Rhode Island Politics
General Treasurer Frank Caprio has released a cliff-notes version of his pension reform plan. It’s composed of two options for future retirees and will not affect current retirees. To summarize: Plan 1 – Combination Play or “Hybrid” Plan: Mimics the Federal plan: most of the plan consists of a fixed pension and his supplemented by…
ProJo’s Ed Achorn agrees that the unions have a big hand in running the state. But he emphasizes that they aren’t to blame. If there is a public enemy number one, it’s not [AFL-CIO President George] Nee. He’s just exploiting the system to enrich himself and the people who empower him. He does a very…
With a few notable exceptions (ahem), Ian Donnis checked in with some right-leaning Rhode Island groups as we move into election season. It’s interesting to note that the two voices for the other side were not people known for their roles as explicit leftists, but as union leaders, with this bold comment: Robert Walsh is…
Rhode Island GOP Chairman Gio Cicione makes a good point about pensions and General Treasurer Frank Caprio: In fact, Mr. Caprio knew better a long time ago. As early as April 2002, when he was Senate finance chairman, Mr. Caprio indicated that an 8.25 percent return had “proved to be an overly optimistic assumed rate…
So the RI Senate threw the supplemental budget back at the House because they didn’t want to re-amortize the pension plans. And suddenly, we’re told there was a “sense of urgency”! “They clearly threw off any timetable,” said House Speaker Gordon D. Fox, advised of the Senate’s plans Wednesday afternoon. “That’s what we were always…
I imagine we’ll have commentary to offer on the supplemental budget as we all have time to digest it (or eject it from our systems by one route or another). But let’s be honest; we all know the basic story: the General Assembly had big battles over relatively minor details to tweak around the edges…
Sometimes, in the noise and rancor of politics and budgeting, one’s attention becomes monopolized by particular details. Consider the following: [The state’s public-employee unions’] chief target: a proposal to limit annual pension increases to the first $35,000 in retirement pay initially. The $35,000 would go up each year, in keeping with the Consumer Price Index,…
Take every pothole that you hit and bridge that you tremble to cross as a reminder of how misplaced the priorities of the state and federal governments have become: In the supplemental budget Governor Carcieri sent to the legislature, he proposed reducing the DOT budget by $74.3 million. The House Finance Committee recommended cutting slightly…
Ok, vent over this: The police chief of Central Falls is drawing criticism for collecting a $43,000-per-year pension while also continuing to work and draw an annual salary of $72,000….Moran “retired” two weeks ago, then signed a five-year contract under a deal approved by the city retirement board, city lawyer, and mayor….Moran says he made…
George Will’s latest contains this information about pension reform in Illinois (not Texas, union-friendly, “progressive” Illinois): Gov. Pat Quinn called it a “political earthquake” when the state’s Legislature recently voted — by margins of 92-17 in the House and 48-6 in the Senate — to reform pensions for state employees. There is now a cap…