Don’t let them do it again.
Don’t let the state government cry poor.
In today’s paper, we hear from Carolann Wicks that DelDOT couldn’t possibly cut any more expenses.
Here are the facts:
- Delaware ranks #3 in total government employees dedicated to highways with more than double the national average per capita.
- Delaware ranks #3 in total state and local highway spending per capita, more than double the national average.
I hope that our budget writers will use the facts at hand when deciding funding levels. DelDOT has left a lot of waste in its wake in the last five years, and is ripe for reform.
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Even though they are double the number of employees per capita, they are still within two standard deviations of the average. The number of employees is greater per capita in northern, smaller, and less populated states then it is in larger western states, probably reflecting base fixed-costs required to run a DOT and climate.
Consider the fact that some states require snow removal and others do not. Snow removal is expensive in both labor and capital and road maintenance.
I am not saying that DelDot is not overstaffed; I am suggesting that a better data comparison is necessary than just the raw per-capita data you offered.
I meant to write “larger southern states” not “larger western states.”
I’m open to additional information that would shed light on the situation.
Looking at it another way, the four states closest to us – MD, VA, NJ, PA – average $443.50 per capita in highway spending and 18.9 employees per 10K citizens. Our numbers are $1,059 and 42.6.
There has to be a logical explanation. If that is truly the case, it calls for fundamental reform.
Anecdotally, a prefect example of DelDOT ridiculousness was when it repaved Naamans Rd. — when it was in PERFECTLY good shape (having fairly recently been widened to 4 lanes). The sad thing is, the repaving was vastly inferior to the original — it was preposterously bumpy and wavy, so much so that it had to come back and “shave” the road to make it driveable.
Well at least we should recognize are getting a great bargain on labor. At $33,363 Delaware’s average annual highway salary is ranked #45 among states and is way below the US average of $45,831. Maybe we have more workers because at that price, we can afford more.
Highway workers per capita doesn’t seem like a very meaningful statistic. Maybe something like “workers per mile” would be more useful.
If we’re not spending it on labor, then what the hell are we spending all that money on?
Delaware roadways suck. This has happened over the last 12 – 14 years. I can remember driving in NJ and thinking how horrible their roads were — both the state of the road itself and the dirt and filth along the highways. Now Delaware is looking more and more like the my memory of NJ roads everyday.
I work in MD and use secondary and back roads in my commute both in DE and MD. You can always tell when you’ve hit the state line — MD roads are always clear. And these are the secondary roads! Not only the main roadways but turn lanes and shoulders too. You’re lucky if the DE roads even have a lane plowed down the middle let alone the turn lanes and shoulders. It’s ridiculous!
I don’t know what happened to DelDot over the years but it’s definitely inefficient. They’ve been re-paving the same roadways since I was a child!
If we’re not spending it on labor, then what the hell are we spending all that money on?
Well, even though they are cheaper we still have a lot more of them, according to taxfoundation.org. Maybe we have outsourced more of our engineers so we have a higher proportion of road labor. I don’t know.
Careful though, taxfoundation.org and taxpayersnetwork.org are both SPN organizations. Their numbers need to be carefully fact-checked against the primary sources before relying on them for policy.
“Careful though, taxfoundation.org and taxpayersnetwork.org are both SPN organizations. Their numbers need to be carefully fact-checked against the primary sources before relying on them for policy.”
Wow. Still smarting from yesterday, huh?
Please explain to me how SPN is biased against Delaware. You can convince me that they’re biased toward conservatism, toward free-market thought, toward libertarianism. But what would they get from making Delaware look bad?
Those highway numbers may well be correct, but I’m not counting on it. As we saw with the employment numbers, when they are so far out of whack one is wise to smell a rat and check it out.
And as we also saw, checking it out is really a lot of work. That is the point of SPN – most people will just go with the number and won’t do the work.
No, not smarting, just tired. I finally sorted out all the various employment numbers and their sources.
taxpayersnetwork.org has embarrassed itself again by releasing its 2009 report claiming Delaware has 877 state and local government employees per 10,000 residents. For the same period (2007), taxfoundation.org reports 599, and the State of Delaware reports 623.
And anyone who relies on those SPN numbers is obviously beyond embarrassment. You only need to find 22,o0o more employees to confirm the new 877 number. Good luck. Where could they be hiding? Maybe they are all on junkets.
Hey, maybe the TaxFoundation, TaxpayersNetwork, and the Caesar Rodney Institute could work out the problems with the Delaware numbers during the next SPN conference call.
Good to see you found what you were looking for, even if it’s not really there.
But what would they get from making Delaware look bad?
Cui bono, let’s see…
taxpayersnetwork.org just happens to be the very group that publishes the “5o State Comparisons.”
And with the bogus 851 number (now 877), which happen to be 30% higher than the next highest estimates, Delaware rocketed up to #2 in those 50 state rankings in both of the last two years (but in reality Delaware is somewhere in the middle of the pack).
Notice the SPN group that *doesn’t* publish the comparisons actually published the more honest numbers (taxfoundation.org, 599).
And then those 50 state rankings were seized and waved like a dirty diaper by a Republican operative, a former state Senator, and published in the News Journal as ammunition against their political opposition.
Why was Delaware singled out to get the bad numbers? Maybe Delaware is targeted because Republicans here are in deep electoral doo-doo and can use all the ammunition they can get?
So did they do it on purpose? Was it an honest mistake? Is there a reasonable explanation? Maybe. But it is clear who benefited from the bad numbers.
Personally if I were you I would be insulted that the Administration doesn’t take Republican attacks seriously enough to issue a rebuttal with the facts easily at hand.
“Personally if I were you I would be insulted that the Administration doesn’t take Republican attacks seriously enough to issue a rebuttal with the facts easily at hand.”
Believe me. They responded.
And if you go back to the actual editorial, you’ll see it wasn’t just Democrats that I criticized. Nor was it just the current administration. (Or maybe, given your usual methods, you’ll see something that’s not there and center your argument on that.)
I can easily point you to numbers from both organizations that paint Delaware in a great light. But you’re really not interested in that, are you?
By the way, have you contacted either organization to tell them of your findings and to get them to confirm your discovery?
Well this is a highway thread so I’ll let it go until there is a general employment thread. Just remember if you want to find the truth, the gold standard is a primary source.
Actually I appreciate a lot of the SPN data because it slices the data in ways I hadn’t thought of before. The SPN data is a good starting point but it is only a conversation starter.
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