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Williamson vies for Delaware governor seat with economic, education focus

Jennifer Antonik August 20, 2024

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With the Delaware Primary Election weeks away, 205,378 registered Republican 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 Bobby Williamson. Republican candidate Jerrold Price did not return our request for an interview. The conversation with Williamson has been edited for length and clarity. Between 2017 and 2023, Delaware’s economy has grown 6.7% GDP (gross domestic product), trailing behind the national average of 14%. What plans do you have to bring our economy on track with the national rate? I would need to see what’s working and what’s not, get all the players to the table, and whatever’s working, we’ll continue. 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, what do you envision your administration’s role with the DPP? We need to make sure we’re attracting the right kinds of businesses and ones that won’t take away from businesses that are already here. Again, we need to get the right players to the table, see what’s working or not and work it from there. There have been several investments made in the past four years through state taxpayer-backed grants such as Graduated Lab Space Funding, Transportation Infrastructure Investment Fund, and the Strategic Grant Fund to help businesses expand or relocate to Delaware. Do you agree or disagree with this approach? I think we need to do a better job at making sure the process works the way it should. We need to make sure that no one has inside profiteering going and that these benefits will actually help the people of Delaware, not just the corporates of Delaware or the exclusives of Delaware. I think everything has to be just on its own laurels. 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? The more you have, the more competition, the better wages. The main thing we need to do is look at the economic swing and the cost of things that are chasing our long life Delawareans right out of Delaware, because they can't afford to live in the places where they were born and raised. The influx of outside influences of elderly people that retire here and want to make this their new home has bought in a new sense of richness and entitleness of wealth to the area that we as Delawareans can't sustain to afford. So we have to correct these things and make things... take housing, for instance - right now, one young couple trying to get married, start a family, work a job, and make it on just minimum wage, can't afford rent because they can't compete against someone who's going to come here if just for a week and pay more in one week than what is reasonable to be paying in the monthly rent. So we have to examine this and find better ways for the younger people to be able to stay here in Delaware and afford to live and eat. 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? Just like the other issues, we need to see what’s working. We’ve really seen a lot of waste recently and I’d like to do a personal audit of what is important and what is not. I know we got some big figures there. But I am seeing some waste going on like crazy. We have to wrangle in the waste and when you wrangle in the waste, you have some revenue to give to the places where it needs to go. So that's my goal on that, would love to just sit down and go through that budget, one line by one line by one line, and decipher what is important and what is not. About ARPA: Do you think Delaware has used that once-in-a-generation funding wisely and in a way that will solve significant challenges facing the state? If so, what example can you identify where this funding has made a major impact in our state? This is one of those areas where I would need to really dive deep into the budget and see what’s working and what is not. It seems like we have had a lot of waste when it comes to this opportunity, but I just don’t know enough about it to say one way or the other. 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? This is a fund that he’s created to stabilize, I think you said, we will look at that under advisement with people that have a better understanding of what he is using it for. If it is positive, anything positive will remain positive and will still be implemented. Anything that is unworthy, I guess is a good way to put it, will have to be rejected. And that's part of why I am running the campaign is because he made several mandates and different legalities that are not to the Delaware's best interests. And as far as the budget stress test, I’d say, when I see the budget, we're going to put the budget under the stress test if I ever get the chance and I don't know exactly what the national stress test would be, but we want to look at all options to make sure that budget is formed in a way that's going to benefit our state. Whether it even benefits other states is not our concern. Our concern would be to make Delaware conform to a budget that suits Delaware. Much of Delaware’s tax base relies on income and corporate/business taxes. What, if anything, would you change about the tax policy here in the First State? This new assessment affecting homeowners of Delaware, we need to really check into that. We’re going to have a rude awakening here come this is September when our annual tax bills come in. I don't think that was quite the right move to make at that time. And I don't think they did the right processing of reassessments. I know that they've totally screwed up almost everybody I know’s square footage, detailing what their property consists of, and so I know that's a wrong rate that they are using. Whether it makes it enough of a difference. I don't know how they're going to calculate it and I don't think no one knows. But that is one area that we definitely need to examine into. And as far as other things, just like I said, step by step, go down the line, see what works and what doesn't and see what needs to be adjusted. I would say in all, every step that Carney has done, I would want to investigate to make sure that is legit, and not prospering someone or his organization, and to make sure that we are doing it for the people of Delaware, not just for the certain elites that are trying to control Delaware. Much has been said over the years about how slow the permitting process has been, and the Delaware Business Roundtable has long campaigned on getting sites shovel ready in six months. What, if anything, would you change about it - or would you leave it as is? I would look at it, see what needs improving and try to pick up the pace or some of the different things, especially for the smaller companies. I do think there is some favoritism going on where bigger companies are getting easier permits and quicker returns on those permits. And I do want to add, too, that I noticed in the state of Delaware, companies from other states come into the state and get permits and approvals, and actually do not have to meet the same rules that our contractors and developers here in Delaware have to make. It's like they have punished us for being a Delaware resident and a Delaware business. I don't think that's right, I will be changing that. There's no need that they put a special tax on land and the contractors are having to sit on our land for over a year just to not have to pay this special, quick luxury tax. I guess because they want to put a house up. But the Pennsylvania and New Jersey and Maryland contractors come in and they don't have they're not subject to that extra tax. So that definitely will be dismissed. [caption id="attachment_239166" align="aligncenter" width="989"]

