Marc Comtois
John Robitaille has made it official, from the ProJo: John Robitaille, has made it official: he is running for governor on the Republican ticket….He touted his experience as one of Carcieri’s senior advisers, saying: “It has been an extreme honor to have served Governor Carcieri over the past two years. The experience I have gained…
For those who remember when health insurance used to be only “hospital insurance” or “catastrophic”, this chart shouldn’t be a surprise. Veronique de Rugy puts it in context: Much of the rationale behind the current reform of the healthcare system is about controlling inflation in healthcare costs. However, based on the trend presented above, a…
Those convinced that the motivation for closing the RI GOP primary begins and ends with former Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey’s possible bid for governor have lost a talking point: Former Republican Cranston Mayor Stephen P. Laffey has opted against running for governor this year, despite a “Draft Laffey” campaign by a conservative bloc within the…
As he promised Dan Yorke yesterday, Rep. John Loughlin has penned a letter (via Dan Yorke) to Governor Carcieri apologizing for co-signing a letter drafted by Democratic Rep. Amy Rice and also explaining steps he would take to help ameliorate some of the problems that the Governor’s budget cuts are causing at the city and…
The RIGOP Executive Committee voted to have a meeting to vote on closing their primary (roll call and more info provided by Will Ricci in the extended entry). Chairmain Gio Cicione has stated that he won’t call the meeting until after the 2010 elections and the rank and file are upset, arguing that he’s abusing…
UPDATE (bumped): Jim Hummel and the ProJo have now covered the Warwick sick time controversy. The ProJo reports different figures–$358,000 in total sick time bonuses–than those previously reported by the Warwick Beacon (a combined $694,000). The contract language that grants these incentives for the three separate bargaining units dates back more than two decades, according…
Over at the FrumForum (a moderate Republican blog run by David Frum) Eli Lehrer explains: Many of the biggest budget items for states—Medicaid, bond payments, pension obligations to retirees—are virtually impossible to reduce. Big , broad-based tax increases, although difficult to avoid under many states’ balanced budget laws, will simply discourage investment and growth. Without…
Following up Justin’s earlier post, WPRO’s Dan Yorke took Rep. John Loughlin to task for adding his name to the Rice letter and thereby seeming to endorse the overall “it’s not the legislature’s fault” message that it tries to spin. Loughlin admitted his mistake and told Yorke he would be retracting his name from the…
Rhode Island is not alone in facing budget deficits as many other states (if not most) are in the same predicament. As a recent study by the Cato Institute shows, a lot of the deficit problems stem from generous public employee compensation packages. State and local governments face large budget deficits as revenues have stagnated…
Today, Bill Reynolds writes about Floyd Narcisse, the much-beloved Central High basketball coach who recently passed away from cancer: I first met him at a summer league game in North Providence in the late 1980s. He had moved here from Springfield, Mass., transferred then by AT&T. From the beginning he brought an energy, a love…