This author has yet to write their bio.Meanwhile lets just say that we are proud RI Center for Freedom contributed a whooping 524 entries.
Our Center has assembled another team of nationally renowned think tanks that will focus on the City of Cranston, Rhode Island by providing useful analysis and research. This follows our successful task force on the statewide pension crisis last fall. NEW – Cranston Police & Fire pension data now online! Click the title above to read more …
The freedom to choose is a staple of almost every component of life in America except perhaps the most important area – education. With all the talk about providing for our state’s neediest residents, we challenge our public officials to actually do something about it. Senators Ciccone and Walaska are called upon to take action to back up their own “School Choice Week” Resolution …
There is a common and fundamental miscalculation when it comes to projecting the effects of tax policy on state revenues. Too often, the more short-sighted and simplistic static calculation is utilized, when in reality is the more complex dynamic effect should be evaluated. The downstream effects of tax policy on various aspects of the economy are rarely discussed or quantified, either at the state or municipal level.
CLOSING THE GAP, a major education study, is now available to read. The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity also submitted written testimony to the Board of Regents at their January 5 meeting regarding elementary and secondary education. Click to the title above …
In yet more news to file under thank-god-for-pension-reform-but, the Providence Business News reports that while Rhode Island public sector spending is surprisingly lower than the U.S. average, medicare costs are significantly above national averages. Medicaid-related vendor payments accounted for more than 20 percent of state and local government spending in Rhode Island from 1999 to 2009, […]
As part of our Center’s special pension Task Force, Eileen Norcross from the Mercatus Center, followed up on her recent report by publising an OpEd that appeared in the Nov. 17 Providence Journal, and co-authored by Benjamin VanMetre. *** Even with reform, R.I. outlook alarming by EILEEN NORCROSS and BENJAMIN VanMETRE FALLS CHURCH, Va. – The heated […]
As part of our Center’s special pension Task Force, Jonathan Williams teamed up with RI Representative Jon D. Brien to publish this compelling piece that discusses how different pension reform decisions by Michigan and Illinois should make clear the path Rhode Island should take as our General Assembly considers the historic pension reform bill before it.
So Reuters reports that Jefferson County Alabama has filed for backruptcy becase of an usupportable $5,000,000,000 debt. With 660,000 people in the county that’s about $7500 in debt per person. Rhode Island has somewhere in the vicintiy of $30,000,000,000 in debt when you include the (true) penson liability ($18B) , the infrastructure debt ($9B), the ‘OPEB’ […]
If you are under the illusion that the ‘Occupy’ folks are onto something new… check out this terrific video blast from the past from the Phil Donohue show … Milton Friedman on the socialist utopia: “Where in the world are you going to find these angels who are going to organize society for us?” … Burnside […]
The Illusion of Public Sector economics There is something important to keep in mind as we start down the path of debating pension reform in Rhode Island. It is perhaps not the most vital point in a debate where what really matters is “Truth in Numbers”, as Treasurer Raimondo puts it, but as a premise […]