Last evening the RI House Finance Committee heard testimony on two bills that would increase the marginal tax rate on people making more than $200,000 a year. Representative Maria Cimini proposed a 2% increase, from 5.99 to 7.99% on incomes over $250,000, while Representative Larry Valencia proposed a 4.01% increase on incomes over $200,000 for individuals and $250,00 for married couples.

Valencia asked the committee to explain the effectiveness of tax cuts for the rich (starting in 1996) given that these were supposed to bring more jobs to Rhode Island, not less, as evidenced by our high unemployment. Appeals to reason however, were not found persuasive by the committee.

At least ten people spoke in favor of the bills, some telling very moving stories about the way they struggle in a state that continues to cut services and cut assistance to our cities and towns, resulting in higher property taxes. In fact, it’s the property taxes that are hitting these Rhode Islanders the hardest, even as the myopic House Leadership continues to champion a policy of across the board tax cuts, curbs on spending and other austerity measures. The impassioned pleas of struggling Rhode Islanders fell on deaf ears, because appeals to compassion were not found to be persuasive.

Everyone knows that the bills proposed by Cimini and Valencia are going nowhere this year. Chairperson Raymond Gallison, recently appointed to his position by Speaker Mattiello, shaped the discourse by calling up all those in favor of the bills and listening politely, reserving the last word for John Simmons, executive director of a right wing think tank, the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC). Gallison and Simmons are on a first name basis, and Simmons’ testimony was welcomed as a breath of fresh air.

Simmons simply restated the same things RIPEC says every year. Increasing taxes is wrong. The rich already face a higher tax burden than the poor. We shouldn’t be targeting the job creators. Philosophically, why should we be punishing those who are successful? The rich are rich because they are better than the poor, more deserving than the poor, and more important than the middle class. Here’s Simmons’ closing argument:

“Then there’s the philosophic issue, I guess I want to address that. It’s a little bit different. Is it because we can tax people who can make money and are successful that we should? Is that the philosophy we want for people to come to Rhode Island and grow a business here? If you make money we can take it from you? I don’t know that that’s the right message to send to people who want to come to Rhode Island. It’s the opposite. If you are successful we would like you to come to Rhode Island.”

Note that Simmons is not all that interested in those who already live in Rhode Island. He isn’t talking about improving the lives of Rhode Islanders, instead he’s talking about making Rhode Island a haven for the rich and successful. If Rhode Islanders are lucky, I suppose, we might find jobs shining the shoes and cleaning the yachts of our more deserving citizens.

This is what Gallison, representing House Leadership as Chairperson of House Finance, found persuasive: A naked appeal to everything he wants to believe is true, despite all evidence to the contrary. It’s called motivated reasoning, a process of having a conclusion and then searching for reasons to believe it. No contrary examples, no logic, no amount of suffering and no evidence contrary to the deeply held belief will be truly considered.

So what do you say to the man who eases your mind and continues to guide you down the primrose path of massive economic inequality? What do you say to the man who confirms all your biases and tells you that everything you sincerely wish were true is true and good, despite the nagging fear at the back of your mind that tells you it’s all a lie?

Gallison said, “Thank you very much John, I appreciate it.”

Commonly abbreviated as RIPEC, it’s a coalition of some of the largest and most important businesses in the state, and they take a rather extreme right-wing position in their State House lobbying.  And the conservatives who run Smith Hill take their word as holy writ.  Last year, when they proposed abolishing the Department of Environmental Management and moving its functions to the new Department of Commerce, Gordon Fox and House leadership actually tried to do it.  (Fortunately, they didn’t succeed.)

There are two explanations for why the Department of Revenue decided to provide free advertising for RIPEC.  One is that they’re hardcore RIPEC partisans.  But I don’t think that’s what happened.  Instead, I suspect that the culture of reverence for RIPEC is so strong on Smith Hill that no one thought it would be wrong to link to their website.

