A Better Deal for Delaware

The shine is off the apple for the Minner Administration when it comes to jobs. We will see the fall out when state revenues begin to fall.

Five recommendations;

1. Solve Health Care - Delacare 2008 is a great place to start. Wellness, productivity and security for businesses and people.

2. Use a small part of the resources we have in the Delaware Pension Fund to begin a “start up and expansion” effort for small and mid size businesses.

3. Stop spending so much money. You can’t let state spending growth out pace revenue growth.

4. Education - The reforms of the last ten years have not worked.

5. Tax policy should be shaped to support savings, growth and investment which in turn will produce revenue.

Site-location consultants say economic incentives come behind lots of other considerations when companies make decisions about where to put their business. Dennis Donovan, a principal at site-selection firm Wadley-Donovan-Gutshaw Consulting in Bridgewater, N.J., says way up on the list are things like the size and education of the labor force, local infrastructure such as telecommunication lines and transportation options like ports, roads and rail.

“We start taking a look at incentives when we’re at a large list of 10 or 12 [sites] and usually it’s not going to have an impact on our final three or four,” Mr. Donovan says.

These facts are why I support Vision 2015 and a state wide wireless network.