Rhode Island Policy Reporter

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A look at the lousy situation Rhode Island is in, how we got here, and how we might be able to get out.

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Budget Demystification!
Fiscal Derring-Do!
Economic Jiggery-Pokery!

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RIPR is a (paper) newsletter and a weekly column appearing in ten of Rhode Island's finer newspapers. The goal is to look at local, state and federal policy issues that affect life here in the Ocean State, concentrating on action, not intentions or talk.

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whole site RIPR back issues

Available Back Issues:

  • Aug 09 (38) - How your government's economic policies have worked against you. What a fake nineteenth century nun can teach us about the tea party protests.
  • Jun 09 (37) - Statistics of optimism, the real cost of your government. Judith Reilly on renewable tax credits. Review of Akerlof and Shiller on behavioral economics.
  • Apr 09 (36) - Cap and trade, the truth behind the card check controversy, review of Governor's tax policy workgroup final report.
  • Feb 09 (35) - The many varieties of market failures, and what classic economics has to say about them, review of Nixonland by Rick Perlstein.
  • Dec 08 (34) - Can "Housing First" end homelessness? The perils of TIF. Review of You Can't Be President by John MacArthur.
  • Oct 08 (33) - Wage stagnation, financial innovation and deregulation: creating the financial crisis, the political rhetoric of the Medicaid waiver.
  • Jul 08 (32) - Where has the money gone? Could suburban sprawl be part of our fiscal problem? Review of Bad Money by Kevin Phillips, news trivia or trivial news.
  • Apr 08 (31) - Understanding homelessness in RI, by Eric Hirsch, market segmentation and the housing market, the economics of irrationality.
  • Feb 08 (30) - IRS migration data, and what it says about RI, a close look at "entitlements", historic credit taxonomy, an investment banking sub-primer.
  • Dec 07 (29) - A look at the state's underinsured, economic geography with IRS data.
  • Oct 07 (28) - Choosing the most expensive ways to fight crime, bait and switch tax cuts, review of Against Prediction, about the perils of using statistics to fight crime.
  • Aug 07 (27) - Sub-prime mortgages fall heaviest on some neighborhoods, biotech patents in decline, no photo IDs for voting, review of Al Gore's Against Reason
  • Jun 07 (26) - Education funding, budget secrecy, book review of Boomsday and the Social Security Trustees' Report
  • May 07 (25) - Municipal finance: could citizen mobility cause high property taxes? What some Depression-era economists had to say on investment, and why it's relevant today, again.
  • Mar 07 (24) - The state budget disaster and how we got here. Structural deficit, health care, borrowing, unfunded liabilities, the works.
  • Jan 07 (23) - The impact of real estate speculation on housing prices, reshaping the electoral college. Book review of Blocking the Courthouse Door on tort "reform."
  • Dec 06 (22) - State deficit: What's so responsible about this? DOT bonding madness, Quonset, again, Massachusetts budget comparison.
  • Oct 06 (21) - Book review: Out of Iraq by Geo. McGovern and William Polk, New rules about supervisors undercut unions, New Hampshire comparisons, and November referenda guide.
  • Aug 06 (20) - Measuring teacher quality, anti-planning referenda and the conspiracy to promote them, affordable housing in the suburbs, union elections v. card checks.
  • Jun 06 (19) - Education report, Do tax cut really shrink government?, Casinos and constitutions, State historic tax credit: who uses it.
  • May 06 (18) - Distribution analysis of property taxes by town, critique of RIEDC statistics, how to reform health care, and how not to.
  • Mar 06 (17) - Critique of commonly used statistics: RI/MA rich people disparity, median income, etc. Our economic dependence on high health care spending. Review of Crashing the Gate
  • Feb 06 (16) - Unnecessary accounting changes mean disaster ahead for state and towns, reforming property tax assessment, random state budget notes.
  • Jan 06 (15) - Educational equity, estimating the amount of real estate speculation in Rhode Island, interview with Thom Deller, Providence's chief planner.
  • Nov 05 (14) - The distribution of affordable houses and people who need them, a look at RI's affordable housing laws.
  • Sep 05 (13) - A solution to pension strife, review of J.K. Galbraith biography and why we should care.
  • Jul 05 (12) - Kelo v. New London: Eminent Domain, and what's between the lines in New London.
  • Jun 05 (11) - Teacher salaries, Veterinarian salaries and the minimum wage. Book review: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
  • Apr 05 (10) - Choosing a crisis: Tax fairness and school funding, suggestions for reform. Book review: business location and tax incentives.
  • Feb 05 (9) - State and teacher pension costs kept artificially high. Miscellaneous tax suggestions for balancing the state budget.
  • Dec 04 (8) - Welfare applications and the iconography of welfare department logos. The reality of the Social Security trust fund.
  • Oct 04 (7) - RIPTA and DOT, who's really in crisis?
  • Aug 04 (6) - MTBE and well pollution, Mathematical problems with property taxes
  • May 04 (5) - A look at food-safety issues: mad cows, genetic engineering, disappearing farmland.
  • Mar 04 (4) - FY05 RI State Budget Critique.
  • Feb 04 (3) - A close look at the Blue Cross of RI annual statement.
  • Oct 03 (2) - Taxing matters, a historical overview of tax burdens in Rhode Island
  • Oct 03 Appendix - Methodology notes and sources for October issue
  • Apr 03 (1) - FY04 RI State Budget critique
Issues are issued in paper. They are archived irregularly here.

