Delaware

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PRESIDENT CLINTON AND VICE PRESIDENT GORE’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Delaware PRESIDENT CLINTON AND VICE PRESIDENT GORE’S PRESIDENT CLINTON AND VICE PRESIDENT GORE’S

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Delaware

EXPANDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL

Unemployment Down to 3.8%: The unemployment rate in Delaware has declined from 5% to 3.8% since 1993.

79,600 New Jobs: 79,600 new jobs have been created in Delaware since 1993 -- an average of 10,162 per year, compared to an average of just 775 jobs per year in the previous administration.

71,500 New Private Sector Jobs: Since 1993, 71,500 new private sector jobs have been created in Delaware—an average of 9,128 jobs per year, compared to an average of just 500 private sector jobs per year in the previous administration.

6,600 New Construction Jobs: 6,600 construction jobs have been created in Delaware since 1993 -- an average of 852 jobs per year. In contrast, an average of 850 construction jobs were lost each year during the previous administration.

17,000 Have Received a Raise: Approximately 10,000 Delaware workers benefited from an increase in the minimum wage—from $4.25 to $4.75 -- on October 1, 1996. They, along with about 7,000 more, received an additional raise—from $4.75 to $5.15 -- on September 1, 1997. President Clinton and Vice President Gore have called on Congress to raise the minimum wage by an additional $1.00 over two years.

Poverty Has Fallen: Nationally, the poverty rate has fallen from 15.1% in 1993 to 11.8% in 1999, the lowest level since 1979. In Delaware, the poverty rate has fallen to 10.3% in 1999. [Census Bureau]

Business Failures Down 27.4% Per Year: Business failures in Delaware have dropped an average of 27.4% per year since 1993, after increasing 30.9% per year during the previous administration [Oct. 98 data].

A $500 Child Tax Credit to Help Families Raising Children: To help make it easier for families to raise their children, the balanced budget included a $500 per-child tax credit for children under 17. Thanks to President Clinton the balanced budget delivers a child tax credit to 77,000 families in Delaware.

Delaware's Families Reap Benefits of Deficit Reduction: Public debt is on track to be $2.4 trillion lower in 2000 than was projected in 1993. Debt reduction brings real benefits for the American people -- a family in Delaware with a home mortgage of $100,000 might expect to save roughly $2,000 per year in mortgage payments. Reduced debt also means lower interest rates and reduced payments on car loans and student loans.

EXPANDING ACCESS TO EDUCATION

Over 2,100 Children in Head Start: 2,126 Delaware children were enrolled in Head Start in 1999. In FY00, Delaware will receive $9.9 million in Head Start funding, an increase of $5 million over 1993.

More High-Quality Teachers With Smaller Classes for Delaware’s Schools: Thanks to the Class Size Reduction Initiative, Delaware received $5.6 million in 1999 to hire about 145 new, well-prepared public school teachers and reduce class size in the early grades. President Clinton secured funding for a second and third installment of the plan, giving Delaware $6.1 million in 2000 and $7.6 million in 2001.

$5.4 Million for School Repairs: President Clinton fought for and won a new initiative to repair America’s schools, providing $1.2 billion in the FY 2001 budget for urgent school renovation. Delaware will receive $5.4 million in school renovation grants.

Over $2 Million for Technology Literacy: This year [FY01], Delaware receives $2.2 million for the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund which helps communities and the private sector ensure that every student is equipped with the computer literacy skills needed for the 21^st century.

$22.3 Million for Students Most in Need: Delaware will receive $22.3 million in Title I Grants (to Local Educational Agencies) providing extra help in the basics for students most in need, particularly communities and schools with high concentrations of children in low-income families [FY01].

Turning Around Failing Schools: Delaware will receive $607,039 in Title I Accountability Grants in 2001. President Clinton created the accountability fund to help turn around the worst performing schools through such measures as overhauling curriculum, improving staffing, or even closing schools and reopening them as charter schools.

$14.7 Million in Pell Grants: This year [FY01], Delaware will receive $14.7 million in Pell Grants for low-income students going to college.

Expanded Work-Study To Help More Students Work Their Way Through College: Delaware will receive $1.7 million in Work-Study funding in 2001 to help Delaware students work their way through college.

