Bob Plain – Page 85

February 27, 2012March 11, 2012

Darth Flanders at Follies: ‘Lord of the Pink Slip’

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The Follies are designed to be funny and irreverent, and this year’s mystery guest was both. Bob Flanders, dressed as an executioner, poked fun at his role as receiver for Central Falls by comparing himself to Darth Vader and calling himself the “lord of the pink slip.”

He sang a parody of “Imagine” (as John Lennon undoubtedly rolled over in his grave) with lyrics such as: “Imagine there’s no mayors/ It’s easy for true believers/ No councils below them/ Above us only receivers/ Imagine all the pensioners living with haircuts and co-pays/ You may say I’m a dictator…”

Flanders was funny, and he evidently can carry a tune. But when tasked with a job that involves publicly bringing hardships on so many people’s lives, it’s better to leave it to others to tell the jokes.

He said “there’s talk of sending me to East Providence or West Warwick or Providence. Why can’t they send me to Newport, or Block Island. I’d even take Charlestown.” But wisecracking about how ruthless you are won’t make negotiating any easier next time, regardless of the community.

February 27, 2012February 27, 2012

Proposal to tax the richest Rhode Islanders

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cimini_maria — Rep. Maria Cimini, D-Providence. (photo courtesy of Rhode Island College)

As Rhode Island struggles to pull itself out of the recession many have been asked to sacrifice. Cities and towns have seen drastic cuts in state aid, schools have had their budgets cut, the poor have endured program cuts and public sector employees have had their benefits slashed.

Now it’s time to ask Rhode Island’s wealthiest residents to help out, too.

There are a number of bills before the General Assembly this year that would do this by creating new tax brackets for the state’s wealthiest residents with the most interesting one being a bill sponsored by Maria Cimini, D- Providence.

“We’ve really called on low and middle income Rhode Islanders to feel the pain of this recession,” Cimini said. “I don’t feel that we’ve called on upper income Rhode Islanders to feel that pain or share that sacrifice.”

Her bill, H7729, would increase the amount of income taxes people pay who make more than $250,000 a year from 5.99 percent to 9.99%.

“What this bill does is calls upon people who are better off to chip in during this time of economic crisis,” she said.

A similar bill proposed by Rep. Larry Valencia in the previous legislation was estimated to bring in about $130 million to the state coffers. That’s about a third as much as the landmark pension reform bill passed in the fall saved the state.

The bill would actual restore the tax rate to the exact level that former Governor Donald Carcieri cut it from (at the time, Carcieri said doing so would spur economic development in the state), except instead of being applied to everyone making more than $125,000 – or the richest 20 percent of Rhode Island – it would only apply to those who make more than $250,000 – or the richest 4 percent of the state.

Cimini’s bill also offers an economic incentive for the so-called job creators to actually creating jobs in the state. According to Cimini, the tax rate increase proposed in her bill would drop by one percentage point with every percentage point that the state unemployment rate drops. So if the unemployment rate drops from 10 percent to 9 percent, the tax rate increase would drop from 4 percent to 3 percent. The potential decrease would be capped at the same amount as the proposed increase.

“What this bill does if you do hire people and you do help to lower unemployment in Rhode Island,” she said, “we will recognize those efforts.”

Cimini said there are 37 co-sponsors of the bill – that’s almost half of the 75-member House of Representatives. On the Senate side, Josh Miller, D- Cranston, is expected to introduce similar legislation.

Similarly, Sen. Harold Metts, D-Prov, has introduced a bill that would increase income taxes on people making more than $500,000 by 3 percent. Even Gary Sasse, who helped orchestrate the Carcieri tax cuts, has said that he thinks taxes should be raised on Rhode Island’s wealthiest. But he suggested only raising taxes by less than 1 percent on those who earn more than $400,000 annually, which would only mean an additional $10 million in state revenue.

February 27, 2012February 27, 2012

The new owner/editor of Rhode Island’s Future

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bob — Bob Plain, the new owner-editor of Rhode Island's Future.

Fresh off a redesign of our site, Rhode Island’s Future has a new owner/editor now, too. It’s me!

