News Journal Reporter Ginger Gibson Breaches Journalistic Integrity

For those that actually admit reading the News Journal, may not know that one of their reporters, Ginger Gibson has her own blog on the www.delawareonline.com domain.  It's called Dialogue Delaware.

How can Ginger Gibson, a reported write objectively on the Delaware Senate race when she has in fact publicly endorsed Chris Coons' on her blog.  I dare you to find me one positive blog post authored by Ginger Gibson, or on her blog, Dialogue Delaware.  That URL is: http://blogs.delawareonline.com/dialoguedelaware/

Please join this blog, Blue Hen Conservative in asking the editors of the News Journal to remove Ginger Gibson from reporting on the Delaware Senate race.

Let's Reverse the Evil Spell on Delaware

U.S. Unemployment Increases

In perhaps one of the most under-reported stories of the day, Gallup released a report that real U.S. unemployment increased to 10.1% in September.  This was an increase from 8.9% in July and 9.3% in August.

Clearly, this is not good news for the Democrats whose progressive policies are inhibiting real economic business growth. 

Source:
http://www.newsroomamerica.com/story/62851/gallup:_real_u.s._unemployment_at_10.1_percent.html

Send In the Clowns

If this is not a barometer that the company you keep is an indication of who you are, I don't know what is. Later today, former Saturday Night Live comedian and (laugh) U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-MN) will be in New Castle, DE to inject enthusiasm into Chris Coon's Senatorial campaign.

This comes two days after MSNBC host Rachel Maddow came to Newark, DE to help Chris Coons out.

New Castle County Government's Financial Quagmire

Those who live in New Castle County may already know this, but for those that don't - the economic outlook for New Castle County Government is bleak. Once regarded as the economic engine for the State of Delaware, the county is on track to look more like Detroit and the surrounding suburbs. To put it simply, the county is seething in expenditures, despite higher revenue projections.

Let's break this down in plain English. In a public available report on the New Castle County web site, the County projects higher revenues in FY2010, and FY2012-2015. At the same time, the County projects higher expenditures in FY2012-2015.

Clearly, the economic picture of New Castle Government is headed into the wrong direction.

But let's flashback for a minute to when Chris Coons assumed office as New Castle County government to FY2005, most notably with the County's financial reserves.

In FY2005, the County projected to have financial reserves of $86.MM. According the report (link above), the projected fiscal reserves of New Castle County the projected financial reserves for FY2010 are $49.4MM and $44.8MM for FY2011. What's even worse, County officials project a negative $17.1MM loss to the County financial reserve account.

The question is why is are the expenditures rising in New Castle County, when the taxpayers had a net 47% tax increase in property tax revenues to the County. For disclosure, the County raises property taxes 5% in 2006, 17.5% in 2007 and another 25% in 2009.

The answer is expenditures are outpacing revenue growth. Here's why:

- Personnel expenditures are experiencing a 4% annual growth
- Non-personnel expenditures are experiencing a 2.5% annual growth
- Debt Services expenditures are up $10MM from FY2005 to FY2010 and projected to go higher.

Additional Source: New Castle Government FY2011 Comprehensive Annual Budget Summary.

It is quite evident that New Castle County government does not have its financial house in order. It is even more blatantly evident that Chris Coons has squandered the good financial standing of New Castle County government and has set it on a path for bankruptcy. We may be there just yet, but it appears to be imminent.

Meet Chris Coons

The Coming New Castle County Housing Bubble

As if we did not learn the lesson following the economic meltdown in 2007-2008 related to the over-extension of credit to home buyers, Chris Coons and his Democratically controlled New Castle County Council ignore the message.  Instead of encouraging buyers to buy the already vacant inventory of homes that buyers fled as a result of the mortgage meltdown, Chris Coons & Company are pushing to have more home built.  Seriously.

In what amounts to backroom deals to strapped developers, Chris Coons & Company are incentivizing developers to build condensed housing neighborhoods with high density homes.  This initiative has been on-going since late 2008 under the name of Workforce Housing.  While this innocent sounding project seems tame, it really is not.

The development projects, many of which were submitted for smaller number of homes, have been modified for higher density of homes all in the name of reaping awards from the real estate transfer tax.  But they are being portrayed by New Castle County government as workforce friendly.   The Southern New Castle County Alliance, via its advocacy site www.stayoutofmypocket.com outlines the seventeen projects and how the density changed under workforce housing provisions.   For comparison all seventeen projects were originally zoned for 2,164 homes, but later rezoned by New Castle County to build a total of 4,547 homes.  The crux of this issue is that these homes are being built with any traffic impact studies and bonds by developers to build new schools.

By far the biggest concern with these projects is that although they are to done where workers can have access to jobs and public transportation, neither exist.  In New Castle County, especially in rural Southern New Castle County, public transportation is all but non-existent.  Since all but two of the projects in the Appoquinimink School District are below the C&D canal, this would cause higher traffic density and school crowding.  Appoquinimink School District is already on pace to having to build a new school every year.  And roads in lower New Castle Country rarely are suitable for additional five thousand cars (at a minimum) on the road without having traffic impact studies done (after the homes have already built).

In agreeing to this ordinance, New Castle County Council has failed to engage the State of Delaware in ensuring that these housing developments can be accommodated on the infrastructure we currently have.   And they have shifted the burden of building new roads and schools to the State of Delaware at a cost to every Delawarean.

What the New Castle County fails to understand that while they are chasing transfer tax dollars in hopes of selling these homes, that taxpayers will be on the hook for increased taxes to cover new schools to built and run, and more roads to be built to accommodate this.  And it is that gross negligence by the members of the New Castle County Council and Chris Coons that will cause the most pain.  Clearly, they do not have the interests of the New Castle County taxpayer in mind.