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Creative Commons License Tom Sgouros

Tue, 30 May 2006

Late for Memorial Day

But all too appropriate.

14:42 - 30 May 2006 [/y6/my] link

Mon, 22 May 2006

Is the Library Really Broke?

From Ellen Schwartz, a Providence CPA:

I am a resident of Washington Park and a volunteer tutor with the after school homework club that used to meet at the Washington Park Branch of the Providence Public Library (PPL). When the library informed the residents that it was closing the branch because of structural damage to the building due to an unrepaired leak in the roof, I could see first hand the terrible effect it would have on the neighborhood. I am also a Certified Public Accountant so I decided to take a look at their financial statements to see why they had been too broke to fix the roof.

See more ...

15:49 - 22 May 2006 [/y6/my] link

And a pony

Read here.

15:48 - 22 May 2006 [/y6/my] link

Tue, 16 May 2006

New issue out

With the usual apologies for tardiness:

  • Who pays the property tax? A distributional analysis of 39 cities and towns.
  • Dissecting another statistic: are our wealthy people really less well off than in 1995? Could RIEDC really be correct about this? (Hint: no)
  • Nick Tsiongas: What's really the matter with health care in RI? Is insuring the uninsured really the best way to fix it?

Didn't you mean to subscribe already?

Also, see here for the table that wouldn't fit in the new issue.

11:20 - 16 May 2006 [/y6/my] link

Sat, 13 May 2006

RIPR breaks into 20th-century media!

You can hear our views on taxation and Rhode Island's tax "system" this month on Laborvision, a cable show produced by the Institute on Labor Studies. The discussion was held with Marcia Reback of the RI Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals, and Marti Rosenberg, director of Ocean State Action.

