This Week in Dover

The General Assembly wrapped up its first week back in session from bond break today, and it was an eventful week filled with committee hearings, bill introductions, and Governor Meyer’s State of the State address—during which Governor Meyer “called for decisive action on key priorities including education reform, affordable housing, accessible health care, workforce development, and efficient government operations.” You can view the speech text here and video recording here. 

One bill of note that saw movement this week, which the State Chamber is following, was SB 63. The bill was released from the Senate Labor Committee and moves to the Senate Ready List. The State Chamber is opposed to the bill and offered the following testimony:

“Under this proposal a general contractor could be disbarred for the acts of a sub-contractor they have no legal relationship with. If the main issue behind this proposal is workplace fraud at a sub-contractor level, this is not the solution. No one wants to protect bad actors. But let’s not punish the vast majority of general contractors and our members who are doing the right thing. If subs are misclassifying workers, why are they not held accountable instead? This proposal only increases risk for general contractors and in turn increases costs on consumers because they’ll need additional bonding insurance.

Finally, we worry that this proposal could unintentionally hurt small, new, or minority-owned subcontractors. The risk here would be magnified because these newer businesses have no track record of classifying their workers, so why would a general contractor take on that added risk? We understand the underlying premise of the bill, however, collectively we need to use current laws to go after bad actors and not assume everyone is bad or a risk to their employees. We oppose SB 63.”

Also, several other bills were introduced this week, including HB 111, HB 115, and SB 104. HB 111, known as the “Skip the Stuff Act,” prohibits food establishments from providing any single-use food service items, whether plastic or not, unless specifically requested by a customer. HB 115 prohibits discrimination based on weight, height, or body size in transportation, public accommodation, housing, commerce and trade, employment, jury selection, education, and public administration. SB 104 defines what a trauma kit is and sets forth certain requirements for certain property owners or entities regarding the number of kits they must have, their location, and communications to tenants about the kits.

Next week is the last week of session for the General Assembly before they adjourn for spring break for two weeks. If you have questions about any of these bills or others the State Chamber is following—like HB 105 (Pay Transparency); HB 84 (Employer-Sponsored Meetings and Communications); HS 1 for HB 13 (Personal Income Taxes); and SB 89 (Credit Card Transactions)—please let me know at [email protected].