 By Tyler Micik The General Assembly returns on Tuesday, January 11th for the second leg of the 151st session. It’s likely a large portion of business will be conducted virtually--at least for the first few months--given the rise in COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant. It is an election year and a variety of bills are expected to be considered, all of which offer implications for businesses, large and small, across every industry. Among these proposals are Paid Family and Medical Leave and recreational marijuana legalization which were first introduced last year. As the General Assembly gavels into session next week, the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce offers our 2022 policy priorities, which focus on four pillars that are important to maintaining and creating a healthy business environment in Delaware: workforce, fiscal policy, economic development, and environmental policy. Guided by our leadership and members, these represent our top areas of focus in 2022 and will serve as a roadmap for the policies and regulations we plan to support. Providing us your feedback, sharing your stories, and joining one of our committees is the best way to help us shape policy in the First State. Working together to cultivate an environment where companies can grow and invest in Delaware. This is the best way to secure Delaware’s economic future. Join us.
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 By James DeChene, Armitage DeChene & Associates PERHAPS YOU’VE SEEN the videos and pictures of an elected official touring a production plant, wearing a suit and tie, with a hard hat and goggles, and wondered, “Why would they (the company, or the elected official) do that?” I’ve had the opportunity to be on tours like that for some very interesting companies including: walking through a nuclear submarine prior to its shakedown run, learning how a pharmaceutical company combats counterfeit versions of their products globally, seeing how a UPS facility works, touring a major fabricator of intricate (and large) metal works projects, the Nylon Mile in Seaford, and more. Each of these events gave the attendees an in-person look at how the “sausage is made”—note, if there are any sausage making facilities in Delaware, I’d love a tour. It’s a great opportunity to see how concepts come together and make a business successful. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic eliminating in-person meetings for over a year, the State Chamber created a successful Member-to-Member program. The concept is simple, but the outcomes are important. Work with Chamber staff to set up a meeting date to host your elected official—state House/Senate member—for a lunch/coffee and tour of your facility or office. That meeting is your chance to showcase your company, employees and the work they do, provide real examples of what the impact of legislation from Dover has on Delaware companies, and to build relationships with your representatives to provide feedback in the future. I’ve written before on the concept that employers tell their story the best—and that’s the case if you’re a small firm looking to grow or if you’re a large, multi-national firm with headquarters or other significant footprint in Delaware. The current list of legislation to be considered next year, along with what will be crafted and introduced, will most likely impact many companies across the state. These meetings are a great opportunity to help educate and provide background to decision makers. A few examples of issues that remain pending into next year:
If you have an interest in hosting an meeting at your company, the easiest way to start the process is to contact Tyler Micik at tmicik@dscc.com. Chamber staff will help coordinate the timing of the meeting, provide talking points on pertinent legislation, and more. The summer and fall are great times to host these meetings while legislators have some free time and are planning legislation for next year. Being a part of the conversation is important now more than ever, and the Chamber can help you tell your story.
