Dave Fisher – Page 2

April 4, 2013April 4, 2013

Help Wanted: Job(less) Fair At The State House Today

Calling all un- and underemployed!

Tired of pounding the pavement and dredging craigslist to find a job? Sick of sending out resumes only to get no response, or a “Thanks, but no thanks?” Unemployment benefits running out, forcing you closer to the brink of financial collapse?

Make your voice heard today!

Today, at 3 p.m. at the State House, Where’s the Work, Rhode Island? will be holding a Job Fair…. wait, scratch that, a Jobless Fair.

This is an opportunity for the 53,000 unemployed — and thousands more underemployed — Rhode Islanders to demand real action by the General Assembly to lower the unemployment rate in the Biggest Little.

Rhode Island’s unemployment rate remains stubbornly high, and state tax breaks like the Jobs Development Act have failed to generate enough jobs to significantly impact the unemployment rate.

Where’s the Work? is an initiative of Ocean State Action designed to increase public awareness and understanding of the unemployment crisis in Rhode Island. Politicians can throw around numbers and statistics regarding unemployment, but there is one very important thing that gets lost in the mix – the people and their real experiences as they try to weather the financial crisis.

“A lot can and needs to be done at the state level to address the unemployment problem,” says Mark Gray, Ocean state Actions Where’s the Work campaign organizer,” for instance, Connecticut has created a subsidized job training and employment program that has employed about 1,300 people in over 400 small businesses in the last year.”

Gray says that while Rhode Island’s total unemployment rate has fallen slightly, the long-term unemployment rate — those that have been out of work for longer than six months — hasn’t budged.

“We need a new approach. Clearly the state’s past efforts are not working, and this economy is not working for a significant segment of the population.”

Today’s rally is a chance to put the stories of unemployed Rhode Islanders front and center to reshape the public dialogue about our economy and make sure that our elected leaders better understand the urgent action that their constituents need.

Attendees to today’s rally are asked to dress as if attending a job interview and bring their resumes.

Even if you are currently employed, please consider attending this important event. After all, there’s no guarantee that you’ll have a job tomorrow.

April 3, 2013April 4, 2013

Senate Committee Hears Payday Lending Reform

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

Margaux Morrisseau , co-director of the Rhode Island Coalition for Payday Loan Reform

Payday Lending reform wound up in the laps of the Senate Committee on Commerce this week, and the hearing was pretty packed with what seemed like an even split of advocates for capping payday loan interest rates at 36 percent, and employees of Advance America, one of two payday lenders operating in Rhode Island.

You can watch the full committee meeting here.

Proponents of capping rates included representatives of the NAACP, AARP, The Capital Good Fund, the RI AFL-CIO, and the RI Council of Churches.

The parade of Advance America employees that testified against the reform relayed stories of their customers calling payday loans “freedom” and their employees “heroes.”

Leo Sullivan, an Advance America employee, testified in opposition to the reform. Citing unintended consequences of payday lending reform, he said, “If you choose to limit customers ability to use our services, there may be consequences for those customers beyond what is readily apparent,” but he did not specify what these consequences might be.

Jamie Fulmer of Advance America said new restrictions aren’t needed and, taking a page from the CVS playbook, may force his company to withdraw from Rhode Island.

Testimony from the lenders themselves indicated that there are no other options for those who need small loans or those who have bad credit ratings, but in Rhode Island, the Capital Good Fund offers small loans, free tax preparation, and financial coaching for their customers, none of which are offered by payday lenders; other local financial institutions like Navigant Credit Union are getting in on the small, short-term loan business.

Research by the Pew Foundation has shown that payday loans don’t perform as advertised.

Andy Posner, founder and director of the Capital Good Fund, said “Every day I see people who have gone through payday loans and regret it, or those who think they need them, who go through our financial coaching, and realize that they don’t.”

A big difference between payday lenders and loans from other financial institutions is this: payday lenders do not report to credit agencies, and therefore, do not help their customers build credit history, which would help to create a more stable financial future.

Margaux Morrisseau, co-director of the Rhode Island Coalition for Payday Lending Reform and Community Director for NeighborWorks- Blackstone Valley, said, “We started to see many of the residents of our affordable housing programs who took advantage of these payday loans fall behind on their approved budgets. People have come to our offices, in tears, after falling into the cycle of debt created by these loans.”

“Representatives from Advance America have testified that the average customer takes out eight loans a year,” said Shawn Selleck, a Providence resident that has previously worked in the microfinance sector, “that should be indication enough that these customers need financial coaching, and this is not a service provided by Advance America or Check ‘n’ Go.” He added that it was also telling that not one direct beneficiary of payday loans had testified before the senate committee.

Mike Mancino, of the RI AFL-CIO, testified by saying, “I will avoid using poll data, charts, and graphs in my testimony and simply ask this: What do your conscience and heart tell you?”

April 2, 2013April 2, 2013

Woonsocket Supermarkets On The First Of The Month

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

stop and shop — Stop and Shop in North Smithfield. (Photo by Dave Fisher)

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) boom-and- bust cycle continued in Woonsocket this month, but not all local grocers benefit to the same degree.

