Signed by Governor John Carney, Jr.

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that appropriates funding for nonprofit grants-in-aid and establishes task forces to respond to racism and improve police accountability.

Highlights:

• Appropriates $26.69 million to Government Units and Senior Centers (Sec. 1).

• Appropriates $20.47 million to One-Times and Community Agencies (Sec. 2).

• Appropriates $13.27 million to Emergency Medical Services for Paramedic Program Operations (Sec. 1).

• Appropriates $6.94 million to Fire Companies (Sec. 3).

• Appropriates $354,318 to Veterans Organizations (Sec. 4).

• Requires agencies, in order to be eligible for a Grant-in-Aid appropriation, to meet the following criteria (Sec. 5):

• Be an incorporated non-profit (or under the umbrella of a parent organization which is also an incorporated non-profit) and operating for 2 years prior to receiving funding before applying for Grant-in-Aid;

• Have bylaws that clearly state the purpose of the corporation agency and include a definition of duties of the Board of Directors;

• Have an active, community-represented, volunteer board of directors that sets policies, goals, and objectives and maintains minutes of regularly scheduled meetings and any special meetings;

• Have programs that are unduplicated by other state-supported agencies and satisfy unmet human needs of the community, and have personnel policies including job descriptions and classifications;

• Have competent executives, competent staffing, and reasonable facilities;

• Practice non-discrimination;

• Have accounting (budget) procedures and an annual audit;

• Use funds in accordance with the application;

• Demonstrate community support;

• Request funds only for a program which does not receive full funding from other sources of revenue; and

• Submit an online application no later than December 6, 2019, December 2, 2020, or senior centers by March 6, 2020, March 5, 2021.

• Prohibits funds appropriated in this act from being expended for (Sec. 6):

• Providing child daycare;

• The purchase of capital equipment;

• The relocation, rehabilitation, renovation or purchase of buildings;

• The payment of any part of an elected official’s salary or benefits;

• A political campaign or for partisan political purposes; and

• The hiring of lobbyists or other lobbying services.

• Prohibits an agency, beginning with the 2023 fiscal year, to request funding for a Grant-in-Aid appropriation through a fiscal agent (Sec. 7).

• Requires each local law enforcement agency contracting for an allocation, no later than April 1 of the current fiscal year, to report in detail the plan under which such funds are being expended, and any other information requested (Sec. 15).

• Establishes a Law Enforcement Accountability Task Force to study, make findings and recommendations to the General Assembly, the governor, and law enforcement agencies across the state regarding (Sec. 38):

• Use of force and imminent danger;

• Workforce development;

• Community policing and engagement; and

• Transparency and accountability.

• Establishes the African American Task Force to study and report to the General Assembly its findings and recommendations regarding the conditions that highlight the inequities within socioeconomically marginalized African American communities in this state, including as it relates to all of the following (Sec. 39):

• Education;

• Health care, including mental health care;

• Housing;

• Business and economic development, including access to capital lending institutions;

• Community empowerment, including voting rights;

• Environmental justice;

• Community violence; and

• Criminal justice.

• Authorizes the Department of Education to modify the date on which the annual total enrollment of pupils is counted to determine the actual unit count, to November 13, 2020 (Sec. 40).

Full Bill Text