State Government
I’ve been meaning to note this little clue of a possible reality under a more rational government: One effect of the recession, however, was a fall-off in private construction that left contractors hungry for work. They moved into government construction work, competing with the contractors who usually do those jobs, driving prices down. The result,…
Over at the FrumForum (a moderate Republican blog run by David Frum) Eli Lehrer explains: Many of the biggest budget items for states—Medicaid, bond payments, pension obligations to retirees—are virtually impossible to reduce. Big , broad-based tax increases, although difficult to avoid under many states’ balanced budget laws, will simply discourage investment and growth. Without…
Rhode Island is not alone in facing budget deficits as many other states (if not most) are in the same predicament. As a recent study by the Cato Institute shows, a lot of the deficit problems stem from generous public employee compensation packages. State and local governments face large budget deficits as revenues have stagnated…
The Rhode Island General Assembly has posted the list of bills from the 2009 session vetoed by the Governor that will be considered for overrides. The House’s list is available here, the Senate’s list is available here. One bill (passed unanimously by both houses in the last week of the regular session) scheduled for an…
WPRO news (630AM) and Projo 7-to-7 are reporting that Ioanna Morfessis has withdrawn herself from the Directorship of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, citing a family medical concern.
The last paragraph of Alisha A. Pina‘s story in today’s Projo on Democrat Mary Messier’s victory in Tuesday’s District 62 special election (former Rep. Elizabeth Dennigan’s old seat, mostly Pawtucket with a little bit of East Providence) provides a perfect example of how the state Democratic Party’s intellectual bankruptcy on fiscal issues continues to propel…
It seems to me that the most important numbers from Katherine Gregg‘s Projo story about Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council projections on the state budget are the ones at the bottom… The state’s overall budget for this year soared 12.9 percent over last year’s to a record-high of $7.8 billion with new federal dollars accounting…