Woonsocket is home to two supermarkets. A Price Rite – which traffics in highly discounted groceries – and a Shaw’s – which is operates a bit more in the middle-class price range – located within a half mile of one another. The only other supermarket options for the 40,000-plus resident of Rhode Island’s forgotten city are a Park and Shop – located just over the state line in Blackstone, Mass. – and two Stop and Shops which straddle the city – One right on the city line in North Smithfield, and another just over the state line in Bellingham, Mass.

The Blackstone Park and Shop and the Bellingham Stop and Shop are off-limits to Woonsocket SNAP recipients; the state-administered, federally-funded benefits don’t travel over state lines.

I decided to take a ride up to the Woonsocket Price Rite location, in an attempt to shed a bit more light on the first-of-the-month melee at local grocery stores. The parking lot was packed with cars, and there was a steady stream of customers entering and exiting the store. More customers waited outside the store for the next bus to come by to take them home with their groceries.

[vsw id=”OvKHmvP28-0″ source=”youtube” width=”525″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

As I walked through the store, the wide aisles were easy to navigate, but things changed as I approached the checkout lines. The lines stretched into the ends of the grocery aisles. Carriages were packed, overflowing in many cases, and customers were bagging their own groceries on the counter across from the ends of the checkout lines.

[vsw id=”q6e-Dg6voHI” source=”youtube” width=”525″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

I managed to speak to a pair of ladies who were exiting the store for a bit before store management descended on me and informed me of their store’s policy of “No Solicitation” of store employees or their customers. The women were exiting the store with two carriages absolutely bursting with food. One of the women, who didn’t want to be identified, told me that most of her SNAP benefits, along with a good portion of her disability supplement had been eaten up in this one trip to Price Rite. In total, she had spent over $500 in this one shopping trip.

Not surprisingly, there is a Check n’ Go payday lender less than 100 feet from the doors of the Price Rite, and an Advance America lender less than a 5 minute walk away.

Her disability stems from a hip injury that makes standing or sitting for long periods of time extremely painful. That pretty much rules out any job there is. She also has a four-year old daughter with autism. Her older children help her take care of the youngster, which makes it difficult for them to find full-time work with a flexible enough schedule to continue to help with the care of the disabled girl.

The Woonsocket Shaw’s Supermarket on April 1, 2013.

As I drove to the Shaw’s, again less than a half-mile from the Price Rite, and expected to find a similar situation. Instead I was surprised to find a virtually empty parking lot. Aisles and checkout lines were not overly crowded; some completely empty. A quick trip to the North Smithfield Stop and Shop showed a similar situation. Virtually empty lot, empty aisles, and short lines at the checkouts.

Supervalu Inc., the parent company of Shaw’s Supermarkets, is selling off five of its grocery chains, including Shaw’s and Albertson’s, after years of being squeezed by intensifying competition. The Woonsocket Shaw’s may be closed due to decreasing revenue.

Why is a supermarket in a city where one-third of the residents receive SNAP benefits not benefiting from expenditures of those benefits? How do companies like Shaw’s and Stop and Shop – that have many more locations in the region – not offer a price point that would make them competitive with the discount grocer?

Lastly, if – and more likely when – the Woonsocket Shaw’s location closes, the city will be left with only one supermarket. A supermarket that has a stigma amongst the middle-to-upper class remaining in Woonsocket as the “poor peoples market.” My last question is, how long will it be until those folks, by hook or by crook, are forced into shopping there?

April 1, 2013April 1, 2013

Don Anderson: Let There Be Payday Loan Reform

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

Rev. Don Anderson, president of the Rhode Island Council of Churches, says there are religious reasons for supporting payday loan reform.

“In every religious tradition, the concept of usury is addressed,” Anderson said, at an State House event last week to call attention to payday loan reform.

[vsw id=”vFkKA30fHYM” source=”youtube” width=”525″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

Anderson, who is also an important advocate for tax equity legislation, added, “Concern for the poor transcends all faiths.”

The Bible has many – or unethically high interest rates. But one not need to read scripture to understand why payday loan shops like Advance America are preying on the poor.

Annual interest rates can be as high as 260 percent, and customers are sometimes cajoled into thinking it will be easier to pay back than is realistic. Rhode Island is the only state in New England to allow predatory payday loans.

A recent Pew report concluded that payday loans “fail to work as advertised” and most people who use them have other options that they often use to get themselves out of the payday loan debt spiral.

March 28, 2013March 29, 2013

Diverse Groups Rally For Payday Lending Reform

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

Activists, citizens, legislators, the General Treasurer and three Republican mayors gathered at the State House to voice their opposition to the usurious payday loan schemes practiced by companies like Advance America, and Check ‘n’ Go. These businesses overwhelmingly serve the poorest Rhode Islanders, and have a tendency to put those who partake of their services in a spiral of debt through annual interest rates of 260 percent.

The RI Payday Lending Reform Coalition includes groups that span age, color, creed, and socioeconomic brackets like AARP, The RI State Council of Churches, the RI Latino PAC, the NAACP and CommunityWorks RI.

The reform legislation would cap APR at 36 percent. Some activists think this is the year it will pass, but not until a compromise APR rate is reached somewhere between 260 percent and 36 percent.

Rhode Island is the only New England state that allows payday lenders, and Congress passed a law recently making it illegal to locate them near military bases. A recent Pew report said most of people who take out payday loans had another, more reasonable, avenue to obtain short-term financing.

