Center for Analysis of Delaware's Economy & Government Spending
Delaware state governmental policies have been an unfortunate catalyst for the decline of Delaware’s economy for far too long. For instance…
- Over the past 10 years, both the Delaware per capita income and average wage have gone from above the national average to below.
- According to the Delaware Department of Labor, employment is projected to grow at only 0.6%.
- Since 2009, Delaware has had five recessions compared to one in the nation.
- By opposing choice in public education, the State government reinforces a system where two-thirds of Delaware students are not proficient in reading and math. In addition to the ramifications for Delaware’s students and their future employability, as has been widely reported, one of the other most evident outcomes is the number of professionals with school-age children who work in Delaware but choose to reside out of state.
- Misguided environmental policies have driven industrial electric rates well above neighboring states’ rates, creating the documented exodus of manufacturing jobs to other states and an impediment to developing new, well-paying manufacturing jobs.
Utilizing publicly available data, voluminous research from respected academic institutions, and federal and state resources, CRI is the only non-profit entity in Delaware that is objectively identifying the regressive outcomes of certain state policies and disseminating those damaging ramifications to not only county and state legislators but also the public.
In partnership with other like-minded organizations, the primary goals of this Center are to develop strategies and alternative policy options that will bring transparency - and changes - to the State’s $9 billion budget process while objectively advocating for regulatory reform.
Center Co-Director Dr. John Stapleford has over 40 years of experience in applied regional economics. He established the University of Delaware’s Bureau of Economic Research and the Delaware Small Business Development Center. Dr. Stapleford has served as a senior economist and associate director for Moody’s Analytics and has executed contracts with most federal and Delaware state agencies.
Co-Director Charlie Copeland has an MBA from Duke University with a focus in Finance and spent over 25 years growing a marketing services business that achieved several global awards for operational excellence. He also spent six years in the Delaware State Senate, serving his last two years as the Senate Minority Leader. Charlie, who focused much of his Senate career on education reform and government accountability, remains a sought-after speaker on issues related to governmental accountability.
With the economic recovery underway in Delaware projected state government revenues are running ahead of projected expenditures for this fiscal year (FY 2011) and next (FY 2012). At this time, according to DEFAC, the expected surplus will be $156 million for FY-11 and another $218 million for FY-12....
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Delaware’s insurance commissioner has requested a waiver of the Federal rule requiring health insurers to spend 80 percent of each premium dollar on medical care. This is the wrong waiver. If Delaware would simply open itself to health insurance competition the terms of the balance between com...
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When we started the Delaware Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at the University of Delaware, Bill Wyer was the president of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce (DSCC). Bill was a junk yard dog for business in Delaware. Under his leadership the DSCC fought against any tax increases and inv...
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Have you ever wondered which state employee receives the most compensation? (Orlando George with $454,230 in 2010…more than two and a half times what the Governor is paid. George has been paid more than $1.6 million over the past four years.) What about use of overtime and other pay by state ...
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9/20/2012
The on-going analysis of the Transparent Delaware data on state payroll continues to raise puzzling results. For this round, CRI compared the total compensation of state employees in 2008 and 2010 and found that some state employees are treated far more generously than others with...
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9/28/2012
As a public service and to boost government transparency, the Caesar Rodney website includes payroll data for every state government employee and all vendor transactions. While recently updating this information through June of 2011, CRI ran into a roadblock with regard to adding ...
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10/2/2012
When the Caesar Rodney Institute launched its Transparent Delaware website in March of this year, the intent was to include with the individual state payroll and vendor data, the most recent state pension data. The request for the pension data was denied on the basis of statute 29...
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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 c...
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After two decades of stellar performance, Delaware’s economy moved in reverse during the most recent decade, and the near term outlook is subpar.
A DECADE OF DECLINE
The major measures of performance for the Delaware economy from 2000 through 2010 are grim. Compared to a medi...
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Friday August 5, 2011 will likely be remembered as “the NEW Black Friday” or “THE” Black Friday. On that day, after markets closed, Standard and Poor’s (S&P) fulfilled its previous warning and downgraded the sovereign credit rating of the USA to AA+ from the fifty-y...
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