Tom Sgouros
What is the Endicott Foundation and why does it care about North Kingstown?
North Kingstown residents have seen the mailer, and laughed at the misspellings. What’s interesting about the Republican campaign mailer sent out this week to North Kingstown residents is the return address. Who is the Endicott Foundation? And why do they care about the North Kingstown town council? The Endicott Foundation is registered as a political […]
Moving them along
I saw my friend Jeff yesterday morning, on the way to his morning workout at the YMCA. Jeff is confined to a wheelchair, and uses RIPTA to get to the East Side Y most mornings. We chatted for a few minutes while we got on the same bus and shared it through the bus tunnel. […]
These things wouldn’t happen if everyone was armed, they say
From here: Soon after Mr. Mateen first opened fire, he was confronted by an armed security guard who was an off-duty police officer, said John Mina, the Orlando police chief, at a news conference Monday morning. They exchanged gunfire. The security guard was then joined by an unknown number of police officers, the first to […]
Pigs Fly: RI Tea Party endorses government regulation
In a stunning turnaround, the RI Tea Party today made a full-throated endorsement of some of the most intrusive government regulations on the books. In a fundraising email, the group called on its supporters to “…rise up against this assault on everything you’ve worked your entire life to earn” — by defending existing zoning and land-use regulations throughout the […]
RhodeMapRI forces state to burn your house!
In yet another breathless press release from The Center for Freedom and Apple Pie today, I learned that the controversial RhodeMapRI plan will call for the incineration of your house. Right down to the ground. Be afraid. Very afraid. Yes, it’s true, your nice comfortable suburban house, the one you dreamed about for years, is to […]
RhodeMapRI opponents fear future plans, affordable housing
We’re apparently supposed to be afraid, very afraid, of Lincoln Chafee’s “Rhode Map” for economic development. Since the election there seems to be a coordinated effort to scare the state about this plan for future growth. Gary Morse, wrote a fairly confused screed in the Providence Journal Monday that complains the RhodeMap RI, well, I’m […]
Gina Raimondo’s lack of leadership
Almost four years ago, I endorsed Gina Raimondo to be Rhode Island’s General Treasurer. Since then, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge, and now a new election campaign is before us. Gina, the fundraising juggernaut that she is, is now facing better-than-decent odds in a quest for the Governor’s office. Four years […]
Rep. Palumbo version of sympathy for immigrant children
In a letter to Governor Chafee, Rep. Peter Palumbo (D-Cranston) reports that he has “nothing but sympathy” for the immigrant children flooding our southern border. He apparently means that quite literally. And his sympathy extends only as far as telling his press liaison to type those words for him in a letter he, ahem, wrote […]
Don’t cut sales tax based on flawed economic model
A few months ago, I wrote about the intellectual bankruptcy of the economic model called STAMP, for State Tax Analysis Modeling Program, created by the Beacon Hill Institute (BHI), and beloved of the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Apple Pie (CFAP). The good folks at the CFAP have been heavily promoting some of the […]
Insuring unemployment ensures unemployment
It is outrageous to have millionaires collecting unemployment insurance payments, according to a Golocal article in which I am quoted. Maybe Golocal is on to something? Certainly their employer paid a premium to be insured against a layoff, but it’s also unlikely that they are actually in as dire a need for the assistance as […]
Mattiello is meeting with ratings agencies, but what will he learn?
House Speaker Nick Mattiello is in New York today meeting with representatives of Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s, the two biggest of the credit ratings agencies. (No word on how Fitch feels about the snub.) It’s not perfectly clear what he thinks he’s going to get from this trip. Perhaps he’s going to look into the […]
38 Studios bond only one way Wall St. treats states unfairly
One of the things I admire most about the debate over whether to repay the 38 Studios bonds is the way that we’re supposed to ignore the plain meaning of legal language. On the front page of the prospectus for the 38 Studios bonds, in capital letters, there is a paragraph that reads: THE 2010 […]
Why state unemployment doesn’t matter as much as you think
Everyone knows that Rhode Island has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, right? After a few years of lagging Michigan and sometimes Nevada, we are now the nation’s leaders, despite the rate having ticked down slightly last month. But consider this: what do you learn by comparing a tiny state like ours to relatively […]
Debating the Heritage Foundation
Stephen Moore, the Royal Economist at the Heritage Foundation came to town last Saturday, to debate me in an event sponsored by the Rhode Island Center for Freedom, Prosperity, and Apple Pie. Was it an educational experience? Well, possibly. I did learn, for example, that Moore knows pretty much nothing about Rhode Island politics, economics, […]
How the press won the speaker’s gavel
Any realistic account of what happened last week when Representative Nick Mattiello became Speaker of the House has to account for the actions of our state’s media. Our state’s political press played an essential part of making Mattiello Speaker. The reporters will complain this is unfair, but let’s look at the time line. On Friday, […]
Costa in as Speaker
In a surprise vote early this afternoon’s House session, Doreen Costa (R-North Kingstown), formerly vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee, was elected to Speaker of the House, effectively head of the state Democratic Party. “I like most of what goes on here already,” the tea party conservative said. “The tax cuts, the abortion restrictions, […]
Which side are you on, House Democrats?
One of the most pernicious myths about Rhode Island politics is that the state house is dominated by liberal, labor-backed, Democrats. The Democrat part is certainly true, but neither the liberal nor the labor-backed parts are. Rhode Island, after all, enjoys the only voter-ID vote-suppression bill in the nation voted in by Democrats. We have […]
Rhode Island’s regressive way of paying for infrastructure
Gina Raimondo proposes allocating $60 million to fix up schools. As Sam Bell writes, she doesn’t say where the money will come from, only that the legislature will find it somehow. Gina Raimondo’s campaign manager, Eric Hyers, tells Phil Marcelo of the Providence Journal: “This $60 million figure we’re talking about? To put it in […]
Eva Mancuso stifles debate, wonders why debate went elsewhere
Susan Lusi, the superintendent of the Providence school department, has come out against the NECAP graduation requirement, and Eva Marie Mancuso, the chair of the Board of Education, has accused her of “grandstanding” by presenting her concerns to the legislature rather than to her board. Ha ha. This is funny because over the past year, […]
Providence pension — fiscal scolds out in force
I spent a little time recently with the new report on Providence’s municipal pension plan, and then I read an article on golocalprov that wanted me to panic about it, quoting the usual chorus of scolds who want us to defund public services. Then I went back and read the report some more and I still […]
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