“Payday loans are marketed as an appealing short-term option, but that does not reflect reality. Paying them off in just two weeks is unaffordable for most borrowers, who become indebted long-term,” said Nick Bourke, Pew’s expert on small-dollar loans. “The loans initially provide relief, but they become a hardship. By a three-to-one margin, borrowers want more regulation of these products.”

The press conference featured bill sponsors Rep. Frank Ferri and Sen. Juan Pichardo, along with Mayors Avedesian, Fung, Diossa, and Fontaine of Warwick, Cranston, Central Falls, and Woonsocket, respectively.

[vsw id=”CMZJNR5lvHE” source=”youtube” width=”525″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

“In poverty, there is money to be made,” said Sen. Pichardo, “These most vulnerable communities have historically been targeted for products, financial and otherwise, that are not in the community’s best interest.”

Pichardo said his mission is to protect low-income and minority populations by providing them with the right information to ensure their long-term financial health.

When asked if there was any data suggesting that folks who are receiving federal and state aid are also relying on payday lending to make ends meet, Margaux Morrisseau, Co-director of Rhode Islanders for Payday Lending Reform said, “It’s difficult to determine exactly who is taking out these loans. The Department of Business Regulation captures a very narrow band of data on these lenders. There is very little sharing of information between departments. What we do know is that many of the people who have fallen into the Payday Lending debt trap are frequenting food pantries to feed their families.”

[vsw id=”_FNpAf6LRPY” source=”youtube” width=”525″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

March 27, 2013March 27, 2013

Hodges Addresses Gender Inequality In Insurance

It’s hard to imagine that in the year 2013 women still have to deal with inequality in the workplace.

Their wages are typically lower for the same level of education and expertise than their male counterparts, but this inequality does not stop at the pay check. Women also pay much higher premiums for their health insurance coverage, so, in addition to making less money, they’re forced to pay out more in insurance premiums.

This is a practice known in the insurance business as gender rating.

While the Affordable Health Care Act will eventually make gender rating illegal, some 14 states across the country including California, New Jersey and New York, have taken steps to ban or cap gender rating in the individual insurance market. Some local lawmakers would like to add The Biggest Little to that list.

A bill (S201) sponsored by Senators Sosnowski, Miller , Nesselbush, Cool-Rumsey, and Gallo would prohibit insurance providers in Rhode Island from charging women of child-bearing age higher premiums than men. This is the third time that similar legislation has been introduced by Sosnowski.

Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island is one of the womens’ advocacy groups that has led the charge locally for evening out this disparity. We caught up with Paula Hodges, Rhode Island Public Policy and Advocacy Director for Planned Parenthood, and asked for her take on the the built in sexism of gender rating by insurance companies.

The Senate Committee on Health and Human Services heard testimony from the bill’s prime sponsor, Sen. Susan Sosnowski, who said, “It’s outrageous that in 2013, we have to deal with this discrimination.”

“I bristle at the term discrimination,” said Shawn Donahue, lobbyist for Blue Cross/Blue Shield RI, “it is an actuarial fact that young women visit doctors more frequently. Insurance companies charge discriminatory rates for smokers. Men are discriminated against when it comes to life insurance.”

Committee Chairman Sen. Josh Miller grilled Donahue during his testimony, asking, “Just from a public policy point of view, do you have any data on the cost to the state for women that have dropped out of the insurance pool due to cost.”

Donahue had no answer.

During her testimony, Ms. Hodges, visibly annoyed, said, “I resent that gender is being equated to something situational like riding a motorcycle or smoking.”

March 22, 2013March 23, 2013

Fontaine On Fox News: Blames SNAP Not CVS

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

“Is this America the one we want? One and a quarter million immigrants getting food stamps, one-third of the people in your town.” – Fox “News” to Woonsocket Mayor Leo Fontaine about the Washington Post’s story about SNAP benefits.

It isn’t just progressive news outlets like RI Future who are shining a light on the alarmingly high percentage of Woonsocket residents who can’t afford to feed themselves without public assistance. Fox “News” interviewed Mayor Leo Fontaine about the national spotlight the city finds itself in.

[vsw id=”tLAcT5b9NY0″ source=”youtube” width=”525″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

“This comes down to a point of are serving a need or are we creating a need?” Fontaine says.

As a Woonsocket resident, a progressive blogger and a candidate for mayor, I would like to know if the current mayor thinks SNAP benefits are serving or creating a need. In fact, it’s this very question that makes the Post story so politically charged. It’s why it was big news this week for liberals, conservatives and moderates alike.

Speaking of moderates, Fontaine added immediately after big picture question, “Here in Rhode Island we just had a study done showing massive abuses of these programs, food stamps being going to people who are deceased, food stamps being given to people who are in prison.”

He was referencing, of course, Ken Block’s report on SNAP fraud.

Fontaine concluded his opening salvo on national television by showing the Fox anchor that a voter registration form comes attached to SNAP registration forms, which he finds troubling.

“I think that this gets to the very root of the problem that are we serving a problem or are we creating a problem,” he said.

Even the Fox employee was surprised by Fontaine’s conservative take on the situation.

“I’ve got to say I’m surprised to be hearing you saying this,” he said. “I thought I was going to be talking to a man who was a vigorous defender of the food stamp program because your town is so reliant on it.”

Woonsocket is on the verge of bankruptcy. The schools almost closed last year because they didn’t have enough money and more than half of our high school students failed the NECAP test. The Washington Post and Fox “News” are both talking about how our economic engine is the disbursement of food stamps.

