Progressives and unions want to make a high tax burden “more fair” by making it even higher. Justin thinks the better answer would be eliminating the “least fair” tax, the sales tax.
Woonsocket’s budget mess has two lessons for RI: 1) read the Current and 2) pensions are a bigger problem than we’re being told.
Justin writes live from a five-hour, four-panel economic conference put on by the RI House of Representatives.
Legislation just submitted would not only compound irresponsible taxation and spending, but the fine print would create a new source of revenue for the government’s pet projects.
Legislation described as making a minor technical change to its name would actually put Bryant University on a path to paying full property taxes in Smithfield.
Feeling hopeful, RI?; “top priority” is shown, not stated; RI gets fatherless children first; surviving sans regulation; surviving sans net income; and surviving sans a documented framework for working together.
Increasing taxes, even by eliminating mortgage deductions, is still increasing taxes and, therefore, removing money from the economy.
With public sector salaries and benefits continuing to expand at the expense of Rhode Island’s beleaguered taxpayers and business owners, some policy analysts see a historical parallel with the waning days of the Roman Empire. State and local government workers receive a 26.5 percent premium above their private sector counterparts, according to a new study.
Changing unions’ privatization strategy; the government spending ratchet; the government spending racket; and the trap of dependency.
Threats to the economy (cliffs and debts); RI lagging again (yawn); dependors and dependees; Social Security a problem; and a civil right to the war zone frat party.
State and local workers in Rhode Island receive more than 26% more doing the same work, and with the same experience, as those in the state’s private sector. The major area of focus should be on empowering taxpayers to become more prosperous.
Long-term repair of the federal government’s debt problem requires an economy founded on productive activity, not the debt of future generations.
RI taxpayers could be on the hook for a costly, unworkable wind power project that lacks and discernible environmental benefits if the East Bay Energy Consortium and its partners in government are permitted to overstep legal boundaries, a complaint with the attorney general claims.
Debate around the Internet is beginning to make the city-suburb divide look like a festering battle along ideological lines.
Historic tax credits have a broader effect than is immediately obvious, ultimately harming hard-working Rhode Islanders.
Campaign finance & incumbents; where the buck stops for the bad economy; Obama follows Chafee on a Commerce Czar; and the storm should be a warning.
The ballot question on bonds for affordable housing illustrates how too much unanimity among representatives of government, advocacy, and media can lead to incremental deterioration of public policy.
Mainly on government’s bad incentives: bad housing spending in Providence, unlearnable spending lessons for the governor, stimulus corruption, and Medicaid reform.
Johnston mayoral candidate Peter Filippi presents the Ocean State Current with copies of the mailings that have been send to his home. Filippi is convinced that is opponent, Joseph Polisena, the incumbent Democratic mayor, is at least partly responsible. Polisena denies the allegations.
A brief analysis of the referenda questions that will appear on this November’s ballot in RI suggests that the state would be better off reordering its priorities, rather than expanding debt and doubling down on casinos.
The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity held a press conference, Thursday, to draw attention to an alternative approach to turning around the state’s economy, titled, “Get Government Out of the Way.”
Ted Nesi’s suggestion of government borrowing now based on the inevitability of borrowing later is indicative of a deeper problem within a culture accustomed to economic growth.
A national report card from the Cato Institute gives RI Governor Lincoln Chafee a D.
Economic development difficulties in Rhode Island begin with flawed thinking, and so residents are finding themselves turning to Massachusetts for jobs, housing, and even free-market commentary.
Roger Slocum argues that Newport’s costs associated with handling water and making improvements not be pushed through as user fees.
The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity’s General Assembly Freedom Index shifts the good-government-advocate spotlight, with some results that run across the grain of public perception.
Issuing bonds to harm the housing market; disavowing movies in Pakistan and tearing down banners in Cranston; the Constitution as ours to protect; the quick failure of QE3; and Catholic social teaching as the bridge for the conservative-libertarian divide.
Chafee shows his bond cards, Chicago exposes a metric discord, Rhode Island misses the skills-gap/business-cost lesson, QE3 misses the inflation nebula, and college majors miss the mark.
RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity CEO Mike Stenhouse notes the successes and failures of “Make It Happen RI,” with concern that the latter will prove to dominate.
Madness overseas and at home, lunacy in the Fed, the disconcerting growth of government, and the performance art of public-sector negotiations.