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New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer aims to grow Delaware's economy by focusing on education and retaining young residents. | DBT PHOTO BY KATIE TABELING[/caption]
With the Delaware Primary Election weeks away, 350,610 registered Democratic voters will have the opportunity to decide between three candidates for the governor's office. While the state continues to grow, its demographics shift, too. Older and out-of-state residents are increasingly retiring in Delaware while the Black and Hispanic populations continue to grow, as well.
The next governor will have four years to contend with a struggling school system and housing affordability crisis as they contend with flat revenue growth for state finances. The Delaware Business Times asked five of the six candidates running for governor the same questions on the minds of many in the First State's business community, including New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer. Republican candidate Jerrold Price did not return our request for an interview. The conversation with Meyer has been edited for length and clarity.
Why run for governor? If you win, you will be the first New Castle County Executive to hold that office.
Matt Meyer: Because I’m a Delaware kid. I had all the opportunities in the world, literally. I had the chance to go to [Yale], worked abroad to start a small business in Kenya, had the chance to be a U.S. diplomat embedded with the army in Iraq. Then I came home and found my passion: teaching sixth and seventh grade math on the east side of Wilmington. It felt like too many kids and families weren’t getting the shot they deserved.
When I first ran for county executive, everyone told me I had no shot. But I put my head down and did the work, and we won in an upset. We’ve transformed how county government works like sewer, community policing, our libraries…and some things like the Hope Center have gotten a lot of attention. I'm still working hard to serve those families that I taught …so we have leadership that is waking up every morning with urgency to deliver that education. How do we make sure we have leadership that is doing everything they can to address the housing affordability crisis? We need to be working in innovative ways, and that’s why I’m running.
Between 2017 and 2023, Delaware’s GDP has grown 6.7%. At the same time, the country has grown its GDP by 14%. What plans do you have to bring our economy on track to reach that level?
No. 1, our education system needs to be assessed. There’s no way we're going to have economic growth that exceeds what other states are doing when we’re ranked 46th in the country. We need to focus on what’s wrong with our education system in a comprehensive way.
Second, we need to address the fact that too many college students graduate and leave the state for work. We need to make sure there are avenues for them to stay here; to get jobs and to start companies. We need to be a hub of innovation in certain industries. We have some of the leading minds in financial technology here, many people historically worked with MBNA and ING Group. We need to make sure that base has the incentives to grow their services in a world where cash is disappearing and credit cards are starting to, and plastic has been a tremendous economic growth for Delaware for the past 30 years.
We need to have a conversation with our business community and figure out how we invest as a state to make sure we win that future.
Gov. Carney had disbanded the Delaware Economic Development Office and formed a public-private partnership with the Delaware Prosperity Partnership to make decisions to attract, retain and grow businesses in the state. If elected governor, how would you envision your administration’s role with the DPP?
Looking back, the Democratic Party has largely lost small business owners. I'll be the small business governor. When we talk about economic growth, we’re not just talking about paying some huge company to come in, we’re talking about how to help a laundromat with four employees grow to six. It doesn’t seem like much but if we can do that with thousands of businesses, that has a dramatic impact.
I am no fan of taxpayer grants to out-of-state shareholders so they can come here for a certain number of years and pay employees as little as they can. As county executive, there have been times where businesses want a reduction in property tax or permit fee waivers. How is that fair to the Delawarean who wants to put a deck in their backyard and has to pay that fee? If you don’t pay for the services you get here, I’m not sure we want you here.
As far as corporations go, you come and pay and you get a fair deal. My focus is going to be on economic development, providing the training to provide the highest quality employees than what’s been done in the past ... anyone who comes to do business in the state needs to pay their fair share for government services, just like you or I.
There have been several investments made in the past four years through state taxpayer-backed grants. Do you agree or disagree with this approach?
There are instances where you have to make sure that development can happen quickly. My experience working with serious companies that want to come if you can give them a government that can deliver quickly and efficiently. You shouldn’t have to take millions of dollars out of police and education budgets to give an out-of-state shareholder cash.
The U.S. Census projections have shown that Delaware’s senior population continues to grow while our younger residents are leaving. What plans do you have to attract, train and secure workers in our state?
Every sector is different… we’re going to look at it by industry to make sure we understand what the barriers are and how to remove those barriers. We have to make sure there’s the right pathways for fintech companies, and Zip Code Wilmington was almost basically established for this purpose.
We need to make sure that if you’re a pre-med student at the University of Delaware, you don’t have to leave the state to become a doctor. Part of that is the proposed medical school, but we also need to look at residencies. We’re on a good path in Sussex County, but it seems like it may be too small for the need.
Then you look at things like our agriculture industry. How do we make sure UD continues to have top notch programs? How do we make sure there’s a path for those in Blue Tech programs to fund their ideas? We also need to make sure we have the avenues for funding to start innovative ideas as companies.
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New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer talks innovation and entrepreneurship at a panel hosted by Spur Impact in July. | DBT PHOTO BY KATIE TABELING[/caption]
The Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council has reported tightening revenue projections. The once-in-a generation $1 billion American Rescue Act Funds must be committed by the end of this year, before the new governor is sworn into office. What is your plan when it comes to balancing the budget?
