Rep. Ron Gray

This Bill is the Fiscal Year 2020 Bond and Capital Improvements Act.

This bill changes the earned income tax credit from nonrefundable to refundable. For tax year 2020 and thereafter, the rate of the credit is in the amount of 5.9 %.

This Act protects consumers from paying high prices for prescription drugs by ensuring competition in the marketplace by doing the following: 1. Prohibiting a pharmacy benefit manager from requiring or providing an incentive for an insured individual to use a pharmacy in which the pharmacy benefit manager has an ownership interest. 2. Requiring that a pharmacy must be owned by a pharmacist or by a majority of pharmacists if owned by an artificial entity. This ownership requirement is modelled on the same requirement in North Dakota law, enacted in 1963, which has kept North Dakota prescription prices among the lowest in the country and provides North Dakotans with more pharmacies per capita than the national average and a high level of care from locally owned pharmacies. This ownership requirement does not apply to current holders of a permit to operate a pharmacy or to hospital pharmacies that furnishes services only to patients and employees.

This Act exempts a number of nonprofit corporations from property taxation or assessment by a county or other political subdivision of the State.

This Act increases the age requirement for compulsory school attendance in Delaware from 16 to 18 years of age. The age increase is phased in over a 2-year period; accordingly, there is a 1-year interim period where the compulsory school attendance age requirement will be 17 years of age. The Act further provides that a child may be exempt from the age requirement for compulsory school attendance if the child has received a high school diploma or a diploma of alternate achievement standards or obtains permission to withdraw from school from the superintendent of the district in which the child is enrolled or from the president of the board of the charter school in which the child is enrolled. To obtain a waiver from the date of enactment of this Act until August 31, 2022, a child must be at least 16 years old. To obtain a waiver on or after September 1, 2022, a child must be at least 17 years old. The Act preserves the exemption under which a child may be excused from compulsory attendance upon request of the child's parent or legal guardian coupled with supporting written documentation from a qualified health professional.

This legislation gives authority to the Executive Director of the Delaware Commission of Veterans’ Affairs to use the term “Delaware Office of Veterans’ Services” when carrying out the work of the Commission. This will enable the Executive Director and other staff of the Commission to conduct business under a banner that better describes their role as providers of services to Delaware veterans and their families. Applying the name “Delaware Office of Veterans’ Services” also serves to distinguish the office from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and will help alleviate confusion among members of the public. This legislation also removes outdated language.

This Act authorizes the Division of Motor Vehicles (“Division”) to issue special registration plates to motorcycle clubs without having to enact a special law for each request. A motorcycle club must have 50 applications for its special registration plate before the Division is required to issue a special registration plate; however, the requirement is reduced to 25 for certain motorcycle clubs. This Act is limited to owners of a motorcycle who are members of a motorcycle club and have completed or are enrolled in, and complete, an experienced rider course. This Act assesses a 1-time, $20 fee, $10 of which must be deposited by the Division into a special account to be used by the Division only for the expenses incurred in the administration of the motorcycle rider education program.

This bill will allow marinas in Sussex County to sell gasoline that does not contain ethanol. Sussex County comfortably meets the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for ground level ozone, and removing ethanol from marine fuel will have no significant impact on ambient ozone levels. The State of Maryland now allows the sale of non-ethanol gasoline in certain counties that are adjacent to Sussex County and Delaware businesses are losing sales to their Maryland counterparts.

The purpose of the Bill is to protect farmers and ranchers from nuisance lawsuits filed by individuals who inhabit areas where agricultural operations lawfully exist, and who exercise nuisance actions to attempt to stop operation and production. This Bill protects farms and agricultural operations that use commonly accepted agricultural practices from being considered a nuisance in areas zoned for agricultural uses and operations that have existed for a period of 1 year or longer. This will enable the State to protect the production of food, fuel and fiber within the state. AR Districts provide for a full range of agricultural activities and protect agricultural lands, as one of the State’s most valuable natural resources, from the depreciating effect of uses deemed objectionable, hazardous or unsightly (Kent County Zoning Code Chapter 205-60 Article VI and Sussex County Zoning Code Chapter 115-19 Article IV). Moreover, AR Districts serve as a transitional buffer zone between agricultural and residential uses and are also intended to protect watersheds, water resources, and forest areas. Kent and Sussex county ordinances permit specified land uses within AR Districts to provide for a wide range of agricultural uses and farm related services while also providing for low-density residential development in areas that are rural in character and where farming may not be the optimum land use activity. New Castle County Unified Development Code (UDC) permits agricultural uses in eight Urban and Suburban-Transition Districts and seven Suburban and Special Character Districts (UDC Chapter 40). Permitted uses within these districts include crop production and animal production, and any other agricultural uses as recognized by Delaware law. Additional uses, permitted for Limited Review, include Farm Market and Clearing activities (UDC Land Use tables 40.03.110 A and 40.03.110 B). It is the express intention of this act to establish as the policy of this State the protection of agricultural operations from nuisance actions, where recognized methods and techniques of agricultural production are applied, while, at the same time, acknowledging the need to provide a proper balance among the varied and sometimes conflicting interests of all lawful activities in Delaware.

This Act expands the definition of “prescription drug order” to include electronic prescribing and makes Gabapentin a Schedule V controlled substance. Gabapentin is a prescription medication which is used to treat partial seizures and neuropathic pain. However, Gabapentin is also used to increase the effects of opioids, which potentially increases the risk of overdose death when used in combination with opioids. Gabapentin has become a drug of abuse with users reporting effects such as euphoria, a marijuana-like high, and other users describing their state after taking the medication to be zombie-like. The United States has seen substantial increases in the rate of Gabapentin prescribing and abuse. Several states, including Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia, have already classified Gabapentin as a Schedule V controlled substance. Classifying Gabapentin as a Schedule V controlled substance in Delaware will permit the State to monitor the prescription of the drug and address issues of abuse.