Rhode Island Politics
The story of how Beacon Mutual began is a familiar one — Rhode Island paying too much into a broken, unsustainable system, in this case, the workers’ compensation system. At the start of the 1990s, there were about eight private insurers providing workers’ compensation insurance to Rhode Island, the largest being Liberty Mutual with about…
Ed Achorn’s latest editorial A cap won’t solve R.I.’s tax troubles states: It is encouraging that Rhode Island politicians — in an election year, anyway — are awakening to the public’s agonized cries over sky-high property taxes. Senate President Joseph Montalbano (D.-North Providence), Majority Leader Teresa Paiva-Weed (D.-Newport), and Minority Leader Dennis Algiere (R.-Westerly) last…
Republican Dave Talan kicks off his campaign for Mayor of Providence tonight. Here are the issues motivating Mr. Talan to run as described in his official campaign announcement…On education, Talan wants every child to be able to attend a good school, close to home, of their parents’ choosing. If that choice is a private or…
RI Democrats have been promising some tax relief recently, and now they’ve apparently realized that spending reductions are a good idea, too: Senate leaders yesterday offered what they hailed as a “property-tax reduction plan.” . . . Senate Democrats — led by Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano and Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Paiva Weed…
Here is the meat and potatoes of what the Giuliani group found in their audit of Beacon Mutual [the whole report is here (PDF)]. First, we have the in house problems: Beacon executives maintained a VIP list of about a dozen companies, some of which received favorable treatment resulting in lower workers’ comp rates. Solomon…
I’ve been meaning to comment on RI Populist’s apparent satisfaction over Sheldon Whitehouse’s receipt of the carpenters union endorsement. As a non-union carpenter whose job site has recently been within sight of Whitehouse’s Newport summer home castle — nestled between, I’m informed, his brother’s mansion and his mother’s chateau and a short drive from his…
Here’s some more background on the new apparent GOP candidate for governor, Dennis Michaud. (And here’s the audio link of Dan Yorke breaking of the story). First is an academic article he co-wrote with Kaitlyn A. Murphy about the Quonset Development Corporation. (The article is available for a fee). Michaud made reference to his work…
Dan Yorke is reporting that Brown Adjunct Professor Dennis Michaud–who has testified on behalf of Beacon Mutual and has been on their payroll–has put forth the idea that he will run for Governor on the GOP ticket against incumbent Donald Carcieri. Michaud purportedly gives three main reasons for such a run: 1) Lack of economic…
Last week, there was a thoughtful editorial in the North East Independent newspaper, entitled Seniors need tax help, in which the writer argued that the seniors need assistance from the town of East Greenwich and are asking for a tax freeze. A story in this week’s edition talks about the upcoming April 4 public meeting…
In today’s Projo, Katherine Gregg reports on figures provided by Rhode Island’s casino supporters describing how taxes on gambling revenues might be used to provide property-tax relief to Rhode Island cities and towns. Unfortunately, a figure discussed by state budget analyst Peder Schaefer (who is very skeptical of the casino advocates’ analysis) is presented in…