The show appears on Cox Channel 14, at these times:

Tues,May 23,7-8 pm
Thurs,May 25,8-9 pm
Sat,May 27,5-6 pm
Tues,May 30,7-8 pm
Thurs,June 1,8-9 pm
Sat,June 3,5-6 pm

15:12 - 13 May 2006 [/y6/my] link

Quintiles of household income

A table that wouldn't fit in the new issue of the newsletter:

Quintiles of household income (estimated from 2000 census, inflated to 2004, using BLS wage inflation)
low2dmid4thtop
Barrington21,88251,77483,362131,216359,735
Bristol12,45832,53352,91781,509178,592
Burrillville18,60140,68963,33190,323168,899
Central Falls7,71016,00226,77443,04981,347
Charlestown19,62344,75558,37981,240198,146
Coventry15,68838,65363,69290,323171,951
Cranston13,03332,33153,47380,729185,520
Cumberland16,04738,52963,82890,323193,201
East Greenwich18,00248,79581,933129,788370,220
East Providence12,71229,69846,20364,964129,508
Exeter21,96451,54783,712121,165250,705
Foster20,80943,76967,25990,323134,175
Glocester21,15846,16465,25790,323173,581
Hopkinton14,82840,91065,44390,323173,376
Jamestown22,29350,27082,162121,165279,098
Johnston12,22929,37651,50882,192174,553
Lincoln15,32335,21060,34690,323198,739
Little Compton18,70944,70365,13299,869316,105
Middletown20,15140,71856,76880,566188,201
Narragansett15,98334,80861,99190,323210,471
Newport13,47931,97253,51282,973222,610
New Shoreham12,24629,81651,01680,554209,197
North Kingstown17,34343,47666,341102,360247,035
North Providence12,96729,99945,68665,186138,314
North Smithfield15,96040,89667,16190,323185,158
Pawtucket10,05121,34337,41861,929135,882
Portsmouth18,69748,91671,598101,772260,998
Providence7,71018,38434,76852,993135,666
Richmond25,10851,93871,59890,323158,751
Scituate20,51848,95771,598101,458305,389
Smithfield16,21739,10963,76590,323167,370
South Kingstown18,63843,38666,20090,323193,784
Tiverton15,17738,54263,23690,323175,651
Warren12,59329,27449,97180,103182,803
Warwick15,74434,96253,22780,586184,449
Westerly21,49452,01581,958121,165184,244
West Greenwich12,53929,90545,73464,788124,603
West Warwick15,68834,99653,36181,438208,671
Woonsocket9,84821,57735,37353,030103,644

14:40 - 13 May 2006 [/y6/my] link

Wed, 03 May 2006

Tax cuts again

The House is poised today to vote on cutting the income taxes of the richest people in Rhode Island. Since the state budget is in serious deficit, this will guarantee that the rest of us make up the difference.

Supporters of the bill can't cite any evidence that rich people will move here because of this bill, or any evidence that our economy will improve even if they do. They can only rely on appeals to "common sense."

Well common sense tells me that decaying schools and high property taxes also cause rich people to move, and that giving rich people another tax cut on top of what they have already received won't help that one little bit. Not only that, bad schools cause poor people to be denied a decent education and high property taxes cause people all over the state to be turned out of their homes. But the members of House Finance are clearly hypnotized by the siren song of supply-side economics, a theory of economics built on other theories of economics, and without any real support from what they call, you know, the real world. Out here in that world, we find the House leadership's support of this bill disgraceful.

Someday, one hopes these people will find their past support for this measure embarrassing. In the no doubt vain hope of hastening that day, here is a list of the members of House Finance. Contact information for them can be found here.

  • Representative Kenneth Carter
  • Representative Arthur J. Corvese
  • Representative Steven M. Costantino (Chair)
  • Representative Paul W. Crowley
  • Representative Elizabeth M. Dennigan
  • Representative Raymond E. Gallison Jr.
  • Representative Robert B. Jacquard
  • Representative Peter L. Lewiss
  • Representative Jan Malik
  • Representative Victor G. Moffitt
  • Representative Carol A. Mumford
  • Representative Eileen S. Naughton
  • Representative Henry C. Rose
  • Representative William San Bento Jr.
  • Representative John A. Savage
  • Representative Joseph H. Scott
  • Representative John P. Shanley Jr.
  • Representative Thomas C. Slater
  • Representative Anastasia Williams

07:36 - 03 May 2006 [/y6/my] link

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