Some of you may know me from my stint as the digital reporter/blogger for WPRO. I know it isn’t the most common career path to go from a right-leaning radio station to leftist-trumpeting website, so allow me to explain how I’ve come to this crossroads.

First off, I should say that I’ve always been a political progressive in my personal life and I’m thrilled to have an opportunity to preach what I practice.

That’s not to say it’s an easy transition. I place a very high value on objective journalism, and think it’s the most important ingredient in a balanced diet of news and information.

But in supposedly liberal Rhode Island, the marketplace of ideas has a noticeable conservative bent. From talk radio, to TV, to the internet, to the editorial pages of the Providence Journal, the local media offers almost no progressive analysis or commentary.

While conservative thought dominates the discussion, on the other side of the spectrum there is pretty much just RIFuture.

Since 2005, this site has been covering Rhode Island from the left’s perspective. Brian Hull, from whom I inherit this institution, has done yeoman’s work for the site since taking the helm in 2009. But as a grad student at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, it’s easy to understand why he would want to focus primarily on his studies.

I approached Brian shortly after being laid off from WPRO and offered to help him reinvigorate RIFuture. Instead, he offered to hand me the ball and let me run with it. Brian took over from Pat Crowley in 2009 and Crowley succeeded founder Matt Jerzyk in 2008.

The site will maintain the same core mission it’s had since its inception: serving up news, commentary and community for and about the progressive community. I’ll add some additional deadline posts, long-form journalism and beat reporting, as well as some thoughtful opinion pieces. The plan is to publish a product that is useful for all of Rhode Island.

Monetizing the site is important, too, so that the hard-working contributors can be compensated for their efforts. We’ll need the progressive community, and hopefully others, to step up and support us by advertising or donating (or both!) if we want to guarantee Rhode Island continues to have a voice for the left.

While I don’t have an exact business plan yet, I already know this much: There’s a niche for us here in our still-somewhat-liberal and still-somewhat-working class state. And, we’ve got a great group of committed people willing to help keep Rhode Island’s Future going strong. I’m proud to be one of them.

__________________________________________________

(The following has been written by Brian Hull): Yes everyone, all of the above is true. Bob Plain is the new owner and editor of the Rhode Island’s Future blog as of last week. For all of 2011, the site was largely on auto-pilot since I was unable to commit any time for management or writing due to my studies at Harvard’s Kennedy School (ask me about the amazing economic development proposals I’ve worked on to grow jobs in Haiti, New Orleans, Worcester, and Miami – and let me know if you need a policy person).

Each time I tried to create a group to help with the blog, that effort ended in failure. My frustration with the blog and the lack of support from the progressive community was evident when it devolved to nothing more than a screaming match between hardcore partisans each ridiculing each other. I decided to pull the plug and killed the blog at the end of last year, and for several weeks it just didn’t exist. Then something strange occurred. With the absence of the blog, supporters came out of the woodwork asking what they can do to help get it back up. After many lengthy conversations with a great many people and commitments for assistance, I decided to resurrect the blog with a fresh new look, and with all new content.

But I still knew that I couldn’t be at the helm. While I had a blast writing when it was my full-time gig in 2009 and most of 2010, I felt the blog needed to be entrusted to someone who has the time and dedication to pump it back to life. That someone is Bob Plain. And after several conversations with him, I handed over the reins.

I look forward to the newest iteration of the blog, and to see where Bob takes it. I will largely be a lurker, only occasionally posting comments or articles. And in parting I offer these words of advice for Bob and the larger progressive community. The Rhode Island’s Future blog needs to once again be the strong liberal / progressive voice for the state of Rhode Island. In its absence, the political narrative that has permeated the state has fluctuated between centrism and varying degrees of conservative talking points. The mythology of Rhode Island as a liberal bastion needs to be disproven by truly progressive and forward-thinking advocacy embodied in the posts of RI Future. Without a strong progressive counterbalance to this pull to the right, the policy choices on display at the General Assembly and in City Halls throughout the state will be narrowed to a small pool of false and foolish tradeoffs that merely prolong Rhode Island’s economic malaise.

