Sen. Russ Huxtable, D-Lewes, unveiled a seven-bill package of housing-related legislation March 21 in an effort to create more affordable housing in the state.

“It’s a potpourri of policies that we hope to hit to make some progress,” said the Lewes Democrat, who is prime sponsor on all the bills. “Housing is foundational … it will pay benefits in our workforce and more. It is a dynamic package, but more work is needed.”

He described the bills as touching on everything from zoning and taxes to economic development and infrastructure.

Senate Bill 245, co-sponsored by Rep. Stell Parker Selby, D-Milton, would create a dedicated revolving loan fund to help support home repair programs. Using seed money from the General Fund and gifts or bequests from private residents, the Housing Repair and Modification Fund would support eligible repairs that help protect the health of struggling families and help them stay in their homes longer, Huxtable said.

SB 22 would create new state incentives to help spur workforce housing development. Modeled on the Delaware State Housing Authority’s Downtown Development District Program, the new Delaware Workforce Housing Program would offer grants of up to 20% of the construction costs for qualified housing projects largely centered in and around high-density population areas. 

SB 23 would require counties and municipalities in Delaware to develop ordinances that allow for the construction of in-law suites or garage apartments on single-family homes to help increase Delaware’s housing supply.

SB 25 would lower the cost of building new affordable housing projects statewide by fully exempting low- to moderate-income dwelling units from the state’s 2% improvement tax, which is currently levied on new construction valued at $10,001 or more built within a year of the land being sold. 

SB 244 would authorize any county that collects a lodging tax to allocate some or all the proceeds for workforce and affordable housing programs within that respective county. Currently, New Castle and Sussex counties collect a lodging tax with limitations on how those funds can be spent. 

SB 247 would protect residents of manufactured housing communities from landlords who seek to impose rent increases even while refusing to address outstanding health and safety violations. 

Senate passed

• HB 271 with HA 1 unanimously passed the Senate March 19 to eliminate the prohibition against hunting game birds on Sundays. The bill passed the House with 37 votes and four absent Jan. 25. It now heads to Gov. John Carney to sign.

• SB 241 with HA 1 passed the Senate 19-1 March 19 to expand the timeframe in which a candidate may withdraw from the presidential primary election, including the option of not holding such an election in the event of only one remaining candidate. The approximate cost of a presidential primary election for the state is $1.5 million. This act expires Dec. 31, 2024.

• SB 209 unanimously passed the Senate March 20 to add adult sibling of a decedent to the definition of next of kin relating to the Division of Forensic Science in order to allow the medical examiner to release the personal property of a decedent to an adult sibling of a decedent, when there is no other next of kin. It will also allow the medical examiner to provide a copy of a post-mortem examination report to an adult sibling, upon written request, when there is no other next of kin.

• Senate Substitute 1 for SB 212 passed the Senate March 20 by 20 votes with one not voting. The bill would codify the Bureau of Health Equity in the Division of Public Health, which includes the Office of Minority Health and the Office of Women’s Health. The purpose of the BHE is to ensure that everyone in Delaware will achieve their full health potential by eliminating health disparities, particularly among all racial and ethnic minority groups.

Awaiting governor signature

• SB 159 unanimously passed the House March 14 to remove membership with the Blood Bank of Delaware as a recognized benefit by the state due to changes in policies in how hospitals and insurance companies bill for blood replacement and blood replacement procedures. The bill passed the Senate in 2023, and now awaits the governor’s signature to become law.

Bills in committee

House Administration Committee

• HB 347 would allow nonexempt Delaware Department of Transportation employees who work over 37.5 hours per week to be paid at time-and-a-half.

• HB 322 would establish the Delaware Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage and Culture.

House Appropriations Committee

• HB 16 would require that Medicaid and state employee health plans cover ovarian cancer monitoring tests for women treated for ovarian cancer; and annual screening tests for women at risk for ovarian cancer. 

• HB 274 would require that all health insurance plans including Medicaid provide coverage, at no cost when prescribed to infants, of at least one early peanut allergen introduction dietary supplement and at least one early egg allergen introduction dietary supplement. 

• HB 289 would increase the burial benefit for individuals eligible to receive a pension under the State Employees’ Pension Plan from $7,000 to $8,000. The increase includes funeral expenses paid for a deceased member of a volunteer fire company, volunteer fire company ladies auxiliary, or volunteer ambulance and rescue company. 

