What’s Rhode Island’s Corruption Tax
Unfortunately, the “corruption tax,” as described here, is not a tax on corruption, but a tax to support corruption:
As taxpayers look down the barrel of a major income tax increase, another tax already is draining their wallets. But this one isn’t found anywhere in the tax code.
It’s the “corruption tax” — the extra money Illinois residents pay because of dishonest public officials.
People pay the tax when politicians give government jobs to unqualified cronies and contracts to expense-padding donors. They pay when public employees take bribes to overlook violations, when law enforcement spends millions prosecuting crooked politicians and when people are injured because of government misconduct.
“It means hundreds of millions of dollars lost in waste,” said Dick Simpson, a former Chicago alderman and head of political science at the University of Illinois in Chicago.
I suppose the question is where one draws the line. The ratcheting up of public-sector pensions (and the failure every year to address the problem that they present) and benefits for union organizers are among the costs that I would include. Without having conducted any sort of study, I’d suggest that eliminating Rhode Island’s corruption tax would close its annual deficit and then some.
via David Freddoso)
It is inarguable that Rhode Island suffers from “congenital corruption.”
Oops, I guess I just made a racist remark.
Beyond the corruption tax, let us not fail to consider the opportunity cost that we also incur due to our culture of corruption: it is another reason that companies / employers won’t move here, and I suspect that it sometimes makes it more difficult for RI based employers to procure business from out of state customers, for that political corruption inevitably taints all Rhode Islanders with an aura of perceived corruption.
Does anyone know if the State wll be able to accomodate Gianquitti’s request that the bars to his cell be spaced wide enough so he can continue sucking on the govt’s tit?
Permanent disability on a knee injury? He couldn’t even shuffle papers for few hours at a desk?
I love how he played cop in his hard-earned disability retirement by doing his daily housekeeping chores strapped with a holster. And I’m sure whenever he heard a siren, he would drop whenever vaccuming or dusting he was doing at the time and, with a girlish squeal of delight, he would run to the window to look at the whirling lights and loud sirens. Well, he’ll soon be squealing for other reasons….
How many more Gianquittis are out there?