And yet the biggest business in the state, CVS, is located here in Woonsocket. The starving city gives the Fortune 500 company $275,000 in local tax breaks.

The state is much more generous. It gives the former ALEC corporate member a $15.4 million annual tax break. Gary Sasse called it “corporate welfare or socialism for the well-connected” in Wednesday’s Providence Journal.

And while the state forgives the former ALEC member of half its annual tax bill for an employee tax break, CVS is asking employees to pay an extra $600 a year or submit to a more invasive health care screening, reports the Providence Journal this morning.

As Rhode Island and Woonsocket are struggling, the nation’s largest drugstore made $3.88 billion in 2012 and CEO Larry Merlo took home $18 million in salary and bonuses.

A third of Woonsocket is on food stamps, CVS’s CEO’s salary went up by a third and now he gets $3 million more than the state gives in tax breaks.

“It seems that that’s not quite the America we want to see,” said the Fox “News” anchor to Mayor Fontaine.

March 21, 2013March 22, 2013

RI Show Up In Force For Marriage Equality

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

Rhode Islanders line up to testify, 3-to-1 in favor of same-sex marriage.

The State House was packed with supporters and, yes, opponents of marriage equality. While the Senate Judiciary Committee was hearing testimony for and against the bill, they were also hearing the horde of supporters and protestors gathered in the rotunda echoing throughout the marble halls.

Supporters of same-sex marriage sang songs like Marching on the Side of Love, Amazing Grace, and Let it Shine, it seems the opposition could only muster a din of “No,No, No!” The chants and songs became deafening as the group in the rotunda grew. There were a surprisingly large contingency of Latinos within the ranks of those opposed to same sex marriage.

More than 650 people signed up to testify on the bill. There were many more outside the hearing room. The crowd in the rotunda spilled onto the second and third floor balconies as the din of what seemed like a sermon against gay marriage echoed through the marble halls of the State House. Funny, hate speech sounds just about the same in any language.

Some within RIUnited spoke of a young transgendered man that was vilified and brought to tears by the predominantly Latino crowd in the rotunda. At one point, I waded into the crowd and shot this video. You can see the hate in this woman’s eyes.

[vsw id=”C6fC93WI_7k” source=”youtube” width=”525″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

I guess the lesson here is, when you don’t have a rational, cogent argument, be as loud as you possibly can.

Before the fracas in the rotunda began, I caught up with Ray Sullivan, former State Representative, and current campaign director for Rhode Islanders United for Marriage Equality. He had this to say:

[vsw id=”-q4qnCiUGEY” source=”youtube” width=”525″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

March 21, 2013March 21, 2013

Voter ID Repeal Bill Hits House Judiciary Committee

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

Individual voter fraud.

If I could reduce the font of those three words in proportion to the actual occurrences of said fraud, they would be imperceptible to the human eye, and yet, two years ago the General Assembly passed a voter ID law, which amounts to, as Steven Brown of the ACLU of Rhode Island put it, “A solution looking for a problem.”

This year, Rep. Larry Valencia aims to overturn that law. Last night, the House Judiciary Committee heard testimony from Valencia and a host of other proponents of voter ID repeal, including Steven Brown of the RI ACLU, James Vincent, President of the RI NAACP, Sam Bell of the Young Democrats of Rhode Island, and former state prosecutor Robert Ellis Smith. Only two opponents of the repeal gave verbal testimony, one of which was Paul Caranci, a member of Secretary A. Ralph Mollis’ staff. Not surprising considering that Mollis crafted the original voter ID legislation.

Opponents of Voter ID laws have a host of issues to get fired up about. From voter disenfranchisement, to the fact that voter fraud, on an individual basis, really does not exist.

“The Bush administration assessed millions of ballots during the eight years he was in office,” Rep. Valencia said, “and found only a handful of individual voter fraud reports.” He went on to say that voter ID laws create barriers where none should exist, and that people who choose not to vote, or are turned away from the polls because they lack proper ID, rarely report these incidents, so gauging how often this happens is next to impossible.

Caranci pointed to the high turnout in the 2010 election as proof that voter ID laws do not lead to voter disenfranchisement. “We have no idea how prevalent this problem is, because we lack the tools to effectively detect and prosecute instances of individual voter fraud.” He also indicated that Rhode Islanders overwhelmingly support voter ID. Polls show that nearly 85 percent of the state support such a measure.

“Regardless of the popularity of voter ID, I support repeal,” said Valencia, “because it’s the right thing to do.”

Provisions in the Voter ID law also make it easier to vote by mail ballot, where we have seen instances of voter fraud. Ironic that a law that proposes to eliminate voter fraud that really doesn’t exist, actually makes it easier to commit fraud by mail.

Rep. Joseph Almeida peppered Caranci throughout his testimony with the mantra, “Show me instances of individual voter fraud. Show me the numbers. Show me the data.

Rep. Doreen Costa, who sponsored the Voter ID bill in the last session said, “I’m very proud of this bill. If 85 percent of Rhode Islanders support voter ID, well, we’re elected to do what they want.” Costa left the meeting before the majority of repeal proponents offered their testimony.

March 20, 2013March 20, 2013

Supermajority Of Adults Flunk NECAPS Too

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

Of the 50 or so lawmakers, educators, and all-around successful individuals that partook in the mock NECAP test on Saturday, 60 percent scored a grade that would put them in danger of not graduating high school under the state’ new high stakes test graduation requirement.

