Delaware House of Representatives passes five bills

By Rachel Sawicki
Posted 1/21/22

DOVER — The Delaware House of Representatives passed all five bills on the agenda on their second legislative session on Thursday.

HB310, sponsored by Rep. Debra Heffernan, passed …

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Delaware House of Representatives passes five bills

Posted

DOVER — The Delaware House of Representatives passed all five bills on the agenda on their second legislative session on Thursday.

HB310, sponsored by Rep. Debra Heffernan, passed unanimously. The act amends the Fiscal Year 2022 Bond and Capital Improvements Act to make clarifications and relocations of existing funds in the current capital budget to several projects involving schools, transportation and community investments. It does not authorize any new state funding.

“The bill creates a market pressure fund for four school districts under construction for market pressure due to rising costs,” Rep. Heffernan said, listing some highlights of the bill. “It also authorizes local school bonds for Appoquinimink for two projects at Middletown High School and it makes certain land acquisition approvals identifying a new parcel for the north Wilmington library and acquiring property for the Delaware National Guard New Castle Readiness Center.”

Rep. Heffernan also sponsored ​​HB289, which 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 is a bill that will be important for stores, for the convenience of customers and safety during COVID,” Rep. Heffernan said.

The bill passed unanimously.

HB285, sponsored by Rep. Ed Osienski, 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.

“This bill helps the unemployed by exempting their 2021 benefits from the calculation of adjusted gross income, meaning they will not pay state tax on their 2021 benefits they received,” Rep. Osienski said. “The 2022 employer assessment rates are held at the same rate as 2020, which avoids increase rates, due to increase in claims, due to COVID-19.”

Other sections of the bill reduce 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.

It also allows the Department of Insurance the administrative authority to reduce employer assessment rates below the delinquency rate and provide responding credits, and furthermore 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 Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund for 2022.

The department has determined that the impact of this change on the UI Trust Fund balance is estimated to be $11.4 million in 2022.

Sections 5 and 6 extend to Dec. 31 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.

Representative Bill Bush sponsored HB272, which amends the state’s Insurance Holding Company System Registration Act. It will designate two additional categories of documents filed under the act as subject to confidential treatment under the law and incorporate changes adopted by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. These changes are related to affiliated transactions for insurers in receiverships.

“The bill comes to us from the insurance commissioner, there was no opposition at the committee hearing and no opposition from representatives in the insurance industry,” Rep. Bush said.

The amendments, among other things, add certain standards for affiliate transactions of an insurer that is deemed to be in hazardous financial condition or subject to a supervision, conservation or delinquency proceeding.

Sponsored by Rep. Paul Baumbach, HB 268 was also passed unanimously and 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.

Rep. Baumbach said the bill has unanimous support from the Newark City Council, as well.

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 time frame is insufficient, given the frequency of city council meetings.

All five bills will now be sent to the Senate for approval.

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