Marc Comtois
Now that it’s official, here’s what they did in Wisconsin regarding public employee unions. 1) “…the bill meant that the state wouldn’t have to lay off public employees.” 2) “…[took] away the ability of unions to bargain over pensions and health care.” Just like the Federal Government employees. This was an attempt to gain flexibility…
When we say we’re going to cut what we spend on, say, ice cream at my house, that means we either buy less, wait for sales or just stop buying it. So let’s say, instead of $5 a week, we’ll shoot for $4/week. We just cut the ice cream budget by $1. As Jonah Goldberg…
Ted Nesi has put up a list of newly-taxed items being proposed by Governor Chafee. I’ve copied it after the jump. As a commenter to Ted noted: …the fact Rhode Island has so many sales tax exemptions is interesting in and of itself. The state has a total of 82 exemptions, 20 of which have…
Contrary to what many think, most conservatives actually don’t approve of “corporate welfare” (see: GM, Big Agriculture, etc.) and think it’s ridiculous when a company receives government subsidies when it pays salaries like this: • Four vice presidents and producers pulled in more than $300,000 — and another 10 took home more than $200,000 —…
To fall into a political trap, as Justin suggests I have done, one would first have to take the bait. To stretch the metaphor further, I didn’t take the Governor’s budget bait–much less get caught in a trap–so much as look at the bait (tax “cuts”) and offer a few observations. If anything, maybe I’m…
It’s up to over 1,000 entities that have acquired a waiver from adhering to President Obama’s national health care law. One is the entire State of Maine, whose motto, Dirigo or “I lead,” could be prophetic as other states look to do the same. Meanwhile, the unintended, but predicted, consequences (h/t) of this hurried health…
After I looked at how other states deal with sales tax, I began to think that it would be a clever move by Governor Chafee to lower the overall rate while expanding its application. It would both increase “revenue”–its a tax hike after all–but also would provide a lower number for the various state tax…
Brown U. has done a poll on immigration and is framing it as a look at a “deeply divided” RI public (and the ProJo is parroting it). The actual poll numbers tell a different story. It doesn’t look like Rhode Islanders are “divided” so much as they are just plain confused. First, it looks like…
Rep. David Cicilline is in town and defending his record as Mayor of Providence, explaining to the ProJo that he cut hundreds of jobs, renegotiated benefits and took other steps to mitigate budget deficits, including tapping into the reserve fund. If you have groceries that cost $500 a month and this month groceries cost $600…
It appears as if Brian Hull has maneuvered through the interwebs chaos and got RI Future back on line and functional (it was up earlier, but the links weren’t working). An A+ for perseverance to Brian and here’s guessing you’ll be moving from the “Not” column soon. On another note, an ISP-centric blog clarifies what…