The Delaware legislature is back after a week of Joint Bond Committee hearings and advances several bills with just under two dozen days of session left.
This week marks the halfway point for the legislative session, and the House cleared three notable bills to kick off the two-week stretch before Spring Recess.
Among the legislation was State Rep. Stephanie T. Bolden’s (D-Wilmington) annual attempt to move Delaware’s statewide primary date — currently held in early September — to the same date of the presidential primary in April.
The bill has passed in the House several times, including last year when it received unanimous bipartisan support aside from one abstention, but it repeatedly fails or stalls in the State Senate.
Rep. Bolden hopes this is the year the bill finally passes, especially considering state budget constraints and looming federal funding cuts. It would save the state from funding two separate primary elections.
“We need to look at a way in which we can save money. This bill will save us $1.5 million. $1.5 million. And if no other reason, this is the main reason for us to support this bill," Rep. Bolden said on the House Floor.
She explains it will also reduce voter confusion, increase voter turnout and bring the First State in line with several other states — Delaware is currently tied for last place in the lateness of its statewide primary.
"I keep admiring you for pushing it forward. I couldn't agree more with you, so hopefully we have unanimous support here and send it across the hall, where they can do the right thing now," State Rep. Lyndon Yearick (R-Magnolia) said.
Her tenth attempt at making the change passed in the House 39-1. It now heads to the Senate for consideration.
The House also passed its first bill in a slate of school board reform efforts.
While five of the bills still await a vote on the House Floor, State Rep. Cyndi Romer's (D-Newark) bill that would require school board's to host a virtual meeting option for public engagement cleared the body with almost unanimous support.
In its committee hearing last month, some stakeholders brought up concerns of the local cost schools would have to pitch in to subscribe to a virtual meeting platform, but Rep. Romer believes the fiscal impact will be minimal.
"There's no specific funding for this, but I did identify that Zoom — although there is no platform mandated in this legislation — if they wanted to use Zoom, there is an education platform that for about less than $200 a year, there are capabilities for this type of streaming," Rep. Romer said.
The bill passed 38-2 and heads to the Senate for another committee hearing.
But State Rep. Melanie Ross-Levin's (D-Brandywine) bill looking to place restrictions on when utility company's can terminate services did not receive the same amount of bipartisan support.
The bill would prohibit utilities from cutting off services outside the hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Thursday, unless the utility company generally provides facilities for payment and restoration of services on weekends, and would prohibit a utility company from terminating any services from Dec. 21 to Jan. 1.
It would also keep a utility from terminating cooling services when the Heat Index is equal to or exceeds 95 degree or from terminating heating services for nonpayment to a dwelling unit when the temperature is at or below 35 degrees.
The legislation was introduced among a series bills last month looking to address concerns around skyrocketing Delmarva Power utility bill prices during the winter months.
While Rep. Ross-Levin's bill passed 28-12, it only received support from two Republican lawmakers.
State Rep. Shannon Morris (R-Camden) has repeatedly advocated against bills that could be seen as governmental overreach into private business, and he feels this one does just that.
“We're gonna tell an industry or a business when they have to be open or when they can conduct business and when they cannot conduct business, and we're just doing that again. We're just gonna keep going down a slippery slope, I just want everybody to be aware of that," he said on the House Floor.
The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration.
Additionally, members of the House Economic Development/Banking/Insurance & Commerce Committee present unanimously cleared State Rep. Ed Osienski's (D-Newark) bill making technical corrections to the Delaware Code in an effort to put recreational marijuana business license holder's FBI background checks back on track.
The bill is a response to a letter from the FBI to the Office of the Marijuana Commissioner, denying the office necessary service codes to conduct a federal background check before granting conditional licenses to lottery winners who are anxiously awaiting approval to get their marijuana businesses up and running.
When asked how far the denial would put back the market opening date — which was anticipated to be this month — during the committee hearing, acting Marijuana Commissioner Paul Hyland said: "The actual FBI part hasn't slowed us down as of yet. The Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement is still doing the background checks, and there's considerable stuff to do in that background check — taxes, civil, things like that. I would say that there are some growers that are gonna be ready to go fairly quickly, but as far as the retail, we haven't had much luck with some of the retailers with the zoning problems."
Hyland is referring to counties and cities across the state implementing strict zoning restrictions for retail marijuana dispensaries, making it virtually impossible for license holders to find real estate that fits the criteria.
State Sen. Trey Paradee (D-Dover) has introduced legislation to try and lessen those restrictions, but the bill is awaiting its first committee hearing.
Rep. Osienski's bill now awaits a full vote on the House Floor.