 Recreational marijuana presents challenges for employers
By Jackson Bistany, Policy Intern Several states have been the drivers of policy changes to cannabis legalization, and it appears as though the trend will continue. For now, it remains predominantly a state’s decision whether to allow the sale and consumption of it, and in Delaware the topic is on the table as lawmakers consider recreational marijuana legalization in 2022. Cannabis legalization offers more freedom of choice for individuals to decide for themselves how they spend their time and money. However, if passed, legalization could bring about complex challenges into the workplace and put employers in an uncomfortable bind. The U.S. is currently experiencing a job surplus. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are roughly 9.2 million open positions throughout the United States. Companies across the country are desperate for workers that possess the skill sets necessary for to fill open positions. Legalization could add to this burden by making recruitment and retention efforts increasingly difficult for businesses trying to build a skilled workforce while maintaining a drug free workplace policy. Problems also arise when we consider the discrete nature of many THC products available today. In dispensaries across legal states, one can walk into a store to buy brownies, cookies, or infused candy and consume these products without detection. This readily available concealment is not shared by alcohol where the scent of consumption is apparent, and an individual must consume substantially greater quantities before impairment. Delaware has a very diverse business community comprised of cognitively demanding businesses that are accompanied by grave consequences when mistakes are made. At Kuehne Chemical Company, a typical day involves the transportation and storage of several dangerous and potent chemicals, which means there is no room for error. Bill Paulin, president at Kuehne, expressed concern for legalization explaining that “when someone makes a mistake, it could be a fatal one. So, we have to enforce a zero-tolerance policy or else people in our community and our team members could lose their lives." Concerns regarding workplace accidents due to impairment are not limited to dangerous or physically demanding positions. Every job operates at varying levels of responsibility, whether that is operating machinery, preparing a legal brief, or balancing financial statements. The simple fact is that no manager needs a greater probability of a mistake being made at the workplace. One of the larger issues surrounding cannabis is the lack of an accurate and decipherable on-the-spot sobriety test. This makes it impossible for employers to determine if someone used cannabis two weeks ago or an hour ago. Currently in legal states the primary method of impairment detection used by police officers is the Standardized Field Sobriety Test. This is mainly based on physical capabilities like balance and coordination, much of which does not apply well to THC impairment. Other more subtle indicators are looked for by police but are much more difficult to notice to the non-experts and can be subjective to individuals and their unique bodies and tendencies. This method of identifying insobriety on the spot is still rudimentary and is executed by professionals that have training and experience in recognizing specific signs. This is not something that employers are trained to identify, making it difficult for anyone to make the call on whether an employee is under the influence. These situations become messier when lawsuits become a factor as disgruntled employees may feel they were unjustifiably dismissed. Impairment is an issue in the workplace that employers must be vigilant in preventing. Recreational marijuana legalization adds to this stress and creates greater ambiguity around the nature of impairment. Companies will always put the safety of their employees, customers, and operation first. Until employers are protected from liability and can accurately identify impairment, businesses will maintain internal zero tolerance policies and reserve the right to make employment decisions with exemption from litigation. Until the science of cannabis advances to the point of accurate and reliable spot tests, businesses are wary to move forward with more lenient policies. Until then it is critical to the Delaware business community that employers be able to construct their own workplace policies and be able to make decisions according to that policy without the fear of legal repercussions. Jackson Bistany served as a summer policy intern with the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce. He is a rising senior at the University of Delaware with double majors in finance and management.  By Michael J. Quaranta Unprecedented amounts of federal aid were awarded to each state as economic recovery continues. In Delaware, the State will receive over $1 billion of support, on top of other revenues that have previously been directed here. This transformational moment is upon us, so making top-quality investments in our future is critical. For me, I would put our choices into a couple of categories: the safest, the wisest and the riskiest. Upgrading or repairing our infrastructure is a very smart and safe use of these resources. We need to get to and from places, survive on clean water, connect with our employers, schools, and commerce, and more. Another wise investment would be to clean up old or abandoned industrial sites and use these resources to remediate the environmental hazards developers cannot afford to do on their own. This puts these “brownfields” back into useful service and limits sprawl and development of “greenfields” or open space. Finally, workforce training and upskilling is another important strategy. Roughly 10,000 baby boomers reach the retirement age of 65 in this country every day, a phenomenon that has been occurring since 2011 and one that won’t end until 2029. We know that there is an existing mismatch between the skills workers have and the open, unfilled jobs employers post. If we want to rebuild the middle class and fill the jobs employers are desperate to hire, we need to put our eyes on more than just the three percent of the workforce coming out of high school or college every year and lift up those already in the workforce. A riskier move may not be so risky after all. Every great city in North America – and maybe the world for that matter – has a college or university in its midst. The intellectual capital this brings to a downtown has economic multipliers that are easy to calculate. I’m not suggesting that any of our colleges and universities abandon their homes, but a “multi-flag” consortium of buildings, staffed with programs and populated with students of law, urban studies, management, finance, data science, and more could be an invigorating economic driver for Wilmington.
