Surprise -- Governor Chafee Considering Tax Increases to Balance Next Year's Budget, by Carroll Andrew Morse
Taxation
3:40 PM, 12/30/11
"Drill", "Strain", "Collapse" (No, It's Not a Greenie's Nightmare Vision of Offshore Oil Drilling), by Monique Chartier
Homeland Security
3:30 PM, 12/29/11
So, in Other Words, It Was Already a Scam?, by Justin Katz
Taxation
8:32 AM, 12/29/11
Rep. David Cicilline on Newsmakers, by Patrick Laverty
RI Congress '12
9:08 PM, 12/28/11
Re 3: GOP's Circular Firing Squad: National (Newt Gingrich) Edition, by Carroll Andrew Morse
President '12
11:40 AM, 12/28/11
Re 2: GOP's Circular Firing Squad: National (Ron Paul) Edition, by Carroll Andrew Morse
President '12
11:15 AM, 12/28/11
Re: GOP's Circular Firing Squad: National (Mitt Romney) Edition, by Carroll Andrew Morse
President '12
11:00 AM, 12/28/11
Hinckley's at Least Half Correct, by Justin Katz
PolitiFarce
9:41 AM, 12/28/11
Contractual Obligation Without Language, by Justin Katz
Pensions
6:18 AM, 12/28/11
A Touch of Chicken or Egg? - Does State Intervention Accelerate Municipal Receivership?, by Monique Chartier
Rhode Island Politics
8:22 PM, 12/27/11
December 30, 2011
Surprise -- Governor Chafee Considering Tax Increases to Balance Next Year's Budget
On the last weekday of 2011, David Klepper of the Associated Press writes what could be the least suprising story of the year (h/t WPRO News)...
As he prepares for his second year in office, Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee is looking for ways to spur the state's frail economy, rescue its struggling cities and eliminate another year's budget deficit -- possibly through additional taxes...Let me take this opportunity to remind readers that both during the 2010 Rhode Island Gubernatorial campaign, and immediately after the election, I asked Governor Chafee through his campaign/transition team if he would like to answer a set of questions that included this one...Chafee estimates that the state will face a $120 million deficit in next year's budget. While that's an improvement over the $300 million deficit lawmakers eliminated in the current year's budget, Chafee says the red ink will be difficult to erase through cuts alone. He wouldn't offer specifics but said he's weighing the possibility of recommending some form of tax increase.
4.The combined state and municipal budgets for Rhode Island have grown steadily (adjusted for inflation) over the past 10 years, a period of time which includes September 11, 2001 and its immediate aftermath, the end-of-the-financial world as we knew it in 2008, and the relative lull (at least domestically) in between.The response I received, the second time I asked, was...Is it by design or by accident that government has been growing as if on autopilot -- or would you disagree with that characterization entirely? Compared with 10 years ago, are Rhode Islanders getting more in return for their increased spending?
We do not agree with the premise of these questions.