Thomas Jefferson believed government should be insignificant in the lives of American citizens. It should be so small that citizens awaken every day and give little thought to the cost and function of Government.
Look at the news for 5 minutes. If the Federal Government is not spending Billions, the State Government is spending Millions, and Counties and Cities are spending hundreds of thousands or millions. Government costs money, there is no way around it! Responsible Government costs less! It will be a long, hard, arduous task, but we can return to the days when elected officials remembered each and every day that each dollar they spend comes from a tax payers wallet! This has been long forgotten by our Government and the tax payer is not respected except the few months before an election! After the election, BUSINESS AS USUAL! We can change this and return our leadership to being good stewards of the tax payer dollar. I know it sounds like a Disney movie, but elections have consequences and the consequences of decades of elections is a State that has spent way, way more than it takes in. Instead of cutting spending, the answer has always been, take a little bit more from the tax payer. We have to stop sending this mindset to Dover! I will promise now to vote NO to any new spending that requires raising taxes. We have enough income, we need to manage it better. With that said, here's one idea:
I believe we can promote business, employment and good stewardship of our beautiful counties at the same time. Offering a tax credit to businesses which hire and retain non-family employees each year would encourage growth and small business development. This tax credit does not affect the State budget as what we cut in business tax would be made up by employee income taxes. Employers claim the number of full time, non-family employees each year and if it goes up, their tax burden is reduced. If it doesn't, taxes remain the same.
I believe we can promote preservation of our beautiful countryside by encouraging business to develop sites where vacant buildings now stand. Working with local governments to provide incentives for businesses to expand into existing sites would preserve untouched land and provide new tenants for those vacant buildings which litter our towns and communities. Offering low interest loans, flexible terms, and encouraging towns and cities to create their own incentives for new business to renovate and renew rather than buy property and build would lower the consumption of our beautiful open spaces and farm land in Kent and Sussex Counties. Renovating existing businesses puts people to work. From the contractors all the way up. It also benefits our local communities and allows the addition of police officers, city services, and equipment purchases as tax revenues will increase as the business takes off. As a business grows, other businesses will want to move in promoting commercial and industrial growth which we can manage responsibly.
For those businesses that decide on new construction, we need less Government interference once the site is decided upon and approved. New construction should be cautiously encouraged in a manner that protects our open spaces and farm land but allows the development which brings jobs.
Ronald Reagan said it best when he declared that in his experience he found too often that Government was the problem, not the solution. We can elect leadership which will work with State leaders, County Leaders, and Municipal Leaders to make Delaware a great place to work, to live, and to visit.
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