 By James DeChene, Armitage DeChene & Associates What a difference a year makes. At this time last year, concerns that Delaware could expect to see incredible revenue losses due to COVID-19 had a significant impact on not only the budget crafting process but also in how the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council (DEFAC) approached its economic forecasting for much of 2020. This year, as was reported at the May DEFAC meeting, every single company that recently went for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) was a Delaware registered company, which increased Delaware’s corporate franchise tax revenue by 13 percent. In addition, realty transfer tax revenue was up 42 percent due to a housing boom, especially at our beach areas. While neither of these increases are sustainable, they do provide significant one-time money for infrastructure investment to help position Delaware for a strong future. The Delaware State Chamber of Commerce has a history in advocating for infrastructure investment, including supporting legislation like HB200. This bill invests heavily into water and sewer projects, supporting changes to the Transportation Trust Fund to ensure more dollars are dedicated to project spending versus operational budgets within DelDOT, broadband development across the state, and more. The simple reason for this advocacy is the intersection between government spending, economic development, job creation, and return on investment (at the end of the project you have a tangible, bright and shiny “thing” that provides a needed service or function).
Delaware finds itself in a unique position this year. Significant increases to the bond bill above and beyond the Governor’s recommended budget, combined with close to one billion dollars in federal money stemming from the American Rescue Plan, means that there is an opportunity to invest heavily in Delaware’s future. With smart spending and keeping in mind that these are two separate pots of money, the State can maximize its investments. The federal stimulus money has a fairly narrow scope of authorized uses—though the hope is that with the pending public comment period, Treasury will ease some of those restrictions. Much of what is currently authorized with federal stimulus money are areas in which Delaware still needs help. This includes broadband development in urban and rural areas across the state and repairing aging water and sewer infrastructure, which can be everything from stormwater remediation in New Castle County, persistent coastal flooding in Sussex, and drainage repair in much of Kent. The State’s bond bill can be much more creative in how it allocates money and starts filling the backlog of projects that have been considered for years. Projects like building new court houses, schools, and even perhaps leveraging the recently passed site readiness funding money to help attract new sectors to Delaware are all on the table. With state money, new train stations in Newark and Claymont have been built. Maybe now is the time to direct investment to extending Delaware rail to connect with MARC for better regional travel. Perhaps investing in broadband can help create a tech corridor along that line that connects Delaware to Philadelphia and Baltimore making the region an attractive alternative to Silicon Valley.
The possibilities of what can be built here may not be endless, but they are indeed significant. Now is the time for Delaware leaders to look to the future and continue shaping Delaware as a regional leader. The clock is ticking on the three-and-a-half years we have to allocate the federal stimulus money. Direct and nimble approaches to project development will be key, and state and local governments will have to work together to maximize this opportunity. The State Chamber’s continued calls for permitting reform at the state and local level will continue to grow in volume, as projects will not have the ability to take 18 months or more from conception to groundbreaking.
Delaware’s size should make it a giant amongst its neighbors if we can effectively combine smart investments with effective permitting and development opportunities. Like the COVID-19 pandemic, this is (hopefully) a once-in-a-lifetime event and we should take every step to make it count.  By Tyler Micik
The State Chamber’s Infrastructure and Transportation Committee met on June 28th for the second round of discussion around ideas on how the State could invest the additional $1 billion or more it's set to receive from the federal government. Committee members talked about the potential of creating a multi-flag university center in the City of Wilmington. Mayor Michael Purzycki joined the conversation and welcomed the idea, stating that schools are key to improving Wilmington’s social infrastructure. Other ideas discussed included making DE Route 1 an Interstate Highway, establishing Transportation Improvement Districts (TIDs) and Complete Community Enterprise Districts (CCEDs), supporting site readiness/environmental remediation, achieving 100% broadband access, and revising the Farm Preservation Act. Building a parking garage in Rehoboth and Lewes and making I-95 an innovation corridor were also mentioned. The committee will meet again in mid-July to discuss these proposals and more. The State Chamber plans on using these ideas to curate a list of recommendations, which will be presented to the Governor at our Developing Delaware Conference on October 14. If you would like to join the conversation, please contact me at tmicik@dscc.com or call (302) 576-6590. The ideas listed above do not represent an official State Chamber position. They are a compilation of the thoughts shared during our meeting as we continue to develop formal recommendations. By James DeChene, Armitage DeChene & Associates
