The economy remained a hot issue throughout the year and into 2016.
The widely held view in the business circles was that a combination of taxing and spending in Dover was holding back the economy. Also mentioned are high energy prices brought on by alternative energy mandates and the lack of a right to work law.
The right to work law, which bars mandatory collection of union dues, is often a requirement from employers seeking to add manufacturing operations.
The economy also became an issue as the state struggled to plug a budget gap in June. The state’s taxes and corporate fees did not grow fast enough to compensate for rising health care costs for state workers and a growing number of people on Medicaid, the health care system for those with low incomes.
Also mentioned by Republicans was a one-party rule in both houses of the Legislature and the governor’s office, with public employee unions wielding influence that seemed to extend to both parties when it came to suggestions that state employees absorb more of the growing costs for health care.
Republicans also began campaigning for changes in alternative energy mandates, citing progress made in Delaware in cleaning up the air and pointing to the high cost of electricity discouraging companies from coming to the state.
Delaware went into 2015 with signs of a stronger economic recovery after seeing a sluggish turnaround after the financial meltdown of 2008 and 2009.
Figures seemed to suggest that the state was adding jobs at a rate higher than the nation as a whole in 2014.
However, figures for 2015 showed signs of a slowdown, although some of the loss of the momentum seemed to be the function of hard data on job growth replacing previous estimates.
Throughout 2015, the Delaware economy added jobs. However, the jobless rate began to rise later in the year, due, in part, to a higher workforce participation rate, as well as the slowdown in job growth. The state, unlike the nation as a whole, saw some growth in people entering the workforce.
The November Delaware unemployment rate is now a tenth of a percentage point higher than the nation as a whole after being as much as a percentage point lower than the national number for the past couple of decades.
A similar story seemed to emerge when it came to income growth, with one report indicating that the state ranked near the bottom in that category and critics of the administration of Gov. Jack Markell pouncing on the numbers.
State labor market officials again indicated that hard data would show higher income growth although it appeared that the loss of higher paying jobs in manufacturing and related areas was having an impact.
Unlike some states in the region, Delaware continued to gain population, but at a slower pace than in the past.
Population growth was also coming from retirees, who aid the economy with more cash purchases, but often live on fixed incomes. Retirees have been settling into Sussex and Kent counties, drawn by low property taxes and a state tax climate more friendly to seniors than nearby states.