Nearly 800 Have Served in Delaware through AmeriCorps: Since the National Service program began in 1993, 750 AmeriCorps participants have earned money for college while working in Delaware’s schools, hospitals, neighborhoods or parks. [through 2/00]

Tuition Tax Credits in Balanced Budget Open the Doors of College and Promote Lifelong Learning: The balanced budget included both President Clinton’s $1,500 HOPE Scholarship to help make the first two years of college as universal as a high school diploma and a Lifetime Learning Tax Credit for college juniors, seniors, graduate students and working Americans pursuing lifelong learning to upgrade their skills. This 20% tax credit will be applied to the first $5,000 of tuition and fees through 2002 and to the first $10,000 thereafter. 14,000 students in Delaware will receive a HOPE Scholarship tax credit of up to $1,500. 18,000 students in Delaware will receive the Lifetime Learning Tax Credit. [fully phased-in FY2000 estimate]

Expanded Job Training to Delaware’s Dislocated Workers: President Clinton's FY 2001 budget would triple funding for the dislocated workers program over 1992 levels. Delaware received over $2 million in 1999 to help 1,210 dislocated workers get the training and reemployment services they need to return to work as quickly as possible. In FY 2000, Delaware will receive over $1.6 million to provide job training for dislocated workers.

FIGHTING CRIME AND VIOLENCE

445 More Police: The President’s 1994 Crime Bill has funded 445 new police officers to date in communities across Delaware. [through 1/01]

$9.5 Million to Combat Domestic Violence: Through the Violence Against Women Act, Delaware has received approximately $9.5 million in federal funds to establish more women’s shelters and bolster law enforcement, prosecution and victims’ services. [through 9/2000]

Reducing Crime with Drug Courts: Working to reduce drug-related crime in Delaware, the Clinton Administration has awarded a Drug Court grant to the community of Wilmington. Drug courts use the coercive power of the criminal justice system to combine drug testing, sanctions, supervision and treatment to push nonviolent, drug-abusing offenders to stop using drugs and committing crimes.

$400,000 in Grants for Battered Women and Children: In FY99, Delaware received $400,000 in HHS’s Family Violence Prevention Program grants to assist women and children fleeing domestic abuse.

$2.1 Million to Keep Drugs & Violence Out of Delaware’s Schools: Delaware has received $2.1 million in FY01 for the Safe & Drug Free Schools Program, which invests in school security and drug prevention programs.

MOVING DELAWARE RESIDENTS FROM WELFARE TO WORK

12,053 Fewer People on Welfare: Since 1993, there are 12,053 fewer people on welfare in Delaware—a 44% decrease. [through 6/99]

Child Support Collections Up 63%: Child support collections have increased by $16 million—or 63% -- in Delaware since FY92. [through FY98]

Encouraging Responsible Choices—Preventing Teen Pregnancy in Delaware: Since 1993, President Clinton and Vice President Gore have supported innovative and promising teen pregnancy prevention strategies, with significant components of the strategy becoming law in the 1996 Personal Responsibility Act. The law requires unmarried minor parents to stay in school and live at home or in a supervised setting; encourages "second chance homes" to provide teen parents with the skills and support they need; and provides $50 million a year in new funding for state abstinence education activities. Efforts are making a difference, adolescent pregnancy rates and teen abortion rates are declining. And between 1991 and 1997, teen birth rates declined 8.7% in Delaware.

$4.1 Million for Delaware Welfare-to-Work: In 1998, Delaware received $2.8 million in Federal welfare-to-work state formula grants (the state matched $1.4 million in funding), helping Delaware welfare recipients get and keep jobs. Part of the President’s comprehensive efforts to move recipients from welfare to work, this funding was included in the $3 billion welfare to work fund in the 1997 Balanced Budget Act.

Helping People Get to Work: Through the Access to Jobs initiative, the Clinton-Gore Administration is working with communities across the country to design transportation solutions to help welfare recipients and other low-income workers get to and from work. Statewide, Delaware has received $738,688 this year to fund innovative transit projects.

INVESTING IN DELAWARE’S HEALTH

Health Care for Nearly 2,500 Uninsured Delaware Children: In 1997, President Clinton passed the largest single investment in health care for children since 1965 -- an unprecedented $24 billion over five years to cover as many as five million children throughout the nation. This investment guarantees the full range of benefits that children need to grow up strong and healthy. Two million children nationwide have health care coverage thanks to the President's plan, including 2,433 in Delaware. [HHS, Health Care Financing Administration, FY99 SCHIP enrollment data]

Helping Over 15,000 Delaware Women and Children with WIC: The Clinton Administration is committed to full funding in the Special Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). In FY98, Delaware received $8 million in total WIC grant funding, helping 15,221 women, infants and children in need receive health and food assistance. [through 8/99]

More Toddlers Are Being Immunized: As a result of the President’s 1993 Childhood Immunization Initiative, childhood immunization rates have reached an historic high. According to the CDC, 90% or more of America’s toddlers received the most critical doses of each of the routinely recommended vaccines in 1996, 1997, and again in 1998 —surpassing the President’s 1993 goal. In Delaware in 1998, 93% of two-year olds received the vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis; 90% received the vaccine for polio; 94% received the vaccine for measles, and 94% received the vaccine for Haemophilus influenzae B, the bacteria causing a form of meningitis.

