By Matt Bittle

DOVER — Eleven legislative days, or less than four calendar weeks, remain for lawmakers to pass all the important bills before them, from marijuana legalization to minimum wage to gun control, prior to departing for the year.

Well, sort of.

First off, 2021 is the first year of a two-year session, so bills not approved by July 1 will remain at the same stage of the process come January.

Second, in a highly atypical move, legislators are already planning to return a few months later for a special session.

That doesn’t mean June won’t be full of drama and important votes, though, as there certainly are a number of closely watched and impactful legislative proposals floating around. It’s been a very busy session so far, and this month promises to have plenty of action.

With recent election results shifting the General Assembly to the left, progressive causes have received a boost. Though it remains to be seen whether some of those efforts pay off at all, let alone in the coming weeks, it is possible that this time next month Delaware could be phasing in a $15 minimum wage, requiring a permit to buy a handgun and preparing for legal cannabis.

Lawmakers certainly haven’t been sitting still over the past four-and-a-half months, sometimes angering Republicans, who have complained the public is being shut out of the process because the capitol remains closed to most.

This session has been conducted, like much of last year’s, virtually, although the chambers have phased in an added in-person element. Both the Senate and House plan to hold business in their normal chambers in the state capitol this month, while committee hearings will continue to take place through the internet.

“I am really pleased with how things went in May,” Senate President Pro Tempore Dave Sokola, D-Newark, said.

Democratic leadership announced Friday members of the public will be able to attend session days in limited fashion. Twenty-five individuals will be let into the House gallery, with another 25 in the Senate. Those hoping to attend should reserve seats on the Delaware General Assembly website starting at 5 p.m. before each session day.

Sign-up opportunities will close once all available seats have been reserved or come 10 a.m. the following morning.

Capitol Police will be provided with the names of individuals who have reserved a seat in each chamber, and no seating will be available to anyone who arrives at Legislative Hall without a reservation.

Doors will open 30 minutes before each chamber convenes on a given day. Attendees will be directed to their respective gallery and will be asked to leave once session is completed. They must wear masks at all times while in the building.

Access to the rest of the capitol will continue to be restricted.

“I personally long for the day when we look people in the eye and have conversations,” House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth Beach, said.

June is always unpredictable, but with that caveat out of the way, here’s a look at (some of) the activity you can expect to happen before July 1.

Marijuana

Legislation to allow adults to use recreational marijuana in the state is set to be voted on by the House this week. If it passes, it goes to the Senate.

House Bill 150 would let individuals buy up to 1 ounce of marijuana from licensed retail stores. The legislation would establish a 15% tax, though retailers would otherwise be able to set their own prices. Delawareans would not be allowed to grow their own cannabis.

Using marijuana in public or a vehicle would remain against the law, and employers would still be able to make their own policies prohibiting usage. Additionally, municipalities could pass ordinances preventing marijuana facilities from operating within their borders.

The state’s medical marijuana program would remain unchanged.

The bill also contains provisions aimed at benefiting Delaware entrepreneurs and individuals who live in areas “disproportionately impacted” by marijuana prohibition.

Gov. John Carney opposes the bill but has not said what he would do if it reaches his desk, and many political observers and insiders have speculated he would not veto it.

The sponsors have expressed optimism about the legislation’s chances even though it requires a supermajority of 60% because it creates a new tax. Still, the fact it could be voted on this week is a good sign for backers — the bill wouldn’t be receiving a vote if it wasn’t expected to pass.

Minimum wage

The House has before it a measure that would increase the state’s minimum wage from $9.25 to $15 by 2025. The bill, which passed the Senate on party lines earlier this year, would start by increasing the wage to $10.50 in 2022, followed by $11.75 in 2023 and $13.25 in 2024 before hitting $15 in 2025.

It’s been fiercely opposed by big business interests and will have to rely solely on Democratic votes to get it through the House.

Meanwhile, the Senate will likely vote Tuesday to repeal a lower youth/training wage. That bill has already been approved by the House.

There’s also legislation, not yet voted on in either chamber, that would phase out a statute enabling employers to pay individuals with disabilities less than the minimum wage.

Twenty-two states have a minimum wage higher than $9.25, including seven that are in the process of raising it to $15. Maryland and New Jersey are among those phasing in a $15 wage, while Washington D.C., has already done so.

According to the Delaware Department of Labor, close to 150,000 residents would be impacted by an increase, including 35,000 currently earning the state minimum wage.

Gun control

Probably no measures are as hotly contested as gun bills. Legislation that would mandate citizens obtain a permit from the state before buying a handgun, outlaw magazines capable of holding more than 17 rounds and prohibit untraceable homemade firearms are awaiting action in one chamber after passing the other already.

The first two bills were previously approved by the Senate and released from committee in May, setting the stage for the full House to vote on sending the proposals to the governor’s desk. The “ghost gun” bill is expecting a Senate vote after passing the House a few weeks ago.

Supporters believe the measures can reduce gun violence and are not overly burdensome. Opponents, however, see them as unconstitutional, unnecessary and much more likely to negatively impact law-abiding gun owners than criminals.

