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July 10, 2009
The Cranston Herald on the Present and Future of Rhode Island
The editorial in this week's Cranston Herald captures the mood of residents in many towns, regarding the direction that state-level governance is heading…
The state’s 13 percent hike in spending (yes, you read that right) doesn’t offer a dime to municipalities, school districts or, for the most part, social programs designed to keep people from crashing and burning.Cranston trimmed expenses but still had to raise taxes. Next year, there will be fewer cuts to make and more resistance to raising taxes, especially since many homeowners are still trying to cope with the tax hike of two years ago, set against dramatically lower property values and, in many cases, household income....
If the state pleaded poverty after it slashed its own budget, that would be one thing. But telling communities to cut, cut, cut and then increasing its own budget by 13 percent is absurd and borderline obscene. Carcieri’s original budget proposal stunk but, somehow, the General Assembly managed to make it even worse.
Nice job, guys.
And given the spectacular job they did of doing nothing to address the current crisis, we can expect they will do the same marvelous job preparing for next year, when the stimulus money used to keep the budget hovering in the black will be long gone. At that point, with nothing outside the state jurisdiction left to cut, chances are we’ll all be handed a boost in our income and sales taxes.
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Posted by: EMT at July 10, 2009 3:00 PMThis session the Democrat General Assembly again rearranged the deck chairs here on the 'ole RItanic.
This rearranging is necessary due to the continued shift in deck angles caused by the increasing list toward the bow.
See you next session for another rearranging.
Wait. What's that? Sounds like rivets popping and metal splitting apart around midship, near the East Providence ballroom.
Ah, it's probably nothing.
Posted by: Tom W at July 10, 2009 6:07 PMI envy those able to keep their heads in the sand. Somehow, the world continues to turn, food appears on my table and a roof is over my head. It has been that way long before my union job, so please keep those comments to yourself, if anybody was so inclined to take a shot.
My problem is awareness. This ship is sinking, I'm sure of it. Probably won't be until long after I'm gone and there is little I can do about it. Still...
Posted by: michael at July 11, 2009 10:21 AMThat editorial is crap, guys. Fact-checking, please.
1) The budget went from 7.3 billion to 7.8 billion. .5/7.3 is nowhere near 13%
2) Most of the increase was a function of increased federal matches for state programs, mostly health care related. It sucks that the budget didn't help out cities and towns, but the increase wasn't discretionary in the sense that the money could've gone to other programs. The editorial implies that it was.
3) And in my mind health care is, in fact, a social service, despite the Herald's assertions that social services didn't see meaningful increases.
And then the whole point of the stimulus was to allow for increased spending. Would the Herald have preferred us to turn it down, Sanford style? Come on...
Posted by: Steve at July 13, 2009 1:58 AMSteve,
The Projo statehouse bureau cited a 12% overall increase in their report on the state budget...
Their top-end is about the same as the figure you cite, so the difference is in the baselines. Where'd you get your number from?Posted by: Andrew at July 13, 2009 8:30 AM
2009 revised budget was $7.269 billion. You can check it out here.
http://www.budget.ri.gov/Documents/CurrentFY/Fiscal%20Year%202010%20Briefing.pdf
The 12% increase has been touted, and is true relative to enacted, but not true relative to what was actually spent.
Posted by: Steve at July 16, 2009 5:57 AM