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RIPR is a (paper) newsletter
that looks at local, state and federal policy issues
that affect life here in the Ocean State. Each issue focuses on
particular policy areas of interest. Future issues will examine
controversial aspects of environmental policy, health care,
state tax reform, and education spending. The intention is to look at
action rather than talk.
RIPR also issues a weekly column about public policy, carried by
ten of Rhode Island's finer newspapers. See
here for an
archive of recent columns.
If you'd like to help, please contribute
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Available Back Issues:
- 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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Responsibility:
Tom Sgouros
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Thu, 24 Jan 2008
What?
I see that the Democrats in Congress have bargained away the parts of
the stimulus package that would actually, you know, stimulate. If you
want a shot of cash to have an effect in the economy, you
want to give it to people who will spend it all: poor people
and unemployed people. Instead, cowards in Congress have given in to
the foolish, and so any effect of the stimulus will be diluted to the
extent that any of us put it in the bank. Ideology triumphs over
reality once again.
12:33 - 24 Jan 2008 [/y8/ja]
link
Mon, 14 Jan 2008
Economic plans
Wondering about how the candidates are responding to the impending
recession? Find some content here,
from Paul Krugman.
10:03 - 14 Jan 2008 [/y8/ja]
link
Wed, 09 Jan 2008
Tax Expenditure Report
Look! It's online!
A "tax expenditure" is only a name for a tax break. Our tax code
is lousy with them (Did you know that boat manufacturers don't have to
pay sales tax on promotional literature printing costs? Did you know
that you can brew 100,000 barrels of beer before there is a tax on
your income from it?), but until recently they haven't been
catalogued. Even now, only about 40% of the breaks have a price
associated with them. But it's an entertaining read (in the
eye-rolling sense).
08:32 - 09 Jan 2008 [/y8/ja]
link
Fri, 04 Jan 2008
Issue 29 out
- A look at Rhode Island's health underinsurance problem, by
David Rochefort, of Northeastern University's
Community-Based
Research seminar.
- A look at the economic geography of Rhode Island: poor people in
rich towns and rich people in poor ones.
Didn't you mean to
subscribe?
12:10 - 04 Jan 2008 [/y8/ja]
link
More than the rest of the world combined
Question: How much does the US spend on its military?
Find
out here.
Another milestone achieved. Rah, rah.
11:29 - 04 Jan 2008 [/y8/ja]
link
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