Good afternoon everyone,
The financial advice website, WalletHub rolls out a nonstop array of rankings that show up in media Email. Some can be on the shaky side, even though reports are vetted by university faculty.
The latest rolled out as July 4thapproaches centers on the financial independence of states.
The ranking crunches numbers in areas like credit card debt, poverty rates, household savings, drug abuse rates, dependence on federal spending etc.
Delaware actually fares well with an overall ranking of 16th.
Delaware’s ranking would have been closer to the top if dependence on state and local government had not accounted for 20 percent of the score.
In that category – which includes taxes, use of SNAP food programs and the percentage of overall government employees – Delaware ranks third from the top.
Over the years, legislators and others have taken pride in the fact that the state has only one non-volunteer fire department and lacks smaller units of governments such as townships that can suck up tax revenue.
Along the way, the state, counties, cities and other public-private institutions have added staff. In my line of work, many displaced reporters and editors quickly found homes in public and internal communications roles, even during lean budget years.
Despite a tough decade, the jobless rate is headed toward 3 percent and exports subject to trade wars are not a big factor. Federal jobs are a minor factor outside Kent County, home of Dover Air Force Base.
As the legislative session winds down, the dependence on government is front and center as a variety of constituencies eye strong revenue figures for an array of worthy and not so necessary purposes.
Talk of “budget smoothing,” the practice of socking away more money for the inevitable downward swing in revenue, has been muted this year with legislators showing little appetite for a constitutional amendment.
But as the TV hit Game of Thrones reminded us in between battles, beheadings, and dragons – “Winter is coming.”
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