When politics and math come into conflict, math always wins. When I was first elected as county executive, we were running on a budget deficit and revenues weren’t growing at the rate we needed to grow — and the expenses were outpacing the revenues. So you make hard decisions and move forward. We looked at every consultant and outside firm and hired, which was a hard choice politically, but in the end, we were able to make the budget sustainable. In the end, it was the right decision to get things in a sustainable place where we could give raises to our county employees. As you can imagine, that improves recruitment and retention a lot.
We’re going to focus on our values and make sure our education system thrives and our health care deficiencies are addressed. That means reducing some areas of the budget to make those decisions, in partnership with the legislature. I think Gov. Carney has generally done a decent job of not adding to the budget in unsustainable ways. It’s hard to project what will accurately happen, but we’ll make the decisions we need to, and if things turn out better than expected we’ll be prepared to invest in the services that Delawareans deserve.
Gov. Carney has also instituted policies such as the budget stabilization fund, as well as passing “one-time” programs with a supplemental appropriation bill. Do you plan to continue this approach, or will you manage state finances in a different manner?
I generally don't agree with collecting tax revenue from taxpayers to then put it in the piggy bank to save it ....when we need the money, as a government, we'll take it. When the New Castle County reserves were increased by more than $100 million and we collected $140 million, I said, “wait a second.” It’s crazy for us to continue collecting property tax at the same rate just to build reserves. We reduced the rate a little so the taxpayers could pay a little less.
If there is a crisis, we have the immediate cash to tap into. We don’t have to wait until the next tax returns come in.
Do you think Delaware has used the once-in-a-generation ARPA funding wisely in a way that will solve significant challenges facing the state?
I haven’t looked at where every dollar has gone. There are some things that were really smart. Before COVID, we partnered with the Department of Labor to fund the first class of pathways to apprenticeship, which enables individuals coming out of the criminal justice system to become laborers. That program has expanded dramatically through state funding. There are things I would have done differently, but $1 billion is a lot of money.
Much of Delaware’s tax base relies on income, corporate taxes and franchise fees. What, if anything, would you change about the tax policy here in the First State?
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New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer said that, if elected govenor, he will plan to focus on values to address major issues like health care expenses and education reform. | PHOTO COURTESY OF MEYER FOR DELAWARE CAMPAIGN[/caption]
I think that the fact that if you make $70,000 a year, and somebody else makes $700,000 a year, you both pay the same tax rates. I don't think that's right. If there’s an opportunity to provide a reduction in savings to lower income earners and potentially offer more services in a higher quality way, by addressing that rate imbalance.
If you have other people paying your tax burden funding your schools, your highways, your health care system is much easier. The corporate franchise is a source of at least 30% of the state revenue. That's under threat like never before. We need to understand how we can support and assist to grow. Quite a few corporations were upset that rapid service out of the Secretary of State's office about a year ago. They weren't able to provide that rapid service because there was a reduction in staff. It’s a complex issue, and it needs a comprehensive look at not just our statute but the inner workings of the divisions.
As an attorney, I have a unique understanding of the importance of that corporate franchise. And I think that's going to enable our job in the legal system that actually brought me here as a kid and my family here.
Much has been said over the last couple years about the permitting process in Delaware. What if anything would you change about the permitting process here in Delaware?
I salute the Ready in Six initiative. I think the biggest problem is you need to have DelDOT, the Planning Department, and the Fire Marshal’s Office to work seamlessly with each other. For business people who want to develop a good project to improve quality of life and pay for services, we need to do it as quickly as possible. As county executive, I have found that within my power, I could streamline certain aspects of land use, but then the issue lies in offices outside the county government. So we’re going to work on putting people in the same offices of our largest jurisdictions and our counties to develop a one-stop approach. We’ll have a direct line to the governor’s office, because that was effective in the county executive office I found when things sometimes got off the rails.
Delaware was recently reported to be ranked 45 in the country in 3rd and 8th grade test scores. What specific policies do you have to improve public education in Delaware?
There is one candidate who has a plan, and when we released it, several teachers said this is the most comprehensive education plan that any candidate for governor has ever released.
It's not easy to answer how we're going to address the fact that 17 Delaware schools have single digit proficiency and reading or math. But it's gonna take a lot of work. Some of it is policy, some of which we can implement unilaterally through the Department of Education and collaboration with school boards, some of it is in collaboration with the legislature. Some of it is funding. And some of it is restructuring how we think about education, particularly in high poverty neighborhoods.
The data says that by the time a child is five and in school, they're so far behind without education. We're going to create that ideal learning environment from the youngest age that by the time kids are five they're on equal footing. Education is the great equalizer, and Delaware's not doing its job equalizing across our communities.
We need to provide every child and dollar with the opportunity to attend pre-kindergarten. I think in certain communities that are really struggling, that data backs it up. We need to look at starting school and starting educational environments before the age of four. It’s a matter of urgency if a child is not reading proficient by third grade. When I was in Teach for America, I was placed in fourth grade in Washington D.C. schools. So many students were behind the eight ball, I had students not able to do basic addition when the curriculum called for teaching long division.
Years later, I heard about a program that was one of the most successful anti-crime programs in the United States. It includes a nurse doing home visits to first time expectant mothers in poverty. The program tracked the children over the years, and the nurse served as a case manager. We started a program like that in New Castle County government, and programs like that and dramatically increase their sizes and how effective they are is a potential path forward for our children’s future.
It’s not as easy as changing a school budget or a teacher’s contract, though those things are important. You have to spend time in those schools that are struggling and see what’s really going on and get involved in an earlier stage if we’re going to address the long term trajectory of these children.
