Caesar Rodneys Transparent Delaware website has been updated to include the state of Delawares FY 2014 vendor payments of $4.7 billion encompassing almost 474,000 individual transactions. The state is a major player in Delawares economy with vendor payments that amount to nearly 10% of private industry output. Transparent Delaware now contains over 8 million records. The state vendor data covers 11 years of transactions. The sophisticated website software allows the annual ve

The cost of healthcare in Delaware is again rising rapidly. It is looming as a major budgetary issue for the State of Delaware current employees and pensioners. Delaware's Medicaid budget is increasingly strained. There is a steady flow of articles in the News Journal about the rising cost of health insurance, the rising cost of pharmaceuticals, and the rapid rise in both co-pays and deductibles for patients. There are, however, a few elements in play that have been overlook

Any discussion of job creation in Delaware must start with the recognition of the existence of the two distinct societies in Delaware: persons with limited education (a high school degree or less) and persons with ample education (a college degree or more). The limited education folks are being hammered by the current economy while the ample education crowd barely knows there has been a recession. The ample education crowd dominates policy decision making and that is to the

The most recent benchmarked data does little to evidence that state and local government is recognizing the true impact of the recent recession. As shown in the chart below, as private sector employment in the nation and the Delaware region dropped from 2007 through 2009, state and local government employment continued to grow. While total private jobs in the U.S. fell 4.2%, state and local government jobs across the nation rose 1.3% (and Federal government jobs jumped 3.4%

The Tax Foundation has just released its 2012 Facts and Figures on state finances. The results are below in order of Delaware’s ranking among all the states. Delaware ranks 9 th highest in tax collections per capita and 8 th highest in debt per capita. The high ranking in tax collections is not a disaster as Delaware “exports” much of its tax burden through the corporate franchise tax and lottery tax (note that in lottery tax revenue per capita Delaware is the “first” state

The Caesar Rodney Institute has updated its Transparent Delaware website with state payroll and vendor data through 2010. A quick glance at the data shows that there will be a great deal to consider. As a first pass, CRI looked at “overtime” pay and “other” pay in the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services in 2010. (“Other” pay includes more than 100 categories, the most important of which are holiday pay, shift differentials, call back pay, and sick day buyouts.)

Since the state of Delaware awarded Fisker Motors an interest free loan of $12.5 million and a $9 million grant, what has transpired and what lessons can be learned from this? Following the loan and grant from the state and a $529 million federal government loan guarantee, things have been ugly. Fisker decided to use government money to build its prototype sports car, Karma, in Finland rather than the United States. Then, two Karmas have literally gone up in flames. Adding in

The Caesar Rodney Institute has updated its Transparency Delaware website with state payroll and vendor data through 2010. A quick glance at the data shows that there will be a great deal to consider. Given the patterns uncovered by the Delaware News Journal in the past, CRI looked at “overtime” pay and “other” pay in the Delaware Department of Corrections in 2010. (“Other” pay includes more than 100 categories, the most important of which are holiday pay, shift differentials

CRI has contended that between the 1998 Uniform Development Code land use regulation and the general practices toward subdivision review, that New Castle County (NCC) government is anti-development. Lack of economic growth has led to very large increases in NCC taxes and fees, encouraging out-migration. Data from the Census Bureau on net migration of persons and adjusted gross income for NCC and Sussex County confirms this. Between 2005 and 2010 NCC lost 5,500 individuals and

Wilmington’s Riverfront Development Corporation (RDC) received $3.5 million through the state’s capital budget in July, bringing the taxpayers’ total investment in the riverfront since 1995 to over $280 million. Now, starting with a $2 million request, the RDC is proposing that taxpayers pick up as much as one-third of the tab for a $39 million hotel at the Riverfront’s public entrance. Is this simply throwing more money down a rat hole? Certainly, seed capital from governm