Delaware “Economic Development” Takes a Giant Leap Backwards
Turning over tax money and decision making authority about who gets it, to the state’s “largest companies” and bunch of Chamber of Commerce cronies is a fiasco on its face. We will not need to study this failure ten years from now. We see its failure in its nascency.
…also Carney sucks at being Governor.
Delaware’s economic development efforts are about to undergo a major transformation.
Gov. John Carney signed a bill Monday that replaces the Delaware Economic Development Office with a public-private partnership partially run by some of the state’s largest companies.
“This is a starting point,” Carney said. “The hard work starts now and that’s working together in partnership … to market our state more aggressively and think out of the box about how to develop our entrepreneurial economy.”
What a load of crap. States that do “economic development” right are not trying to “race to the bottom” by “marketing (our tax breaks) more aggressively” in order to lure the worst, most mercenary companies to the state. They develop and help home town winners become regional winners and eventually national winner.
If I read the article correctly, the private sector is kicking in $1 million. So for that paltry sum we sold public accountability to the chamber.
And I’m pretty sure the legislators on the slush fund committee will be paragons of integrity.
This will only get worse in the coming years. The private sector is going to take over. Blockchain will make sure that happens along with the crap going on in education. This began in earnest when we started allowing Rodel to run the table on education.
WTF is Mark Brainard doing in that picture? Taxpayers, hold on to your wallets.
BTW, they couldn’t find a woman or a black to make this seem inclusive?
Bad optics, but truth in advertising.
I saw the photo while on the bus. Nearly fell out of my seat. Nothing says corporate interest is ready to fuck you like seven old white guys in suits standing behind the Governor signing a bill at a table plastered with the slogan MAKING JOBS A PRIORITY.
Look at the photo on 5A. Go ahead, look. And you tell me whose side Carney is on.
Change (development) rarely occurs at the center of power structures. Too much is invested in maintaining the status quo. Change occurs at the perimeter of power, where power wanes. Similarly, we watched the fiascos of the Markell administration falter and die. Bloom and Fiskar were predictable failures. Change will occur in the spare rooms, garages and backyards of Delaware. Micro manufacturing is more promising to produce enduring change and economic powerhouses. Costs less too. Oaks grow from acorns.
That’s what you get when your “partnership” is rooted in the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce.
Chamber’s board of directors has 14 members. Three are women; all 14 are white.
Chambers’s board of governors has 71 members. Ten are women. Two are Latino. At least two are African-American, but I don’t recognize all the names.
Does the state chamber’s leadership represent a cross-section of Delaware? Most definitely not.
Does the state chamber’s leadership represent a cross-section of Delaware business? Regrettably, yes.
“Change occurs at the perimeter of power, where power wanes. … Bloom and Fiskar were predictable failures.”
The second sentence does not follow logically from the first.
Both Fisker and Bloom occurred at the “perimeter of power” in that they represented industries seeking to disrupt existing industries — the sort of basement dreams you cite. The only difference is that they won government support and funding.
That happened only because the public clamored for immediate action on “jobs” but politicians couldn’t raise taxes to fund any. Fisker and Bloom were gambles, pure and simple, and it’s folly to expect the government to be any better than, say, a bank in choosing which businesses to invest in.
That said, if all the $25 million devoted to Fisker had instead gone to, say, road repairs — real jobs that government creates directly — it would have paid for only a few months’ worth of DelDOT’s budget cuts. So it represented the old question of whether to eat what could be treated as seed corn.
Bloom, OTOH, illustrates the dangers of government-business co-operation, the premise on which Mussolini based his conception of fascism.
Anyway, this is all theoretical. In the real world this organization doesn’t have enough money to buy a pot to piss in. And why would it? Why would existing businesses want to make it easier for competitors to move here?
UPDATE: They just gave out another half-million dollars:
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-phillydeals/prelude-therapeutics-incyte-founder-gets-474k-delaware-cancer-drug-20170815.html
“The Prelude grant is among the first Delaware has handed out since reorganizing its business subsidy efforts under Gov. John Carney. Other recent grants went to Sallie Mae, the private student lender; General Refrigeration; and Independence School, one of a number of Delaware private schools that has lost students as the state increased support of taxpayer-funded charter schools under Carney’s predecessor, Gov. Jack Markell.”
Why is it that I’m supposed to vote Democrat in DE again?
Because the alternative is worse. Same reason as everywhere.
Oh, thanks. I forget sometimes