The experiment to build our economy with tax breaks for the wealthy continues to be an epic failure. A healthy middle class grows the economy, not giveaways to rich and powerful.
We’re gearing up for another year at the State House to ensure all residents pay their fair share in taxes, not just you and me. Can we count on you to help?
Tell Governor Chafee Rhode Island can no longer afford unsustainable tax breaks for the wealthy.
After years of tax breaks for the wealthiest Rhode Islanders, our state’s unemployment rate has grown to the second highest in the country, working families are paying higher property and car taxes, and deep cuts have decimated funding for education, infrastructure, transportation, and services for Rhode Island’s most vulnerable populations.
Despite significant legislative and public support Governor Chafee has blocked efforts to end the failed tax cuts to the wealthiest Rhode Islanders during his time in the Statehouse. It’s time for change!
That’s why Ocean State Action is teaming up with Rhode Islanders for Tax Equity (RITE is a coalition of labor and community groups fighting to restore tax equity) to call on the wealthiest Rhode Islanders to join the rest of us in rebuilding our economy.
CLICK HERE to Tell Chafee to end tax breaks for the wealthy in his budget this year.
It’s time to get Rhode Island back on the right track, join us today!
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Ocean State Action today announced the addition of Mark Gray to their organizing staff, naming him the new Where’s the Work? campaign organizer after the departure of Aaron Regunberg, who has moved on to serve as Director of the Providence Student Union.
As Where’s the Work? campaign organizer, Gray will spearhead Ocean State Action’s continuing efforts to increase public awareness and understanding of the unemployment crisis in Rhode Island by putting the stories of unemployed Rhode Islanders front and center to reshape the public debate about our economy and make sure that our elected leaders better understand the urgent action that their constituents need to address the unemployment crisis.
“We are thrilled to have Mark join our team,” said Kate Brock, Executive Director. “He has demonstrated the talent, creativity and diligence needed to help mobilize and empower Rhode Island’s un- and underemployed workers.”
Gray has spent the last two years with Clean Water Action Rhode Island where he worked as a grassroots organizer on numerous campaigns, including diesel emissions reduction efforts and extended producer responsibility. In addition to serving as Recruitment Director for Clean Water Action’s renowned field canvass operation, Gray also led the organization’s highly successful efforts to support endorsed General Assembly candidates in the 2012 election.
“I am sincerely honored to be joining Ocean State Action,” Gray said. “The personal stories of those struggling with unemployment as a result of the economic crisis are getting lost in the noise of data and statistics. I am grateful for the opportunity to help these voices be heard.”
Ocean State Action is a coalition of community and environmental organizations, professional associations, and labor unions who have been fighting for social and economic justice for over two decades.
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Join us in welcoming Senator Sheldon Whitehouse to Drinking Liberally on Wednesday, October 24th from 7-9PM. Whether he’s fighting for the Buffet Rule, campaign finance reform, or reminding us that corporations aren’t people, Senator Whitehouse is always fighting liberally!
- What: DL with Sen Whitehouse!
- When: October 24th 7-9PM
- Where: Wild Colonial, 250 South Water St. PVD
- Why: Cause Senator Whitehouse is awesome!
So join is for a mid-week sip with Senator Whitehouse! Hope to see you next Wednesday!
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With just 15 days left until election day we need your help!
Whether you care about tax justice, marriage equality, women’s health, our environment, or all of the above one thing is certain – we need more progressive champions fighting for us up at Smith Hill. So step away from your laptop, and join Ocean State Action PAC and our coalition partners at area phonebanks 5 nights a week! (Details below.)
Races are won and lost on the ground – so roll up your sleeves and pitch in! Sign up today!
