Delaware House Bill 438 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)
Status: Introduced on June 21 2016 - 25% progression, died in committee
Action: 2016-06-21 - Introduced and Assigned to Economic Development/Banking/Insurance/Commerce Committee in House
Pending: House Economic Development/Banking/Insurance/Commerce Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Draft #1) [HTML]

Since 1999, residential developers in New Castle County have been required to seek either a certificate from the Department of Education declaring that the local school district has the capacity to absorb additional students from the new development, or alternatively pay a Voluntary School Assessment which is held in trust for the local school district to be used for new construction and expansion projects. Developments submitted at different times could be assessed quite different fees, and some pay no fee at all based only on fortuitous timing of their application submission or which district or particular bus route the applicant’s project was located in. The current Assessment formula is also insensitive to the size of new dwelling units – so that an assessment for a 10,000 square foot, 6-bedroom single family home could be the same as the assessment for a 1,500 square foot, 2-bedroom townhome. Assuming some or all of the Voluntary Assessment is passed on to the purchaser of the home, there is a regressive effect whereby purchasers of lower-income housing are shouldering a proportionally higher burden. This bill attempts to improve the process by taking into account the size of new dwellings, and making the fee standard across each school district since the advent and prevalence of school choice makes it more difficult to predict which schools will absorb potential new students. The bill ties the new school assessment to the cost of new construction in a local school district, multiplied by 0.625%. The resulting figure is then multiplied by the square footage of the new dwelling. The assessment is capped at $1,000 for an apartment, $2,000 for a townhome, and $5,000 for any other dwelling unit. Rather than a flat fee assessed at the time the plan is filed with the County, each unit will be assessed individually at the time a building permit is issued, and the assessment will be due when a Certificate of Occupancy is issued. Where the local school district has adequate capacity to absorb new students, a developer may still seek a certificate of adequate capacity from the Department of Education. Current contracts regarding the voluntary assessment fee between the Department of Education and any developer that are in place when this Act takes effect may be reevaluated and assessed pursuant to the new formula if the developer so wishes.

An Act To Amend Titles 9, 14, And 22 Of The Delaware Code Relating To Voluntary School Assessments And Residential Construction In New Castle County.

Rep. Bryon Short [D]

Sen. David Sokola [D]

Rep. Paul Baumbach [D]

Sen. Bruce Ennis [D]

Date	Chamber	Action
2016-06-21	House	Introduced and Assigned to Economic Development/Banking/Insurance/Commerce Committee in House

Type	Source
Summary	http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis148.nsf/2bede841c6272c888025698400433a04/15235e7b4f2163b885257f9c0052ad78?OpenDocument
Text	http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis148.nsf/vwLegislation/HB+438/$file/legis.html?open