Pensions
In a GoLocalProv story that reiterates much of what I wrote about back in April, Russel J. Moore also explains the mess that Warwick’s pension system is in and also traces it back to then-Mayor Lincoln Chafee: Governor Chafee has been an outspoken advocate for municipal pension reform. But several of the issues in Warwick,…
In a post illustrating why he’s risen so quickly to the status of “must read” and why it’s so crucial to have intellectually curious people making their full-time livings investigating state-level politics and government, Ted Nesi responds to my incredulity at everybody’s willingness to accept the pension reform narrative. This is the most important paragraph…
In his Sunday Providence Journal column, Ed Fitzpatrick reviews the passage of pension reform, and I have to say that he contributes to my surreal feeling of different realities based on different narratives: Keep in mind that this isn’t Texas: This happened in Rhode Island, a deep-blue state where unions are considered a legendary force…
This is a bit of a bombshell that might get glossed over by the media. According to Ian Donnis over at WRNI, Governor Chafee didn’t know that the 5.5% new tax on contractors was in the pension bill when he signed it. Chafee was unfamiliar with the amendment imposing the 5.5 percent assessment when asked…
I’ve placed the 5.5% privatization tax in the context of the General Assembly’s history of opposing such money-saving measures and pondered the language of the newly minted statute. My concern, in brief, is that there really isn’t anything limiting the application of the 5.5% “assessment” to state privatization. The only limit mentioned is to the…
Christy comments to the post in which I express some exasperation with supporters of pension reform: This bill is a giant step in the right direction for Rhode Island and while I appreciate some of what you have said here don’t forget that the system’s recipients are people and when these people die, the state’s…
One of the very few amendments that was successful in yesterday’s pension bill Assembly session was put forth by the Finance Chairmen in both the House and the Senate. Helio Melo in the House and Daniel DaPonte in the Senate. The amendment reads: 42-149-3.1. Assessment on state expenditures for non-state employee services. – Whenever a…
According to members of the RI press corps providing blow-by-blow coverage of the pension reform bill floor debates via Twitter (Ted Nesi, Ian Donnis, Bill Rappleye), save for an initial amendment backed by leadership that doesn’t seem to make any major changes, debate on amendments in the RI House of Representatives has closed with no…
Recall the 2008 election season — with its outrageous claims of the world healing and revival that would accompany the election of Barrack Obama to the Presidency of the United States? Some folks appear to desire the same mystique for pension reform in Rhode Island. Among them, apparently, is Alan Hassenfeld, former head of Hasbro…
Predicting that the pension reform bill will be passed by the RI legislature mostly as reported from committee, Jim Baron of the Pawtucket Times has far and away come up with the best imagery for describing how the floor debate will likely play out…Much like the budget process, individual legislators will be welcome to submit…
