Delaware is Worse than Mississippi When It Comes to “Entrepreneurial Activity”

Filed in Uncategorized by on February 28, 2007

Donviti has the scoop.

While Delaware came in first in some bullshit categories, we drop the ball when it comes to supporting entrepreneurs.

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  1. anon says:
    February 28, 2007 at 3:54 pm

    Must… build… more… strip malls…

  2. firststatepolitics says:
    February 28, 2007 at 4:25 pm

    This isn’t news. We’ve raked dead last in the Kaufman study for at least two years. Thank your Delaware Economic Destruction Office.

  3. happycon says:
    February 28, 2007 at 4:26 pm

    why?

    has the state government erected impediments to new start-ups?

  4. firststatepolitics says:
    February 28, 2007 at 4:29 pm

    I don’t have time today, hc, but I’ll do a post at some point.

  5. donviti says:
    February 28, 2007 at 4:30 pm

    but, but, but the city of wilmington has a thriving waterfront. Look at how well all that retail space is doing. Heck I spent almost $1.00 last year at the shipyard shops. I did have a few beers at Iron Hill though.

    our new motto for Delaware:

    A place where the American Dream is Dead, but we don’t have taxes….

  6. happycon says:
    February 28, 2007 at 4:32 pm

    OK FSP is too busy, so Donviti, why is Delaware last? if it’s the governments fault, what are they doing wrong?

  7. donviti says:
    February 28, 2007 at 4:36 pm

    ps. what’s wrong with Mississippi?

  8. donviti says:
    February 28, 2007 at 5:07 pm

    I wouldn’t blame it on the government as much as I would the citizens of the state. I mean take a look at Wilmington for God’s sake. How much money comes into that place and NO ONE stays in the city to eat past 6pm. The exception being Trolley Square of course. But other than that where are people going to go?

    Gee how about a mall. Good luck starting a new business in one of the most expensive malls in the country. Let alone the cost of retail space in northern delaware. The start up costs I imagine are incredible.

    Then like I said their is the consumer. They are content with eating at Macaroni Grill, Red Lobster etc etc, They shop at Home Depot and Lowes, and buy their houses from Toll Brothers or some out of state builder.

    Delaware in my limited opinion has a wierd mentatility when it comes to local business. We love everything chain. We don’t support them…People would rather get their coffee from starbucks then my cousins shop (brew haha being the exception) They go CRAZY when a Panera bread opens up.

    How are entrepenuers going to compete with that mentality?

    I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about the post I found it interesting where we were ranked. I do know recently that the state offered more incentives than they have in the past, but you have to change the people that buy the stuff not the people that set up shop.

    I could be way off though….

    So maybe if government got more behind the consumers supporting local business then it would shift that mentality. But us being such a corporate driven state that seems to be a very difficult shift for many including Minner.

  9. Tyler Nixon says:
    February 28, 2007 at 5:23 pm

    “Delaware in my limited opinion has a wierd mentatility when it comes to local business. We love everything chain. We don’t support them…People would rather get their coffee from starbucks then my cousins shop (brew haha being the exception) They go CRAZY when a Panera bread opens up.”

    Dead right, Donviti. I just had this conversation with a longtime family friend in business for over 30 years with a small music store on 202 He not only has the best selection but he BEATS the prices of the chains, and yet still he struggles because people flock to all things chain.

    He said exactly what you did about the weird mentality of people. He said they would rather eat at a place like Olive Garden with salad out of a bag and Ragu in your pasta, than patronize many of the reasonable little Italian restaurants around.

    Having said that, I do think the state government, and any government agencies doing so locally, is too busy thinking about how they and their cronies can put their finger in the pie that to simply make it easy for real entrepreneurial enterprises and smart economic development.

    The City of Wilmington and its waterfront or ship’s tavern fantasies are the worst offenders in the bunch. What a huge waste of public resources and subsidies, on both fronts. Worse, the City is the one place where businesses should be able to concentrate activity and thrive on traffic coming through, but the businesses and consumers are constantly hawked by ticket-writers, or taxes, or license fees, and all manner of meddling in free commerce. With the City they get you either coming or going. If you are slippery buddy of the City’s denizens you get sweetheart deals. If you are just a struggling shop owner you get your business shut down by curfew laws to mask failed crime policy, you get wage taxes, you get L&I gestapo on your ass for any bureaucratic harassment that can grab the City some revenue, you get……acchhhh, I am choking on outrage.

    Burris has it right. The Delaware Economic Destruction Office is an apt name.

  10. anon says:
    February 28, 2007 at 6:03 pm

    but the businesses and consumers are constantly hawked by ticket-writers, or taxes, or license fees, and all manner of meddling in free commerce.

    Yeah, official Wilmington treats you like it is some booming metropolis where everybody wants to be, instead of a shaky backwater on its last financial legs that is lucky to have somebody come spend a legally earned dollar.

    Anyway, I’m guessing when FSP finds the time he will tell you that Delaware would be small business Nirvana if we would only cut the gross receipts tax, or moan about the minimum wage or something. Well, taxes aren’t the problem in Delaware.

