Corporate Welfare? Johnson Controls | 11/28/2018

The state will award $2.4 million and local officials will provide a ten year property tax break for Johnson Controls to build a second manufacturing and distribution facility in Middletown, Delaware. Is this simply corporate welfare? Well, yes and no.   On one hand, giving handouts to Johnso...

DELAWARE'S PREVAILING WAGE: CHANGE WE CAN... | 11/28/2018

Are union rates over represented in determining Delaware’s prevailing wage rates? Is there alternative Federal data that would more accurately represent construction-market wage rates in Delaware? Would this save the Delaware Department of Labor (DDoL) the expense of compiling and generating a...

Delaware's Prevailing Wage: A Long History of... | 11/28/2018

In March of this year, Caesar Rodney Institute’s Center for Economic Policy and Analysis released a technical study of the methodology behind Delaware’s prevailing wage system. With regard to the prevailing wage (PW) the study documented that: a) the methodology used by the Department of...

Accountants Weigh-In on Delaware's Debt | 11/28/2018

A recent report by the Institute for Truth in Accounting confirms what Caesar Rodney Institute has been saying about the seriousness of Delaware’s state government debt. The state has accumulated bills of $8.6 billion.   How did this run up in debt happen? The Institute singles out the us...

Delaware's Economy: Four Years in the Wilderness | 11/28/2018

The April, 2012 labor market data for Delaware has just been released and the numbers are not encouraging. Compared to April of 2008, four years ago, total employment in Delaware is down by 20,000. Construction jobs are down 40%, manufacturing off 22%, and finance jobs down 6%. Government, of course...

Delaware's Filthy Rich | 11/28/2018

The mantra of President Obama is to raise taxes on the rich rather than cut the size of government. In Delaware, the governor, supported by the legislature, has already done this. Effective January 1, 2010 the top marginal tax rate applied to personal income of $60,000 or more was raised from almost...

Delaware's economy and governance | 11/28/2018

Since Delaware has had 15 consecutive years of conservative governors followed by 18 years of progressive governors, it is an interesting case study. Do the differences in the governance philosophies have consequences for Delaware’s economy? A simple answer to this question is to consider the ...

Delaware's Occupation License Requirements Harm... | 11/28/2018

 In a May 2012 report the Institute for Justice ranked all the states with regards to barriers to entry to low- and moderate-income occupations. Delaware had the 42nd most burdensome licensing laws and was the 25th most extensively and onerously licensed state.   The report documents the l...

How Bad is Delaware's Labor Market? | 11/28/2018

Across a variety of measures, Delawares labor market is hurting. First, the states official unemployment rate is 7.2%, double the historic average of 3.5%. This means 32,000 persons have actively looked for a job in the past four weeks without success. Five years ago this group totaled 15,000 Delawa...

Invest in Delaware's Future | 11/28/2018

No other organization in Delaware does what we do at the Caesar Rodney Institute: provide in-depth, non-partisan analyses of public policy issues and advocate in Dover for better policies_OLD related to economics, the state budget, energy issues and education policy. Every day CRI makes a difference...