Sometimes we talk about the state government as if it’s entirely composed of right-wingers who are basically Republicans.  Although there certainly are many hardcore conservatives, many legislators and bureaucrats would better be described as centrists who vote with the conservatives on economic issues because the center of discourse in this state is so far right.  Although really a fairly fringe group, RIPEC has become so mainstream no one sees a problem with the government openly promoting them.

After all, when Senate leadership needed a white paper to make a show of doing something about jobs, they contracted it out to RIPEC.  Naturally, what we got was a report harping on business tax climate indices, which are basically bogus statistics conservatives invented to help push for tax cuts for the rich.

*I suppose it isn’t quite fair to call RIPEC a corporate lobby.  Many of their initiatives seriously damage Rhode Island businesses.  Their signature initiative, cutting taxes for the rich and paying for it by gutting aid to cities and towns, was pretty tough on businesses, since cities had to raise commercial property taxes to make up for the lost state aid.  It would probably be more accurate to say they lobby for the interests of the executives of the state’s largest businesses. Here’s how RIPEC describes itself.

Sasse argues that because the governor did not follow the bad advice of right-wing think tank he used to lead that, “Rhode Island leaders are denying economic reality.”

Not only is this not true, it’s also a deconstructive way to conduct public discourse.

One can completely accept economic reality AND think that RIPEC’s report on why we should dismantle the EDC and replace it with an “commerce czar” is a bad idea. First off, Sasse falsely claimed that Chafee asked RIPEC to author this report when, in fact, the opposite is actually true. This was a project RIPEC wanted to take on, not one the governor asked them to take on. It may seem like a trivial point, but I think it matters much to the framing of the issue.

Moreover, he neglects to mention that a component of the switch was to make the Department of Environmental Management a subsidiary of the proposed commerce czar – an idea that had exactly zero chance of becoming reality in Rhode Island and, furthermore, isn’t rooted in any sort of economic wisdom whatsoever … other than that the interests of the environment should be subservient to those of business owners!!

Indeed, one might argue just as easily that such a policy is to deny economic reality.

Sasse’s track record here in the Northeast is anything but stellar. His claim to fame, other than running RIPEC, is being Governor Carcieri’s chief economic adviser, whose tenure had no demonstrable positive effects on Rhode Island’s economy. Unless, of course, you consider tax cuts for the wealthy and cuts to the poor as positive economic effects in and of themselves.

In spite of these blunders, Sasse is a good guy to have in the debate about how to improve Rhode Island’s economy. But he does himself and the state a disservice when he pretends that to disagree with him is to deny economic reality. Rhode Island needs to work together to improve our economy, not bully around those with whom we disagree.

Rep. Jon Brien thinks he can retain his House seat without winning the election. His path to victory: eliminating the man who beat him in a primary. Brien thinks the federal Hatch Act might prohibit fire fighter Stephen Casey from serving in the state legislature because the Woonsocket Fire Department got a $300,000 grant from the U.S. government.

Like RIPEC’s report itself, the Providence Journal’s editorial on it is light on specifics and heavy on platitudes. It strikes me as patently false when politicians, activists or the news media assert that Rhode Island doesn’t have a governmental position to serve the business sector of the state’s economy. You don’t have to like the EDC, but intellectual honesty requires its existence at least be acknowledged!

The New Leaders Project, a local political action committee that endorses State House candidates, is confounding some for its unconventional endorsements. The PAC says it advocates a “pro-jobs” agenda but what does that really mean? Well, its president, East Greenwich School Committee member Jack Sommers, was fined by the Department of Labor Training in 2010 for not paying an employee nearly $2,000 in wages. Pro jobs but anti pay check, I guess…

One year after closing five schools, Providence education officials are anticipating student enrollment to “surge” by some 2,000 students, says the ProJo. The so-called ed reform movement seems to work far better at shrinking public education than it does at serving it.