    Here’s what WOULD help small businesses get started in Delaware:

    – Single-payer universal health care
    – Dependable exurban bus service
    – Inexpensive high-speed Internet in all suburban business locations
    – Municipal wireless Internet in the city
    – Real competition that drives prices down for residential Internet connections
    – Heavy state subsidies for repopulation of downtown Wilmington including rebuilds and restorations of residential housing.

    Wilmington will never be a serious city until people actually start living downtown.

  11. firststatepolitics says:
    February 28, 2007 at 6:33 pm

    Anon — You just raised taxes about $1.5 billion. Who do you think pays for that?

  12. donviti says:
    March 1, 2007 at 7:55 am

    Bert’s. I used to go there when I was a kid.

  13. oedipa maas says:
    March 1, 2007 at 10:41 am

    the businesses and consumers are constantly hawked by ticket-writers, or taxes, or license fees, and all manner of meddling in free commerce

    This is not the problem. Nor is aggressive surveillance by L&I or anyone else of non-compliant or problem businesses. There aren’t municipalities without some taxes or licenses for businesses, and there is not much reason for Wilmington to stop. The licences and fees and taxes go to finance some of the infrastructure that is supposed to make sure that codes and laws are enforced.

    Why? There are people who live in Wilmington who need their businesses to be good neighbors, and people who just come in to work don’t need to have to vault over mountains of trash outside the local sub shop to get to their jobs.

    I live in Wilmington and have called L&I often about businesses who seem to think that they are above having to comply with code, the law, or basic standards of cleanliness.

    Entrepreneurial activity is not a zero sum game. No matter where you go in the US, there are laws, standards, fees, taxes that are part of the package of being there. Running a business does not and should not provide special privileges to be a bad neighbor. And if you really think so, then please list your neighborhoods here — I know of some liquor stores and a McDonald’s that would be absolutely delighted to set up shop right next to where you live.

  14. Nancy Willing says:
    March 1, 2007 at 10:56 am

    Everything Burris says is a partisan snipe.
    The Big Head committee has had a bi-partisan headlock on policy that has led us to the failed state we are in.
    Lets stick to ways to solve this problem, why don’t we?
    The problem is the lack of vision in our leadership. Instead we get day-late-dollar-short reactionary responses (like selling the roads) to crisis as they arise (like the DelDOT shortfall.
    We have been busy growing houses. No other jobs have been given as much support as the construction industry, well maybe the lobbying industry is not doing to damn badly.

    We have not been creating anything much for Delaware other than opening up the tax-free state with a free-for all to developers as an increasingly attractive bedroom community for communters, retirees and golfers.

  15. happycon says:
    March 1, 2007 at 11:45 am

    Nancy
    Developers respond to demand, they don’t create it. we have new home construction because we have homebuyers. It takes a job to be a homebuyer. ergo, we have lots of new homes because we have lots of good paying jobs here in delaware.

  16. happycon says:
    March 1, 2007 at 11:57 am

    back to the question of “why?”

    (actually the first question is “Really?” how did the magazine measure Entrepreneurial Activity)

    could it be that Delaware’s economy is so strong, that everybody has a job they love with great pay and that is why they don’t leave to start a flower shop?

  17. donviti says:
    March 1, 2007 at 12:16 pm

    why can’t you bastards have this discussion on my BLOG!!!! it is my freaking post!

  18. anon says:
    March 1, 2007 at 1:49 pm

    Inertia

  19. Tyler Nixon says:
    March 1, 2007 at 1:52 pm

    First, the City of Wilmington government should be abolished and its essential services merged into a County department designated for the City. The County would surely cut the fat and waste, especially all the BS patronage jobs, like the Mayor’s corpulent staff roster. Keep the police and fire only as separate for Wilmington. Only then will the City residents and taxpayers actually get a fair deal and the government they so dearly pay through the nose for.

    Second, if there need be fees and licenses they also need to be reasonable and certainly should not be 3-400% higher than state fees, for example. A state business license for an attorney is $50/year. The City’s is $186/year. Please, someone, justify that rip-off, because I really want to know where the City gets off with such excessive nonsense. I run a home-based business, so I pay property taxes and license fees for the same location. Where is the added service? The bogus parking tickets I regularly get by the frenzied parking hit squads that litter cars with illegal citations? Oh joy.

    Third, no business owner, myself included, has a problem with reasonable City fees if we had responsive, responsible, frugal City government. But everyone knows that is absolutely NOT the case.

    So the bottom line for Wilmington is what anon said above. The City gov’t fatcats think they are running some desirable metropolis, when they are really just running the city into the ground, financially and otherwise. The City gov’t in Wilmington is nothing but a massive wasteful fraudulent burden on residents and businesses. The price tag is too high and the services rot. Crime is out of control and the city is failing even its most basic duties.

