Rep. James Johnson

This Act authorizes the Smyrna School District to convey to the Town of Smyrna property located in Kent County, and known as the School Administration Building, to be used by the Town for public purposes, including incorporating the building and property as part of the proposed Duck Creek Regional Library and Community Center at Smyrna.

This bill clarifies the General Assembly’s intent last session in amending the state’s habitual offender law, specifically (a) that the changes made by the General Assembly were intended to affect minimum mandatory sentences, not sentences where judges had already exercised complete discretion, (b) that the changes were not designed to reduce minimum mandatory sentences associated in the Delaware Code with specific crimes (e.g. illegal gun possession), and (c) allows the sentencing judge to impose probation after the minimum mandatory sentence required by this section.

This Act creates a Chapter 60 in Title 11 relating to providing individuals Fair Notice. Specifically, the Act requires individuals considering a plea of guilty in a criminal court of law be provided information related to the collateral consequences of a conviction. In addition, the Act requires additional notice be provided to a person convicted of a crime at the time of sentencing and upon release.

Civil forfeiture laws represent one of the most serious assaults on private property rights in the nation today. Under civil forfeiture, police and prosecutors can seize your car or other property, sell it and use the proceeds to fund agency budgets—often without so much as charging you with a crime. This Act protects individual liberty and property rights by standardizing forfeitures across all crimes, simplifying procedures, and addressing counterproductive incentives in the law that distort policing priorities. Importantly, this Act does not change the authority of law enforcement to seize property suspected of being associated with crime or limit in any way prosecutors’ ability to charge and prosecute suspected criminals. Moreover, it ensures that those individuals proven guilty of a crime do not keep the fruits of their crime. In doing so, it strikes the right balance between the individual property rights and public safety.

This Joint Resolution opposes the cost allocation of the Artificial Island Transmission Project as unfair and unduly burdensome to the ratepayers of Delaware and urges PJM to join with Delaware in contesting the cost allocation in the proceedings pending before FERC.

An individual's housing status should not be a basis for discrimination. This bill establishes a "Homeless Individual's Bill of Rights" that provides rights to protections for individuals experiencing homelessness, including protections from discrimination while in public and while seeking access to housing, employment, and temporary shelter. This bill vests important investigatory and enforcement authority with the State's Division of Human Relations and the State Human Relations Commission, similar to their roles with Delaware's Equal Accommodations Law and Delaware's Fair Housing Act.

Section 1 of this Act updates Delaware’s existing Motor Voter Program to adopt an automatic voter registration process. Currently, when Delawareans apply for, renew, or replace a driver’s license or identification card, they must choose to register to vote, update an existing registration, or decline registration. This bill would require eligible voters to instead “opt out” of having their information automatically shared with the Delaware Department of Elections for registration. Six states and the District of Columbia have enacted similar opt out policies. A portion of Section 1 (specifically, § 2050(b), Title 15) and Sections 2, 3, and 4 of this Act make technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual with no intent to change the substance of these sections.

This joint resolution rejects the report of the Delaware Compensation Commission in its entirety.

This House Concurrent Resolution recognizes February 2017 as “African American History Month.” It also requests the Governor issue a proclamation declaring the same and encouraging State agencies and all Delawareans to observe the occasion with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.