So here’s pretty much all you need to know about what America values in its workforce: NFL refs should get pensions, but public school teachers on the other hand, not so much…

You know things are getting bad in Rhode Island when the state is suing its orphans. Miss Hannigan would be proud.

Seems like the debate over a mega-port at Quonset is heating up again. For those who don’t remember, the idea for a deep water port at Quonset pitted quality of life in North Kingstown against economic development for Rhode Island.

No one wants the Cranston father-daughter dance controversy to continue … except of course local Republicans and national conservative groups who are using the situation as an opportunity to beat up on the ACLU.

Here’s what the mayor of Phoenix said after trying to live on food stamps for one week: “I’m tired and it’s hard to focus.”

Back in 1967, it was Republicans accusing Democrats of being “brainwashed” by the “military industrial complex.”

Take a look at RIPEC’s board of directors – they are largely bankers, lawyers, health care professions and business executives – and it shouldn’t surprise that the pro-business lobby and advocacy organization wants the DEM to be subservient to a proposed commerce secretary.

Of course environmental management is in no way, shape or form simply a function business development. And that the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council thinks it should be shows clearly why – despite it’s name – it can’t be trusted to recommend public policy. This is more like something the US Chamber of Commerce would propose to a conservative Republican than anything an open-minded Rhode Islander would consider.

RIPEC offered to author a report on the efforts of the EDC after the 38 Studios debacle (And make no mistake, Chafee didn’t reach out to RIPEC to do this – despite the way it’s being cast by the media – RIPEC reached out to the governor) But instead, the business-backing organization used the opportunity to try to recast economic development in a way that would best benefit its supporters rather than Rhode Islanders.

The most egregious example of which is its recommendation that the Department of Environmental Management be put under the custody of its proposed commerce czar.  This is not only a ridiculous idea, it also undermines one of the Ocean State’s best economic advantages: its well-maintained natural habitat and public access to it.

It’s akin to the teachers’ unions suggested the Department of Education be put under the custody of a labor secretary. Or, for the matter, Save the Bay suggesting the EDC be run by DEM. There may be areas of overlap in these examples – and perhaps even opportunities for improvements – but to suggest that one be put under the rubric of the other belittles the importance of the function that gets the demotion.

The 140-page report offers no justification for this huge policy change, probably because one doesn’t exist.

I’m not surprised that RIPEC thinks our natural habitat should be managed by someone concerned primarily with commerce, but I will be surprised if any politicians think this is a good idea.

Rhode Island should have someone who wakes up in the morning thinking about business – in fact, I’m pretty certain it does with the director of the EDC – but it should also have someone who wakes up in the morning thinking about the environment.

Had the report been a more legitimate effort to address the issue at hand perhaps Gov. Chafee would have made more time for it.

By the way, the local media should do a better job of explaining who RIPEC is and what their motivations are when reporting on this issue.

Ian Donnis makes a good point about marriage equality and the recent primary: while the big name candidates may not have won, they sent a strong message that will likely resonate with incumbents. We made the same point the day after the primary.

It seems like the League of Women Voters is getting squeezed out of the campaign debates by some local TV stations.

Speaking of which, today in 1960 Kennedy and Nixon squared off in their historic televised debate that is said to have forever changed politics in America.

Conservatives may hate the idea of banning plastic bags in Barrington, but they’d do well to study the effects such a move had in Westport, Mass. like EcoRI.org did. They report, “Four years later, residents, business owners and school officials say emphatically they wouldn’t bring back the plastic.”

Don’t forget: if you need to register to vote you can do so today in Burnside Park.

This is rich: Union-Busting GOP Governor Scott Walker Demands Return Of Unionized NFL Referees

New polls show Obama pulling ahead in swing state strongholds Florida and Ohio.

Here’s a list of the nine richest people in politics, as pulled from the recent Forbes 400 list.