February 24, 2012February 24, 2012

College costs, debt an issue for Occupy URI

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occupy uri molloy — Professor Scott Molloy talks to Occupy URI

“Pretty much my only option at this point is to die in debt or win the lottery,” said URI communications major Jeff Blanchette at an Occupy URI “teach-in” on Thursday afternoon in White Hall.

He was one of two students in the classroom that will owe more than $30,000 in student debt by the time they graduate. One woman owes $57,000, she said.

Student debt was a hot topic at the teach-in, as well it should have been, as recent graduates are finishing school with far more loan debt than ever before.

It’s part of an increasing trend in the United States, said sociology professor Helen Meder. She said there was a time in American history when the workforce was paid for learning a skill. It was called an apprenticeship. Now, not only does the next generation workforce pay tens of thousands of dollars to get the skills required for an entry level job, they often work for free during college for the very same kinds of companies that will one day employ them. It’s called an internship.

“I am really reconsidering unpaid internships because we are corporate pawns for doing that,” she said. “Students pay for three credits then go work for some corporation for the semester, and university actually making out cause don’t have to pay a prof for that.

“Corporations have externalized those costs onto you,” she added. “It’s an in-kind contribution to corporations so they can continue to externalize costs and continue to make record profits.”

Scott Molloy, a professor of labor relations and the university’s professor of the year in 2004, said he recalls 25 years ago when very few students graduated with debt. Now, it is commonplace.

“This is a new phenomenon,” he said.

As the state continues to slowly over time cut funding for public higher education, he said, URI responds by raising tuition, meaning a college degree – even from a state school – becomes increasingly a privilege

that can be enjoyed only by the wealthy, or those like Blanchette willing to take on massive debt.

Because of this new phenomenon, the Occupy College movement has taken off across the country as the Occupy Wall Street movement has slowed down during the winter months. More than 120 colleges and universities across the country held “teach-ins” on Wednesday or Thursday. Occupy URI plans to hold a rally on the campus quad on March 1 to bring the message of the teach-in to the students.

February 23, 2012February 23, 2012

Cutting low income dental care costs as much as it saves

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linda katz — LInda Katz, the executive director of the Economic Progress Institute, at a recent conference.

Making budget cuts to low income dental care may sound like a good way to save money but it will actually cost the state slightly more than it will save, says Linda Katz, the executive director of the newly named Economic Progress Institute.

That’s because, she said, for every dollar the state spends on low income medical assistance the federal government provides matching funds.

So while the state would save $2.6 million by cutting low income dental care for the tens of thousands of Rhode Islanders who make use of this program, the Department of Human Services would actually lose more than $5.2 million in funding. More than $5.2 million because the feds actually match $.52 on the dollar, Katz said.

“It’s easy to talk about raw numbers,” she said. “But you have to understand what is behind those numbers.”

At a presentation last week, Katz said for the last few budget cycles those on the right have talked about making cuts health and human services spending because it has gone up 72 percent over the past decade while the overall state budget has only increase by about 40 percent.

While that’s true, much of that increase to health and human services comes in the form of federal dollars.

Consider food stamps, for example. Yes, the state distributes some $298 million worth of food stamps, but 99 percent of those dollars comes from the federal government, Katz said.

Given that food stamp spending has gone up some 368.5 percent over the past ten years, according to her presentation, it accounts for a significant increase in the health and human services spending in Rhode Island, but almost all of it comes from the federal government, rather than directly from Rhode Island taxes.

Of course, the vast majority of the increases to health service spending has been in providing medical benefits. But this increase has mirrored the increases in the private sector, Katz said. Citing a Kaiser study, she said family medical coverage has increased 11 percent over the past ten years.

“The same factors that are driving up costs in the private sector are driving up costs in the public sector as well,” she said.

These increased costs should be something that Rhode Island is willing to absorb.

“Certainly everybody should have access to high quality affordable health care,” she said.

February 21, 2012February 24, 2012

Chase bank charges fees to use unemployment debit cards

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Trimming the costs of governance isn’t inherently a bad thing, but charging the unemployed fees to access their account information probably isn’t the best way for the state to save money.

