realized, would have significant impact on Delaware's future economic health and competitiveness. Such situations frequently require expeditious action and the need to enhance Delaware's transportation infrastructure on a timeline and schedule that is outside the 6 year Capital Transportation Program. To meet these challenges, this Act establishes the Transportation Infrastructure Investment Fund to provide economic assistance for renovation, construction, or any other type of improvements to roads and related transportation infrastructure in order to attract new businesses to Delaware, or for the expansion of existing Delaware businesses, when such an economic development opportunity would create a significant number of direct, permanent, quality, full-time jobs.