Tue, 25 Sep 2007

NCSL Report

For those who are wondering about the source of the fake statistic that says RI raised its taxes higher last year than any other state, it's in a report available to National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) members at the ncsl.org.

The issue is that NCSL researchers counted as a new tax a tax that's been on our books for a dozen years or so. But for reasons that elude rational explanation, every year, the legislature passes it with a one-year expiration. Optimism, I guess. So it's not at all a new tax (and was even trimmed slightly this past session), but NCSL counts it as a new tax.

You can find the report right here, too, for free. Enjoy.

Update: The NCSL is upset that their report is being circulated for free, so have demanded that I retract it from the web site. For the moment, the link above won't work. However, I will be submitting a request that they allow me to display a representative segment that will allow readers to see that it was, indeed, their report that was the source of this stupid statistic.

Further update: No dice on reproducing even a part of the offending report, so go pay them their fee if you want to see their error instead of hearing me describe it. They also request that I clarify that they only charge a fee if you're not a legislator or staff. The rest of us who care about how the business of our state is conducted have to pay. If you're really curious, write me and I'll describe it to you. Read more here.

23:37 - 25 Sep 2007 [/y7/se] link

Wed, 19 Sep 2007

Growth rates

Does the movement of people from one town to another cause property taxes to go up? Here's a chart of growth in Middletown and Portsmouth, two towns right next to each other, on the same island. They are the same size, and have the same tax rate (roughly), but fiscal politics is brutal in Portsmouth, and the town teeters on the edge of fiscal crisis. Middletown had a crisis a few years ago, but now has one of the highest bond ratings in the state.

The two towns are now growing at the same rate, but for one of them, that's a relief to be growing after some years of shrinking. For the other, it's a disaster because they aren't growing at the explosive rate of years past.

There's more on the topic in issue 25.

21:58 - 19 Sep 2007 [/y7/se] link

Can't get a break, even when they give them.

[Appeared in the RIMG papers last week.]

A few weeks ago I met a guy, a Republican who shall remain nameless here, out of kindness, since he's not a public figure yet. He's thinking of running for the state senate next year, and in conversation, he told me that part of the reason he's running is that Rhode Island raised taxes more this past spring than any other state. This is, of course, ridiculous, the kind of non-fact that deserves to be laughed out of the room whenever it comes up.

See more ...

21:58 - 19 Sep 2007 [/y7/cols] link

Fri, 07 Sep 2007

Paying for war with your school budget

[Appeared this past week in the Woonsocket Call, Pawtucket Times, and several other papers in the RIMG group.]

Over the last several years, the cost of educating our children has been the major driver of the rise in property taxes in Rhode Island. The biggest part of the rise -- by far -- has been the cost of special education. According to state department of education numbers, general education costs rose an average of 48% between 1998 and 2006, while special ed costs went up 83%. As of the 2005-2006 school year (the latest year published on the Education Department web site), we spend $444 million to educate these children out of nearly $2 billion for all the state's' public schools.

See more ...

23:53 - 07 Sep 2007 [/y7/cols] link

Thu, 06 Sep 2007

Bureaucracy creeps, enrollment drops

A recent Projo article documents how increasing the qualification requirement paperwork for RIte Care (Rhode Island Medicaid) has resulted in an "unprecedented" drop in people in the program. They've gone from 119,000 people to 111,000 since January 2005. Those missing 8,000 people were not all people who didn't "deserve" to be served by the program. Some of them were people who would qualify, but who weren't up to the challenge of providing all the necessary paperwork -- birth certificates, four pay-stubs to verify income -- and so on.

I wrote a while back about the welfare bureaucracy and the insane fear that someone, somewhere, will take advantage of the system to get benefits for which they are not entitled. To be clear, this is a bad thing, and to be avoided, but when the cost of avoiding it is that people who need help also get cut off the rolls, then there is something seriously wrong with the system. Read more here.

12:06 - 06 Sep 2007 [/y7/se] link

Wed, 05 Sep 2007

Because it's important

Do you want to know why we're in Iraq now? Read here.

The Daily Howler is right that this is the story that refuses to be told. You'll see it in the link above, but it won't resonate or echo anywhere, and so you won't hear it until the next time someone publishes a story about press misconduct.

Trying to figure out what to do about this isn't easy. Heaven knows my answer isn't so effective. But it is pretty clear that nothing will happen so long as people don't mention it.

13:19 - 05 Sep 2007 [/y7/se] link

Said better than I ever could

From Bill Maher (via Cheers and jeers):

And finally, New Rule: If you were surprised that the Chinese don't care about toy safety, then the child who needs protecting is you. Over the last couple of months, American consumers have been learning a shocking lesson about supply and demand: if you demand products that don't cost anything, people will make them out of poison, mud and shit...

See more ...

09:24 - 05 Sep 2007 [/y7/se] link

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