Sen. Jack Walsh

This Resolution expresses the General Assembly's strong support for Ukraine in its war against the invasion by the Russian Federation (“Russia”) and for the severe economic sanctions imposed on Russia by President Biden's administration. This Resolution further demands that Russia immediately cease its violent, illegal, and immoral assault on the sovereign nation of Ukraine.

This Act continues the changes made to the Delaware Performance Appraisal System II created under Senate Bill 42 of the 151st General Assembly, with modifications. In order to maintain an evaluation system under current operational challenges, this bill modifies Senate Bill 42 by allowing evidence collected during the observation and feedback cycle to be used a part of the evaluation cycle, to assign a summative rating, and to place educators on improvement plans, if needed. Additionally, this bill extends the pilot for the Delaware Teacher Growth and Support System, created under House Bill 133 of the 151st General Assembly, to the 2022-2023 school year, moving the start date for statewide implementation to the 2023-2024 school year. This bill also reconciles inconsistencies that have arisen with educators’ hearing rights as outlined in Chapter 14 of Title 14 due to the suspension of the state assessment in 2019-2020 school year and low participation in the 2020-2021 school year. Additionally, this bill aligns Chapter 14 with the new educator evaluation system, the Delaware Teacher Growth and Support System, by placing the emphasis on building a culture of professionalism and learning within every school, which is measured in a summative evaluation, rather than one component of an evaluation. This substitute bill is substantively the same as House Bill No. 291. Some technical corrections were made to accommodate language in 14 Del. C. § 1270(g) that was scheduled to sunset in 2022.

This bill allows liquor stores, farm wineries, brewery-pubs, microbreweries, craft distilleries, and wine auctions to provide curbside service for the sale of alcohol, but makes clear that all sales must comply with all of the regulatory provisions of Chapter 7 of Title 4, including the prohibition against sales to intoxicated persons and persons under 21 years of age.

This Act amends the Fiscal Year 2022 Bond and Capital Improvements Act to (1) authorize the Department of Transportation to use Community Transportation Funds for one-time reimbursements for various projects; (2) redistribute Community Reinvestment Funds to the Department of Transportation; (3) clarify existing funds for Mental Health Services Units are to be distributed as a block grant; (4) authorize drainage project funds to be used for both the Meeting House Branch and Persimmon Park Place drainage projects; (5) reallocate funds for a shellfish aquaculture project; (6) reallocate funds from the Municipal Infrastructure Fund to the Delaware State Fair; (7) include repairs to the responsibilities of the Facilities Management Section; (8) authorize the Office of Management and Budget to acquire property for the Delaware National Guard; (9) authorize the Department of State to identify land for acquisition for the North Wilmington Library; (10) authorize the Office of Management and Budget to transfer a property to St. Anthony’s Community Center Inc.; (11) increase substitute pay to adjust for minimum wage increases; (12) reallocate funds from the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds to create a School Construction Market Pressure Contingency Fund; (13) reallocate funds from the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds for the Riverfront Development Corporation; (14) reallocate funds from the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds to the Urban Redevelopment program; (15) exempt the Delmar School District Parking Lot Project from prevailing wage requirements due to funding source; and (16) authorize local bond shares for the Appoquinimink School District.

The bill amends the Charter of the City of Newark by changing the timeline for special elections from no less than 30 and no more than 60 days after a vacancy occurs to no less than 60 and no more than 90 days after a vacancy. In addition, the bill sets the filing deadline for special elections at 29 days prior to the election. During the two recent special elections, the City of Newark found that the current timeframe is insufficient, given the frequency of city council meetings (at which the council is required to set the date), the lead time for placing notices in newspapers, and reasonable time for residents to decide to file to run and to gather the requisite number of signatures.

This Senate Simple Resolution urges Delaware's U.S. Congressional Delegation and the President of the United States to support federal legislation, H.R. 3339, to establish a National Infrastructure Bank to fund urgently needed infrastructure projects.

Cholangiocarcinoma, also known as bile duct cancer, is a cancer that occurs in the bile ducts in or outside the liver. This Resolution recognizes February 12, 2022 as "World Cholangiocarcinoma Day" in Delaware.

This Concurrent Resolution urges the Secretary of the Navy to designate Philadelphia and both banks of the Delaware River as the site of the main celebration of the 250th birthdays of the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps in October and November 2025.

This Act funds the Human Trafficking Interagency Coordinating Council by disbursing to the Council $100,000 each fiscal year from the Fund to Combat Violent Crimes. Under § 4101(h) of Title 11, the Fund to Combat Violent Crimes is funded by a $15 penalty imposed on and collected from defendants for certain crimes or civil violations. The money within the Fund is divided between the Department of Safety and Homeland Security and local law-enforcement agencies for use in connection with initiatives to combat violent crime. No more than $4,250,000 may be deposited into the Fund. Any amount more than $4,250,000 reverts to the General Fund. In recent fiscal years, the Fund to Combat Violent Crimes has reverted excess funds to the General Fund. Because of the new disbursement of $100,000 to the Human Trafficking Interagency Coordinating Council, this Act also increases the maximum amount of money that may be deposited into the Fund to Combat Violent Crimes by $100,000 to $4,350,000. This Act also adds to existing reporting requirements for the Human Trafficking Interagency Coordinating Council that the Council document how it spends disbursements from the Fund to Combat Violent Crimes. The Council must also provide the report to the Secretary of 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 bill provides COVID-19 related relief to both claimants receiving unemployment benefits and employers who are assessed unemployment taxes, and extends the end date of the Secretary of Labor’s COVID-19 related rulemaking authority. Section 1 exempts unemployment compensation benefits received in 2021 from the calculation of Delaware adjusted gross income so that unemployment claimants will not have to pay state taxes on the benefits they received during the continuation of the pandemic into 2021. This exemption was previously granted for 2020 state taxes. Section 2 holds the 2022 new employer assessment rate, average industry assessment rate and average construction industry assessment rate at the same rate as 2020 in order to avoid an increase in these rates as a result of the increase in unemployment claims due to COVID-19. Section 3 reduces the unemployment tax assessment rate for merit rated employers to the lowest of their earned rates for 2020, 2021 and 2022, in order to provide further tax relief for employers dealing with the economic effects of COVID-19, but does not provide this reduction for any employers who are paying the delinquency rate of assessment because of a failure to file quarterly assessment reports or failure to pay assessments. Section 3 also allows the Department the administrative authority to reduce employer assessment rates below the delinquency rate and provide responding credits, as necessary to correct administrative errors or address fraudulent claims charged to employers, except for employers who are charged the delinquency assessment rate because they have failed to file any quarterly tax report. Section 4 holds the taxable wage base at $14,500 for 2022, which will reduce the amount of wages on which employers pay unemployment tax assessments into the UI Trust Fund for 2022. The Department has determined that the impact of this change on the UI Trust Fund balance is estimated to be $11.4M in 2022. Sections 5 and 6 extend to December 31, 2022 the provision in HB 65, which authorized the Delaware Secretary of Labor to issue emergency rules amending the Delaware Unemployment Insurance Code to deal with the continuing effects of COVID-19 and implement federal programs providing unemployment benefits to respond to COVID-19.