The General Assembly finished its first round of the 151st Session early in the morning July 1st. Much like last year, the work performed was largely conducted virtually, but with a much larger breadth and scope of legislation considered this year than during the height of COVID-19 in 2020. That work included many bills we supported such as bills around our top priority of workforce development, passing the Clean Water Act — which the State Chamber has been working on for roughly four years — and a site readiness fund. Others bills that passed and impact businesses include increasing the minimum wage and expanding the plastic bag ban. It’s important to note that for bills that did not pass this year — like the legalization of recreational marijuana and Paid Family Medical Leave -- those bills remain “live” and will be worked on next year. A brief overview of bills that passed are:
SO WHAT HAPPENS NOW? Beginning late this summer and into fall will be the continuation of the State Chamber’s member-to-member meetings. These meetings are between Chamber members and members of the General Assembly. They consist of office visits or facility tours to showcase not only your business but also share how your company works and the impact various legislation will have on your bottom line. With the large numbers of newly elected members who have yet to meet many of their constituent businesses due to COVID-19, these conversations are more important now than ever. These meetings will continue to highlight important pending legislation that will be worked on next year like: HB 150, legalization of recreational marijuana; SB 1, the Healthy Delaware Families Act; HB 205, Delaware EARNS Act; HB256 which will raise income taxes; and HB 94/HB266, which is related to tipped wages, will be considered next year. All of these bills have a direct impact on Delaware employers. The General Assembly will be on recess until this fall when votes on redistricting will begin. The impact of redistricting will play a major role in the next 10 years of Delaware politics and policy, and always has the potential to see a few new faces. It’s largely believed that lower Delaware will pick up a House seat. It’s also probable a Senate seat will be moved from New Castle County to either Kent or Sussex. Then, in January, the second leg of the 151st Session will begin, which is also an election year. By James DeChene, Armitage DeChene & Associates
Both the budget and supplemental spending bills passed this week, paving the way for a bond bill that will be a record breaking $1.3 billion. Added to that number is roughly another billion dollars in American Rescue Plan dollars, which can also be used to invest in infrastructure projects. Other bills that saw movement were:
There are two legislative days left in this session with more to come. By James DeChene, Armitage DeChene & Associates
This week the main event in Dover was the passage of SB15, increasing Delaware’s minimum wage to $15 by 2025. Of the nine amendments attached to the bill, none passed. The bill now goes on to the Governor for signature. Also this week, HB200, a Chamber-supported bill related to water infrastructure investment, was released from Committee and is expected to be on the Senate agenda for a vote next week. SB127, another Chamber backed bill that would create a site readiness fund to offset the cost of development, is waiting for a House vote. HB77, which the Chamber opposes, is the latest version of legislation that would ban certain chemicals used as flame retardants in many consumer goods such as mattresses, consumer electronics, and upholstered furniture, was released from Committee. The sponsor has said he does not plan to work the bill for a House vote until January 2022. There are just 5 legislative days left before the end of this session. Plenty of bills remain active and await action, including bills impacting the use of apprentices on construction projects to creating a new community solar program. A lot can happen between now and June 30. Stay tuned for more updates. By James DeChene, Armitage DeChene & Associates
This week, the General Assembly continued its work before it ends in eight legislative days. Of note, the HB150, the bill to legalize recreational marijuana, was moved to next week to be voted on in the House. SB2, a bill to create a community solar program, passed the Senate. Other bills that saw action this week: HB205, a bill to create a State-run IRA retirement program, was released from committee and now goes to the House appropriations committee before it will receive a House vote. Also, two amendments have been placed with SB15, the minimum wage bill. One would extend the implementation period by one year, and the other would freeze the bill at $13.25 in 2024. The rest of June is starting to stack up. Yet to be voted on is the aforementioned HB150, SB15, and HB205, along with other pending bills related to business. |
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