However, that’s exactly what happened when Rhode Island outsourced the management of unemployment fund accounts to JP Morgan Chase in 2007.

“JPMorgan Chase agreed to operate the system at no cost to the state – if it could charge fees to those receiving unemployment benefits,” reports David Klepper of the Associated Press.

About 35 percent of the 41,000 Rhode Islanders on unemployment use what’s called an Electronic Payment Card to access their benefits. Ostensibly, these would be the people that are so poor they don’t even have a bank account. But Laura Hart, a spokesperson for the state Department of Labor and Training said others on unemployment “may appreciate the convenience of the EPC format.”

Or they may not, once they consider the fees JP Morgan Chase charges to use the service: a $.50 fee to check your balance; $1.50 to withdraw funds more than once per week; $3 for using a bank out of the system.

“The fees shift the cost from state governments to the consumer,” Lauren Saunders, a lawyer with the National Consumer Law Center, told Klepper.”These are people living on thin margins already.”

While Rhode Island isn’t the only state to outsource these costs – at least 40 other state do, according to the AP – the state senate last week voted to have the governor review the fees Morgan is charging.

The bill, if passed, would require that all fees for using the debit card be stated on the card itself. It was sponsored by Sen. William Walaska and Erin Lynch, both Warwick Democrats.

Currently, according to Hart, cardholders are given “literature” that explains the fees. “Additionally,” she said in an email, “DLT produced an information video about avoiding EPC fees” that is on the DLT website.

She also said that “most” fees associated with the EPC cards can be avoided.

February 21, 2012

Occupy East Bay tonight, Occupy URI teach-in on Thursday

A new Occupy group is starting in Rhode Island and while the first one focused on Providence this one will focus on the East Bay.

“People there are interested in doing something,” said Randall Rose, one of the organizers of Occupy East Bay, which meets tonight at the Bristol Library (525 Hope St.) from 6 to 8 p.m.

“It’s not the only place,” said Rose, who was heavily involved with Occupy Providence, “but it’s the furthest along.”

Occupy URI is another new local offshoot of the 99 percent movement that is forming in the Ocean State. The group has met twice so far and a “teach-in” is planned for Thursday at 3:30 to 6:30 in White Hall, room 205. Presentations will include Helen Mederer, of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Scott Molloy, a professor of Labor and Industrial Relations.

Here is a video from a previous Occupy URI meeting:

February 21, 2012February 23, 2012

Brown can and should pay Providence more

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While it was the hospitals Mayor Angel Taveras met with late last week, the focus again this week will likely be a new deal with Brown University.

After all, the hospital industry in Rhode Island is struggling, reports Megan Hall of Rhode Island Public Radio. The hospitals here lost a combined $4 million last year, the Hospital Association of Rhode Island said. Six of the 11 lost money, but the lobby group wasn’t saying which ones.

Brown University, on the other hand, is doing quite well.

It’s endowment is worth $2.5 billion this year, an increase of 19 percent from the year before. That’s the money the Ivy League School has in the bank. While the endowment invested some $100 million in offsetting the university’s costs last year, a mere 14 percent of the school’s overall budget, its nest egg grew more by more than $400 million.

Taveras expected to get about $4 million a year from Brown – or about 1 percent of what the school earned on its investment last year. That’s not a big slice of the profits.

It’s true, Brown may have lost much more than that in the 2009 crash, but over the last ten years it’s endowment has gone up by a comfortable 7.7 percent. It’s also true that Brown has the smallest endowment in the Ivy League, but that’s a little bit like being the biggest city in Wyoming: Cheyenne is no more urban than Brown is poor. This Wikipedia list ranks it as the 28th richest college or university in the country.

Brown may be the single best influence on the city of Providence – its employs thousands of people, the commercial districts on Wickenden and Thayer streets owe their very existence to the students and staff there and its cultural offerings are a boon to the entire community.

But Providence is a pretty good thing for Brown, too. And it’s very safe to assume that the best and brightest will think twice about spending $50,000 a year to attend the prestigious university if its located in a financially destitute city.

