Initial Reaction to Governor’s Proposed Budget

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

January 19, 2017

Lack of Vision and Bold Action – Stunning

Providence, RI — The Center’s CEO, Mike Stenhouse, provides initial reaction to the Governor’s proposed 2018 budget:

“When our state ranks 48th in family prosperity and dead last in business climate, a ‘no broad-based tax increase’ strategy simply is not good enough. We just lost 1000 jobs! The new mandates, increased minimum wage, and new penalties on businesses only rub salt in the wound. More taxes and more special handout spending policies are exactly the wrong approach; especially corporate tax credits, which do nothing to help the average family and business. Where is the bold action? The lack of leadership and vision and the acceptance of our dismal status quo is stunning.”

A more detailed statement from the Center will be issued tomorrow.

STATEMENT on Proposed 2017 RI Budget

STATEMENT: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
June 8, 2016

RI Families Once Again Left Out of State Budget

Multiple Special Interest & Corporate Welfare Programs Outweigh Few Relief Provisions
Lawmakers Adopt Center’s Recommendation to increase EITC in lieu of Minimum Wage hike

Providence, RI — With nothing bold to address the massive structural budget deficits, its dismal business climate, or the state’s 48th ranking on the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity‘s Jobs & Opportunity Index, Rhode Island lawmakers are once again advancing a special interest laden agenda that offers little relief or hope for new opportunities for the average Rhode Island family.

“What does the average family have to cheer about in this budget? The few provisions that offer minor relief to some are overwhelmingly outweighed by the massive special interest and corporate welfare spending that will continue drag-down our state economy,” commented Mike Stenhouse, CEO for the Center. “Only when the total relief package is bigger than new spending can we claim that Rhode Island is heading in the right direction.”

While recognizing the reductions in retiree income taxes, the corporate minimum tax, and trucker registration and beach parking fees, the Center notes that these cuts are themselves narrowly targeted and are more than offset by the increases in corporate welfare, new Uber and marijuana taxes, pre-K funding, and new special-interest bond initiatives.

The Center maintains that major broad-based tax reforms are required to jump-start the Ocean State’s stagnant economy and jobs market.

Also according to the Center, the continued funding of the unethical legislative and community grant programs, despite the mirage of reform, can only be seen a perpetuation of a corrupt, status quo insider culture.

As help to low-income workers, the Center praises lawmakers for adoptng the Center’s March 2016 recommendation to hold the minimum wage steady and, instead, increase the Earned-Income-Tax-Credit (EITC), which rewards work without risking job losses.

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