Monday Nights:
Planned Parenthood Votes RI:
5-8PM 111 Point St Providence
Sign Up Here http://bit.ly/ppvotesri
Tuesday Nights:
Fight Back RI:
6-9PM 236 Hope St, Providence
RSVPs to Margret Margret@fightbackri.com
Clean Water Action:
5:30-8:30PM 741 Westminster St, Providence
Sign Up Here
Wednesday Nights
Action PAC
5-8PM 99 Bald Hill Rd, Cranston
RSVP to Kate Kate@oceanstateaction.org
Planned Parenthood Votes:
5-8PM 111 Point St Providence
Sign Up Here http://bit.ly/ppvotesri
Thursday Nights:
Action PAC
5-8PM 99 Bald Hill Rd, Cranston
RSVP to Kate Kate@oceanstateaction.org
Fight Back RI:
6-9PM 236 Hope St, Providence
RSVPs to Margret Margret@fightbackri.com
Clean Water Action:
5:30-8:30PM 741 Westminster St, Providence
Sign Up Here
Sunday Afternoon:
Clean Water Action:
12-4PM 741 Westminster St
Sign Up Here
We’ll provide the snacks, scripts and training! Just bring your dialing finger and your will to win!!
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We have 20 days to determine the future of our home state.
Will Rhode Islanders say “Yes” to more of the same failed policies that keep us out of work, threaten reproductive rights and deny equality to thousands? Or will we stand up and fight for a community that gives all people equal opportunity for success?
Make your voice heard: Sign up today to help progressive candidates in your area!
Elections are won by people like you giving a few hours of their time to call voters, knock doors, stuff envelopes, whatever it takes to get the word out about good progressive candidates. Every conversation counts! This past primary an incumbent representative won re-election by one vote. Your efforts have a huge impact on who wins on November 6th.
We need a General Assembly that works for us! Sign up to help elect progressives!
Victories on Election Day mean victories at the Statehouse. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work together.
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In between campaign meetings, canvasses and some precious moments of free time with my partner this weekend I scraped together a few minutes to run to the grocery store to pick up a few pre-election essentials (you haven’t forgotten that there is a primary election next week, right?). As I walked to the checkout counter with my essentials (basically that means coffee) in hand I noticed a sad sight.
Baby formula.
Not so sad in and of itself but what broke my heart was that at my local grocery store baby formula is behind lock and key in a glass security case. We have come to expect extra security on high-ticket items – security tags on TVs, leather jackets, and even CDs – but baby formula in a case typically reserved for diamonds and gold?
I suppose there is really nothing more valuable.
I remember what it was like to be hungry. In my early twenties when I was scraping by waiting tables, a couple slow nights or an unexpected expense like a trip to the doctor or a parking ticket could leave me without the money to buy food. But even then, it was only me. I cannot begin to imagine how much worse it must be as the mother of child desperate for baby formula.
With 62,000 Rhode Islanders unemployed, a state level minimum wage of $7.75 per hour, and nearly 17 percent of Rhode Island’s children living below the federal poverty level, it shouldn’t surprise me to see baby formula locked behind glass. But it should shock and disturb each and every one of us. We have a responsibility for more than charity.
We have a responsibility to change the broken economic system we live in. Income inequality causes real and tangible harm to our neighbors. A “jobless recovery” is not a recovery. A minimum wage that provides an annual income that will leave a mother and her children living below the federal poverty level is not acceptable. And the stubborn refusal of some in Congress to fund SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program) and WIC (Women, Infants and Children) which provides nutrition assistance to women and children by holding up reauthorization of the Farm Bill, is just shameful.
In less than one week and again in November you will have the opportunity to vote for elected officials to represent you in School Committees, City Halls, the RI Statehouse, Congress and the White House. I beg you to ask each and every one of people who ask for your vote – what are you going to do to help the Rhode Islanders who cannot find work or feed their families? And ask yourself – what am I going to do to?
Originally posted on RightHer www.wfri.org/blog
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Wondering what to do this week to support democracy?
Join us this tonight to kick off Olneyville Unidos (Olneyville Together) voter registration week! Meet fellow activists, enjoy a popsicle and sign up for a voter registration shift this week. If you can’t make Monday’s fiesta, contact Kristina Fox Kristina@oceanstateaction.org to sign up for a volunteer shift to register voters Tues-Thurs 6pm-8PM this week.
Help Olneyville make sure its voice is heard this election and many more to come!
- Olneyville Unidos Voter Registration Kick Off!
