$15 a Hour Minimum Wage Heads to
Governor to be Signed into Law
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House Democrats Defeat Amendments to Help Small Businesses, Non-profits, and Report on the Impacts of the Hike
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JUNE 18, 2021 -- After clearing the House of Representatives on Thursday evening, a bill seeking to raise Delaware's minimum wage to $15 an hour is heading to the governor's desk for his expected signature.
The legislation calls for the state's current $9.25 per hour minimum wage to be raised by a total of 62% in four increments over three years. The first increase of a $1.25 per hour will take effect on New Year's Day, 2022. The $15 per hour minimum wage will be fully implemented on January 1, 2025.
Delaware's minimum wage hike was passed exclusively on the votes of the legislature's 40 Democratic lawmakers, who maintained it was needed to help the least skilled workers pay for basic amenities.
General Assembly Republicans said the $15 per hour rate was arbitrary, that the burden of paying for it would fall hardest on small businesses struggling to recover from the COVID-19 disruption, and that the initiative was likely to harm many of the people it is intended to help.
House Republicans introduced six amendments -- and supported a seventh sponsored by State Rep. Sherae'a Moore (D-Middletown) -- intended to modestly modify the proposal to help struggling small businesses and non-profit agencies, as well as collect data on the impact of the legislation. All seven proposals (listed below) were defeated by House Democrats.
House Amendment 1 - State Rep. Lyndon Yearick (R-Camden/Wyoming): Sought to delay the implementation of the bill by one year to provide more time to recovering businesses.
House Amendment 2 - State Rep. Mike Ramone (R-Pike Creek South): This amendment would have deleted the last year of the wage hike proposal, resulting in a new $13.25 per hour minimum on January 1, 2024. This amount would have exceeded the minimum wage's highest historic purchasing power set in 1968 (a present day value of approximately $12.35).
House Amendment 3 - State Rep. Mike Smith (R-Pike Creek Valley): This amendment would have allowed an exemption to small businesses of 100 or fewer employees, allowing them to pay their employees 85% of the minimum wage rate ($12.75 when the $15 per hour minimum was fully implemented).
House Amendment 4 - State Rep. Ruth Briggs King (R-Georgetown, Long Neck): This amendment would have provided a limited exemption to non-profit organizations, allowing them to pay their employees 85% of the minimum wage rate.
House Amendment 5 - State Rep. Bryan Shupe (R-Milford South): This amendment would have required the Controller General to make annual reports to the General Assembly on the actual fiscal impacts of the minimum wage hike, including costs associated with resulting salary and wage compression issues that were not included in the fiscal note of the bill.
House Amendment 6 - State Rep. Bryan Shupe (R-Milford South): This amendment would have required the Controller General facilitate annual reports to the General Assembly on the economic impact of the minimum wage hike.
House Amendment 9 - State Rep. Sherae'a Moore (D-Middletown): For small businesses with 20 or fewer employees, this amendment would have delayed the start of the minimum wage hike implementation by one year
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House Democrats Kill Bill to Check
Governor's 'State of Emergency' Authority
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Earlier this week, the three Democratic leaders of the Delaware House of Representatives essentially killed legislation seeking to establish a check against the governor's unlimited authority to declare and renew a State of Emergency.
At present, the Delaware Code (Title 20, Chapter 31, § 3115) gives the governor the power to declare a State of Emergency in response to, or in anticipation of, any emergency or disaster posing a threat to the public. The initial State of Emergency declaration can last for up to 30 days, after which the governor can renew the declaration as many times as he or she wishes.
The state legislature has no role in the process and no viable ability to alter or limit the orders. While legislators could theoretically pass bills, that approach would be unworkable in actual practice. Not only would the General Assembly need initially pass legislation, they would have to do it twice, with the a three-fifths majority on the second occasion to overcome the likely gubernatorial veto.
Gov. John Carney first declared an emergency in Delaware on March 12, 2020 to cope with COVID-19. He renewed the declaration 16 times before announcing earlier this week that he would lift the order on July 13th.
House Bill 49, sponsored by State Rep. Rich Collins (R-Millsboro) and State Sen. Bryant Richardson (R-Seaford), sought to establish a legislative check on such authority. It would have done the following:
- The governor's ability to declare an initial State of Emergency for up to 30 days would have been preserved under the bill.
- When an emergency extended beyond 30 days, the General Assembly would have needed to approve any State of Emergency renewal, as well as any modifications made to subsequent orders. This requirement could only have been waived if the House of Representatives and Senate leaders agreed that their respective chambers could not convene.
- The governor would have retained the authority to terminate emergency orders, without approval, when the emergency had passed.
- Any new emergency order (unrelated to weather) issued within six months of an earlier order issued for similar reasons would have required General Assembly approval.
During the House Administration Committee hearing, Rep. Collins noted his bill would have no impact on the current pandemic response. He also told the members that if they released it for consideration by the full chamber, he would amend the measure so that it would not take effect until after the end of Gov. Carney's term in office.
"I only want this to be about the future," Rep. Collins said. "We cannot allow this situation to happen again."
Speaking on the bill earlier this year, Sen. Richardson said this was an issue on which he hoped lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, would be able to find common ground. "This bill would allow all legislators to better represent the interests of their constituencies during the most desperate of circumstances – a situation requiring a prolonged State of Emergency. I cannot think of a valid reason why any state lawmaker would vote against a measure that would make them more effective advocates for their districts."
