The fight to preserve your pay is still very much in progress. The recent Joint Finance Committee vote for a 2.5% pay cut is not the end of the story. The state desperately needs revenue to keep our situation from getting worse.

As you read this, all revenue bills in the House are in danger of failing. Our budget is due by law on June 30th!

You have all done a marvelous job of pushing back on pay cuts; after all, the original proposal from the Governor was 8%. However, we now need you to engage on revenue. From the beginning DSEA and our partners in State Workers United for a Better Delaware have argued that we need substantive and sustainable revenue to balance the budget.

Without revenue our position on the pay cuts could deteriorate, moreover additional program cuts or even layoffs could be considered.

All revenue must originate in the House. This is where we will ask you to focus your attention. Currently there are more than a dozen revenue bills under consideration. We will give you a message about revenue in general and specifically let you know the bills that contain the large revenue needed to avert disaster.

Please contact your state representative and House Leadership (Speaker Robert Gilligan and Majority Leader Peter Schwarzkopf) at (800) 282-8545 and deliver the following message:

"Representative ______________, we strongly encourage you to support all the major revenue bills as proposed. In order to maintain the Delaware quality of life, state workers and state services cannot sustain further cuts."

• The legislation raises $40 million in 2010 and $103 million in 2011
• This is crucial to a balanced budget. One third of General Revenue comes from the income tax.
• Delaware's "tax burden" (combined total of state and local taxes) is VERY competitive with our neighbors. With #1 being the highest tax burden, Delaware is 24th in the nation. Our neighbor New Jersey is the most expensive in the country at number one. Maryland is number four, and Pennsylvania is number 11.
• It is an absolute myth that people will leave the state if their income tax is raised by these modest amounts, and obviously they would have no advantage to moving to one of our neighbors.
• This year 23 states have raised taxes and another 13 have tax increases under consideration

This bill restores the tax on inherited wealth that was eliminated in 2005.

• The tax only affects estates of $3.5 million or more and is only on the wealth above $3.5 million.
• The tax on inherited wealth could yield as much as $40 million annually.
• The bill simply restores a tax that worked well for DE up until it was eliminated in 2005 by an act of the Bush Administration. Delaware was "coupled" to the federal tax code so we lost the revenue.

The legislation increases various business fees including an increase in the franchise tax and a very modest increase of $25 on the LLC filing fee.

• Our corporate citizens have benefited greatly from the favorable business climate in Delaware. In this extraordinary time, they need to do their part.
• Businesses come to DE for reasons beyond low fees. These include but are not limited to, the business savvy and favorable Chancery Court, state law that allows flexibility in corporate governance, no usury law, confidentiality concerning financial data and information on companies, and decades of pro-business case law.
• DE has close to 1 million registered entities.

For additional analysis of this and other political issues follow the blog: onefightmore.blogspot.com