- Olneyville Square, Providence RI (next to Citizen’s Bank)
- Kick Off: Monday July 23 @ 6PM Volunteer Shifts: Tuesday – Thursday 6-8PM
- Contact Kristina@oceanstateaction.org for more details
Democracy starts at the voting booth. Let’s make sure everyone get there this fall!
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Are you ready for the progressive party of the year? Join the team from Ocean State Action this Friday, July 13th from 6-10pm for our 7th annual Rock the Boat for Justice Party! Back by popular demand we’ll be kicking off the election season at one of our favorite local watering holes, the East Providence Yacht Club (9 Pier Road East Providence) overlooking beautiful Narragansett Bay.
Take a night off from signature collection (they’re due at 4pm anyway), door knocking and letter stuffing to dance the night away while celebrating Rhode Island’s progressive champions of 2012. Honored guests will include Representative Maria Cimini, Senator Josh Miller, Scott Duhamel, and Henry and Carol Shelton. Expect to find great music, dancing, fantastic hors d’oeuvres by our West End favorite, Julian’s and your favorite progressive activists and local politicos.
Tickets are available for $50 and can be purchased online at www.oceanstateaction.org or at the door the night of the event. (Discounted tickets are available for low moderate income progressives. Email info@oceanstateaction.org for details.)
Don’t miss a chance to lift a glass for a great cause and gear up to fight for progressive victories at the ballot box this fall!
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My friend Jon was a vibrant, kind and wonderful person. He loved music and dancing. He never ceased to make me laugh with silly jokes and goofy impressions of movie stars. I could always count on him to be there when I needed him, whether it was to help me move, or hold my hand when I was scared or sad.
But in 2008, I lost my dear friend when Jon took his own life.
I will never really know why Jon left us so early. But I do know that behind the laughter and the kindness Jon struggled to accept who he was. He struggled because our society told him who he was was wrong, immoral, sinful, and different.
Jon was gay.
For me, this is what the LGBTQ equality fight is all about. Homophobia – like racism, sexism, and classism – causes harm. Real and tangible emotional and physical harm. What’s more, our government condones this discrimination in its utter failure to grant LGBTQ couples the dignity and respect that only marriage can afford.
This week the House Judiciary Committee will take testimony on three pieces of LGBTQ anti-discrimination policy: the Equal Access to Marriage Act, the Equal Access to Family Courts Act, and Equal Religious Protection Act. They are simple pieces of legislation aimed at one goal, ending LGBTQ bias in state law.
If years past are any indication, testimony this Wednesday at the State House will be impassioned, fraught with Biblical references, personal stories, and legal arguments. For me the argument is not merely about same sex marriage, access to divorce or religious protection, though these are certainly a critical steps forward.
For me it is about my friend Jon, who after belting out Tori Amos songs in my living would lose himself in despair so deep that he couldn’t find his way out because we allow our government and our neighbors to discriminate against him and all LGBTQ Rhode Islanders.
It can “get better” but not if we sit on our heels and wait for it. We have to take action to make it better. Ask you legislators to stand on the side of tolerance, acceptance and love and fight for LGBTQ equality.
Originally posted on RightHer www.wfri.com/blog
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What’s wrong with our tax structure in Rhode Island?
If you’re part of the 98% of Rhode Islanders making under $250,000 a year you’re paying your fair share and more. So why does the General Assembly say we don’t have the revenue to invest in affordable housing for all Rhode Islanders, making college affordable, or school breakfast programs in our public schools?
The problem is the way we’re raising revenue.
Rhode Island’s tax structure is inherently regressive, that means the poorer you are the higher share of your income you’re paying in taxes. And the numbers are astonishing!
When you combine all the taxes we pay, sales, property, income and car taxes, the 20% of Rhode Islanders who are living on $18,000 a year or less are forking over 11.9% of their annual income in taxes. For the top 1%, the people making over $390,000 a year it’s just 5.6%.
Think of it this way. If Warren Buffet and his secretary both go buy the same toaster and they both pay 7% sales tax on it, that flat tax rate means a lot more to his secretary. Its money that she can’t spend on basic necessities, but for Warren Buffet it doesn’t even make a dent.
We can start fixing our regressive tax structure this year with the Miller Cimini Tax Equity bill, and we need your help to do it!
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