It seems RI Future and RIPEC agree on at least one thing. “Rhode Island does not have a clear vision of how to expand its economy or a governmental structure that helps create jobs, encourage companies to expand, attract businesses and develop workers’ skills,” reports the Providence Journal about RIPEC’s report on the EDC this morning. We may not agree what to do about it, though. We think the state should invest more heavily into this sector.

The Cranston School Committee last night agreed to petition the state legislature to lift the state ban on father daughter dances. The reality is few people are actually worked up about this and the name isn’t a longstanding tradition in Cranston. It’s just about local Republicans trying to drum up animosity using the ACLU as their boogieman.

Good luck to Central Falls City Councilor James Diossa, who launches his campaign for mayor today.

Here’s Gina Raimondo on NPR’s Talk of the Nation yesterday talking about Rhode Island’s early effort to reform public sector pension benefits.

URI professors, who are teaching without a contract right now, are among the lowest paid college professors in the region, according to the ProJo this morning … yet political pressure from the Chafee Administration prevented them from getting an already-agreed upon pay raise. Stay tuned.

Here’s why Romney is losing.

Hilarious Saturday Night Live skit on some of the questions undecided voters are still asking.

On this day in 1957: “Under escort from the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, nine black students enter all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.”

And on this day in 1690, the first newspaper was published in the new world. It was called Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick.

A new report from the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council confirms an idea that RI Future has been reporting on for a month now, namely that state cuts to cities and towns are a big factor in the state’s struggling cities inabilities to balance their budgets.

Since 2008, says the report, state aid to cities and towns has been slashed by more than $175 million, a reduction of 72.6 percent.

“Policy choices made by the state – specifically without accompanying mandate relief, and a provision for increasing state intervention for fiscally-stressed communities – increased the responsibility of municipalities to make changes to their fiscal structure,” reads the report. “In some cases, municipalities were able to effectively balance their budgets despite cuts to local aid. In other cases, however, municipalities made policy decisions to bridge budgetary gaps that did not result in long-term structural change.”

Ted Nesi reports this morning that the report backs up what RI Future has been reporting since early March.

“It lends credence to the argument made by Governor Chafee and others that much of the immediate crisis stemmed from the 73% reduction in non-education aid to cities and towns the General Assembly approved between 2007 and 2011.”

We first reported on this dynamic on March 5. A little more than a week later, we asked Governor Chafee about it, and he confirmed our theory. Here’s an excerpt from that story:

Governor Chafee said former Governor Don Carcieri and the General Assembly put struggling communities in peril when they cut some $195 million in state aid to cities and towns.

“It’s no wonder Providence is in trouble, it’s no wonder Pawtucket is having a trouble making payroll, it’s no wonder Central Falls went into bankruptcy,”  he said after speaking at a conference on the state’s economy at Bryant University today. “They just couldn’t sustain those kinds of cuts. There is no property tax base to transfer those kinds of cuts onto.”

Chafee said Carcieri and the General Assembly essentially balanced the state’s budget by taking money away from cities and towns – a move that he said the state’s wealthy communities could withstand but the poorer communities could not.

“I thought it was the path of least resistance,” he said. “That way they could go and say we didn’t raise taxes but at the same time they did raise taxes on the property tax payers of those communities. It was a little disingenuous to say we’re not raising taxes when you are passing it down to the property tax payers of the distressed communities.”

But no one put it more bluntly than RI Future’s Libby Kimzey, who is running for a seat in the House of Representatives to represent Providence. At a Pecha Kucha event in February said, “Right now the State of Rhode Island is being a jerk to Providence. Those are decisions that state lawmakers have made that put the city in the position of closing schools and we’re having this whole conversation about cutting retirees benefits and it just gets me really worked up.”

Here’s the video from that:

For too long in Rhode Island, we’ve allowed the right-wing to portray struggling cities’ budget problems as exclusively the result of unfunded pension liabilities. The reality is top-own cuts from the state are far more a factor in why cash-strapped municipalities are having a hard time paying their bills.