This Substitute Act implements certain recommendations adopted by the Lottery & Gaming Study Commission in 2015 and the Video Lottery Advisory Council in 2017, in recognition of significant changes in the regional gaming marketplace and the State’s desire to remain competitive in the face of a proliferation of gaming venues in neighboring states. This Substitute Act adjusts the revenue sharing model in a way that ensures that the State continues to benefit from video lottery proceeds, ensures continued employment and horse racing at the State’s three video lottery facilities, and ensures that the video lottery agents will be able to reinvest capital in their facilities, market their facilities, and maintain their high standards of customer service. Effective July 1, 2018, this Substitute Act does all of the following: 1. Reduces the State’s share of gross table game revenues from 29.4% to 15.5%. 2. Suspends the table game license fee due June 1, 2019, and continues to suspend the fee in subsequent fiscal years if each agent increases expenditures on marketing, wages, and benefits by its pro rata share of the license fee. 3. Increases purses for horsemen by 0.6%, phased-in over two years. 4. Reduces the State’s share of gross slot machine revenues from 43.5% to 41.5% or 42.5% to 40.5%, as applicable, with additional reductions of 2% possible for each video lottery agent starting with the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2019, based on qualified capital expenditures reaching 3% of video lottery net proceeds. The Substitute Act also removes the prohibition against video lottery agents operating on Christmas or Easter. The Substitute Act differs from the Act with respect to the increases in purses for horsemen, a revised basis upon which to calculate the State’s share of gross slot machine and table games revenues, and requirements for video lottery agents to increase capital expenditures, marketing, wages, and benefits to continue the suspension of table game license fees and receive additional reductions in the State’s share of video lottery net proceeds. Sections 2, 5, and 6 of this Substitute Act are drafted to amend the law in effect at the time the changes are to take effect.
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This Act promotes diversity of housing in Delaware by acknowledging that not all residential units warrant the same Voluntary School Assessment. Currently, single family residential subdivision projects are subject to the same per unit Voluntary School Assessment as an apartment project, regardless of size and number of bedrooms. The current framework can place an undue burden on multi-family and smaller unit residential projects. This Act seeks to mitigate this burden for redevelopment plans by eliminating the Voluntary School Assessment for one-bedroom apartment units, such that the per unit Voluntary School Assessment would be charged only for each residential unit containing two or more bedrooms, and further by reducing the Voluntary School Assessment cap to 2.5 percent of the total cost of the residential unit. This Act further recognizes that relief in support of the above-mentioned policy is most appropriate for redevelopment projects where any financial burden on the school system potentially caused by reducing the Voluntary School Assessment is mitigated by taxes previously paid to the school district for the prior development.
The Act made changes to motor vehicle franchising practices, by doing the following: (1) Prohibiting a new motor vehicle manufacturer from recovering its costs for compensating its dealers for recalls or warranty parts and service by reducing the amount due to the dealer or imposing a charge. (2) Establishing the process for and method of compensating a dealer for a recall related to a used motor vehicle. (3) Providing a process by which a dealer may protest a franchise termination with the Public Service Commission. (4) Protecting consumer data. (5) Making technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. This Substitute Act incorporates these changes and makes an additional change to § 4903(b) of Title 6.
This Bill creates a tax exemption for non-profit owned swimming pools in New Castle County and Kent County. Sussex County has no similar exemption statute.
This act restores the $500 senior real property tax credit.
This Act requires each public school district to equip the schools within their respective jurisdictions with an adequate number of panic buttons that may be used to immediately alert local law enforcement authorities of a security threat at a school. Once activated, the required silent alarm system will immediately alert authorities without simultaneously activating an audible alarm within the school building.
This bill removes two out-of-date sections of the Division of Motor Vehicles' code. The first section to be deleted relates to a prohibition against a person displaying any card, sign, insignia, etc. of the Delaware Automobile Association unless they are a member of that Association. DMV believes the Association no longer exists as a separate entity. The second section relates to requirements for any vehicle provided by a railroad company that is used to transport railroad employees. DMV advises this section has never been enforced to anyone's knowledge.
