Media Release-ALEC: Governor’s RI Innovates Plan by Brookings To Suffer Similar Failure as NY?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 21, 2016

Start-Up NY Demonstrates Failure of Gov’t Directed Economy and Corporate Cronyism
Related “Cooler Warmer” video commentary discusses overall incompetence of government

Providence, RI — A new post, produced for the Center by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), directly implies that New York’s failed Start-Up NY program is likely a bad omen for Rhode Island’s similar RI Innovates plan. ALEC is one of the task force partners assembled by RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity to oppose the special-interest laden economic plan for the Ocean State that was developed by the insider-funded Brookings Institution.

Brookings Corporate Cronyism-type Scheme Failed in NY

Brookings Corporate Cronyism-type Scheme Failed in NY

The Start-Up NY scheme, after $53 million in advertising, not even counting the corporate welfare it doled out to insider companies, had produced just 76 new jobs as of its first report.

“Given the shortcomings of Start-Up NY, it begs the question: should government be trusted to manage a state economy, or even be given considerable resources to try and steer it,” wrote Joe Horvath, ALEC research analyst and author of the post, in questioning the hundreds of millions of taxpayer-funded special tax credits to be handed out per the RI Innovates plan to targeted industries in a limited number of designated Rhode Island geographies.

“Corporate cronyism does virtually nothing for the average family and it adds the further insult of forcing the average guy to pay for it,” said, Mike Stenhouse, CEO for the Center. “Further, as ALEC points out, this elitist, insider approach towards economics is not only unfair, but it is disruptive to the marketplace and may actually shrink the overall jobs pie.”

The full post can be viewed here; it includes a link to a related “Cooler Warmer” video commentary by Stenhouse posted on The Ocean State Current, the Center’s blog and journalism website.

Media Contact:
Mike Stenhouse, CEO
401.429.6115 | info@rifreedom.org

About the Center
The nonpartisan RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity is Rhode Island’s premiere free-enterprise research and advocacy organization. The nonprofit Center is funded entirely by private tax-deductible donations and never accepts public funding. The mission of the 501-C-3 organization is to return government to the people by opposing special-interest politics and advancing proven free-market solutions that can transform lives by restoring economic competitiveness, increasing educational opportunities, and protecting individual freedoms.