This article originally appeared in The News Journal as a Delaware Voice opinion editorial on November 18, 2014. The link is: http://delonline.us/1p1urFA   New Castle County Executive Tom Gordon and Wilmington Mayor Dennis Williams are to be congratulated for allowing consultants to produce a frank and stark Economic Development Strategic Plan. The economies of the county and the city cannot rebound without clear recognition of current strengths and weaknesses and a plan to

With the closure of the GM and Chrysler automobile plants, the unions’ share of employment in Delaware has fallen below the national average. But the remaining unions, through their supply of campaign funds, volunteers and votes have the Governor and most of the legislature in their pockets. Union management is willing to disadvantage Delaware’s citizens in order to advantage themselves. What is the evidence? First, even though only one-third of Delaware’s public school eight

Thanks to the generous support of CRI donors and the professional cooperation of the Delaware Office of Management and Budget, the payroll and vendor data in Transparent Delaware has been updated to include 2011. A review of the data shows that some things continued and some things changed substantially.   Orlando George Jr., president of Delaware Tech, remains the highest paid state employee with compensation nearly three times that of Governor Markell. Georges base pay cont

The Delaware Public Employees’ Retirement System is what you have dreamed about but are unlikely to ever enjoy. DPERS is a “defined benefit plan” which means that participants’ retirement benefits are paid out “regardless of market events.” State government retirees are sheltered from the roller coaster of the financial markets by Delaware taxpayers.   Naturally, in the face of low interest rates and collapsing stock values, one wonders what the future exposure of Delaware ta

The Caesar Rodney Institute has updated its Transparency Delaware website with state payroll and vendor data through 2010. Analysis of the pattern of the vendor transactions for 2010 is instructive. State government is a major buyer of the services of nonprofit organizations and a major donor to nonprofits. The 2010 vendor data was examined and an attempt was made to eliminate all payments to nonprofits that appeared to be solely for services rendered. This would include stat

There are many factors a business chooses when deciding where to locate or to relocate: tax rates, quality of life, quality of education system, government regulatory burden, and now for manufacturing businesses, whether a state has a Right to Work (RTW) law or not.   Proving that RTW is a significant contributor to a state’s economy is not entirely easy, because of the above factors. However, I have been studying the data extensively and believe there is a positive correlati

Amazon recently announced the addition of 500 jobs at its Fulfillment (distribution) Center in Middletown, bringing the total of year round jobs at the site to 2,500. Is this commitment amazing?   On a macro level it is not. Over the past five years Amazon has been one of the fast growing companies in the world. Amazon currently has almost $90 billion in net sales from over 20 million products provided by 21,000 sellers. A stunning success.   Yet from a micro perspective, isn

The recovery from the 2008-2009 recession has been the longest and weakest since WWII. Typically an upswing in domestic real investment initiates a recovery. The two main components of real investment are residential housing and nonresidential (business) investment. The bursting of the housing bubble explains the extraordinarily slow recovery in housing construction but nonresidential investment has also been slow to recover.   Many economists blame the tidal wave of bailouts

The Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Committee (DEFAC) met on September 19 th and the news isn’t encouraging.   Less than three months into the new fiscal year, the state is running an operating balance deficit of $355 million and an unencumbered cash balance of $32 million. In September of 2010 the state’s operating balance was a $47 million surplus and the unencumbered cash balance was $107 million.   Expected revenues for this fiscal year (FY 12) have been reduced

Delaware manufacturing was hit hard by the "Great Recession". Between 2007 and 2012 total manufacturing jobs dropped almost 25% and the number of manufacturing establishments in the state fell 15%. Manufacturings annual payroll in Delaware shrank by over $366 million, a drop of 21%. The total value of manufacturing shipments went down by 12%.   How did Delawares manufacturing firms cope with these seismic shifts? Some answers can be found by comparing 2007 and 2012 data on De