Brown should pay up not only because it can afford to do so, but also because it’s in its best interest to do so.

February 17, 2012February 17, 2012

Racial profiling in Rhode Island

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According to a study by Northeastern University, African American and Latino motorists were more than twice as likely to be searched after being pulled over for a traffic stop in Rhode Island.

Think there’s racial profiling in Rhode Island? The study certainly seems to suggest as much, and a number of state legislators and the RI-based Coalition to Stop Racial Profiling have teamed up to do something about it.

The legislators, led by Grace Diaz, D-Prov, introduced a bill into the House called the Comprehensive Racial Profiling Prevention Act. The bill, according to a fact sheet put together by the ACLU, would:

Requires police officers to document in writing their “probable cause” or “reasonable suspicion” grounds for conducting a search. Also provides that the documentation will be public record, with few exceptions.
Bars police from asking drivers for further documentation of identification beyond a driver’s license, vehicle registration, and/or proof of insurance during a routine traffic stop in the absence of reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.
Bars police officers from asking motor vehicle passengers for identification in the absence of reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.
Requires police officers to document in writing the investigatory basis for a stop if a violation of traffic laws is used to stop a motor vehicle for non-related investigatory reasons

The Coalition, on the other hand, put together with the help of the Providence Youth Student Movement and Youth in Action this short documentary called “Fitting the Description.” Check it out:

February 17, 2012February 20, 2012

Taveras to meet with hospital CEOs today

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With a deal inked with Johnson & Wales and another seemingly imminent with Brown University, Providence Mayor Angel Taveras turns his attention toward the hospitals this afternoon when he will meet with the CEO’s of the three medical institutions this afternoon.

“There’s been a lot of focus on Brown and the colleges and universities,” said Taveras’ press secretary David Ortiz, “but it’s really important that Lifespan and the two other health care institutions also contribute more for the services they receive.”

Taveras said negotiations for a new in lieu of tax payments from the local hospitals have been “not as productive as they have been with Johnson & Wales. But pending tomorrow’s conversation … that might be a very productive conversation.”

Don’t count on it.

“We have a very respectful difference of opinions,” said Mark Montella, Lifespan’s senior vice president of external affairs, when asked about the mayor’s request for more financial help from the hospitals. Lifespan runs Rhode Island Hospital, Hasbro Children’s Hospital, Butler and Miriam Hospital.

He said Lifespan already contributes to the city in terms of the many services they provide, such as the uncompensated emergency care the hospitals provide and the non-emergency medical clinics it sponsors. Of course, hospitals are required by federal law to provide emergency care to anyone who needs it, regardless of ability to pay, and the clinics are a part of the hospitals’ charitable mission that help bring in millions in donations and cement its nonprofit status.

The city is looking for $7.1 million from the property-tax exempt nonprofits in the city to fill a hole in his budget. Ortiz said Taveras has started negotiations with these nonprofits by asking for 25 percent of what they would owe in property taxes if they weren’t exempt. That number, Ortiz said, is based on a bill that was defeated in the General Assembly last year. In the case of Lifespan, that would mean a payment of approximately $8 million.

Montella said such an amount would have “a sizable economic impact on the organization.”

Probably it would. But Lifespan and the other hospitals can certainly afford to give the city something more than they are. After all, Lifespan’s CEO made $2.9 million in 2009 alone. One would think the community the hospitals exists in is at least as valuable as any one employee.

February 17, 2012

Ahlquist wins; Cranston School Committee declines appeal

The Cranston School Committee voted 5 to 2 last night not to appeal a judge’s ruling that a prayer banner doesn’t belong in a public school.

While it’s pretty obviously a violation of the Establishment Clause (separation of church and state) of the Constitution to hang a prayer banner in a public high school, two of the school committee members said they voted against the appeal because of what it would cost, according to the Associated Press.

An appeal, the school committee’s lawyer told them last night, could cost a half a million dollars. Already, the ACLU is asking the school district to cover its legal bills to the tune of $173,000.

