Well, the policies of the State of Rhode Island aren’t getting you to shop, earn, or do business as much as the government expected, but at least you’re dying!

According to an Office of Revenue Analysis report, sales and use taxes came in 0.9% lower than expected, personal income taxes came in 0.6% short, and business corporations taxes missed their estimate by a whopping 12.1%.  That’s $35 million you didn’t produce for your lords in Providence.

The good news is that you’re drinking, dying, and letting the state keep your unclaimed property more than expected, which more than made up the difference ($47 million).  But if that doesn’t sound like a healthy or sustainable way for a government to pay its bills, well, it isn’t.

Comparing the 2016 fiscal year to the year before, of the three sources of tax revenue that would indicate real economic health, only the sales tax went up.  (Patrick Anderson has the income tax wrong in today’s Providence Journal.)  Income taxes were down $10 million (0.8%); business corporation taxes were down $13 million (8.8%); and sales and use taxes were up only $8 million (0.9%).  The net change of all three was a decrease of $15 million.

If it weren’t for dying Rhode Islanders, the state government would have seen its revenue go down from one year to the next, and more than analysts had expected.  That doesn’t bode well for the deficits that the state estimates growing into the future.  The Providence Journal headline, “Rhode Island ends fiscal year with more money than expected,” does us a civic disservice.  We need to acknowledge that the current strategy of our state is not working so that we can change it.