The New Castle County Chamber of Commerce believes that excessive government regulation threatens productivity and jeopardizes Delaware's economic competitive edge. To that end, the County Chamber urges the State to remove obsolete, duplicative regulations, to eliminate unnecessary regulatory oversight whenever possible, and to lessen the burden of compliance through paperwork reduction.
The New Castle County Chamber of Commerce seeks the protection of the Delaware's treasured natural resources and supports initiatives to improve the quality of our environment that are based on sound research and science. Jobs and responsible economic development should not be threatened by irrational or onerous environmental laws or regulations. In addition, appropriate cost/benefit analyses need to accompany the promulgation of new environmental laws or regulations.
The New Castle County Chamber of Commerce is committed to an open, deregulated and competitive marketplace for all natural gas, water and electric utilities in Delaware where markets are sufficiently competitive to control prices for businesses and consumers. .
1) Regulatory Flexibility
The Chamber strongly supports regulatory flexibility legislation designed to require cost-benefit analyses for new regulations which gauge their impact on small businesses and mitigate regulatory burdens on small employers in our State.
2) Tort Reform
The New Castle County Chamber of Commerce supports efforts to reform the current liability system and put an end to frivolous lawsuits. The New Castle County Chamber supports voluntary market solutions to any insurance market availability problems.
3) Health Care Reform
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed during the 111th Congress brings with it the most significant legislative and regulatory changes that our nationÕs health care system has experienced in decades. The full effects of this law, both positive and negative, on individuals and employers are unknown. The implementation of the PPACA is now in the hands of each individual state and will require each state to pass new legislation to accommodate all the sweeping changes that must be in place
by 2014.
The Chamber wants to ensure that small businesses, those with fewer than 100 employers, are adequately represented as the Health Care Exchanges are set up. The Chamber believes that the requirements and needs of small businesses (less than 100 employees) are very different from individuals and large corporations so there should be a SHOP option. In addition, the Chamber believes that private insurance companies are best suited to provide policies to individuals and businesses on the open market and though the
newly emerging Health Care Exchanges.
4) Medical Negligence Insurance
Reforms undertaken in 2003 to reduce the cost of medical negligence insurance for Delaware physicians, such as the requirement for a certificate of merit for medical negligence claims, have been helpful in addressing the expense of this important insurance. The Chamber urges the preservation and improvement of these important reforms Ð particularly in light of the absence of tort reform measures from the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
5) Joint and Several Liability and the Collateral Source Rule
The Chamber supports the abolition of the joint and several liability doctrine and its collateral source rule.
6) Statutes of Limitations and Product Liability
The Chamber opposes legislation which would alter the statute of limitations in product liability cases to allow for open-ended liability for manufacturers.
7) Unanimity in Civil Jury Verdicts
The Chamber considers unanimous jury verdicts essential to preserving due process protections and opposes any legislation that would change the unanimous jury requirement in civil cases under Delaware law.
8) Unemployment Insurance
The State of DelawareÕs Unemployment Insurance Fund has suffered from significant shortfalls during our nationÕs recent economic difficulties. Delaware has had to borrow from the federal government in order to meet its unemployment insurance obligations.
Legislation was enacted in 2009 to allow Delaware to leverage federal funding which imposed substantial additional regulatory requirements on employers. The Chamber strongly recommends that policymakers investigate the effects of those requirements on Delaware employers.
9) Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board
The Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board currently requires that any corporation or other similar entity be represented by counsel to appear before them. This is an exceedingly expensive and burdensome requirement for many small businesses in our state. Furthermore, it is not consistent with our StateÕs reputation as a have for corporations, Limited Liability Companies and similar entities. The Chamber urges the repeal of this requirement as soon as is possible.