Marc Comtois
No one should be surprised that the State is looking at a $450 million shortfall for FY08. Governor Carcieri has been warning us that we would have to cut State programs and payrolls in the near future. Turns out his idea reduce state spending by $200 million was based on a downright rosy forecast. Knowing…
This week, we’ve discovered that Gary Sasse is leaving RIPEC to take over the RI Department of Revenue. Sasse’s replacement will be John Simmons, Providence Mayor David Cicilline’s Director of Administration. Simmons himself has been at the heart of a controversy concerning who were the anonymous sources of a large portion of his compensation (via…
Comrade Donnis shine’s the light on a bad veto-override: Justice Brandeis famously said that sunlight is the best disinfectant. So it is with campaign donations and the public’s ability to scrutinize them. If people know who and what is funding their lawmakers, it makes it that much easier to guard against criminal behavior and garden-variety…
Hey, it’s Friday afternoon: let’s have some fun. First, this one was put together by the RNC (via Human Events): Then there’s this one put together by the John Edwards campaign (via The Corner): As commenter Greg points out: “It’s beautiful to see that Bill [Clinton]’s strategy of ‘triangulation’, which is a nice way of…
Ian Donnis points to the Campaign for Rhode Island’s Priorities, who are going to “call on the Governor to bring close scrutiny to Rhode Island’s hidden budget of expensive tax expenditures!” More on that in a minute, but first a quick aside: Ian doesn’t think we at AR pay enough attention to “corporate welfare.” Well,…
We know that there was a license scam in RI and now a similar one has been uncovered in Massachusetts (and other states). Typically, the “license rings” operate in similar ways: corrupt registry clerks work with middlemen, who sell the licenses to illegal immigrants, criminals, and others looking to cover their identities. The driver’s licenses…
They just can’t say the “W” word, can they? Last week, the ProJo editorialized: We agree with Governor Carcieri that Rhode Island must slash spending to close yawning budget deficits and get the state back on its feet economically. But courtroom translators are not the place to start. During a recent radio talk-show appearance, Governor…
Stephen Moore calls attention to a UN report that–for some reason–didn’t get much play in the media: A new United Nations report called “State of the Future” concludes: “People around the world are becoming healthier, wealthier, better educated, more peaceful, more connected, and they are living longer.” Yes, of course, there was the obligatory bad…
CHAMPS!!! There’s success to go with tradition now, happy endings to replace the failure. Now, instead of wallowing in what went wrong, the fan base is joyous… For so many years, the franchise was defined by heartbreak, identified with close calls and bad breaks. The agony of defeat was seemingly part of the Red Sox’…
Ian Donnis weighs in with a bit more on the RI Foundation and how it funnels money–donated anonymously–to help fund Providence Mayor Cicilline’s administration: Cianci had departing Rhode Island Foundation chieftain Ron Gallo on his show yesterday. Just a few moments ago, Cianci pointed to how conflicts could arise from the foundation’s funding arrangement for…