House Economic Development/Banking/Insurance & Commerce Committee

• SB 202 would increase from $200,000 to $375,000 line of duty death benefits for police officers, firefighters, auxiliary and volunteer ambulance and rescue company members, paramedics, and others. The bill unanimously passed the Senate Jan. 23. An amendment was added March 14 to expand line-of-duty benefits to cover previously covered persons, such as retirees, whose death is the proximate result of actions by a person seeking retaliation against the previously covered person for performing the duties of their former office or position.

• SB 220 unanimously passed the Senate March 13. The bill would cover third-party insurance payments for people who also qualify for Medicaid, including barring third parties from refusing payment for an item or service if it is approved under Medicaid. 

• SB 232 unanimously passed the Senate March 19 requiring insurance coverage for over-the-counter contraceptive pills.

House Judiciary Committee

• SB 203 passed the Senate 19-2 March 13. The bill would change the penalty for official misconduct from a class A misdemeanor to a graded system, where the penalty is commensurate with the gravity of the misconduct.

• HB 357 would adopt the definition of “firearm” proposed by HS 1 for HB 224; create a definition for a new term, “projectile weapon”, defined as those weapons previously included in the definition of a firearm, but which are not within the common understanding of a firearm, and makes clear that a “projectile weapon” is a deadly weapon. 

House Natural Resources & Energy Committee

• HS2 for HB 13 would require the Director of the Sustainable Energy Utility to administer a program to provide financial assistance to Delaware residents for the cost of purchase and installation of electric vehicle supply equipment. For a low-income applicant (meaning up to 300% of the federal poverty level for household income), financial assistance covering up to 90% of the purchase and installation costs may be covered. For all other applicants the program may offer assistance to cover up to 50% of the costs.

• HB 248 would establish a pre-permit community outreach process for any qualified project, as defined in DNREC Regulations, that wishes to apply for a permit within three months, in an underserved community. Under the bill, the applicant must identify a facility community liaison; must schedule a community meeting in or within 3 miles of the boundaries of the underserved community; must provide a underserved outreach report to DNREC; must publish the community meeting notice on-line and in at least 1 newspaper and, if available, 1 in the predominate non-English language if the underserved community is identified as limited English proficiency, at least 30 days prior to the scheduled community meeting. 

The community meeting must allow for interaction, be recorded or transcribed and made publicly available. Any written materials and oral and visual presentations must be accurate, free of technical language, and comprehensible to readers at a sixth-grade level. 

House Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee

• HB 349 would codify that the Superior Court Veterans’ Treatment Court is a qualified rehabilitation program for persons seeking to have their driver's licenses reinstated after a DUI. 

• HB 351 would create requirements for the towing and storage of vehicles without the consent of the owner or operator. Photographic evidence must be taken to document the unauthorized parking of a vehicle before it can be towed. Tow companies and storage facilities must publicly display their rates. Towing and storage rates must be reasonable, with reasonableness calculated in relation to the fees imposed by the companies for consensual towing and storage or based on average rates in the county. A maximum total towing and storage rate of $500 is imposed. Tow companies must decouple or drop vehicles that have not been removed from parking areas if the owner returns before removal. The drop fee may not be more than 50% of the tow fee. Storage facilities must be open or accessible to the public from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. five days a week, and tow companies must make reasonable accommodations to redeem vehicles after-hours. Individuals must be allowed to retrieve at no cost personal belongings from vehicles held in storage. Tow companies and storage facilities must accept credit cards. Where a tow is completed in violation of the chapter, the owner or operator is entitled to both reimbursement of the tow and storage fees as well as damages incurred to retrieve an illegally towed vehicle. Tow companies are liable for property damage sustained due to a non-consensual tow or storage. Tow companies may not patrol for illegally parked cars. Tow companies may not pay or give other benefits to obtain information about cars parked without authorization.

• HB 352 would give county code enforcement constables the authority to tow abandoned vehicles on private property.

House Veterans Affairs Committee

• HB 310 would add Space Force in sections of the Delaware Code where the other five branches of the armed forces are specifically enumerated.  

Senate Banking, Business, Insurance & Technology

• HS2 for HB 273  passed the House 29-8 with four absent to add five additional speech-language diagnoses to the 2 diagnoses listed in HB 273 and references that all 7 speech-language diagnoses are classified in the International Classification of Diseases for billing purposes. 

