Rhode Island Economy
Governor Chafee isn’t giving many clues as to the decisions that he’s making as he builds his budget proposal, but some statements that he has been willing to make are telling with regard to his approach, to say the least: Chafee did describe some specific priorities. He supports proposed federal legislation that would help the…
From USA Today, which took a look at compensation (salary+benefits) differences between the private and public sector in each state (using U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis numbers), Rhode Island is in the top ten for total compensation for public employees: Total Compensation Rank State Compensation Difference 1 District of Columbia $82,607 $457 2 Connecticut $77,697…
The Rhode Island Statewide Coalition held its annual meeting yesterday. As the ProJo reports, the focus was on the economy and included guest speakers Leonard Lardaro (URI Economics professor) and a former New Zealand parliament member Maurice McTigue. McTigue…gave examples of how his country made major internal changes to turn the tide on years of…
The timing of Wisconsin’s contribution to the era of global protest coincides profoundly with a new report on pensions from the Rhode Island Senate: The new report also factors in the cost of other post-employment benefits, which cities and towns, as well as the state, have only recently begun to show on their accounting statements.…
The advice is wise, I’d say, for states to focus on economic development activities that benefit a broad range of businesses, rather than one or two big catches, but the experts in the field begin from the wrong perspective: Creating sustainable new jobs is complicated, and states will need help from the federal government, says…
I noted that Warwick Mayor Avedisian was offering up a pragmatic, if typical, pension reform plan in that it dealt with reforms for future pensions. Avedisian took to the pages of the Providence Journal to explain his plan, but, as Ted Nesi notes, Avedisian tries to get away with shoving the past pension problems aside.…
Out of necessity (ya think?) they’re reforming pensions in Johnston. Stephen Beale reports on why: One of the biggest problems is with disability pensions. Out of 71 retired firefighters, 34 of them are on a disability pension, earning two thirds of their salary tax free. During the tenure of former Fire Chief Victor Cipriano, 15…
WRNI’s Ian Donnis reports: State Treasurer Gina Raimondo says she doesn’t believe current pension recipients are legally shielded from possible cuts to their pensions. She outlined her view during a taping today of WRNI’s Political Roundtable, which airs tomorrow at 5:40/7:40 am. Scott MacKay asked Raimondo, as a lawyer and financial expert, whether pensioners currently…
Reacting to Governor Chafee’s mention of it, Ed Fitzpatrick has read Richard Florida’s book proclaiming the importance of tolerance to the economy and expresses, it seems to me, an appropriate skepticism regarding causation and correlation: “My research finds a strong correlation between, on the one hand, places open to immigrants, artists, gays, bohemians and socioeconomic…
Rhode Island’s “buy local” food movement has had some success: The resurgence of farms and farmers’ markets has brought local, fresh produce to thousands more Rhode Islanders in the past few years….“The miraculous comeback of Rhode Island farming,” said Division of Agriculture Director Ken Ayars, “is due in large part to efforts like the statewide…