Sen. Brian Pettyjohn

This Act revises the State's Gold Alert Program to include missing children and increase dissemination of information to the public to better assist the State's search efforts. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

This Act requires all candidates for statewide office, the General Assembly, and all elected county offices, to request a criminal history background check, no later than the filing deadline, from the State Bureau of Identification. The State Bureau of Identification must, within 10 days of receipt of the request, provide the Commissioner of Elections with a report of the candidate’s criminal history or a statement that the Bureau’s Repository contains no information relating to the candidate. The Commissioner of Elections must then determine if the candidate is qualified under Section 21 of Article II of the Delaware Constitution to be considered a candidate and have their name appear on the ballot. The candidate will be considered a provisional candidate until the Commissioner of Elections determines the candidate is qualified. The information obtained by the Commissioner of Elections, from the Bureau, will not fall under the definition of public record in Chapter 100 of Title 29. The candidate must pay the cost of the criminal history background check, but the cost may be reimbursed from the candidate’s campaign funds as an authorized campaign expenditure. This Act will take effect January 1 after enactment.

This Act makes various amendments to the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Act to improve compliance with its testing and reporting requirements. First, this Act requires physicians to take a training program every 2 years relating to the provisions of the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Act. Second, it requires the Division of Public Health to develop electronic forms to be used at a child’s 12 and 24 month well visit that record lead screening results and are shared with the Divison. Third, it clarifies that laboratories and health care professionals involved in blood lead level analysis must report results to the the Division of Public Health. Finally, it requires the Division of Public Health to share data with school nurses relating to whether an enrolled student has been screened for lead poisoning.

In 2017, the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), Public Law No. 115-97, suspended many itemized deductions from individual federal taxes until January 1, 2026, including the itemized deduction for costs to maintain membership in a labor organization. Senate Bill No. 72 created a tax credit for resident individuals equal to the annual cost, not to exceed $500, to the individual to maintain membership in a labor organization. Senate Substitute No. 1 for Senate Bill No. 72 made the annual cost to a resident individual to maintain membership in a labor organization an itemized tax deduction, not to exceed $500. Senate Amendment No. 1 to SS 1 for SB 72 sunset this itemized deduction when the federal tax deduction for costs to maintain membership in a labor organization is restored. Like SS 1 for SB 72, Senate Substitute No. 2 for Senate Bill No. 72 creates an itemized tax deduction for the annual cost to a resident individual to maintain membership in a labor organization. SS 2 for SB 72 differs from SS 1 for SB 72 as follows: 1. It does not allow an individual to take this deduction if the individual has taken a deduction on their federal income tax return for any cost to maintain membership in a labor organization. 2. It clarifies that this exemption does not include payments that are not deductible under federal law for amounts paid to or through a labor organization for employee benefits, pension contributions, other compensation, or that were used in connection with lobbying or political expenditures, or settlement or investigatory costs or assessments of a government entity. 3. Does not define “labor organization”, because under § 1101 of Title 30, it has the same meaning as when used in federal law in reference to federal income taxes. If an individual deducts any cost to maintain membership in a labor organization from their federal income tax return, that deduction flows through to the state return. By limiting this deduction to individuals who have not taken a deduction on their federal income tax return for any cost to maintain membership in a labor organization, SS 2 for SB 72 does not need to sunset, because if federal law restores or creates a similar deduction in the future and an individual uses that deduction, the individual cannot claim the same deduction again on their state income tax return. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.

Under this bill, when the State incurs costs for impounding an animal and the owner fails to pay the costs, the time in which ownership of the animal reverts to the State is reduced from 30 days to 15 days.

This Act is a substitute for Senate Bill No. 87. Like Senate Bill No. 87, this Act does the following: (1) Clarifies that the exemption from the realty transfer tax for conveyances to or from an organization exempt from tax under § 501(c)(3) of the federal Internal Revenue Code when the purpose of the conveyance is to provide owner-occupied housing to low and moderate income households applies to rehabilitating residential properties and reselling the properties without profit and to constructing residences on properties and reselling the properties without profit. (2) Exempts any portion of a conveyance in which it is the grantee’s intent to construct affordable housing units and the conveyances are financed using funding provided by the federal government, this State, or a county or municipality of this State for the purpose of constructing affordable housing units, defined as a residential dwelling for a household whose income does not exceed 80% of the median income for the area as defined by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. (3) Clarifies that individuals are first-time homebuyers if they intend to occupy the property being conveyed as their principal residence after the construction of a residence on the property to include circumstances where the residence cannot be built within 90 days after the property is purchased. (4) Corrects the first-time homebuyer definition related to individuals purchasing as joint tenants or cotenants to replace “none” with “neither” to conform the number of joint tenants or cotenants indicated by the indefinite pronoun to the number indicated by the use of “both” later in the sentence. (5) Makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Act differs from Senate Bill No. 87 by removing the exemption created by Senate Bill No. 87 for any portion of a conveyance financed through the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit program.

