WILMINGTON — Delaware EARNS, the state-sponsored retirement plan, officially opened for enrollment on July 1 with hopes of bridging the state’s retirement savings gap.

Two years after legislation passed to establish the Delaware Expanding Access for Retirement and Necessary Saving program, or DE EARNS, employers with five or more employees —regardless of full-time or part-time status — now have to sign up and provide a retirement plan option.

Administered by New York based Vestwell State Savings, Delaware EARNS is structured as an automatic payroll deduction which is put into an Roth individual retirement account. Based on federal rules, there are annual contribution limits for how much an employee can put into an IRA. Those under 50 years of age can save up to $7,000 in their IRA while those over the age of 50 can save up to $8,000. Lower limits may be applied depending on various tax situations.

The program is funded by employees and facilitated by employers; employers can opt out if they offer their own plan like a 401(K). The deadline for employers to opt out or enroll is Oct. 15.

For the past year, the Delaware State Treasurer’s Office has been on an information campaign throughout the state and spent time meeting with several local chambers of commerce on how the program works. Colleen Davis, the state treasurer, once estimated that there are between 150,000 to 200,000 Delawareans who have not been offered a retirement plan through their employer.

Most of those employees were considered in the low and low-to-moderate income bracket. The National Compensation and Benefits Survey also found that 54% of Delaware employers do not offer retirement plans.

“The reason why the treasurer’s office got involved in this issue is that we’re facing a retirement savings crisis,” Delaware EARNS Program Director Ted Griffith said. “We have many workers that aren’t saving anything, and it’s not a problem unique to Delaware. But we can help do something about it by giving them access to start that fund through work. There’s research that shows that if someone does have a retirement plan that can contribute to payroll, they’re 15 times more likely to start one.”

Griffith also said it’s a societal issue as well as a workplace issue. With Delaware’s senior population continuing to rise, the Pew Charitable Trust and Econsult Solutions Inc. found that the state was on track to spend an additional $55 million per year over the next 20 years on programs like Medicaid due to insufficient savings. 

“Not only can we help create a pathway to help people be more self-sufficient and financially empowered, we’re reducing the burden on the state over time,” he said.

Delaware is one of a few that has mandated retirement plans at various stages, either active or in the process of development. Colorado was among the first, and surrounding states like Virginia and New Jersey have also opened enrollment for similar plans, RetirePath Virginia and RetireReady NJ, respectively.

The First State has also joined a consortium of states, led by Colorado, to maximize Delaware EARNS’ potential to pool resources when it comes time to set up these programs to work. That can translate to savings for the account holders.

While it’s still early, Delaware EARNS has about 12 employers already enrolled as part of a pilot program. Based on projections done by the Pew Charitable Trust, it’s anticipated that 3,900 employers and almost 39,000 employees will be enrolled in the program.

“We’re excited for the future, because not only will this help the savings gap, it’ll help with the wealth gap,” Griffith said. “It’s going to give Delawareans who may not have a chance to invest a way to do that.”

Code Purple awarded $570,000 for day center, wraparound services

In 2021, when Delaware began receiving the first wave of opioid settlement money, lawmakers unanimously approved a bill that created the fund and the distribution committee and made them part of the Behavioral Health Consortium.

The overarching goal, a synopsis of the bill said, was “to ensure that settlement money is used to remediate and abate the opioid crisis and is not diverted to other purposes.”

Code Purple Kent County applied for two grants from the fund.

The agency first sought and received $70,000 to provide a mobile van and wraparound services for people struggling with opioid addiction. Services included transportation to treatment, housing, job training, medical assistance and child care, as well as support groups, social events, computer access and a pantry with free items and furniture, according to Hall-Long’s government website.

The agency later was awarded $500,000 out of $980,000 it requested to operate a day center for people struggling with addiction, mental health issues, and lack of housing. Hall-Long’s website said the money would go toward “short-term term respite care, case management, individual and group therapy, job training and placement, COVID-19 testing, and other services that address the social determinants of health, such as food, transportation, clothing, and financial support” over a three-year period.

In August 2023, the agency received $290,000 of its allocation. Days later, Zaragoza contributed $1,200 to Hall-Long’s gubernatorial campaign.

Jennings and Susan Holloway, director of the distribution committee, said they received complaints in late 2023 and referred them to York. The auditor would not agree to an interview about the ongoing investigation.

Holloway also did not agree to an interview, but said in a written statement issued by Hall-Long’s office that the dozens of opioid settlement grant recipients are monitored by a staff member who “regularly communicates with grantees, conducts site visits, and assesses compliance. Funding is frozen if discrepancies are flagged and validated.”

Holloway’s statement said that in the case of Code Purple, her staff “noticed data inconsistencies, which triggered a manual review of the numbers. Unsatisfied with the review, funding was immediately frozen while staff conducted two site visits to gain more insight’’ from the agency.

“They were unsatisfied with their additional review and as a result, funding was then permanently frozen in December 2023, and the organization has not received money since.”

Holloway said her office notified Jennings’ office in December that funds to Code Purple were frozen.

Her statement emphasized that it was her office’s “monthly reviews that uncovered the potential issues at Code Purple, investigated further, and took immediate action to freeze funds and notify the proper state agencies for further investigation.”

Hall-Long’s statement piggybacked on what Holloway said.

“The commission employs a rigorous process in evaluating and ensuring compliance with all grantees, with grant awards being considered during public meetings first at the commission with final approval from the Behavioral Health Consortium,’’ she said.

“The disbursement of funds occurs in phases after thorough data reviews and site assessments. Non-compliance with these standards results in an immediate cessation of funding for the recipient. In addition to having funds halted, an awardee would be referred to the proper state agencies for investigation, ensuring that violators are subject to the appropriate consequences. This process worked recently when issues were raised.”

The return to average summer temperatures has been pushed back to Thursday in the forecasts, and in the meantime it’ll be highs in the low-to-mid-90s, with a heat advisory in effect from Monday morning to Tuesday night.

The National Weather Service office in Mount Holly, N.J., also adds: “Peak heat indices on Wednesday are forecast to reach or exceed 100 degrees, and therefore an extension of this heat advisory into Wednesday is probable.”

The other weather news for Wednesday is that a cool front is expected to approach the region and set off thunderstorms. The probability of precipitation is listed as less than 50%.

The forecast for Thursday through the weekend is for high temperatures in the 80s in a bit more normalcy for summer, but not much cooling overnights, with the lows staying above 70 degrees around the daybreaks.

But in the more immediate future, on Monday and Tuesday the humidity is expected to be on the increase, which means heat indices will rise and hence, the heat advisory.

On Sunday night at 8, the humidity was 42% at Philadelphia International Airport, the official weather service site in the Philadelphia metro area, a not-uncomfortable reading.

The temperature topped out Sunday at 95 degrees, well off the record for the date. The forecast highs for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday — 96, 93 and 93, respectively — are all well below date records of 100, 103 and 104, respectively.

The last one is from the scorching summer of 1936 and is tied for the second-highest temperature on record at an official Philadelphia site with July 3, 1966. Both trail 106 degrees on Aug. 5, 1918.