[vsw id=”Bks4PGdOnuc” source=”youtube” width=”525″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

At a press event at the State House, Darren Fleury of the Providence Student Union said the mock test was given to “an accomplished group … including elected officials, attorneys, scientists, engineers, reporters, professors, and directors of well respected nonprofit organizations.” In short, 30 of the 50 test takers scored “substantially below proficient” on the test.

Education Commissioner Deborah Gist chastised the adults who took the test, but she still hasn’t refuted Tom Sgouros’ excellent critique that the test was not designed to measure individual student performance.

“What is bad is to assume that doing well on this test to equates to doing well in high school. What’s bad is to assume that arbitrarily chosen cut scores that define the difference between proficient and partially proficient are anything more than rough indicators,” he said, “What’s bad is to ignore the advice of people that understand the statistics and use this tool in a way that hurts young people.”

[vsw id=”q56vVi_IPB4″ source=”youtube” width=”525″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

Rep. Teresa Tanzi, who took the mock test, offered her take on the NECAP graduation requirement, which had less to do with the statistical analysis of the test, and more to do with her own daughter.

[vsw id=”Pb1A-FxL4a4″ source=”youtube” width=”525″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

March 19, 2013March 19, 2013

Weekend Epiphanies: Oh, SNAP! I Failed the NECAP

Saturday afternoon, I joined lawmakers, legislators, educators, and other concerned citizens in taking the mock NECAP math test sponsored by the Providence Student Union at Providence’s Knight Memorial Library. I have to give the folks over at PSU a lot of credit for organizing this event. It certainly opened my eyes to what our soon-to-be graduates are facing in Rhode Island.

First, let me say this. I have not had any formal mathematics education in over 20 years. Even when I was taking courses in trigonometry, algebra, and pre-calculus on a daily basis, I struggled with the subject matter. I always managed at least a ‘B’ in these classes, but literature, history, and music were the areas in which I excelled.

Since high school, I have never entrusted my formal education to any particular institution. By that, I mean that I’m an over-read, under-educated multiple college dropout who, oddly enough, considers his life to this point to be a relative success. At the end of the day, I’m happy, and I sleep really well.

But I digress. I walked into the mock NECAP test on Saturday with no expectation of coming remotely close to passing, and when I opened the test booklet and read the first question, that expectation was immediately reinforced.

As I delved further into the test, furiously and with futility trying to brush the cobwebs from corners of my mind that never worked well in the first place, I started to think about the applicability of these conceptual and very specific mathematics within my daily life. To put it bluntly, I found none.

As an example, one of the questions was:

x>|x|

Name all the integers that make this expression true.

My mind raced. “How can x be greater than x? What do the open brackets mean? Is that absolute value? Why do I have the song Sundown by Gordon Lightfoot stuck in my head? Man, this is really difficult.”

I suppose the point is this.

I saw, on this test, a set of very specific problems that — unless you are planning on a career in mathematics or the applied sciences — have little to no relevance within the vast majority of career choices. Unless you are planning on a career as a builder of triangular prism shaped holding tanks, knowing how to calculate the volume of one is pretty useless knowledge.

Side note: I scored 10 percent on the test, and given the sense of utter and complete failure I had when leaving the library, I’ll take that as a victory.

On Sunday, I woke to an inbox full of links to a Washington Post story on the boom-and-bust retail cycle created by the first-of-the-month distribution of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits in Woonsocket. One point of clarification for the Washington Post: Woonsocket is a city, not a town, thank you very much.

Sadly, a third of Woonsocket residents receive this assistance, and local food retailers experience a boom in sales on and around the first of any given month, and business drops off dramatically beginning in the second week of the month.

The young couple that is the focus of the story both work full-time at a local supermarket. They bring in about a combined $680 a week, before taxes. After taxes, that number shrinks to a bit over $450 per week. I would challenge anyone who dares say that those who collect state and federal assistance are “moochers” to attempt living on $1,400 a month without some type of assistance.

Now with the NECAP and mathematics fresh in my mind, a section of the article really jumped out at me. I read this paragraph in astonishment.

For the past three years, the Ortizes’ lives had unfolded in a series of exhausting, fractional decisions. Was it better to eat the string cheese now or to save it? To buy milk for $3.80 nearby or for $3.10 across town? Was it better to pay down the $600 they owed the landlord, or the $110 they owed for their cellphones, or the $75 they owed the tattoo parlor, or the $840 they owed the electric company?

While I can certainly empathize with this couple, the fact that tattoos are an expense in a budget this small is patently ridiculous. Even for those with disposable income, body art should be considered a luxury.

Why do they not know this? Is this a failure of our education system, or a failure on their parents’ part? Is it just poor decision making?

In any case, the esoteric mathematics knowledge supposedly assessed by the NECAP has no relevance in their lives. Knowledge of simple Home Economics, on the other hand, may actually help this young family squirrel away some money and someday be able to wean themselves from the teat of federal assistance.

I always thought that the point of teaching math isn’t really to learn math, it is to learn reasoning and problem solving skills in order to have the ability to make sound decisions; an area in which this young family, whether by lack of education or prioritization, is clearly failing. And I’ve got some news for you, folks: When they fail, we — the royal we — have failed.