The issue has been giant news in Rhode Island for about a year now, since the school committee decided to fight a lawsuit that Jessica Ahlquist, a high school junior, brought saying the prayer banner violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. After she won the suit, students threatened her causing her to need a police escort in school and local florists refused to deliver flowers to her. The low point came when Rep. Peter Palumbo called her an “evil little thing” on WPRO.

The matter made national news and resulted in a lot of embarrassing press for the Ocean State.

February 16, 2012February 17, 2012

Let school prayer banner issue go away, Cranston

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The Cranston School Committee will decide tonight whether or not it wants to continue embarrassing the state in voting if it wants to appeal the school prayer banner case.

Here’s hoping they decide to do the right thing and not fight the ruling, won by high school junior Jessica Ahlquist, that the prayer banner must come down before Rhode Island gets any more of a public relations black eye because of the matter.

“The anger and hatred directed at Ms. Ahlquist — she was called “an evil little thing” on talk radio by a Cranston state representative — helps explain why the judge, responding to her brave lawsuit, did his duty under the Constitution and ordered immediate removal of the prayer,” according to an editorial in the New York Times.

And in response to a number of local florists who refused to deliver flowers to Ahlquist, Annie Laurie Gaylor, of the Freedom From Religion Foundation told the Associated Press, “What kind of people are they in Rhode Island?”

The school district has already incurred hefty legal bills in defending the prayer banner. And the ACLU, who defended Ahlquist, is asking the city to cover its lawyer fees to the tune of $173,000.

Especially in light of the fact that the same school committee said it was too cash-strapped to have a charter school open in the district, it should not be spending money on what is pretty obviously a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment (or separation of church and state).

Residents and school committee members have said the prayer banner should stay because it is part of the school’s history. But historical significance is no reason to flout the First Amendment of the Constitution.

If the school district wants to preserve the prayer banner’s legacy, it should create a display at the school that could memorialize its history, Ahlquist’s legal battle to have it removed and the torment she endured from her peers and the community for doing so.

Short of that, let’s hope this issue goes away before Rhode Island has to endure any more national media flagellation because of it.

February 15, 2012February 15, 2012

Marriage equality back on State House agenda

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Same sex couples in Rhode Islanders will have another opportunity at equal protection under the law as Rep. Art Handy, D-Cranston, will again introduce a bill in the General Assembly that would afford the same marriage rights as their heterosexual counterparts enjoy.

“Every year we move forward,” Handy said, who has introduced a similar bill in the previous nine legislative sessions. Sen. Rhoda Perry, D-Prov., will introduce the bill in the Senate.

Last year, Rhode Island passed a law that allowed gay couples to enter into civil unions. But civil unions, especially Rhode Island’s version, is not tantamount to marriage.

“Separating straight and gay couples into different institutions just isn’t legal,” said Ray Sullivan, of Marriage Equality Rhode Island. “Until same sex couples can marry, Rhode Island has not achieved justice under the law.”

Aside from the fact that “separate but equal” has already been deemed unconstitutional, Rhode Island’s civil union law has a provision that allows religious institutions, such as Catholic hospitals, to be exempt from some of the law’s provisions, meaning a Catholic hospital could deny a family member access to their spouse during an emergency situation or a religious school could deny health care benefits to an employee’s same sex spouse.

There is another bill that will be introduced that would repeal this part of the state’s civil union law, known as the Corvese amendment because Rep. Doc Corvese, D-Prov. and an ardent opponent of gay rights, managed to sneak the provision into the bill at the eleventh hour last session.

Because of the Corvese Amendment, Sullivan said. “Rhode Island has far and away the most discriminatory language of any marriage or civil union bill in the country.”

Last session, the same sex marriage bill did not get a straight up or down vote, even with the speaker of the House, Gordon Fox, being openly gay. He told me after last session that not supporting gay marriage was one of the most difficult decisions of his political career.

Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed does not support equal marriage rights for same sex couples. She told me last year that she thinks Rhode Islanders are more comfortable with civil unions than gay marriage. A poll last year indicated that Rhode Island actually supports gay marriage 50 percent to 41 percent.

Some legislators have said they worry about electoral repercussions from Catholics, but in Massachusetts “every legislator who supported marriage equality and ran for reelection was reelected,” according to Sullivan.