Funding for HIV/AIDS Assistance Programs: In FY 2000, Delaware will receive over $1.5 million in Ryan White Title II formula grants. This funding provides people living with HIV and AIDS medical and support services. Also through the Ryan White Act, Delaware will receive nearly $2 million for state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs), which help those without insurance obtain much needed prescription drugs. There has been a tenfold increase in ADAP funding in the last four years, up from $52 million in 1996 to $528 million in 2000. [HHS, Health Resources and Services Administration, 4/7/00]

Tobacco Plan Will Cut Smoking and Premature Deaths by 44% in Delaware: The Clinton Administration’s tobacco proposal, combined with the recently enacted state tobacco settlements, will cut youth smoking and resulting premature deaths 44% in Delaware by 2004. Between 2000 and 2004, 10,500 of Delaware’s youth will be kept from smoking and 3,400 will be spared a premature tobacco-related death. [Treasury Dept., 2/99]

370,000 Americans in Delaware Cannot Be Assured They Have Patient Protections: Even if Delaware enacted all the protections in the Patients’ Bill of Rights, 370,000 people in Delaware cannot be assured they have the comprehensive patient protections recommended by the President’s Advisory Commission. This is because the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) may preempt state-enacted protections. That is why the President has called on Congress to pass a federally enforceable patients’ bill of rights so that everyone enrolled in managed care may have a basic set of protections. Notably, 190,000 Delaware women are in ERISA health plans and are therefore not necessarily protected. Women are particularly vulnerable without these protections because they are greater users of health care services, they make three-quarters of the health care decisions for their families, and they have specific health care needs addressed by a patients’ bill of rights.

PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT

$7.7 Million in Safe Drinking Water Funding: This year [FY00], thanks to President Clinton, Delaware will receive $7.7 million for the Drinking Water State Revolving Funds to provide low-interest loans to municipalities to build, improve, and prevent pollution of drinking water systems.

9 Superfund Sites Cleaned Up: Since 1993, the EPA has completed 9 toxic waste site clean-ups in Delaware. The sites are located in Cheswold, New Castle (2), Kirkwood, Laurel, Wilmington, Smyrna, Dover and Millsboro. This is more than twice the number of sites cleaned up in Delaware during the previous two administrations. [through 3/1/00]

Revitalizing Brownfields Project in Wilmington: As part of the Clinton-Gore Administration’s efforts to clean up Brownfields, the EPA has awarded grants to Wilmington, Delaware for environmental clean-up and economic revitalization. This project is intended to jump-start local clean-up efforts by providing funds to return unproductive, abandoned, contaminated urban properties to productive use.

Improving Water Quality in Delaware: Delaware is receiving $10 million through the USDA's Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP), as well as $2 million from non-federal sources, for a Federal-State partnership to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, and Inland Bays basin areas. CREP is a new voluntary initiative where the Agriculture Department partners with State governments and local interests to address local environmental problems related to agriculture.

SPEARHEADING URBAN AND RURAL RENEWAL PROJECTS

Revitalizing Delaware’s Communities: Wilmington was designated an Enterprise Community in December 1994 and was awarded $3 million to create more jobs, housing, and economic opportunity for area residents.

PROVIDING DISASTER RELIEF

$20.8 Million in Federal Emergency Assistance: Since 1993, Delaware has received $20.8 million in disaster relief. This includes $2.8 million for assistance towards victims of severe winter storms, high winds and flooding in 1998 and over $6 million in disaster assistance for damage done by Hurricane Floyd in 1999. [FEMA, 2/29/00]

EXPANDING FUNDS FOR TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT

$356 Million in Federal Highway Aid: Since 1993, Delaware has received over $356 million in federal highway aid. These funds have helped generate 15,138 jobs. [through FY99]

Over $7.4 Million in Aviation Funds: From FY93-FY99 Delaware received over $7.4 million in Airport Improvement Program funds to help build and renovate airports, and, when necessary, to provide funds for noise abatement to improve the quality of life for residents who live near airports.

Over $43.6 Million in Transit Funding: Since 1993, Delaware has received more than $43.6 million in Federal Transit Funding to support public transportation.