Sen. Trey Paradee

This Act updates the Delaware Code section that requires municipalities in New Castle County to submit permit data to the County government. The Act clarifies that such information should be submitted monthly in a manner prescribed by the County and that only closed permits where a certificate of occupancy has issued should be reported. If a municipality fails to timely report permit data it must submit a report to the County and the General Assembly detailing the reason for the omission, what steps are being taken to address the problem, and when the information will be submitted. This permit data is necessary for the County to ensure the accuracy of property assessments.

This Act provides special authority to school districts in New Castle County to reset their tax rate for the 2026-2027 tax year. This authority is necessary because several adjustments to the New Castle County tax roll are continuing to be made after the completion of the general reassessment that took effect for the 2025-2026 tax year. This includes the ongoing adjudication of appeals from the assessment values set in the general reassessment as well as quality control reviews, and potential changes pending in other legislation. This Act allows the New Castle County school districts to adjust the tax rate so that no increase in operating revenue over the prior year will be realized, with two exceptions: (1) revenue increases from approved referenda; and (2) revenue equal to the 5-year average growth rate for each district. The 5-year average growth rates for NCC districts are as follows: (1) Appoquinimink, 3.68%; (2) Brandywine, 0.54%; (3) Christina, 0.32%; (4) Colonial, 1.10%; (5) Red Clay, 0.58%; (6) Smyrna, 0.31%; and (7) New Castle County Vocational Technical, 0.96%. This Act sunsets on March 31, 2027.

This Act prohibits counties and municipalities from requiring the use of water backflow preventers in certain types of low hazard buildings. In doing so, this Act reduces costs for businesses and single-family residential homeowners by exempting them from backflow preventer installation and inspection requirements in buildings where backflow does not pose a risk to fresh water or drinking water. Buildings deemed low hazard will nonetheless be required to have backflow preventers if they have fresh water supplied by a public well. Under § 1 of Article IX of the Delaware Constitution, this Act requires a two-thirds majority vote because it involves indirect changes to municipal charters.

This Act establishes an automatic enrollment feature for newly hired state employees in the State’s 457(b) deferred compensation retirement plan. The Board may, through a plan amendment, modify the definition of a covered employee. Under the Act, a predetermined percentage of an employee’s salary will be automatically deducted from each paycheck and contributed to the 457(b) plan upon hire. This Act allows new employees to opt out at any time prior to the commencement of automatic withdrawals, which normally commences 90 days after hire. If an employee does not opt out of automatic enrollment during this 90-day period, the employee will be enrolled and contributions will commence. The employee will thereafter have an additional 30 days to opt out and request a refund of any contributions. Refund requests must be submitted no later than 120 days after the date of hire. Employees under a collective bargaining agreement are not subjected to auto-enrollment but are able to participate if should they elect to do so. This Act takes effect 10 days after the date of publication in the Register of Regulations of a notice from the State Treasurer that the Office of Management and Budget has certified to the State Treasurer that necessary payroll upgrades necessary to implement this Act have been completed.

This legislation shall be known and may be cited as the “Load Forecast Accountability Act.” Recent reports by PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (PJM), have highlighted that electricity demand across the PJM footprint, including Delaware, is projected to grow due to data centers, electrification of vehicles and buildings, and other large load additions. PJM recently projected that, by 2030, PJM expects to add 32 GW of load to the grid – 30 GW of which is attributable to data centers. PJM relies upon load forecasts submitted by Commission-regulated electric distribution companies in Delaware to establish system planning needs and capacity requirements which ultimately have costs associated with both. Accurate, transparent, load forecasting is essential to ensure the adequacy of electric supply, maintain system reliability, and protect Delaware consumers from unnecessary costs caused by overbuilding or underbuilding system resources. There is a critical need for the Delaware Public Service Commission to provide oversight of load forecasting inputs from Commission-regulated electric distribution companies, to ensure accuracy and transparency, and to coordinate with PJM and neighboring state regulators to prevent duplicative counting of projects and customer contracts. The purpose of this Act is to provide the Commission with authority and responsibility to: (1) Review and evaluate load forecasts submitted by Delaware Commission-regulated electric distribution companies to PJM; (2) Coordinate with PJM and other states to ensure accurate system-wide planning; and (3) Access all relevant materials, including confidential agreements, necessary to carry out this oversight. Under this Act, the Commission is required to submit a written report to the Governor, the General Assembly, and the Director and the Librarian of the Division of Legislative Services no later than May 1 of each year on its progress in implementing this Act. This report must also be posted on the Commission’s website.