Bobby Williamson, Republican, has also joined in the race to become Delaware's next governor. l PHOTO COURTESY OF BOBBY WILLIAMSON FOR GOVERNOR[/caption] On Education: What specific policies do you have to improve public education in Delaware. Delaware was recently reported to be ranked 45 in the country in 3rd and 8th grade test scores. Isn’t that a shame? Ain’t that just a shame? We are the number one state; we need to put education as a number one priority. And I do have plans on how we can implement the voucher system, I guess is what some people call it. The money per child should go to the child. We need to expand charter schools, the science and the tech schools… I would love to see science and technology schools developed. I want to see schools sponsored by the industry for the students that want to learn more of that industry to be able to have the rights to go and specialize in education in forms of the direction they want their career to go. I think that if we do that, in all it's going to do better for the student, it’s going to improve the teachers. I know we have teacher unions, I think they would actually be interested in that because it would give them a chance to be a commodity that would be desired. A good teacher would be more desirable than the average teacher, that's just going with the flow. So that would allow competition for their wages. I do think that we need to cut back on many, many administrator positions. They are just rampant and outnumbering in the schools more than what the teachers can be able to perform. They are taking the bulk of the top end of the money for the schools for their wages and there are so many floating around doing multiple jobs. I just don't see where that's helping the education of our children. I think the money needs to be redirected to the children and to supplies for the schools. I hate hearing that teachers, with their low wages, are having to go and buy supplies because they don't have in their classroom when you're talking, you know, 100 bucks per classroom to make sure that each classroom is fit for all the children that are there. I think we need to work more with the bilingual issues. And it's just not the Latino, we have many, many other languages that are entering into our state now. So, we really need to concentrate on that with a separation. There are so many different ways that I could see the school system being improved. Right down into the busing. If you check out the buses, how many of these little mini vans we got running around here, doing independent busing for one or two children running them back and forth to school? We are using a lot of gas doing that, besides the fact that we have buses. Let’s use the buses to the full capacity, not specialized for each child because each child has a separate time they need to be home or a separate issue they have to deal with. There's other purposes that we need for those little vans. So, let's keep the children on the safety of the buses. I know some of the schools are doing it through their district, others use a side contractor. I think outside contractors are good, it relieves the state from the maintenance and the upkeep and it also increases the business of Delaware. So there's so many different avenues that we need to get our state for its education and gear and then we need to get back to a curriculum of teaching our children what they need. And it's more than just reading, writing arithmetic. We have the sciences, we have histories. I think we need to put in a little bit of the home ecs. I mean, we’ve got to teach the children to cook, we’ve got to teach them how to sew, we got to teach them the basics of life - balancing checkbooks, know how to alphabetize, all these things are not even being covered in school anymore. It's like prepping for college, there's a certain amount of knowledge that every child student needs to learn. And in all that… we need to go back to the basics of good curriculum for the schools and then we need to keep, I guess the best way to put it is, to keep the evil out of school. We, if we have a dress code for the students to wear, then we shouldn't have people coming in reading books dressed in their flashy garbs of drag queen-ism, however you want to put it. We have to keep that out of our schools. We have to keep the outside influences out. If we choose to have a separation of religion and schools so that they don't bring the religion in the schools, you can't bring in these off religions into the schools either. We have to draw that line. And it should be more parental guidance of what is being done in the schools. Seems like a lot of these schools have took over and just you know, the parents don't matter. If a child goes and starts saying something, they don't even notify the parents of what is being said by the child and that the social service or the schools themselves are taking over the futuristic health and welfare of our children. And we cannot let that happen. We as parents can’t let that happen. The Delaware Business Roundtable recently published the Investment Agenda, which outlined a number of key recommendations for the state. One of those recommendations was to support equitable investment in early childhood education to increase access and improve outcomes for children in Delaware. Agree or disagree? What plans do you have to accomplish this goal? We hear some of the other candidates’ plans that target bringing children into schools at three or four years old. I don't think teachers are able to teach at that age. That is changing diapers and doing the deeds of a, what is called, a wet nurse, I guess. I mean, I just don't see that that is the age children should be brought into the schools. And it just seems as though the people that would be the ones that use this are parents that aren't being nurturing parents. So, I think the whole premise of that idea just does not hold water with me. I would rather see children be with their parents as much as possible or a trusted babysitting. And if we have to, I would rather see a nursery-type situation grow in Delaware to help out if parents had trouble with the children, and yes, that state could help with this, let make more of that happen, especially if it is used to teach colors and things. But when we have children that aren't even being diaper trained at two, three or four years old and now we're going to say those are the ages we’re going to bring them into the schools, I think that's a problem. And to me, actually, it just stinks, and that's a word you can use. It stinks how they want to manipulate our children's minds, how they want to take charge of our children, to take children's parents apart from each other, taking the rights of the parent away. And I just see that as just the evilness that's going to just grow into hurting an entire generation of our future and we have to not let it happen.

Williamson vies for Delaware governor seat with economic, education focus

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