March 19, 2013

Tanzi On Tax Equity: Will Help State Save Money

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

Conventional wisdom might say that those who are elected to represent the “working class” will support tax equity and those who are elected to represent the “job creators” won’t.

Narragansett and South Kingstown might boast the state’s most eclectic mix of both and their representation in the House, progressive Democrat Teresa Tanzi, says she supports the tax equity bill for reasons that should appeal to both the rich and poor.

Tanzi asked Governor Chafee to beef up the office of revenue analysis this year. Such a move would cost money in the short term, but she says it would help the state better manage its tax expenditures in the long term. She also thinks a stable funding source for better public transportation throughout the state will benefit everyone.

[vsw id=”2zF1OkEgdk8″ source=”youtube” width=”525″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

March 18, 2013March 18, 2013

Rep. Cimini: State Budget Balanced On Backs Of Poor

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

Progressive Providence Rep. Maria Cimini, said the General Assembly is balancing the budget on the backs of the poor while the richest Rhode Islanders get a pass as the state struggles through a recession.

“I think it is really crucial that everyone in our state is called upon to sacrifice when we are struggling,” she said. “Over the last few years as we’ve been facing a recession, the General Assembly has done its job by balancing the budget. But we’ve done it through cutting important programs and raising fees which disproportionately impact low income and moderate and middle income Rhode Islanders. I haven’t seen us call upon upper income Rhode Islanders to make the same kind of sacrifice.”

[vsw id=”nazmFCYdOew” source=”youtube” width=”525″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

Conservative pundits and politicians counter Cimini’s point by claiming rich Rhode Islanders will move to a different state if their tax breaks are rolled back. Initially, conservative pundits and politicians – led by former Gov. Don Carcieri – said tax breaks for the rich would stimulate economic growth. In hindsight, the opposite has occurred.

Cimini said the additional revenue could be used to improve urban public education or infrastructure “all things that both citizens and businesses alike say we need as a state.” Popular political/economy blogger Ted Nesi said yesterday on Twitter that the bill would be stronger if the new revenue was earmarked for a specific program. Rhode Islanders for Tax Equity, a grassroots group hat advocates for a less regressive state tax policy said the money should go to struggling cities.

A blockbuster story in Sunday’s Washington Post showed that one in three residents of Woonsocket can’t afford to feed themselves without government assistance and that food stamp dispersal is driving the economy more than private sector innovation or need.

It remains to be seen if the local mainstream media will invest the same type of effort reporting on the Washington Post’s findings about the state’s SNAP program as it did in Ken Block’s. The Post story showed that 33 percent of Woonsocket uses food stamps; Block’s report showed that one half of 1 percent of recipients misuse the program.

March 15, 2013March 16, 2013

Sen. Pichardo: Tax Equity

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

Senator Juan Pichardo, a one-man Latino caucus in the state Senate, is the lead sponsor of the tax equity bill in the that chamber. He says it’s important for the rich to pay their fair share so that Rhode Island can improve its failing infrastructure and get people back to work.

He represents Elmwood and the West End of Providence, and says the unemployment rate in his district is 21 percent. Here’s a short video on why he thinks tax equity is so important for the future of Rhode Island.

[vsw id=”VACgf1whIBk” source=”youtube” width=”525″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

March 13, 2013March 13, 2013

Tax Equity Would Mean More Revenue For RI

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

maureen martin — Maureen Martin, of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers, says Rhode Island needs its richest residents to pay their fair share.

A bill that would raise $66 million in new revenue by increasing income taxes for the richest Rhode Islanders is now in the hands of the General Assembly.

The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Maria Cimini and Senator Juan Pichardo, both of Providence, would increase the income tax rate on those who earn more than $250,000 a year from 5.99 percent to 7.99 percent.

The issue of tax equity in Rhode Island is a big one. The lowest income Rhode Islander’s contribute almost twice as much, per share, in state and local taxes, some 12 percent of the state’s revenue, while the top-tier earners pay under 9 percent.

Members of Rhode Islander’s for Tax Equity (RITE) surrounded Cimini and Pichardo as they spoke on behalf of the bill. In the group was Tom Sgouros, who prepared a memo for RITE outlining some $1.243 billion in foregone state revenue associated with tax cuts made in Rhode Island since 1997, most of which affected only the wealthiest among us.

But Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed, who held a competing press event just before this one, came out against tax equity, saying the business community doesn’t support it.

Cimini told reporters that the state has to figure out a way to fund the basic level of public sector services and this accomplishes that.

March 11, 2013March 11, 2013

In Woonsocket, What It Means To Be A Green

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

One of the first questions people ask when I tell them that I’m running for mayor of Woonsocket is, “Are you a Democrat or Republican?” My usual response is, “Well, the election is non-partisan, and I don’t think a D or an R next to anyones name is particularly relevant when it comes to local government but, if you must know, I am a member of the Green Party of Rhode Island.”

This response is usually met with either a) a quizzical look, or b) “Oh, you’re one of them treehuggers.”

At this point, I will usually try to impress upon that person that, even though we may be surrounded by bricks, steel, and concrete in our urban environment, we are still part of nature. We do not have dominion over nature, and as we’re seeing with rising sea levels, more violent and frequent snow and rain storms, and longer and more intense heat waves, nature is, in fact, exhibiting dominion over us.

