In a joint letter sent to Gov. John Carney and his administration, the Delaware Business Roundtable and Delaware State Chamber of Commerce submitted a number of essential priorities that must be addressed urgently if recovery from the pandemic’s impact is to move more quickly.

The letter also expressed that the business community is prepared to immediately assist in the enormous task of vaccinating Delawareans as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Last April, when it was clear the pandemic would have a significant impact on Delaware, the two organizations recommended several urgent priorities that needed to be addressed, including worker retraining, expanded broadband capacity, and assistance for small businesses and their families. While some progress has been made on many of those recommendations, it is clear that much more needs to be accomplished, since the pandemic’s impact has now been in effect for almost a year.

The roundtable and chamber sent a document titled The Road to Recovery: Putting Delawareans Back to Work. If the priorities are addressed, opportunities for Delaware workers and their families will be created to provide an element of hope in an otherwise challenging time. The recommendations touch on many aspects of life in Delaware – providing tax relief to those who received unemployment compensation, retraining workers whose jobs have been permanently lost, focusing on the availability and quality of child care, establishing education equity, protecting the local supply of clean water, and creating and maintaining jobs for Delawareans.

Most importantly, the letter writers believe the hallmark of Delaware’s journey on the road to recovery must be collaboration and cooperation – between Democrats and Republicans, between upstate and downstate, between the public and private sectors. There’s never been another time in Delaware’s history where such a heightened level of collaboration and cooperation was required to meet a challenge. Just as this crisis isn’t business as usual for Delawareans, it can’t be politics as usual for elected leaders.

The letter concluded that the business community stands ready to work with Carney, his administration and all members of the Delaware General Assembly to move forward on these crucial recommendations.

For more information or to read the letter, go to dbrt.org/news-1.