This Act repeals the ability of school districts to increase tax rates by up to 10% when recalculating the district’s rate of taxation after a general reassessment. This Act does not repeal the requirement under § 1916(b) of Title 14 that a school district recalculate the district’s rate of taxation after a general reassessment, but instead of the 10% maximum, limits the amount of money a district can collect as a result of increases in the fair market value of real property to an amount that is equal to or less than the sum of all of the following: 1. The actual operating revenue derived by the tax levied in the fiscal year immediately preceding the general reassessment. 2. A percentage that is equal to the average growth rate in taxable property in the district since the previous reassessment. This Act also allows school districts to increase a tax approved in a referendum election under Chapter 19 of Title 14 by up to 2% annually without a referendum if the district’s operational reserve balance is not more than 10% of the district’s annual revenue and it is not the same fiscal year that the rate of taxation is recalculated after a general reassessment. This authority will allow school districts to maintain services for students by gradually adjusting to challenges such as inflation, enrollment changes, and increased student needs. Under this Act, the new recalculation equation under § 1916(b) of Title 14 applies beginning for the fiscal year following the next general reassessment and a school district cannot begin to increase tax rates by no more than 2% without a referendum until after the next general reassessment or for fiscal year 2031, whichever is earlier. This Act does not do any of the following: • Allow school districts to levy an additional tax that is more than 2% without an approved referendum. • Change the differences under current law for tax rates for vocational-technical districts. Under current law and this Act, vocational-technical districts are required to use the same calculations as other school districts when recalculating the rate of taxation after a general reassessment. However, the tax authority for vocational-technical districts is under Chapter 26 of Title 14, not Chapter 19, so the authority to annually increase a tax rate by 2% does not apply to vocational-technical districts. This Act also makes the following corresponding and technical changes to Chapter 19 of Title 14: • Revises the definitions in § 1901 by adding “general reassessment” and “reassessed” as defined terms and updates the definition of “district” to reflect current school district boundaries. • Clarifies that if Chapter 26 applies to a school district, the ability of a district to levy an additional tax under § 1902(a) does not apply to that district. • Technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Joint Resolution directs the Department of Education to compile and submit a comprehensive report regarding the workforce data and compensation of education support professionals for the most recent school year. The report must identify staffing levels, vacancies, average wages paid, and the number of employees earning below a $40 hourly wage threshold. The Department is further required to recommend pay scales that align with a minimum living wage and submit its findings to the General Assembly and relevant state offices by November 2, 2026.

In 2013, Congress enacted the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2013, 34 U.S.C. § 60105, which requires states to report to the U.S. Department of Justice the deaths of individuals who die in the custody of law enforcement. Failure to comply may result in the reduction of certain federal grant funds. In 2024, the Criminal Justice Council, which is responsible for ensuring Delaware's participation in the data collection required by the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2013, arranged for the Statistical Analysis Center to serve as the Criminal Justice Center's agent to coordinate and manage the logistics of this data collection. The Criminal Justice Council and Statistical Analysis Center issued guidance to law enforcement on the requirements of the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2013 and the process and procedures to be used to comply with these reporting requirements. This Act codifies the process and procedures established by the Criminal Justice Council and Statistical Analysis Center related to the reporting required by the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2013. In addition, this Act requires compliance reporting and provides that a law-enforcement agency that fails to comply with this Act is ineligible for certain funding until the agency complies with this Act.

This Act requires the Department of Education, in collaboration with school districts, charter schools, and vocational-technical school districts, to make findings and recommendations regarding the advisability of incorporating Delaware homeschool students into public school extracurricular activities within the public school that the student would be attending based on residence if that student were enrolled in public school or within charter schools or vocational-technical school districts, including the creation of a pilot program. The Department shall report its findings and recommendations by December 31, 2027. This Act expires on the date of publication in the Register of Regulations of a notice that the Department has submitted its findings and recommendations. The Director of the Division of Legislative Services shall provide notice to the Registrar of Regulations. Since the legal effect of a joint resolution would expire on November 3, 2026 (the date the General Assembly expires), this reporting requirement is being placed in the Laws of Delaware so as to continue its legal effect until the submission of notice that the Department has submitted its findings and recommendations. This Act expires on the promulgation of notice of the report required in Section 3 of this Act being submitted, which is why the Laws of Delaware are being amended rather than a more permanent change in Title 14 of the Delaware Code.

This Act increases the size of the Governor’s Council on Agriculture from 7 to 9 members. The Act also requires that 1 member on the Council must be a livestock producer, and 1 member must be a farmer that is 40 years old or younger.