• HS1 for HB 286 passed the House March 19 with 37 votes and four absent to prohibit discrimination in life insurance based on genetic characteristics, genetic information, or the result of any genetic test that is not in a medical record as a basis for an individual's medical diagnosis or the basis of a medical diagnosis included in an individual's pertinent family history. In addition, this Act prohibits a person engaged in the business of life insurance from requesting, requiring, or purchasing information obtained from an entity providing direct-to-consumer genetic testing. 

Senate Education Committee

• HB 252 passed the House March 19 with 37 votes and four absent to grant graduates of the Delaware Institute of Higher Education teacher-residency program one year of experience credit in addition to any other experience. The goal is to incentivize a new graduate who has completed the year-long Delaware residency program to stay and teach in Delaware by elevating their starting pay grade level by giving them one year of experience credit.

• SS1 for SB 252 would require that the Department of Education perform audits of educator preparation programs to assess compliance with the evidence-based reading instruction requirements, known as the "science of reading", that were enacted in 2021.

Senate Elections & Government Affairs

• HB 18 unanimously passed the House March 14 to amend the Merit System of Personnel Administration by allowing preferential hiring for casual seasonal employees who are performing the same job duties of a posted merit position. 

• HB 324 passed the House March 19 by a 33-4 vote with four absent to make several changes to the code relating to the Department of Finance, removing bond requirements for Division of Revenue employees, and allowing them to enforce taxes even if there is no reference to a specific title in Delaware Code. 

• SB 243 makes changes to the Charter of the Village of Ardencroft.

• SB 253 amends the City of Wilmington charter.

Senate Executive Committee

• HB 24 with HA1 unanimously passed the House March 14 to create a new charitable donation option on the Delaware income tax return for a mental health group - SL24: Unlocke the Light Foundation. 

• HB 315 unanimously passed the House March 14 to remove racist language and provisions from the Delaware Code.

• SB 242 is the first leg of a constitutional amendment that imposes a filing deadline for the introduction of new bills, specifically prohibiting a bill from being introduced after the second Friday in June to prevent the last-minute introduction of legislation that is apt to circumvent the deliberative process required by law in the Senate and House. Exception are if a bill is the annual budget act, one-time supplemental appropriations act, bond and capital improvement act, or grants-in-aid act; a bill is introduced in a special session; or a bill is authorized to be introduced in the House of origin by a motion or resolution of the other House passed with the concurrence of three-fourths of all the members elected to the other House. This act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each House of the General Assembly to amend the Delaware Constitution. Amending the Delaware Constitution requires not only the passing of the changes in this act, but also passage of the same changes after the next general election by the next General Assembly.

Senate Finance Committee

• SS1 for SB 174 adds Justices of the Peace, commissioners in Superior Court, Family Court, and Court of Common Pleas, and magistrates in Chancery to the state judicial pension plan, amends the definition of state judiciary so that Justices of the Peace, commissioners, and magistrates in Chancery are included.

Senate Health & Social Services

• SB 13 would create the Hospital Quality Assessment, which places a 3.58% assessment on Delaware hospitals’ net patient revenues. With the exception of 10% that may be used to support existing Medicaid obligations, 53.5% of net funds generated by the Hospital Quality Assessment must be used to increase the inpatient and outpatient payments to hospitals, and 46.5% must be deposited into the Hospital Quality and Health Equity Fund, to be used to develop or enhance funding for Medicaid initiatives, unlocking federal matching dollars.

• HB 334 with HA1 passed the House 29-10 with two absent March 19 to make changes to the Delaware Marijuana Control Act by changing operating times, require ID badges for establishments, require employee training, and other license requirements.

Concurrent resolutions

• SCR sponsored by Sen. Russ Huxtable, D-Lewes, recognizes the week of March 17 through March 23, 2024, as “National Agriculture Week” in Delaware passed both House and Senate March 19.

• HCR 92 recognizing March 14, 2024 as “Be The One Day" passed both House and Senate on March 14.

• SCR 120 recognizing March 18, 2024, as "National Public Defense Day" passed both houses March 14.

• SCR 123 recognizing the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States of America and Ireland passed both houses March 14.

• SCR 124 designating the Month of March 2024 as “March for the Arts” in Delaware passed both houses March 14.