| HB 270 | Committee | Mulrooney | This Act establishes a framework for assessing needs, planning and implementing projects, and providing a funding source to enhance and accelerate Delaware’s efforts in cleaning up its contaminated water resources, ensuring that all our citizens have safe drinking water, reducing flooding, and protecting jobs in agriculture and tourism. Most of the State’s waters do not meet water quality standards to support their designated uses, such as for drinking, swimming or supporting aquatic life.
This Act increases the level and reliability of funding available to restore Delaware’s streams, rivers, bays, and groundwater through construction of much needed wastewater, drinking water, and drainage projects and increased use of agricultural best practices. Over the next 5 years, more than $500 million in water and wastewater system upgrades are needed statewide, including systems for underserved communities and numerous at-risk systems currently operated by homeowner’s associations in Sussex County. More than $150 million in stormwater upgrades are needed throughout the State along with more than $75 million for removing toxic pollutants from various waterways. In addition, demand for agriculture cost-share funds used to reduce pollution from nutrients far surpasses available resources.
This Act creates a Clean Water Trust, supported by dedicating several existing revenue sources and a proposed new dedicated Clean Water Surcharge that will be levied on personal income tax payments and business license fees. The surcharge will be capped at $40 for individual tax filers, $80 for individuals filing a joint return, and $45 for business licenses. The Clean Water Surcharge will be used for capital projects, not to grow government; the allowance for administrative expenses is capped at 10% after the first 2 years and companion legislation creating a constitutionally protected “lock box” is being introduced to provide permanent protection against the fee being diverted for operating expenses. Total revenues from the surcharge are estimated to be approximately $20 million annually. The dedicated Clean Water Surcharge could leverage as much as $50 million in total financing annually for clean water investments and support more than 800 direct and indirect jobs per year.
The Trust will be managed by a 5-member Board comprised of the Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, the Secretary of Finance, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Health and Social Services, and an appointed member with financial expertise. The Trust is authorized to issue Clean Water Revenue Bonds for projects approved by the General Assembly and will administer the funds through the already existing Water Infrastructure Advisory Council with the goal of assisting municipal and county governments and others in implementing more affordable water quality projects through low-interest loans, grants, and public-private partnerships. The Trust and the Council are required to develop a Clean Water Plan with an annually updated 5-year Strategic Plan. The Trust is required to undergo an audit each year and to report annually to the General Assembly on its activities and its progress toward meeting the goals of the Clean Water Plan. | AN ACT TO AMEND THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CLEAN WATER FOR DELAWARE. |
| HB 276 | Committee | Baumbach | This Act permits a county and the State to intercept payments to landlords from the Delaware Manufactured Home Relocation Trust Fund to collect debts.
| AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 9 AND TITLE 30 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO INTERCEPTING PAYMENTS TO THE DELAWARE MANUFACTURED HOME RELOCATION TRUST FUND TO COLLECT DEBTS OWED TO A COUNTY OR TO THE STATE. |
| HA 3 to HB 260 | Passed | Longhurst | This amendment changes the effective date of the Act from January 1, 2018 to January 1, 2019. | |
| HB 285 | Committee | Bennett | This Act is designed to create procedures in Delaware for making sure firearms are not in the hands of dangerous people while protecting due process and not creating a barrier to care for those suffering from mental illness. This Act intends to put Delaware at the forefront of this important issue by not simply looking narrowly for mental illness. Statistically, mental illness has little to do with homicide perpetration but conversely increases the chance of being a victim of violence. This bill looks instead for propensities of violence, a much more reliable and evidence-based metric. This metric will also ensure that we can provide care to those more likely to commit violent acts and help destigmatize mental illness here in Delaware. Specific components of this Act are set forth below.
This Act applies when a person who has been committed to a hospital for treatment of a mental condition by a judge shall be deemed a person prohibited. The current law appears to apply to “any person who has ever been committed for a mental disorder,” but in reality this only applies to persons who have been involuntarily committed and subject to adjudication such as a hearing. It also clarifies that perpetrators of violent crimes who have been found Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity, Guilty But Mentally Ill, or Mentally Incompetent to Stand Trial are persons prohibited, including juveniles who fall into those categories. The provisions of § 1448B will not retroactively apply to any persons adjudicated in the past, which would create undue burden.
This Act expands the definition of “persons prohibited” to include those persons who are prohibited from possessing firearms pursuant to a court order under the procedures set forth in § 1448B of Title 11. Newly created § 1448B sets forth a procedure whereby law enforcement, upon receiving a report of a violent person and who is demonstrating behaviors that the provider believes are dangerous can refer the matter to the Department of Justice to petition the Superior Court for an order requiring such person to relinquish the person’s firearms or ammunition.
This Act revises and clarifies an existing statute, 11 Del C. § 5402, which currently solidifies the need for mental health professionals to report those with mental illness who may be a threat to others. Currently, the section contains a limited duty of a treating hospital to warn law enforcement of a specific threat, but this clarifies the original intent of the section and requires that to avoid liability that all treating mental health professionals must report dangerous persons to law enforcement. The appropriate law enforcement agency must then determine whether a civil action should be initiated under newly created § 1448C of this Title, to relinquish the person’s firearms or ammunition and to take appropriate investigative action.
Pursuant to § 1448C, the Court may order dangerous persons to relinquish to a law enforcement officer, voluntarily or otherwise, any firearms or ammunition owned, possessed, or controlled by such person. The Court may also, in its discretion, issue an order directing any law enforcement agency to forthwith search for and seize firearms and ammunition of any such person prohibited upon a showing of good cause by the petitioner. The court order to relinquish firearms would issue upon a finding that the person was prohibited, without further showing. The order authorizing police to search for and seize weapons would require a further showing, akin to an affidavit in support of a warrant, of “good cause” that the prohibited weapons would be found in a particular place or in the possession of the person prohibited.
Any person subject to an order of the Court pursuant to § 1448C may petition the Court for an order to return firearms or ammunition by establishing to a preponderance of evidence that he or she is not a danger to self or others.
In addition, as is the case under the current law, any person who is adjudicated to be a person prohibited pursuant to this Act has the opportunity to demonstrate, pursuant to § 1448A of Title 11, that he or she is no longer prohibited from possessing a firearm and therefore is no longer a person prohibited.
| AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO POSSESSION OF DEADLY WEAPONS BY PERSONS PROHIBITED AND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO HEALTH AND SAFETY. |
