Taxation

With the growing stack of tax-raising bills, it’s good to know that the General Assembly will at least have to address a different approach (emphasis added) In an effort to bring some much needed tax relief to Rhode Islanders, while generating revenue in this era of hundred million dollar budget deficits, Representative Victor Moffitt (R-Dist.…

A small but annoying point. This is a link to a Rhode Island craigslist posting which reads: I wonder how many people go and get the free monthly bus passes with their medical assistance card and turn around and sell them???? In the past few days I’ve noticed people selling them on here….kinda makes you…

“Our People are Taxed Too Highly.” So said Governor Donald Carcieri during his post State of the State media rounds. And – drum roll, please – the Tax Foundation concurs. For the third year in a row, they ranked Rhode Island fourth highest taxed, state and local combined. Data source of the Tax Foundation’s analysis:…

Not to darken your day, but the latest bit of bad news brought to Rhode Islanders by Providence Journal business writer John Kostrzewa comes with a very important point: When cities and towns do revaluations required under state law, they will find the total value of their residential property has probably declined. With a lower…

To close the half billion dollar operating deficit and back Rhode Island down from its ranking as the seventh highest taxed state, the focus must be on state spending which is funded by General Revenues – state income tax, lottery proceeds, business tax, gas tax, sales tax. Out of the 2007 state budget of $7,000,000,000,…

While Rhode Island has been distracted by gridlock snow storms, triple dipping public employees and Presidential primaries, Senate President Joseph Montalbano has been sneaking around giving an interview to the Editorial Boards of the Pawtucket Times and the Woonsocket Call. As reported by the Pawtucket Times’ estimable Jim Baron on Tuesday, the state budget was…

Charles Bakst has been peddling his curmudgeonly wares ’round these parts for much longer than I have, but at the risk of later being proven wrong, it seems to me that he’s either not very observant or is in on the game: The governor expressed the fear that legislators will backtrack on tax changes in…

One hesitates to take Pat “The Finger” Crowley’s comments on taxation too seriously. His branch of mathematics, after all, takes progressivism to be a fundamental principle and unionism to be the standard of comparison. That said, anybody who finds merit in his question marks should consider, first, that he highlights two components of taxation, with…

Just to amplify Andrew’s point, from the 2007 Revenue Facts report: State and/or local property taxes are levied in all 50 states. Rhode Island ranks very high in the percentage of state and local revenues generated from property taxes. It has traditionally relied more on local property taxes than most states. FY 2005 census data…

Remember last week when I told you that there are some people who believe that “as long as there exists any metric showing Rhode Islanders not near the top in what they are required to pay to the government, taxes need to be raised”? I just found another one. For some reason, the person in…