A sign of just how passionate the debate around gun control is can be seen in the committee hearings, which drew hundreds of attendees. House committee hearings for the permit-to-purchase and the magazine legislation each lasted more than three-and-a-half hours.

Criminal justice reform

Forefront on some lawmakers’ minds is criminal justice reform, in particular greater police accountability. Legislation that could see action in the coming weeks includes proposals to require all police to wear body cameras, mandate electronic recording of most interrogations, change the law enforcement use of force standards, further empower the Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust to investigate negative interactions between police and the public and alter the Law-Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights to make police misconduct records, currently available only to attorneys in civil suits, publicly accessible. There are also dueling bail reform measures from the two parties.

The body camera bill seems likely to pass, while the others’ fates are much more up in the air. Still, advocates should take heart: Just because legislation doesn’t pass this month does not mean it’s dead.

Few issues expose the divide between the left and right like police reform. Some Democrats have spoken passionately about the need for change, citing distrust and a plethora of bad encounters between police and minorities, while certain Republican lawmakers have cited reform efforts as counterproductive to public safety and unfair to police.

“It’s time we focus on the real issue of violence throughout Delaware rather than the lie of pervasive abuse by police,” Sens. Dave Lawson, R-Marydel; Dave Wilson, R-Lincoln; and Bryant Richardson, R-Laurel, said in a statement Friday.

Voting

Democrats have taken steps to expand voting access in recent years, and this session has seen no shortage of such measures. Bills to mandate employers let employees take some paid time off to vote and to allow no-excuse absentee voting could see action, as could a measure moving the state primary from September to April, where it would coincide with the presidential primary even in off years.

Republicans have their own election measures, which are aimed at improving the “integrity and efficiency of Delaware’s voting system.” These proposals would create a task force to study ways to improve the accuracy of Delaware’s voter list, increase penalties for voter fraud, instruct the Department of Elections to study ways to verify voter signatures on absentee ballots and require identification to vote.

Spending

Of paramount importance are the operating budget, capital bond bill and grant-in-aid measure for nonprofits. Though the capital budget is not yet finalized and there’s still room to tinker with the operating budget, these items should come to roughly $5.5 billion collectively.

The state has globs of unanticipated revenue, with collections in most areas up more than expected. It’s not quite Scrooge McDuck diving into a vault of gold coins, but there’s enough money to invest heavily in one-time items and some recurring costs while setting millions aside for future years.

Since December, the state has seen its revenue projections for the current and upcoming fiscal years grow by around $750 million combined.

The Joint Finance Committee needed just two days to mark up the governor’s recommended budget in May, allocating funding for various areas throughout state government. Among those items: a $500 pay hike for most state employees, a 1% raise for education employees, contractually mandated salary bumps for certain positions, increases for state pensioners and one-time bonus payments for both current and former government workers.

Some of the major bills, such as marijuana and minimum wage, have been held up for months in the House because the chamber requires measures with a cost to receive funding before being voted on. Legislators just about concluded the budget late last month, setting aside money, contingent on passage, for several of those issues.

“It would be very irresponsible of me in a fiduciary sense if I were to put bills on the floor ... and we don’t have the money to fund it,” Rep. Schwartzkopf said. “That would be the worst thing we could do.”

Having excess funding is good in the sense legislators do not have to debate tax hikes or service cuts, as they most recently did in 2017. In the words of Rep. Schwartzkopf, however, it’s a “doubled-edged sword,” thanks to the additional requests from all over that extra money prompts.

Meanwhile, Republicans have filed several proposals that would cut taxes or offer tax credits. Those bills are awaiting committee hearings.

The state is still awaiting guidance on exactly how it can use the money it is receiving from the federal government through the most recent coronavirus stimulus package. Delaware is earmarked a little more than $1 billion in the legislation.

If possible, legislators might use that funding for projects like broadband expansion and clean water infrastructure, according to Rep. Schwartzkopf. Legislators might convene later in the year to allocate that money, which brings us to one other thing to keep in the back of your mind.

Special session

The General Assembly conducts redistricting, redrawing the lines of the 41 House and 21 Senate districts, every 10 years. State law requires lawmakers to finish the process by early November, one year ahead of the 2022 election.

Normally, this isn’t as much of an issue, but delays in states receiving data from the U.S. Census Bureau greatly compresses the timeline and will force the legislature to return in the fall to formally approve new boundaries. The General Assembly is not expecting to get the full set of data until September, which gives it at most two months to perform the time-consuming process.

Citing the challenges imposed the pandemic, as well as failures from the Trump administration, Democratic leadership took the unusual step of announcing in February there will be a special session later this year for that purpose.

Given population trends, Sussex County will almost certainly pick up at least one seat in the House and perhaps an added seat in the Senate, although specifics won’t be clear for several months.

At any rate, that’s still in the future. Lawmakers certainly have enough on their plates to worry about as is. Just to name a few of the other proposals not mentioned above that might receive attention, there are bills to allow students to take a day off from school to attend “civic engagements,” effectively bar the state from forcing someone to get vaccinated, provide tenants more rights against eviction, establish community solar-generating facilities and create a statewide paid family and medical leave program.

Stay tuned.