Good afternoon,
I was one of the skeptics when the Delaware Prosperity Partnership was proposed.
I wondered if the public/private entity that replaced a portion of the former Delaware Economic Development Office had sufficient resources in a region with states that seem ready to give away the store in job retention efforts.
There was also the question of whether the state had lost momentum in attracting and retaining jobs while the DPP was getting off the ground.
It did not help that the partnership was viewed in some quarters as being less than transparent. Much of the criticism was based on the myth that the Delaware Economic Development Office did its business in the public eye.
DEDO, like its counterparts elsewhere, operated in an environment of confidentiality agreements and other restrictions. That’s how things work in the economic development arena. Only in rare cases (think Amazon HQ2 or AstraZeneca) is a portion of the process done in public view).
Meanwhile, the DPP quietly went to work with a staff led by veteran economic development executive Kurt Foreman.
Recently, the partnership posted one of its regular reports on activity since 2018. The projects listed retained or added 2,400 jobs with capital investments of $297 million.
A long-running economic expansion helped, and it is likely that some of the projects would happen with or without DPP.
The issue of incentives remains, with many states coming to the conclusion that handouts to well-heeled companies need to be axed.
While a few states, including New Jersey, have cut back on head-scratching financial packages that sometimes amount to tens of thousands of dollars a job, there are few signs of any change in the offing.
It is also worth noting that DPP and the state’s Strategic Fund assisted small and large companies, contrary to the popular narrative.
The bottom line is that once you get past the noise, DPP is fulfilling its mission that was approved by a hefty margin by the General Assembly.
Enjoy this nice, spring-like day.
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