The marriage equality proposal was first reported by Dan McGowan of GoLocalProv.

February 15, 2012February 15, 2012

Despite headline, RI actually has moderate sales tax rates

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If you only read the headline from the Projo today you’d think Rhode Island has again, as the common talking point goes, landed on the losing end of a list of worst states as far as taxes go.

“RI tax burden still among highest in U.S.,” reads the headline.

However, if you took the time to read even the first sentence you’d learn that, actually, the Ocean State is somewhere in the middle of the pack nationwide as far as sales tax rates people pay state to state.

“Yet another ranking of the states’ tax burdens puts Rhode Island at the bottom in New England and in the middle of the U.S.,” reports John Kostrzewa.

The study, by The Tax Foundation, actually ranked Rhode Island 20th in terms of effective sales tax rates that a person would pay in a given state.

While Rhode Island’s state sales tax rate is tied for the second highest in the nation, when local sales taxes are factored in we drop down considerably. It’s an important distinction because it matters little what one jurisdiction or another may charge for a sales tax compared to what the consumer pays in actual retail sales taxes. There are 36 states that have local sales taxes and RI is not one of them.

“A state with a moderate state sales tax rate could actually have a very high combined state-local rate compared to other states,” according to The Tax Foundation’s report.

Kostrzewa makes an interesting point in his article that could actually, if The Tax Foundation factored it in, drop Rhode Island even lower on the list of states with high sales tax burdens.

“There is no mention in the report that Rhode Island’s 7 percent tax is not charged on all items,” he reports, “or that Governor Chafee has proposed that the sales tax be extended to taxicab and limousine rides, car washes, pet grooming and shoes and clothing that costs more than $175 an item. Or that the 8 percent meals and beverage tax be hiked by 2 percent under Chafee’s plan.”

The first clause of his sentence proves Rhode Island’s sales tax burden is actually lower than it may appear in the study (although this may be the case in other states, as well). The second part absolutely doesn’t belong in the study because it is not a part of Rhode Island’s tax system and it’s entirely likely these potential new sales taxes will never become reality. Somewhat similar ideas were cut from the proposed budget last year.

It’s important that Rhode Island discuss its taxing obligations in an honest and fair way, and as a community we aren’t always great at that. We’ve all heard the talking point that people routinely relocate away from Rhode Island because of high taxes and low marks in tax surveys.

On the other hand, just today, as it happens, the Providence Journal also ran a letter from the tax-hating former conservative senate candidate Bob Tingle on why perhaps we shouldn’t worry about those who threaten to flee the state for fiscal reasons. Tingle moved to Florida about a year ago but then decided to move back.

“Rhode Island has its faults, as does everywhere else,” he wrote about his homecoming. “But, Rhode Island is a beautiful and wonderful place. I am proud to be a Rhode Islander and I am extremely happy and grateful that my children grew up here. God Bless our beautiful Ocean State.”

February 14, 2012February 14, 2012

Tweets from the speech

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It was a first for Providence. The mayor’s office live tweeted Angel Taveras’ State of the City speech last night. To mark the occasion, I collected some of the more interesting tweets from the speech, both from the mayor and some of the people who were following along at home and in the audience.

View the story “#PVDsotc tweets” on Storify

February 13, 2012February 14, 2012

State of the City: Employees, retirees give first

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Providence Mayor Angel Taveras delivers the annual State of the City address.

As expected, Mayor Angel Taveras said the state of the city is not so good.

“Providence is in peril,” said the mayor of the capital city to lead into the annual State of the City speech. And, as he reiterated throughout his 20 minute address, it’s up to retirees and tax-exempt landowners to save it.

The city is still $22.5 million short of being fiscally solvent this year and – short of raising property taxes, which Taveras said was an option of absolute last resort – the only place left to turn is retiree benefits and the colleges and hospitals in the city. The retirees already pay taxes, the hospitals and colleges don’t.

Brown University is willing to pay more than the $2 million they already give to the city, and perhaps the big news of the speech was that a deal with Johnson and Wales is imminent.

