Taxation
The upcoming, filmed in Rhode Island, ABC show Body of Proof (starring Dana Delaney and Jeri Ryan) was feted at the State House today. Both Delaney and Ryan extolled the virtues of the Ocean State while executive producer Matt Gross explained that it was the tax credits that brought the production to Rhode Island: “Having…
What’s the famous H.L. Menken quotation? “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” I suspect that’s going to be the unofficial slogan of the Linc Chafee years in Rhode Island. It came to mind when the Department of Revenue found that Chafee’s…
We learn of the budget summit – neither date nor location firm at this point – from Ted Nesi over at WPRI 12. Gov.-elect Lincoln Chafee will hold a daylong budget summit next month to kick-start discussions of how to close Rhode Island’s $300 million projected deficit for the fiscal year that starts July 1,…
Although typically a fan of liberal policies and government-driven solutions Bob Kerr has decided that he doesn’t like the outcome of car taxes on old vehicles: “It’s obvious that small towns need to raise money,” [David Shepherd] says. Still, he finds the tax bill he received in September a mysterious piece of work. It seems…
Perhaps with the “Bush tax cuts for the rich” in mind, a recent Providence Journal editorial takes on the “belief” that cutting “companies’ or individual proprietors’ taxes” will lead to job growth: The incentive to hire more people comes when demand for a company’s goods and/or services increases. Then, with the expectation that higher revenues…
Sunday’s PolitiFact correctly rates as “true” RI Democrat Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s statement that “the law… permits companies that close down American factories… to take a tax deduction for the costs associated with moving the jobs to China or India or wherever.” But in its headline, in its presentation, and in an expanded quotation from Whitehouse,…
Americans for Tax Reform (H/t) report: A study by Americans for Tax Reform compared states gaining and losing Congressional seats in the decennial reapportionment process and found that states gaining seats had significantly lower taxes, less government spending, and were more likely to have “Right to Work” laws in place. Because reapportionment is based on…
I’ve received reader email expressing cynicism at the Providence Journal PolitiFact’s release, post-election, of its finding that Governor-elect Lincoln Chafee’s statement was “barely true” that “experts say the property tax ‘is the most harmful to economic growth and … the sales tax is least harmful.” Indeed, Eugene Emery’s article notes: [Tax Foundation economist Kail] Padgitt…
Much is being made of Rhode Island’s unexpected budget balancing. Here’s Kathryn Gregg in the Providence Journal: After meeting on and off over several days, the top financial advisors to the House, the Senate and the governor, determined that revenues are running about $16.7 million ahead of expectations when the General Assembly signed off on…
Rhode Islanders should expect more of this: It may be a sign of a bad economy, but some businesses are balking at a plan to charge fees for placing business logos on the blue highway signs at exits for food, gas and lodging. … The $1,200 per-sign fee, which went into effect on Nov.4, applies…