What's this? A Book!
Or buy here: Light Publications, Powell's, or Bn, Amazon A look at the lousy situation Rhode Island is in, how we got here, and how we might be able to get out. Featuring
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AboutThe Rhode Island Policy Reporter is an independent news source that specializes in the technical issues of public policy that matter so much to all our lives, but that also tend not to be reported very well or even at all. The publication is owned and operated by Tom Sgouros, who has written all the text you'll find on this site, except for the articles with actual bylines. Responsibility: Tom Sgouros
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Tue, 28 Jul 2009
Ten Things You Don't Know About Rhode Island
I'm happy to announce that Ten Things You Don't Know About Rhode Island is now available. The book, a collection of articles and columns written over the past couple of years, is my attempt to begin to assimilate a critique of the conventional tale about Rhode Island's woes.
What's that conventional tale? Let me quote the introduction to the book:
Rhode Island is in a crisis! Hamstrung by a legislature in thrall to powerful unions and the lobbyists for social service agencies, we have spent far beyond our means. Furthermore, profligate spending by cities and towns is bankrupting local government, and threatens to take the state down, too. Meanwhile, to satisfy the unquenchable demand for government services and benefits, taxes are rising every year without end.Does this story sound familiar? It should. I encounter it in the newspaper, on the internet, on talk radio, and even in conversation with my friends. You probably do, too. I think of it as the "conventional tale," and it defines the politics of the past two decades here in Rhode Island. I've heard it not just from friends and neighbors, but from the vast majority of the many legislators, town councilors, school committee members I've ever spoken with.
The problem is that this conventional tale is wrong in nearly every particular. Labor has several allies in the state legislature, but it has lost almost all the high-profile battles it has undertaken over the past decade. Welfare benefits are stingy and hard to get here, just like in other states, and the welfare rolls have declined dramatically over the past dozen years. Meanwhile, few municipalities are spending any more than the bare minimum necessary to meet legal requirements -- and the ever-increasing demand for services by their own residents.
What about taxes? Aren't Rhode Islanders paying more and more taxes each year? Even this, it turns out, is not correct. If you ignore the take from the Rhode Island Lottery and the video slot terminals in Newport and Lincoln, the proportion of our state's economy collected in state fees and taxes plus all local property taxes has barely budged, except to decline slightly since the early 1990's. What's changed is who pays them.
To be clear, Rhode Island and its government have some serious problems, and they demand solutions. But the conventional tale is just wrong. This is important not because I have a more loathsome set of villains to hold responsible for the mess, or because of some abstract standard of fairness I might uphold. It's important because when the analysis of our problems is wrong, the solutions we come up with don't work, and the problems don't get fixed. A patient comes to a doctor with a headache. If the doctor misses the brain tumor, then the aspirin he prescribes isn't going to do the job, no matter what his credentials are (or however much health insurance the patient has).
Stories are how we make sense of the world, and the conventional tale is simple and satisfies our craving for villains. It's easy to master the overall outline, and there's a host of detail available that seems to corroborate it. When a town budget doesn't get cut, it's easy to blame it on unions, and when the Assembly can't eliminate welfare, it's easy to blame that on poor people or immigrants. But to take this route is to miss the facts, miss the point, and miss the real story.
There is a better explanation of our crisis, and "Ten Things" presents what amounts to a second opinion about Rhode Island's condition.
You can order a copy from this site (which I'd prefer), or from Powells.com, Amazon.com or BN.com. Find direct links over to the left, and if you travel to one of those sites, please leave a comment if you have one to make.
00:08 - 28 Jul 2009 [/y9/jy]
Fri, 24 Jul 2009
Who says we're the most corrupt state? Only people who don't get out much.
Remember this? Measures of corruption from last winter. Especially check out the survey of statehouse reporters.
10:26 - 24 Jul 2009 [/y9/jy]
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