Now, I am not the type to be out on the high seas, trying to sink whaling ships, or chaining myself to a tree to prevent development – I will say, however, that new development in a city and state that are losing population seems counter-intuitive – but I do understand that a reverence for nature and a restoration of the natural balance of the planet is in order to prevent the further economic and social degradation of our city, state, country, and planet.

Often, environmental protection and restoration, and the development of jobs and the economy are pitted against one another in the political arena. The arguments for favoring economic development over protecting the environment usually revolve around the creation of jobs. While we certainly could use an influx of jobs in Rhode Island, I believe the potential to create jobs in the environmental protection, restoration, and clean energy sectors is far greater than the potential in the traditional “job creators” in the retail, service, construction, and financial sectors.

Think of the amount of jobs that would be created if we invested in removing ourselves from fossil fuel-based energy production. Investments in solar, wind, geothermal, and waste-based energy production would create more, and more lasting, good paying jobs than continuing to invest in oil, coal, and natural gas fired energy production. These investments would create jobs throughout the spectrum of skill and pay grades, from the equipment operator used to prepare sites and install these technologies, to the scientists, engineers, architects, and designers who envision their implementation and continue to improve their efficiency. We will also need manufacturers to produce these technologies, and long-term jobs are created to provide for the maintenance of these technologies.

Investments in restoring the quality of our air, water, and soil would also create jobs in all of these sectors. Rhode Island, acre for acre, is the most polluted state in the country. If we decided to clean it up, we could create a lot of jobs.

As it stands, our entire economy is based on the production and consumption of a finite supply of fossil fuels. It is also assumed that, in order to have a healthy economy, it must grow at 2-3 percent in perpetuity. Now, I’m no economist, but the idea that infinite growth can be based on the production and consumption of finite resources seems like a fantasy to me.

I’ve also heard from some recently, the belief that renewable energy sources and technologies cannot be sustained or advanced without federal subsidies. I could argue against the merits of this belief for days, but I think that the following is a more telling, and compelling, argument.

It would appear that the polluting fossil fuel industry cannot be sustained without them either.

According to a study and policy proposal by the conservative think-tank The Brookings Institute, the U.S. provides $4 billion per year in subsidies to these companies that power our lives, but pollute the commons in the process. The report also recommends eliminating nearly all of those subsidies. I should think that those dollars would be better spent on energy sources and technologies that can provide energy, don’t sully our air, water, and soil in the process, and actually stand to significantly improve the quality of life for not just Americans, but the rest of the world as well.

In closing, I’ll offer you this, the Ten Key Values of the Green Party. Read through them. Most folks who consider themselves Democrats read them and say, “Wow! I’m really a Green.” I’ve even met quite a few folks who consider themselves Libertarians that read the values and switch.

You could choose between the right or the left, but wouldn’t you rather move forward?

March 8, 2013March 8, 2013

Wage Theft In The Restaurant Industry

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

As a former chef and manager who spent 15 years working in kitchens, it was of no surprise to me that the restaurant and hotel industry topped every category in the recently released study by Fuerza Laboral on wage theft in Rhode Island titled, “Shortchanged: A study of unpaid wages in Rhode Island.” (PDF)

According to the report, the so-called hospitality industry is anything but hospitable to it’s workers when it comes to getting paid on time and in full.

The restaurant/hotel biz in R.I. had the highest number of complaints, the highest number of employers with multiple years of complaints, and the highest number of violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). In FLSA complaints that were resolved, restaurant and hotels paid 864 Rhode Islanders a total of $1,042,782 in back pay, $881,460 of which was for overtime violations.

In the years that I spent preparing and serving meals for people who could afford to buy them, I saw a range of ill-treatment of employees and borderline sociopathic behavior by customers and employers alike. It’s bad enough that employees in this industry have to deal with a daily barrage of condescension and outrageous complaints or demands from customers, but many employers in the industry display outright contempt and disrespect for their employees.

At one Downcity eatery where I worked, my paycheck included an illegal deduction of $2 per week. When I asked what the deduction was for, I was told that it was for lost silverware and broken dishes. I said that I hadn’t lost any silverware or broken a dish, and his response was the typical, “If you don’t like it, you can quit.” Which I did, on the spot. In those days, it was easy enough to go right down the street and get another job in a restaurant, so I never filed a complaint.

Now, $2 per week may not seem like much, but considering that the restaurant had 2 locations in Providence at the time, and employed roughly 50 people in total, that adds up to an extra $5,200 in the owners pocket at the end of the year. The restaurant has since expanded. That was ten years ago, and I don’t know if the illegal deductions are still happening, but if they are – now at four locations and with possibly 100 or more workers – that is a significant chunk of change in that owner’s pocket at the expense of cooks and waitstaff making as little as $2.89 an hour.

Waitstaff rates = built-in theft

Rhode Island’s wait staff wage of $2.89 per hour has an built in theft device. Bartenders and waitstaff are usually paid lower rates than the state’s minimum wage on the understanding that the rest would be made up in tips. Depending on the restaurant and shift, the tips may make up the difference, but waitstaff members are often required to come in an hour or two early to set up and stay an hour or two late to clean up. The effect is basically a watering down of that tip-amended hourly wage that may or may not meet the state’s minimum wage requirements.

So, the next time you go out to eat, take a look around. Chances are someone you see working at that restaurant is having some, or all, of their pay stolen by the employer.

Please feel free to leave your experience with wage theft in the comments section.

