Delaware ranks 4th in list of most corrupt states

    National website says Delaware is more corrupt than its neighboring states, and most other states in the country.

    According to the website The Daily Beast, Delaware is more corrupt than New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and almost every other state.  Only Tennessee, Virginia and Mississippi were more corrupt according to the site.

    To make its ranking, the site evaluated states in five categories: public corruption, racketeering and extortion, forgery and counterfeiting, fraud, and embezzlement.  Delaware was number one in the forgery and embezzlement categories.

    The ranking comes as the details of a lease deal arranged by former Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner in 2006 for her friend, a liquor distributor.  Through his connection with then-Governor Minner, Christopher Tigani was able to get a $1,500 per month lease on a property the state appraiser had set at more than $84,000 per month just two months earlier.  Republican State Chairman Tom Ross is calling for a federal investigation into the deal.  “What I would like to see is the federal authorities really get under the hood and check out what was going on.”

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    As for Delaware’s ranking as the fourth most corrupt state, Ross says, “What we can all agree on is that Delaware can do a lot better.  We’re a small state.  We have an educated, professional population.  This state ought to run like a top.”

    State House Majority Leader Pete Schwartzkopf (D-Rehoboth Beach) has said the state should look at renegotiating or terminating the lease with N.K.S. Distributors.  He says, “I don’t like it.  I’m looking at this thing and it’s no wonder people don’t trust us.”  He says on the surface, the lease deal looks very wrong.

    Both the Governor’s office and the Attorney General is looking into the agreement.

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