This Act, the 2022 Amendments to the Uniform Commercial Code, was drafted by the Uniform Law Commission in partnership with the American Law Institute. The Uniform Law Commission "provides states with non-partisan, well-conceived and well-drafted legislation that brings clarity and stability to critical areas of state statutory law." The Uniform Commercial Code ("UCC") provides commercial law rules for broad categories of transactions: the sale or lease of goods, negotiable instruments, bank deposits and collections, funds transfers, letters of credit, documents of title, investment property, and secured transactions in personal property. Every state has adopted the UCC and, as a result, strong interstate markets have developed because the UCC provides the legal structure necessary to have confidence when transacting business with others. The UCC has been revised over time as the United States' economy shifted from a goods-based economy toward one based on services, software, and information-based transactions. The 2022 Amendments to the UCC ("2022 Amendments") are yet another revision to address the changing economy. Specifically, the 2022 Amendments do all of the following: (1) Provide updated rules for commercial transactions involving emerging technologies such as virtual currencies, non-fungible tokens (also known as NFTs), and distributed ledger technologies (also known as "blockchain"). (2) Create a new Article 12 addressing new types of property, or digital assets, defined as "controllable electronic records" ("CERs"). Examples of CERs include virtual currencies, non-fungible tokens, and electronic promises to pay. (3) Provide new default rules to govern transactions involving these emerging technologies and clarify the UCC’s applicability to mixed transactions involving both goods and services. (4) Update the UCC to recognize that parties often do not use paper documents and, therefore, the UCC applies equally to electronic transactions. (5) Make additional revisions to the UCC unrelated to technological developments but necessary to provide needed clarification of the UCC. (6) Create a new Article A to provide transition rules designed to protect the expectations of parties to pre-effective-date transactions. For example, a secured lender who has a priority security interest in collateral under the current law will retain its priority through a transition period, giving parties to preexisting transactions plenty of time to revise their agreements to comply with this Act. This Act amends the UCC and, as such, deals only with consensual commercial transactions. It does not regulate the use of these emerging technologies, including CERs, address taxation of CERs, alter the law governing money transmitters, or revise anti-money laundering laws. As of the introduction of this Act, the 2022 Amendments have been introduced in 21 states and the District of Columbia and enacted in 5 states (Indiana, North Dakota, Colorado, New Mexico, and Washington).

As of April 4, 2023, 74 people have been killed or injured by guns in schools this year in 13 separate school shootings. School shootings hit a record high in 2022 with 46 shootings, surpassing 2021’s record of 42 shootings. In 2022, 43,450 children experienced a school shooting. The purpose of this bill is to enable a police officer to act immediately when the officer sees or suspects that a person possesses a firearm in a Safe School and Recreation Zone. This Act establishes the crime of Possession of a firearm in a Safe School and Recreation Zone as a class E felony. This bill makes it a crime for a person to possess a firearm in a Safe School and Recreation Zone except a police officer or a constable or active-duty member of the armed forces who are acting in an official capacity within for the Safe School and Recreation Zone. The bill also exempts holders of a valid license to carry concealed weapons but only if the firearm is in a vehicle. The possession of a firearm under this bill does not apply if (1) the person is on private property which is not part of school grounds; (2) the firearm is in a locked container or locked firearms rack that is on or in a motor vehicle; or (3) when engaged in lawful hunting, firearms instruction, or firearm-related sports on public lands not belonging to a school. This bill provides that in addition to other penalties, a student who possesses a firearm in a Safe School and Recreation Zone, shall be expelled for a period of not less than 90 days, but the local school board or charter school board of directors may, on a case-by-case basis, modify the terms of the expulsion. This Act repeals the crime of Possession of a Weapon in a Safe School and Recreation Zone, but provides a Savings Clause which enables a prosecution for such crime if the offense occurred before the repeal is enacted.

This Act limits those individuals who may possess a firearm at a polling place on an Election Day to the following: (1) law enforcement officers, (2) commissioned security guards acting in their official capacity, (3) constables acting in their official capacity, and (4) active-duty members of the United States Armed Forces and Delaware National Guard acting in their official capacity. This Act is applicable to any in-person election held under Title 15, any local school election held under Title 14, and any municipal election held in accordance with the municipality's charter, ordinance, or code, and includes locations designated for early voting. This Act also provides an exemption for individuals who reside or visit private property adjacent to a polling place, or who are traveling from private property to another location.

The Act updates the Delaware Code concerning animal shelter standards and treatment of animals in shelters to reflect best practices, which are currently already being followed by most shelters. The Act also fills in gaps in existing law, such as by requiring that animals be vaccinated against rabies before adoption or release and by setting standards for feeding and access to water, facilities and enclosures, and sanitation and disease control. The Act also makes technical changes to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.