March 7, 2013March 7, 2013

Do RI Corporations Really Need A Tax Break?

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

The Senate Finance Committee hears tax code amendments proposing to drop the corporate income tax rate by 2 percent over the next three years. (Photo: Dave Fisher)

This week, both the House and Senate finance committees considered legislation that would reduce the corporate income tax from 9 percent to 7 percent over the next three years.

The move, as always, is touted as a way to make Rhode Island’s business climate more competitive with our neighboring states’. While Rhode Island’s corporate tax rate is the highest in New England, as I posted yesterday, the real-world ramifications of a 2 percent state tax reduction means little to most of our businesses, due to the fact that the majority of the tax burden on Rhode Island’s businesses are borne of local property, sewer, and tangible asset taxes.

The vast majority of our businesses, y’know, the small ones that legislators tout as the “lifeblood of Rhode Island’s economy” report income of less than $249,999 on their tax returns. Even at the top of that tier, a business that reports earnings of $249,999 pays $22,499 in taxes to the state at 9 percent. At a rate of 7 percent, that same business would pay 17,499; a net gain of $5,000 which could easily be eaten up by those local taxes, especially if that business made capital improvements to its structure or purchased new equipment.

Check out this chart of the combined corporate income and taxes collected by the state for FY 2010 from the R.I. Division of Revenue.

As you can see, the 42,929 businesses that reported a loss/or $249,999 or under in income paid just under $29 million, even though the combined adjusted income of these entities was actually a loss of over $370 billion.

At the other end of the spectrum, the 152 businesses that reported income of $500 million or over, whose adjusted taxable income was just over $212 billion – a 580 billion dollar increase from the low end of the tier – paid just under $25 million, or $4 million less than the nearly 43,000 businesses who posted either a loss or income of $249,999 or less.

A policy brief issued by the Economic Progress Institute stated,

“With a price tag of almost $90 million over five years, the proposed corporate income tax reduction could backfire if public services that businesses rely on are cut as a result of revenue losses. Furthermore, the proposal will do nothing to help the majority of local businesses that do not pay the corporate income tax. Finally, research suggests that corporate tax cuts do little to stimulate economic growth.”

Once again, our small businesses get hosed by the tax code. It seems that even when it comes to corporate “people”, the 1 percent ride the backs of the 99 percent. And to top it all off, many of these 152 top-tier businesses get cushy tax breaks on property and tangible assets from the cities and towns that they call home.

Tax equity anyone?

March 6, 2013March 7, 2013

Real Key To Fixing R.I.’s Business Climate

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

On Tuesday, amendments to the state’s tax code regarding the corporate income tax rate was reviewed by the Senate Committe on Finance. The amendments, straight from the desk of Gov. Lincoln Chafee, would lower the tax rate on corporate profits from 9 percent to 7 percent over the next three years.

While the proponents of the idea that Rhode Island is anti-business may see this as a way to encourage more entrepreneurism in our state, or to make the state more attractive to business owners that may be pondering relocating to Rhode Island, once you plug in the numbers, the majority of employers in Rhode Island – the small businesses to which our legislators pay much lip service, but don’t offer much else – won’t see a tremendous savings.

For example, if a small business posts a profit in any particular year of $100,000, at the current tax rate, they pay $9,000. At the 7 percent rate proposed for 2016, they would pay $7,000. A mere $2,000 savings, and given the rate of increase in the overhead of running a small business, this savings amounts to all but nothing in three years. This largely symbolic gesture has very little benefit in the real world. The real killers of small business are the local property, sewer, and tangible asset taxes.

If the state wanted to really promote small businesses and make the business climate in Rhode Island more hospitable to new and existing businesses, they would lower the income tax rate on the middle class, which is the greatest driver of our day-to-day economy.

By putting more disposable income into the pockets of the greatest percentage of our population, who then go out and spend that money on things like food and clothing, more constant commerce occurs, increasing revenue streams for businesses and hence, making the “onerous” 9 percent tax rate a bit more tolerable. Consumers may also opt to save that money to purchase a big ticket item like a car – hopefully an hybrid or electric – or stash it away for a down payment on a home – hopefully one that has been retrofitted for the highest levels of energy efficiency. In either scenario, businesses benefit.

Even if a majority of the vast middle-class elect to save or invest that extra money, that contributes to consumer confidence, another indicator that is currently in the dumps in Rhode Island.

In the light of so many years of top-down, so-called economic development, and the current fiscal straits in which the state finds itself, you’d think that more legislators and leaders would recognize that the wind has shifted and take a new tack.

House Finance is scheduled to hear the amendment on Wednesday.

March 2, 2013March 2, 2013

First Biofueled-Flight Departs from RI

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

[vsw id=”LmkVbfrlLss” source=”youtube” width=”525″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

On March 2, Ponaganset science teacher and aviator Ross McCurdy fueled his Cessna airplane with 100 percent biofuel made from recycled cooking oil, and took off from North Central Airport in Smithfield, RI, for a 500-mile flight to Kitty Hawk, NC, the birthplace of aviation. This is the first flight of a piston-fired, single engine aircraft, powered exclusively by biofuel, in the United States.

It just goes to show that American ingenuity, coupled with an eye for sustainability, can revolutionize even something as complex as air travel. It also demonstrates that Rhode Island can, and should, be a leader in sustainable energy technologies.

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387