Rhode Island Politics
From the ProJo article which Justin cites: According to the mayor’s chief of administration, Richard I. Kerbel, the retroactive pay for the nonunion officers matches retroactive pay awarded to police union members in arbitration over the last fiscal year Unlike so many other aspects of public sector compensation, it is, in fact, common practice in…
Commenter George Elbow is back and once again requesting that Andrew revisit his post about Bob Walsh’s public pension investment scenario. Yes, we all understand the concept of compound interest. Rather, what we’d like discussed is the sustainability and FAIRNESS of the Walshian demands, particularly in this economic enviromnent. Please help us understand why Public…
Two principles necessary for Rhode Island to turn back from the brink (or, more accurately, to climb back onto it) have been coalescing in my commentary of late: The change must move from the municipalities, up, both in the ascension of a new ruling class and in the direction of reform. Policies can no longer…
At this point in our decline, every public official should have a policy of zero increase. This is simply irresponsible: Mayor David N. Cicilline is facing criticism this week for a one-time payment of retroactive raises to five current and former high-ranking police officers — over the objections of the City Council — and for…
Anybody who missed last night’s Violent Roundtable on the Matt Allen Show — or who would like to listen to it again — can download it here. I’ll tell you that, from the other side of the microphone, that hour just flies by. By habit, I keep out a notebook during such discussions and jot…
On last night’s Matt Allen show, Monique presented her proposal that the state of Rhode Island deduct the unreasonable excess of Providence’s pension system from its state aid. Stream by clicking here, or download it.
Anthony poses a worthy question in the comments to my post on the RI House Finance Committee’s grilling of state department heads: This is surreal. For years, the General Assembly filled state agencies with a “Family and Friends” plan that rivaled AT&T, raked Carcieri over the coals for wanting to “cut too much” and overrode…
And we do not need to single out Providence for this treatment. Certainly the aid to any other municipality that has budgeted unreasonable expenditures should be adjusted accordingly. But taxpayers from other cities and towns have no obligation to fund the extravagance, not to say folly, of public officials, whether past or current, whom they…
Yes, the governor has been too quick to allow the budgetary games to continue, and before that he was too eager to present an optimistic picture. Most definitely, furthermore, public department heads should have been loud and visible declaring the unrealistic nature of the requirements and budgets that they were given. But as long as…
In a recent piece in National Review (“Beyond Tax Cuts”), Reihan Salam mentioned a study by economists Alberto Alesina and George-Marios Angeletos called “Fairness and Redistribution” (PDF). As Salam summarized: Their argument was that our beliefs about fairness shape our beliefs about redistribution. If you believe that the system works and that hard work is…