Those hopes were dashed on Tuesday. Speaker of the House Pete Schwartzkopf (D-Rehoboth Beach), House Majority Leader Valerie Longhurst (D-Bear, Delaware City), and House Majority Whip John Mitchell (D-Elsmere) voted to table the bill, seemingly ending its chances for passage by preventing it from moving to the floor for consideration.
A similar measure, House Bill 330, was introduced during the last General Assembly and died in the House Administration Committee without a hearing.
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State Rep. Bryan Shupe is sponsoring legislation that would safeguard the ability of citizens and journalists using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Delaware’s FOIA law ( 29 Del. Code, Chapter 100) provides citizens with a system for accessing public records and compels state officials to facilitate the process. Similar statutes exist on the federal level and in other states. Collectively, FOIA laws have often been instrumental in checking governmental power and uncovering instances of abuse, neglect, and inefficiency.
Rep. Shupe is sponsoring House Bill 203. The proposal would strengthen the Freedom of Information Act by prohibiting the governor from suspending it during a State of Emergency, unless he or she was able to demonstrate that complying with the act would prevent, hinder, or delay state action needed to cope with the crisis.
According to Rep. Shupe, his measure is a reaction to the governor's suspension of FOIA for eight months during the pandemic. "I believe it is when we are in times of crisis that we most need full and complete access to information," he said.
Rep. Shupe also criticized legislation recently introduced in the Senate. Senate Bill 155 would allow government agencies to deny FOIA requests if state officials believed the requests were “unreasonably broad, unduly burdensome, abusive” or intended to “disrupt the essential functions of the public body.” He said the bill, sponsored by freshman legislator, Sen. Kyle Evans Gay (D-Talleyville), contains no definition of its key terms and could easily be abused by state officials looking to avoid disclosing potentially damaging or embarrassing data.
After receiving opposition from good government groups, Sen. Gay indicated in published reports that she will not move her bill forward until lawmakers return to the capitol after the start of the new year.
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LEGISLATIVE QUICK NOTES:
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New State Operating Budget Introduced
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State Revenue Increases Again in Latest Forecast
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House Agenda for Tuesday Posted
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Two Major Money Bills Filed
Two major appropriations bills were filed in the House of Representatives today (6/18). The first is House Bill 250, the new state operating budget for Fiscal Year 2022, which begins July 1. The $4.771 billion General Fund budget is $246 million more than the one it will replace (a 5.43% increase).
Also introduced today was a companion supplemental appropriations bill, House Bill 251, containing $221.1 million in additional "one-time" spending.
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State Revenues Rise Again
State officials received some welcome news today (6/18) as the non-partisan group responsible for estimating state revenue met and issued their last projection of the current fiscal year.
According to the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council (DEFAC), the amount of spendable cash (98% appropriations limit) available to lawmakers for the upcoming fiscal year increased by $71.5 million when compared to the previous forecast issued last month. This figure has risen $1.025 billion since October, 2020.
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House Agenda for Tuesday Posted
The House of Representatives is expected to work bills on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of next week.
The House Agenda for Tuesday, June 22 is posted. In addition to two major funding bills (see above), the agenda contains 10 other items and a separate Consent Agenda with 12 bills. Among the proposals on the main agenda are measures dealing with the maintenance of manufactured home communities, an expansion of the Delaware Student Excellence Equals Degree (SEED) Act, and the publishing of complaints made against police officers.
Controversial bills to limit the capacity of firearm magazines, require Delawareans to obtain a permit to purchase a handgun, and legalize recreational marijuana remain on the House Ready List.
All the floor proceedings will be streamed live and can be accessed here.
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Bill Seeking Make More Food
Available to the Needy Heads to Senate
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In a somewhat rare instance of bipartisan sponsorship and cooperation, the House of Representatives on Thursday unanimously passed legislation aimed at increasing food donations to organizations serving needy Delawareans.
House Bill 226, sponsored by State Reps. Andria Bennett (D-Dover East) and Jeff Spiegelman (R-Clayton), et, al., seeks to build on existing federal law to offer additional state protections to individuals and organizations donating food in good faith.
Among other things, the bill would:
- Extend the same civil and criminal liability protections to those donating to a state agency as already exist to those donating food to non-profit organizations.
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Expand the definition of “food” to cover perishable food and wild game, as well as clarifying that food, in all its forms, is covered by this act.
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Shield from civil or criminal liability those donating deer to the Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Sportsmen Against Hunger program as well as people processing wild game donated to a non-profit organization or state agency.
Rep. Spiegelman said the idea for the bill grew from the concerns of some lawmakers over the shrinking number of butchers volunteering to process deer donated under the Sportsmen Against Hunger program. He said the attrition was due to the increased cost of liability insurance the meat-cutters were forced to carry to participate.
"When we began to do our research, we realized that school districts, the Modern Maturity Center, and other venues that produce food on a large scale, had to dump leftover surplus in the trash rather than being able to donate that food to our most vulnerable citizens," he said. "The reason is, current law says those organizations could be sued for simple negligence if something were to go wrong...and that's a fairly low standard for suing somebody."
The legislation passed by the House would raise that standard to "gross negligence" (a total disregard for the obligation to exercise due care and that results in harming others).
The bill now heads to a Senate committee for consideration. Past similar efforts have been opposed by Delaware’s trial lawyers.
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