Center for Economic & Fiscal Policy

 

• Over the past 20 years, Delaware’s per capita income has gone from the highest in the nation to below the national average.

 

• According to the Delaware Department of Labor, employment is projected to grow at only 0.5% over the next decade, thereby trailing most of the nation.

 

• Since 2009, Delaware has had five recessions compared to one in the rest of the country.

 

• Including the variable Gross Receipts Tax, small business owners in Delaware often pay the highest personal income tax rates in America. 

 

In partnership with other like-minded Delaware organizations, the primary goals of this Center are to develop bi-partisan strategies and alternative policy options that will bring transparency, regulatory reform, and improved effectiveness to the tens of billions of dollars spent by the State every year.

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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...

Delaware's Tax Rates Out of Order | 11/28/2018

When a state taxes something there will be less of it and when it rewards something there will be more of it. Delaware’s tax structure heavily taxes those who are most likely to create sustainable economic growth and new jobs, but rewards businesses like Fisker Automotive who receive generous ...

Delaware's economic growth lags behind neighbors | 11/28/2018

What do the numbers on Delaware’s production tell us about the effectiveness of the state’s economic policies_OLD?       Delaware’s economic growth rate, as measured by growth in gross state product (GSP) in chained 2009 dollars, has lagged behind the natio...

Survey Results Show Delawareans Want Education Reform | 11/28/2018

Many state legislators in Delaware have chosen to be joined at the hip with the Delaware public teacher’s union. This is partly because of the generous campaign contributions bestowed each year by the union to political candidates that see the world the way the union does.   Chang...

Delaware's Prevailing Wage is Still the Problem | 11/28/2018

The Caesar Rodney Institutes Center for Economic Policy and Analysis has updated its 2010 comprehensive report on the methodology used by the Delaware Department of Labor (DDOL) in the calculation of the states prevailing wage and the methodology continues to be seriously flawed and tilted toward th...

Time to use Delaware's underused asset: baby... | 11/28/2018

note: this editorial originally appeared in The News Journal and delawareonline.com January 1, 2015.  Read the original by clicking here     The baby boomers continue to age ... and perhaps mature ... and move into the empty nesters retirement years. Currently in Delaware, three out o...

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 needs a more competitive tax structure | 11/28/2018

This article was originally published at delawareonline.com on June 4, 2015 and in The News Journal the next day. As former chair of DEFAC (the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council 1977-85), I read with interest and enthusiasm the May 2015 report of the DEFAC Advisory Council on Rev...

Delaware's Disappearing Labor Force | 11/28/2018

The Liberty Foundation of Oklahoma (http://libertyfound.org/) today released data on the labor force participation rates from 1999 through 2013 for all states. The trends in Delaware are disturbing (click on the link below for the depressing statistics).   The participation in the labor force b...