Rhode Island Policy Reporter

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 an item, suggest an issue topic, or buy a subscription. If you can, buy two or three (subscribe here).

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whole site RIPR back issues

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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    Rhode Island Policy Reporter
    Box 23011
    Providence, RI 02903

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Creative Commons License Tom Sgouros

Wed, 30 Mar 2005

Pension reform

More e-news from the Governor:

Pension Reform Now

Representatives from cities and towns around Rhode Island rallied today at the State House to demand that the General Assembly take action on pension reform.

The state pension system is in crisis. State contributions to the pension system for state employees and teachers are increasing at an unsustainable rate. Meanwhile, Rhode Island 's cities and towns are struggling under the burden of skyrocketing costs.

Of course, the pension costs are higher than they need to be, due to the Pension board's refusal to change allocation decisions made in 2001 — before the stock market tanked.

Rep. Susan A. Story, a Republican who represents Barrington and East Providence , organized the "Pension Reform Now" rally. All of the Republican House members as well as some Democrats have signed on in support of the "Pension Reform Now" rally.

Rep Story says that Rhode Island taxpayers are paying the price for a pension system that has spiraled out of control. She noted that taxpayer contributions for state employees and teachers will increase by $94 million, to $278 million in the next fiscal year unless the General Assembly passes pension reform this year.

Pension costs this year are $20 million higher than they need to be. Essentially, the Governor is demanding that all the towns and the state, too, seem more fiscally sound than anyone requires them to be. It fits his agenda that pension costs seem unmanageably high. If the cost of this charade is the occasional music class, what does he care?

Governor Donald L. Carcieri has warned of a looming pension crisis since he first took office. He has proposed a pension reform plan that will save Rhode Island taxpayers more than $256 million over the next five years. In the next fiscal year alone, Governor Carcieri's plan would save cities and town at least $18 million.

Pension reform is an issue that should be of concern to every taxpayer.

Pension reform is of concern to this taxpayer, but I also want some honesty in the packaging. Some of the most important decisions having to do with the pension system are made by the pension board. Those decisions routinely go unexamined, even though they may cost us all millions of dollars. And this year, they will.

See here for more information.

22:05 - 30 Mar 2005 [/y5/ma] link

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