“I am hopeful that this week we will announce a new agreement with Johnson & Wales University, reaffirming the University’s strong commitment to our city,” Taveras said.

No word on whether or not the six hospitals in the city are willing to step up.

“Our tax-exempts cannot stand quietly on the sidelines any longer,” he said. “If they refuse to compromise, we will hold them accountable by other means.”

The “other means” may be the legislative package the city prepared for the General Assembly. After his speech. Senator Rhoda Perry said the Providence caucus will begin to consider the package later this week.

Still, Taveras is looking for more from the retirees than he is from the tax-exempt institutions in the city. He is hoping to get $7.1 million from the nonprofits and promised to get at least twice that from retirees.

“This must stop now,” Taveras intoned. In the written version of his speech, distributed to members of the media, there was an exclamation mark, to drive the point home.

He was speaking about retirees who receive 5 and 6 percent annual increases to their pension benefits. We hear a lot about the unsustainable 5 and 6 percent increases, but what you rarely hear is that this accounts for only about 20 percent of retirees.

That said, the vast majority of the mayor’s speech was dedicated to thanking the municipal workers who have already sacrificed for the city. When Taveras inherited Providence’s fiscal woes, there was a $110 million structural deficit. He cut it to a fraction of that, in part, by shrinking the size of city payroll by some 200 employees.

We owe a debt of gratitude to our city workers from Laborers Local 1033 who keep this city running every day and were the first to agree to significant concessions to help the City,” Taveras said. He also thanked the police and fire unions, who made significant concessions in their contract negotiations.

While employees, retirees and nonprofits are being asked to help, there is one constituent group the mayor said he would like to avoid tapping into: the taxpayer. While he didn’t say a tax increase was off the table, he did call it “untenable.”

Update: An earlier version of this story indicated that Taveras wants retirees to contribute $8 million to help the city out of its deficit. In fact, that is only the health care portion of retiree benefits that Taveras hopes to save.

February 13, 2012February 13, 2012

Taveras to deliver State of the City speech tonight

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Everyone knows what the state of the city is. Providence Mayor Angel Taveras has already sounded the alarm loudly. But nonetheless, he’ll still deliver the annual speech tonight at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers of City Hall.

The state of the city is, of course, disastrous. Rhode Island’s capital city is on the brink of bankruptcy and could literally run out of operating funds by June. Taveras, a progressive Democrat, has trimmed the deficit by shrinking the city staff and through tough contract negotiations with employees, but he’s still some $22 million in the hole.

Certainly in his speech tonight Taveras will reiterate that retired employees and tax-exempt non-profit landowners need to pony up in order for Providence to remain fiscally solvent, but it will be interesting to see which group he reserves the stronger rhetoric for.

To date, Taveras has had harsher words for the retirees, but there’s a reason for that. With them he has a lever by which he can compel the needed capital, namely receivership and the city’s new relationship with Bob ‘Scissor or Guillotine’ Flanders.

However, the real money is with the nonprofits.

Brown University already pays Providence more than $2.2 million a year. But the Ivy League school owns property that would be net $38 million if it weren’t exempt from paying property taxes and is sitting on an endowment of more than $2 billion and just approved another tuition increase. Brown can afford to pay the city more, and likely will. Same with Johnson and Wales. It’d be nice if RISD and PC would follow suit.

The hospitals, the other big tax exempt entities in the city, are another story. Together, the six profitable medical institutions in Providence own property that would be taxed at more than $44 million. They pay the city nothing.

And it’s not because they are hurting for cash. Lifespan, which runs four of those hospitals, paid its nine highest-earning executives more than $9 million in salary and bonuses. Their CEO alone made $2.9 million. And according to the nurses union at the hospitals, Lifespan has made $320 million in profits over the past six years.

Providence needs a share to share in the financial success of Brown and Lifespan. If it doesn’t, no matter how much Taveras and Flanders are able to wrestle away from retirees, it won’t make the state of the city any less ruinous.

Note: The mayor’s office plans to live tweet his speech. The mayor tweets using @angel_taveras and you can follow the tweets and add your own using the hashtag #pvdsotc.

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