This Act creates a Prescription Opioid Impact Fund (“Fund”) through a prescription opioid impact fee (“Fee”) that is assessed on manufacturers of prescription opioids as follows: 1. The fee is based on the total of the Morphine Milligram Equivalent (“MME”) in each manufacturer’s products dispensed in Delaware, based upon data already reported to the Prescription Monitoring Program (“PMP”). The PMP data contains the mandatory reports by pharmacists of every prescription opioid dispensed in the State. The PMP data does not include prescription opioids administered in hospitals, provided directly to patients by hospice, or dispensed by veterinarians. 2. The fee is assessed against manufacturers who exceed a threshold of MME dispensed each quarter. 3. The Fee is assessed as follows: • One penny per MME for a prescription opioid dispensed and reported in the PMP. • One-quarter of a penny per MME for a prescription opioid that is a generic. The money in the Prescription Opioid Impact Fund must be spent on the following activities: 1. Opioid addiction prevention. 2. The following opioid addiction services: • Inpatient and outpatient treatment programs and facilities, including short-term and long-term residential treatment programs and sober living facilities. • Treating substance use disorder for the under-insured and uninsured. • Emergency assistance relating to prescription opioids, including purchasing Naloxone. 3. Research regarding opioid addiction and treatment. 4. Administrative costs of implementing the Fee and Fund, up to 15% of the amount in the Fund. The Addiction Action Committee will award grants and contracts from the money in the Fund, based upon priorities developed in consultation with the Behavioral Health Consortium. A standing subcommittee of the Addiction Action Committee that does not contain any State employees will make the recommendations regarding the awards of the grants and contracts. This Substitute Bill differs from Senate Bill No. 176 as follows: • Adds additional whereas clauses to further explain the background for the Fund and Fee. • Gives responsibility for the Fee to the Secretary of State instead of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Services, because the PMP and the Controlled Substances Act are under the Secretary of State. • Removes the ability to use the funds from the Fee for Medicaid, and restricts appropriations to specifically-listed activities. • Prohibits using the Fund to supplant existing State funding. • Permits a manufacturer to challenge an invoice for a prescription opioid impact fee through the existing appeal process under the Controlled Substances Act. • Gives responsibility for appropriating funds from the Fund to the Addiction Action Committee. • Lowers the amount of the impact fee for generic drugs. • Establishes a minimum threshold before manufacturers are assessed the Fee. • Removes the restriction on raising prices to consumers because the Fee is unlikely to materially increase the price of prescription drugs because those prices are set on a national basis. • Provides explicitly that the Attorney General may recover interest and reasonable attorney fees and costs in a successful lawsuit to enforce this Act. • Clarifies that the Secretary of State develops the rules and regulations for implementing the Fee. And the Addiction Action Committee, with the Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Services, develops the rules and regulations for implementing the Fund. • Revises the reporting requirements on how money from the Fund is spent. • Provides clear permission to share the PMP data with the Addiction Action Committee, Secretary of State, and Attorney General for the purposes of administering and enforcing this chapter.
This concurrent resolution establishes a Task Force to investigate the cost of special education and make recommendations related to cost efficiency.
This Act is the first leg of a Constitutional Amendment reflecting the recommendations of the Advisory Panel to the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council (DEFAC) on Potential Fiscal Controls and Budget Smoothing Mechanisms established as per House Joint Resolution 8 of the 149th General Assembly (Panel). This Act would build upon the State’s existing appropriation limit methodology by moving the Budget Reserve Account into a newly defined Budget Stabilization Fund, defining rules for deposits to and withdrawals from said Budget Stabilization Fund, and adding a check of the appropriation limit against an index comprised of relevant indicators of growth of the State’s economy. The Panel further recommended that any final adoption of the structural budget reforms included in this Act be accompanied by statutory enactment of structural reforms to the Personal Income Tax by broadening the tax base as initially recommended by the DEFAC Advisory Council of Revenues report dated May 2015 and further detailed in the Panel’s report dated June 1, 2018.