Sen. Bryant Richardson

Maddy summaryHB 475 authorizes the State of Delaware and the Delaware Transportation Authority to issue bonds and allocate funds for capital improvements during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025. The bill allows the state to sell general obligation bonds and the transportation authority to sell revenue bonds to raise money for infrastructure projects. It also directs the use of existing funds from the Transportation Trust Fund and other state accounts to support these initiatives. By amending relevant statutes, the legislation sets specific rules and limits on how these financial resources can be spent.

Maddy summaryThis Senate Concurrent Resolution creates the Delaware Restoring the Family Unit Task Force to study how state laws affect family stability. The group is designed to examine specific policies in taxation, welfare, education, and recidivism to identify any factors that might discourage marriage or family unity. Its members include legislators, state agency heads, and community representatives who will meet to review these issues and submit a report with recommendations by March 2025. Although the resolution was introduced in June 2024, it was defeated by the Senate and did not become law.

This Act is the statutory recognition of the recommendations set forth in the June 2, 2023, report of the DEFAC Benchmark Evaluation and Review Panel. This Act builds on the State’s existing appropriation limit methodology by formalizing and maintaining the flexibility inherent in the Budget Stabilization Fund process currently enabled by Executive Order No. 21, approved on June 30, 2018, and the last 6 operating budget acts, including § 65 of the fiscal year 2024 Operating Budget Act. Acknowledging this process in statute includes defining rules for deposits to and withdrawals from the Budget Stabilization Fund and adding an objective and stable measure of sustainable budget growth through an advisory index comprised of certain State economic indicators. This Act requires that only the Governor’s recommended Budget Appropriation Bill consider this methodology and detail proposed plans, if any, deemed necessary or desirable in relation to state revenues or reserve funding.

Because of the serious consequences of the drug overdose epidemic, this Senate Concurrent Resolution respectfully requests a report from the Delaware Department of Education to follow up on the recommendations contained in the 154-page Delaware Drug Prevention Curriculum Task Force Report.

This Act adds procedural requirements to meetings of the State Employee Benefits Committee (SEBC), revises the membership of the SEBC, and requires that the Secretary of the Department of Human Resources inform State employees and retired State employees (eligible pensioners) about changes in benefits coverages affecting eligible pensioners who are receiving or eligible to receive retirement benefits under the state employees' pension plan, including proposed changes. This Act adds the following requirements to SEBC meetings: 1. If the SEBC or a subcommittee is holding a virtual meeting, the chair or vice-chair must attend at the anchor location. 2. The chair of a subcommittee must be a voting member of the SEBC. 3. The SEBC must approve a request for proposals to select a carrier or third-party administrator for the health care insurance plan for State employees or eligible pensioners during an open meeting and that the draft request for proposals must be included with the meeting notice and agenda. 4. Adds standard language for the SEBC regarding the conduct of open meetings by public bodies, including requirements for quorum and when a member designates another individual to attend a meeting. This Act revises the membership of the SEBC by doing all of the following: 1. Removes the Delaware retiree appointed by the Governor and adds 2 members who are Delaware residents eligible to receive health care insurance under Chapter 52 of Title 29 under a pension or retirement plan. The President Pro Tem of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives each appoint 1 of these members. 2. Makes the Secretary of the Department of Human Resources a non-voting member of the Committee. 3. Changes the leadership of the SEBC so that only the Director of the Office of Management and Budget serves as chair and the vice-chair is elected annually by the members of the Committee. The vice-chair must be a voting member of the Committee and may not be a cabinet secretary or hold a position of equivalent rank in the executive branch. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Act is known as the “Delaware State Employee Benefits Committee (SEBC) Transparency and Accountability Act”.

This Senate Concurrent Resolution recognizes July 18, 2024, as the 50th anniversary of the Victims’ Compensation Assistance Program in the State of Delaware.

Maddy summaryThis legislative resolution is a formal request from the State of Delaware asking Maryland to permit the sale of certified Delaware sod within its borders. The bill does not directly change Maryland laws or affect Maryland residents; instead, it serves as a diplomatic appeal to the Maryland government to restore trade reciprocity for Delaware agricultural producers. The text argues that Maryland's current refusal to certify Delaware sod has caused significant financial losses for farmers in both states and urges the removal of these trade barriers. Ultimately, the measure aims to facilitate cross-state commerce by encouraging Maryland officials to allow Delaware-grown sod to be sold legally in the state.

This Act repeals the option of providing health care insurance to state pensioners under Medicare part C, known as a Medicare Advantage Plan. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Act is known as "The Delaware Medicare Supplement Selection Act".

The primary purpose of this Act is to remove the requirement that a public school district employee who donates leave to another employee must donate 2 days of leave for the other employee to receive 1 day of leave. Further, this Act repeals Chapter 187 of Volume 81 of the Laws of Delaware ("this law"). Adopted in 2017, this law was designed to provide full-time employees of the State, including employees of school districts, with the ability to donate leave to other employees for use in connection with the birth or adoption of a child under 6 years of age. This law has never taken effect as the law does not take effect until the Office of Management and Budget ("OMB") receives a letter from the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") stating that the tax treatment of the expansion of the donated leave program contemplated by this law will receive the same tax treatment as Delaware’s current donated leave program. OMB has not requested this letter from the IRS because, based on OMB's research, OMB does not believe this law would receive the same tax treatment by the IRS and because the General Assembly subsequently enacted Chapter 285 of Volume 81 of the Laws of Delaware, which provides 12 weeks of paid leave upon the birth or adoption of a child 6 years of age or younger for those continuously employed for at least 1 year as full-time employees of this State, including employees of school districts. Sections 1 and 2 of this Act re-enact portions of Chapter 187 of Volume 81 of the Laws of Delaware that would have also applied to the existing donated leave program for catastrophic illness. Specifically these provisions are intended to do the following: (1) Clarify how much leave employees of a public school district who do not accrue annual leave must use before being eligible for donated leave. (2) Clarify the interaction between donated leave and leave available under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual, including transferring existing definitions to a central definition section and transferring provisions that are substantive law out of defined terms. This Act is named in honor of Christopher Chujoy, a special education instructional aide in the Red Clay Consolidated School District. Mr. Chujoy was diagnosed in August 2022 with stage IV cancer. Mr. Chujoy used up all of his available sick time before his passing and his situation raised the issue that is the primary purpose of this Act.

This Act generally requires a student athlete to compete for athletic teams or in sports associated with their biological sex, as determined at or near birth and based on the student’s birth certificate or other government record if a birth certificate is unobtainable. An exception is permitted to allow female athletes to compete in male sports if a corresponding female sport is not available. To facilitate this Act, a school district, charter school, or Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association member school must designate an athletic team or sport sponsored by the school district, charter school, or Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association member school based on the biological sex of students.