    If you think these things don’t play into the stagnation of decent economic development you are simply indulging the same fantasies as the $100K+/year barnacles who strangle the City’s prosperity.

  20. happycon says:
    March 1, 2007 at 2:26 pm

    if you think putting the county incharge of the city would be an improvement, you haven’t been paying attention to the county.(with it’s bloated payroll, deficit spending and planned double digit tax increase)

    on the topic of small business start-ups…

    I have a hard time believing that a $186 lic. fee is preventing a flood of new start-ups.

  21. Tyler Nixon says:
    March 1, 2007 at 3:15 pm

    That license fee is an example that highlights how the City incessantly picks your pockets if you do business here.

    No one is saying the County is a gleaming governmental prize but the City makes it look like a fiscal monastery.

    The City gov’t is wastefully duplicative and unnecessary. The County’s resources brought to bear, phasing in the City’s tax base, would go a long way to reducing this waste and creating continuity and efficiency, insofar as governmental control over the City’s operations. (Though “efficiency” is a very relative term here.). One government is better than two, as far as I am concerned.

    Happycon, have you gone socialist on us? Would you prefer to keep this many layers of government? What gives?

  22. Nancy Willing says:
    March 1, 2007 at 3:35 pm

    Beg pardon HC, the market is soft as hell and Toll is down by what, 60+% but Toll is still in the game here, because they can.
    Toll came before the county economic development subcommittee on Monday and begged to be allowed to circumvent stormwater controls and other envionmental law in order to consturct their affordable housing …starts at 300K, any takers?

  23. firststatepolitics says:
    March 1, 2007 at 4:11 pm

    Nancy — You are just as partisan as I am. You just won’t admit it. And the Big Head Committee doesn’t run DEDO and is only partially responsible for economic development.

  24. happycon says:
    March 1, 2007 at 4:57 pm

    what you are proposing is a Metro form of government, which has been proposed and roundly rejected in the recent past. (tom Gordon was a big proponent in his first term as county exec)

    you are championing change for change’s sake. I see no reason to believe that the county government would do a better job than the current city administration.

    I’m not sure what you mean by “phasing in the city’s tax base”

    I don’t see an overlap in services, I see a lack of services by the county for it’s taxpayers in the city.

  25. Tyler Nixon says:
    March 1, 2007 at 5:55 pm

    Yes, metro form of government. Roundly rejected who? City employees? AFSCME?

    Change for change’s sake? Yeah, sure. The City is in great shape. No change needed there.

  26. happycon says:
    March 1, 2007 at 6:20 pm

    “the city is in great shape”

    no it is not, but teh Nixon plan:

    A) has no chance of being implemented

    B) would not make things better

    C) would make things worse

  27. Tyler Nixon says:
    March 1, 2007 at 7:12 pm

    “A) has no chance of being implemented”

    One can dream, though.

    “B) would not make things better”

    “C) would make things worse”

    Well, that settles that. Covers all the bases too. Nicely done.

    Next up from “happy”con : why defeat is inevitable.

  28. oedipa maas says:
    March 1, 2007 at 9:46 pm

    One of the really great things about Wilmington is that is is a really, really small town. You can see decision-makers pretty easily, and certainly have your say. I’ve lived in much bigger cities almost all of my life and am stunned at how easy it is to get in front of people here.

    That said, the obstacles to business here do not include $180 business license. These fees are much more expensive in way more desirable places to live and do business. The obstacles to doing business here is a lack of vision among the city’s leadership.

    The Riverfront is half-done and ill-conceived. It needs destination shopping, not tired outlet stores. Market St does not seem to have a real master plan, and no one seems that focused on getting people into the city for more than work. Then again, this is a small city and the markets for “destination” shopping and activity is necessarily small. The city could provide some incentives for microdevelopment — folks who want to fixup some of the really neat housing close to downtown and the Riverfront for homes or offices or small retail. Take back some of that stock that is being rented to Section 8 participants or just plain vacant.

    It would also help if the State would stop trying to pretend that Wilmington was not huge part of the revenue stream — business — into the state coffers. Many of those businesses (at least the larger ones) receiving excessive tax credits to be here which means that the City is being deprived of those funds. There are LOTS of churches here on valuable real estate who pay no taxes. More than 50% of the housing in the city is RENTAL which is a major obstacle for change in some neighborhoods.

    But all of those rentals were an entrepreneurial opportunity for somebody, so I guess the business opportunities are not so bad here after all.

  29. happycon says:
    March 2, 2007 at 12:49 am

    Defeat is inevitable if they let TN be in charge.

    however, things are not so grim in wilmington. several developers are pumping 100’s of millions of dollars into new projects in the city, lots of it new residential. People who put their money where their mouth is, are betting on a growing city.

  30. Tyler Nixon says:
    March 2, 2007 at 2:08 am

    “Defeat is inevitable if they let TN be in charge.”

    I want myself to be “in charge” about as much as I want the City gov’t and its scions to be “in charge” of every little aspect of human activity in our fair city.

    I guess one man’s “con” is another man’s socialist.

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