Rhode Island Politics
Andrew suggested to Jim Hummel, on this morning’s On the Record, that the Democrats in the General Assembly are, in some sense, biding their time until they manage to place another Democrat in the Governor’s chair. I’m not so sure the Democrats are (or should be) desirous of such a visible monopoly on Rhode Island…
Katherine Gregg’s piece in the Providence Journal about state contract employees has a bit too much of the editorial page aroma. Her opening line, a construct intended to tell the reader how to feel about the information being conveyed, is in keeping with the execution of her “gotchas.” The employee list appears “in the blink…
Officially, he hasn’t yet declared if he’s running for Governor in 2010. However, according to Projo columnist Edward Achorn, former Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey has some specific ideas about the role that the leader of the executive branch should play in reforming Rhode Island…Mr. Laffey argues [that] public-employee unions have to be brought around to…
Those wondering about the status of Governor Donald Carcieri’s announced plans (or if there are any plans at all) for a major layoff of state employees may be interested in this paragraph from Katherine Gregg’s latest Projo report about personnel costs being paid to state contractors…Governor Carcieri is headed today to the Alton Jones campus…
Rhode Island Republican Jon Scott responds to some speculation fueled by a (pretty sensible) essay at RI Report suggesting that he may run for U.S. Senate against Jack Reed next year…“Because I have been inundated with calls from the press and from the public since the RI Report.com story speculating about my 2008 intentions, I…
Two more articles on pensions worth reading. The first is from Steve Peoples in the Projo…Pensions for teachers and state employees will cost Rhode Island taxpayers $397 million next year. That’s an increase of roughly $50 million, or 14 percent, over this fiscal year. And it represents a significant and unexpected new burden for every…
About a week ago, Dan Yorke interviewed Cumberland Mayor Dan McKee about the bottom-up education reform package he was shopping around. Since then, McKee has gained some support and he and Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian were on yesterday’s ABC 6’s On The Record with Jim Hummel to talk about the plan. McKee and Avedisian talked…
…and, according to a Warwick Beacon letter to the editor from State Representative Susan Story (R-Barrington/East Providence), the RI legislature is no exception…The Rhode Island General Assembly is one of the most generous of all state legislatures when it comes to its own budget. Data from the National Council of State Legislators shows that in…
Well, with the budget passed, let’s look at the damage. First, here’s how much we held the line, broken out by major department (all % are rounded): 2007 to 2008 Expenditure Growth Department 2007 2008 Change($) Change(%) General Government $1,409,253,153 $1,421,934,563 $12,681,410 1% Human Services $2,567,110,918 $2,715,812,422 $148,701,504 6% Education $1,848,828,527 $1,909,134,809 $60,306,282 3% Public…