RI Progress Report: Providence Pensions, Family Guy, Taxes

It’s hard to keep up with all the recent revelations in the struggle over pension reform in Providence but unions there would do well to recall Bob Flander’s now-famous advice of a haircut being better than a beheading. Let’s assume labor is right when it assumes a judge would invalidate the proposed (though possibly morphing) reform bill – even though the city need only to prove that breaking the contract constitutes a financial emergency, which seems a pretty easy burden for it to meet at this point – if that happens the city goes bankrupt, then employees and retirees would likely lose even more.

While belittling other’s economic theories, the Journal editorial board simultaneously makes a mistake of its own in assuming that rich people create jobs when they are given tax breaks. In fact, over the past four years in Rhode Island, we’ve seen the opposite trend.

Think you know which Family Guy references are about real Rhode Island and which are fiction? Click here to find out for certain.

Scott MacKay: Rhode Island was the Silicon Valley of America 100 years ago. Read about what it was like the Capital City then here.

You don’t hear about them all that much, but a historian is studying the role African Americans played in the colonial revolution. Rhode Island, the Projo reports based on his research, was the first state to offer both freedom and property to blacks who fought against the crown.

Headline: Stephen King: Tax Me, for F@%&’s Sake!