When I was a kid, my favorite Superman comics featured Bizzaro World, a place where everything was topsy-turvy and kryptonite was good for you. Today, you can find a real-life congressional version of Bizzaro World at the House Agriculture Committee, a place where deficit spending is rarely criticized and corporate welfare is stoutly defended. On Wednesday, the Republican committee chairman, Frank Lucas, successfully blocked a small but bipartisan effort to reduce agricultura

The leading edge of the baby boomers hits age 65 this year and will contribute to a surge in Delawares senior population over the coming decade. The Delaware Population Consortium projects a 10% increase in the states population from 2010 to 2020 while the senior population jumps 41%. This surge in seniors has tremendous implications for consumer markets, financial services, the labor force, housing and government. Is Delaware beginning to prepare for the Gray Wave?

As evidenced by recently released data from the U.S. Department of Labor, Delaware is part of a nationwide carelessness in the administration of unemployment insurance benefits.   Over the past twelve months Delaware has made an estimated overpayment of unemployment benefits of more then $12 million, an administrative error rate of 9.5%. The total overpayment in Delaware for the last three years is almost $43 million, for an error rate of 9.3%. Among all the states Delaware h

In 1994 the State of Delaware made a successful bet on legalized gambling. Legislation authorized three horse racing tracks (now racinos) to build casinos for slot machines, which the State designated as video lottery terminals due to constitutional restrictions. Operations began in 1995 and revenues from slots and numbers lotteries are now the states fourth largest source of revenue. Gambling revenue to the state represents a voluntary payment of taxes. Unlike income and bus

Given two very different decades of performance, how do we expect employment in Delaware to perform in the coming years?

The recently released Transportation Trust Fund Task Force report projects a shortfall of $3.7 billion between spending and revenues over the coming ten years. The danger of not dealing with the shortfall is deterioration in Delaware’s transportation infrastructure and the resulting negative consequences for the state’s economy.   The Task Force report is excellent and comprehensive. It recommends both cost containment measures as well as alternative ways to enhance revenue.

Snapshot of Delawares economy as of March 2010

The latest report from the nonprofit State Budget Solutions (SBS) estimates Delaware’s outstanding debt to be $14.4 billion. This is four times the state’s current general operating budget of $3.6 billion. SBS aggregates state government debt (Delaware ranks 7 th highest per capita in the nation), unemployment insurance trust fund loans, the current state budget gap, and the unfunded pension and retiree healthcare liabilities.    With below average growth forecast for Delawa

The constraining influence of the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Committee (DEFAC) has been a major factor in maintaining the state of Delawares high bond ratings. Recently, however, DEFAC has drifted. Over the past decade the mean absolute percentage error in DEFACs one year ahead forecast of revenues has been 4.1% and the two year ahead error has been 6.7%. This is not stellar but is understandable given all the many factors that impact state revenues. And, DEFAC

Should all households of similar income in Delaware be taxed the same?