Progress Report: Tax Capacity and Our Failing Cities; Chafee Speculation; Ucci and Blazejewski; Stripped Bass; Burnside

Regardless of where you sit on the political spectrum, most agree that Rhode Island’s biggest concern should be the failing finances of our urban communities. GoLocal reports this morning in a piece on which local communities have the highest tax rates: “Some of the most dramatic increases are in urban communities facing financial distress. They also happen to be the places where taxpayers can at least afford the hikes.” This point, as well as those making it in the GoLocal piece, should be very familiar to our readers.

When Don Carcieri and the General Assembly cut income taxes for the affluent and state aid to cities and towns, it was like pouring gasoline on the smoldering fire that is Rhode Island’s regressive reliance on property taxes to fund public services. Gov Chafee and the 2013 legislature would do very well to address this.

That is, if Chafee doesn’t take a job in the Obama administration, as I’m hoping happens. Chafee would be a great Obama appointment and it would give him a classy exit from his unpopular reign as governor … it would also give Rhode Island a progressive governor in Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts. This good idea came courtesy of Dee DeQuattro’s blog, which always has interesting stuff like this in it.

Much has been made about the legislature’s shift to the left, but one way the House will move right is with the promotion of Rep. Stephen Ucci, who is expected to replace Rep. Paddy O’Neil on Gordon Fox’s leadership team. Ucci is a nice enough guy, but he’s an anti-choice Democrat. This effect will hopefully be mitigated if Rep. Christopher Blazejewski moves up to be Deputy Majority Whip.

Is Gina Raimondo less confident in pension cuts prevailing in court than she once was? Seems like it…

Today’s hero: Nick Gibbs catches a 58-pound stripped bass from a Narragansett Bay beach and donates the giant catch to the Amos House in Providence “where it was made into fish chowder to feed hundreds of people in need.” I’m sure we’d all love to know where he caught it but the article doesn’t say…

Former PC hoops star God Shammgod deserves the award too!

Wow … what a great passage in this ProJo editorial about the insurance lobby, climate change and how hurricanes affect the affluent coastal land owners the most: “Contrary to the clichés about ‘welfare queens’ and so on, federal programs skew heavily in favor of middle- and upper-income people.”

So long Tea Party, don’t let the door hit you on your way out!!

Thanks to Dan McGowan for recognizing the RI future crystal ball … but we supported plenty of people who didn’t win, most notably Abel Collins.

On this day in 1862, General Ambrose Burnside, a Rhode Islander for whom the downtown Providence park is named, took command of the Union Army.