This Week in Dover

By Michael J. Quaranta

This is crunch time in the General Assembly as they returned to work for the final session days of 2025.  The situation is always very fluid this time of year, so stay tuned because bills thought to be dead somehow find new life, and things thought to be “greased” get sidetracked. 
 
We are grateful that legislators heard the business community loud and clear about our concerns regarding personal tax increases. The letter we co-authored with the Delaware Business Roundtable served as the catalyst for other groups to sign on and engage with policymakers. At this point, the likelihood of a vote to increase personal income tax rates (HS 1 for HB 13) is diminishing by the day. While we understand the optical challenge of having roughly half of the states’ taxpayers in the highest tax bracket, we believe there are other factors to consider and better revenue options to explore.  You can read the letter here. 
 
Our Environmental Committee has worked diligently with DNREC Secretary Patterson and his team on a bill to increase fees on several departmental permits that have not been adjusted in decades. The bill, HB 175, raises the permit fees the department may charge in many cases. We successfully negotiated lower increases in some cases, but more importantly, conditioned our support of the bill on the Secretary committing to improve the speed which permit decisions are made and cultural shifts within the department.  It is rare for the State Chamber to support fee increases of any kind, but we did so in this case and take the Secretary at his word that he will improve the customer experience. On Wednesday, the bill successfully passed out of the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee. 
 
The State Chamber and others expressed opposition to HB 210, the Pollution Accountability Act, which was also heard in the Natural Resources and Energy Committee the same afternoon. This bill greatly increases the fines commercial businesses, homeowners, small businesses, and farms could incur for repeated violations of environmental law or policy. While we are proud of the investment our members have made and continue to make to manage air, water, and more in meaningful ways, we are opposed to fines that could reach an amount of $40,000 per day. The committee heard from agriculture interests about how natural disasters such as hurricane damage or floods could result in environmental accidents completely out of their control. The State Chamber testified and stated that passage of legislation like this will signal to the insurance industry greater risk of substantial penalties, thus elevating business liability and result in higher insurance rates for everyone. The bill did not receive the required number of votes to be released from committee; however, a few members were absent, and we expect this bill to move to the House for consideration.  In the meantime, efforts will be made to amend the bill or work to push this off until next session where more time and consideration may be given to the details. 

​Finally, HS 2 for HB 105, or the Pay Transparency Act, passed the House of Representatives earlier this week. The bill now moves to the Senate where we expect it to pass easily, and the Governor has signaled his support and intention to sign the bill into law. We compliment the efforts of Representative Ross Levin to meet regularly with stakeholders to amend and improve the bill. Delaware would join almost 20 other states with similar laws on the books, including our immediate neighbors Maryland and New Jersey, and not-too-distant neighbors New York, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.  A side-by-side analysis of this bill and its comparison to the others make this new policy more practical for our members and job seekers than many of the provisions found in other state laws.