Issue Position: Increasing our quality of life and creating jobs without growing the government

Issue Position

For the past several decades, our State has done a wonderful job of finding ways to have other people pay our bills through corporate fees, gambling revenues, and escheat, but the future of these sources of revenue is in jeopardy. We need to be good stewards of the people's money and make sure that we are spending tax dollars as efficiently as possible. I am hopeful that the pilot program recently authorized by the General Assembly to target waste, fraud, and inefficiencies in our Medicaid system will lead to significant savings. We also need to reduce the amount of redundant administrative positions in our schools.

We must build our tax base, as opposed to increasing our tax rates. To do this, we need to attract better paying jobs to Delaware. Manufacturers are more likely to establish themselves in states where electricity is significantly cheaper than Delaware. Lower electricity rates could be achieved by increasing the amount of electricity that is actually generated on the Delmarva Peninsula through solar, wind, and clean natural gas. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Delaware imports over 30% of its electricity from producers in other states, which leads to higher costs due to transportation fees. It is time that we develop a strategy to build out our energy infrastructure over the next decade and foster competition among a variety of environmentally responsible producers. Building out our energy infrastructure also creates good paying jobs for our building trades.

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