Permitting, healthcare costs drive State Chamber’s Competitiveness Agenda

The business community is paying close attention to what the General Assembly will do in the current session. Still, Delaware State Chamber of Commerce President Michael Quaranta isn’t wholly convinced that legislators are paying attention to what the business community needs.

“If you walked around Legislative Hall and asked the 41 members of the House if they could name the five largest employers in their districts and what they do and what their needs are, I would be shocked if even 10% could answer that question successfully,” Quaranta said.

“We need more people to be more directly engaged with our employers and under the challenges that they have,” he added. “And I think if we all do that and we do that successfully, we’ll come up with really good policy, and we’ll have more people succeed.

The State Chamber unveiled its 2025 Delaware Competitiveness Agenda earlier this month, which officials describe as a tool for the current session to guide their advocacy efforts.  The 19 priorities are listed below.

It mirrors many of the items proposed by the Delaware Business Roundtable to strengthen Delaware’s long-term economic competitiveness. And that’s not a coincidence, Quaranta says.

At or near the top of the list is a streamlining of Delaware’s permitting process, an effort that had its birth in pre-pandemic times at a 2018 Chamber-sponsored Developing Delaware conference. That workshop led to the Roundtable’s Ready in Six initiative, which included a number of economic development and builder and contractor organizations.

Both Quaranta and Delaware Business Roundtable Executive Director Bob Perkins remember business leaders hearing a site selector telling a group of business leaders that he and others were site “eliminators” rather than site “selectors,” and that Delaware wasn’t even in most discussions because it could take up to 24 months for site approvals while companies wanted it to be six months so they could be up and running more quickly.

“We’re not suggesting anybody gets sloppy here or that we put public health or safety at risk,” Quaranta said. “That’s crazy. But other places have figured out how to move this much more efficiently and much quicker…They want to put a shovel in the ground and do their expansion in calendar 2025 and this time next year open the doors and have that new additional facility operational. If it’s going to mid-2027, they’re going to look elsewhere.”

Perkins said, “These bills pull legislators in different directions. Moving forward requires top-down leadership and I’m hoping Gov. Meyer provides that leadership.”

Perkins said he liked new Gov. Matt Meyer’s fourth executive order to fast-track affordable housing permits, while Quaranta praised Meyer’s decision to issue an early executive order on youth apprenticeships.

“To his credit, he heard what businesses are saying. Suppose you want to know what will help move our economy forward. In that case, you need to talk to people who are leading businesses around the state every single day because they have their finger on the pulse of what their customers are asking for, what they’re buying, what their material supply chains look like, the wages they’re having to pay, the skills.”

Asked about some of the challenges they expect to have to overcome in Leg Hall, Quaranta said healthcare is always one, in large part because the state is the first oldest in the country.

“It’s a shrinking population and an aging population,” he said, adding that the State Chamber is not in favor of the Delaware Health Care Commission. “While healthcare expense and costs remain a concern for Delaware’s employers, I don’t think anybody believes that a well-meaning board of concerned citizens is going to succeed based on everything I just said about the realities of an aging population and their basic needs and the costs associated with that.”

As the State Chamber rolls up its sleeves on legislative initiatives, Quaranta reflected on the mood of his members.

“We’re worried that we may be electing people to state office who are well-intentioned but have less connection and are listening less to business and industry,” he said. “If you’ve not been through a manufacturing facility in your district within the last six months, that’s a problem. What concerns them is there’s less willingness to be connected to and value the employees in their district.”

2025 Delaware Competitiveness Agenda

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT, TRAINING & EDUCATION

• Protect and strengthen business owners’ decision-making ability
• Promote innovative policies and training programs that help Delawareans find jobs in high growth, high demand, and emerging industries
• Support changes to the state workforce development system to reduce redundancy, enhance funding, and improve alignment with the business community’s needs.

ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY, & SUSTAINABILITY

• Promote science-based environmental policies that reflect collaboration between all stakeholders to create practical policies and solutions that improve the environment while growing Delaware’s economy
• Encourage public and private sector investments that improve Delaware’s environment and create jobs
• Support the cleanup and redevelopment of brownfield sites
• Invest in infrastructure that improves resiliency from natural disasters

HEALTH CARE

• Support efforts to strengthen the healthcare workforce to meet the needs of Delaware’s growing and aging population
• Promote workplace wellness programs and policies that improve the physical and mental health of Delawareans
• Collaborate with healthcare industries on efforts to reduce healthcare costs while maintaining healthcare quality and access

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

• Improve Delaware’s national and regional competitiveness rankings for business
• Identify policies and strategies that lower Delaware’s cost of doing business
• Continue supporting initiatives to streamline Delaware’s permitting process
• Advocate for laws and law-making processes that provide certainty and predictability to stakeholders around timelines for development projects
• Invest in site and transportation infrastructure readiness so there are “options on the shelf” for future development
• Push forward policies that address affordability and the diversification of Delaware’s housing inventory

FISCAL POLICY

• Further tax policies that incentivize workforce training and development
• Protect Delaware’s banking and corporate franchises and inform policymakers about the impact that related jobs and revenue have on the State’s budget and economy
• Encourage pro-growth tax and spending policies that reduce revenue and budget volatility and preserve Delaware’s competitiveness and increase business’ ability to expand and create jobs