Samuel Bell
Repealing car tax changes would cost $15.15 million, not $20.5 million
When Mayor Angel Taveras and Council President Michael Solomon hiked car taxes to balance the Providence budget a few years ago, they did not just hike car taxes on working families. They also cut taxes for cars worth more than about $24,000. Before the hike, the car tax had a $6000 exemption and a rate […]
RI’s tax cuts for the rich were 2nd biggest of decade
Kansas’s tax cuts for the rich were one of the biggest state policy stories of 2014. Sam Brownback, an ambitious conservative Republican, swept into the Governor’s office in 2010 and pushed for massive tax cuts for the rich. And he got them. By 2014, the top marginal income tax rate had fallen by 1.65 points, […]
Hearing tonight on extending Providence tax breaks
Property taxes are very high in Providence. Each year, homeowners must pay 1.925% of the value of their homes to the city. At 3.375%, the rate on apartments is even higher, and at 3.675%, the rate on commercial property is higher still. But when the wealthiest developers build big projects, the story tends to go a […]
The time was now for marijuana reform
There is little doubt that that Rhode Island will one day regulate marijuana like alcohol. The political winds are just too strong. The nation supports it. And we are a solid blue state. Even among the few Republicans, Ron Paul scored better here than he did in all but two other primaries. The real question […]
The 5 worst things in the House budget
The Rhode Island House of Representatives has put together a new budget, and there is a lot not to like. Here are my top five: 5. Slashing the corporate income tax from 9% to 7%. New House Speaker Mattiello, a very conservative Democrat from Cranston, has been championing this idea ever since he rose […]
How will Raimondo pay for her $60 million cut?
Gina Raimondo’s recent policy proposal on infrastructure raises a lot of math questions, but here’s one of the most glaring: How is she going to pay for the $60 million she wants to spend each year on school construction? She really doesn’t say. She tells us she’ll simply find the money by “taking just half of […]
RI lawmakers propose sequester to replace Sakonnet tolls
There’s a new plan out to replace the Sakonnet River Bridge Tolls. For the next six years, discretionary spending will be slashed in every department by 0.25%, until the total cut is 1.5%. Funneled into a transportation infrastructure trust fund, those dollars will hopefully eliminate the need for tolls on the Sakonnet River Bridge. If […]
How Chafee just saved our economy from a $124 million hit
On Monday, Lincoln Chafee did something incredibly important for our state’s economy. Following Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania, he stopped severe cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a program that provides food assistance to families at risk for hunger. Passed in the most recent farm bill, these cuts were vigorously opposed by each […]
Elizabeth Warren slams pension cuts, hedge fund investments
In a recent interview on New England Cable News, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was asked about Illinois’s pension cuts, which were much milder than Rhode Island’s more draconian version.* (The key bit starts at 11:35.) She did not mince her words. Calling pensions “a promise,” Senator Warren made it clear how she felt about breaking that […]
Whitehouse, Reed vote no on food stamp cuts in farm bill
Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed were two of the nine Democrats who voted no on the latest version of the farm bill, which slashes food stamps by $8 billion over the next 10 years. When the original Senate farm bill (which would have cut nutrition programs by $4 billion) passed, our Senators were the […]
WATCH: David Cicilline Gives an Awesome Speech
America faces a hunger crisis. Every day, more and more Americans go to bed hungry. Yet Democrats in Congress have reached a deal with the Republicans to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP or food stamps, by $8 billion over the next decade. Fortunately, Rhode Island has a Congressman who fights […]
Department of Revenue website links to corporate lobby group
Here’s a revealing nugget about how conservatives win the policy debates in our state: If you spend a lot of time trying to understand the Dickensian world of city and town budgets, like I do, you’re going to wind up spending a lot of time on the Department of Revenue’s municipal finance website. They provide […]
The Murphy Effect: Why I was wrong About Carcieri
When I was younger and more naive, I wrote a post on these humble pages blaming Don Carcieri for our state’s sudden turn to right-wing politics, austerity, and high unemployment. I called it “The Carcieri Effect.” I got quite a bit of flack for writing that. As critics pointed out, the governor does not have […]
Breaking News: NRA settles with Board of Elections for $63,000
The Board of Elections has settled with the NRA for the sum of $63,000. In September, I filed a campaign finance complaint against the NRA on behalf of the Rhode Island Progressive Democrats, alleging that the NRA’s Rhode Island PAC was illegally funded by the national NRA PAC. In the consent order laying out the terms […]
Bill Murphy representing former state senator accused of embezzlement
Bill Murphy, the right-wing former House Speaker, the lobbyist for the gun people and the payday lenders, and the man at the center of Rhode Island’s conservative movement, is standing up for one of his own. He’s defending Patrick McDonald. McDonald, the former South County state senator who was defeated by Jim Sheehan in 2002, […]
Huge Win: Gordon Fox Reverses on Voter ID!
Gordon Fox, the conservative Speaker of the Rhode Island House of Representatives, sent shock waves through the Democratic Party when he got a voter ID law passed. Ignoring a plea from the Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, Fox created a publicity nightmare for the Democrats and a beloved talking point for the right. That […]
Exeter could still lose on the gun issue that sparked failed recall
On Saturday, the people of Exeter spoke decisively. Rejecting the gun lobby’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2012 election, they overwhelmingly voted against the recall of the four Democrats on the five-member town council. But will this matter for the issue this whole election was fought over—fixing the small town’s “shall issue” concealed […]
Was this David Cicilline’s best vote yet?
Last Thursday, David Cicilline cast one of his best votes in Congress, voting against the latest budgetary assault on economy. It is not easy to defend the austerity “deal” struck between Paul Ryan and Patty Murray. On its face, it looks bad. In exchange for $85 billion in austerity, this deal would pare back $65 […]
Exeter confirms polling: RI supports gun reform
Whenever I try to convince state legislators that they should support basic, common-sense gun safety reforms, I frequently run into a puzzling obstacle. Members of the General Assembly irrationally believe they would pay a political price for opposing gun safety legislation. The people of Exeter just destroyed that argument. This belief has always borne little […]
Math error in Taveras’s pre-K plan
I believe I have discovered a math error in Angel Taveras’s pre-kindergarten plan. Instead of $24.6 million, the total annual cost should actually be $55.2 million. The “Ready Rhode Island” plan is only designed to provide one year of preschool, right before kindergarten, and the math error centers around confusing the figures for all preschoolers with […]
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