With about one-billion dollars in anticipated revenue shortfalls for RI, the Center publishes a new report with proven budget strategy.

DECISION OF THE CENTURY: New Report Lays Out a 2021 Budget Strategy for Prosperity

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 29, 2020

A 2021 Budget Strategy For Long-Term Prosperity
Legislative Leaders Not Understanding the New Reality?

Providence, RI – With about one-billion dollars in anticipated revenue shortfalls, and with recent statements from leading Rhode Island lawmakers indicating a general feeling of helplessness, the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity today published a new report with proven budget strategies that can help put the state on a long-term trajectory towards prosperity. 

Virtually all recent comments from public officials indicate an undue reliance on federal bailout funds in the hope that status quo spending levels might be maintained. This is not a budget strategy. 

Compiled after numerous discussions with colleagues in other states, as well as with state budget experts with national organizations, the Center’s report, Decision of the Century, is premised on the understanding that the decisions soon to be made by lawmakers in dealing with the pandemic-caused revenue losses, will set the near and long term trajectory for the Rhode Island economy; whether our state will experience a “V”, “U”, or “L” shaped recovery and what our Ocean State’s business climate will look like in the years and decades ahead. 

“The budget problems we face did not come down from the heavens; they were government-made and they can be reversed. Lawmakers should not feel helpless, nor should they rely on the federal government. Many states are taking proactive steps to prepare their state economies for rapid recovery … and we must do the same,” advised Mike Stenhouse, the Center’s CEO. “Lawmakers have to understand that they can no longer hide from the responsibilities and difficult decisions they were elected take on. The status quo budget approach – tax, spend, and borrow – will not work in response to this pandemic crisis.”

Similar to what the state of Washington adopted years ago, the report, co-authored by professor Dennis Sheehan and research director Justin Katz, highlights proven budget strategies that are flexible enough to navigate the unpredictable and massive deficits that lay ahead, while allowing the freedom for economic growth. The three key components of this strategy are:

  1. Establishing “Core Principles of Government” – to ensure that the most-vital functions of government are clearly defined as guidelines for the budget process
  2. Adopting a “Revenue-Constrained Spending” philosophy – committing the state to spending only those moneys that are actually taken in, at current tax and fee rates
  3. Setting “Priority Based Spending” targets – such that specific spending categories or programs are pre-prioritized and will be funded only as actual revenue receipts are realized

The primary decision for lawmakers will be to determine what budget strategy path Rhode Island’s financial recovery will take. Will it go down the road of a centrally “planned economy”, with lawmakers arbitrarily making political tax and spending decisions that impose more government control over our lives? Or, will the “invisible hand” of the free-enterprise system be allowed to work, increasing prosperity and paving the way for more rapid economic, jobs, and income growth?

This critical decision will determine whether the Ocean State is to become a more or less hospitable place to raise a family and build a career; and whether families, graduates, retirees, and investors will continue to flee our state. 

“In these unique times, a reality-based budget strategy is required. There is no time to pretend that the same old budget approach … one that has created the worst state business climate in the nation … can work for us now,” concluded Stenhouse.

More information and budget posts from the past years can be viewed at RIFreedom.org/Budget.

Despite a booming national economy, Rhode Island's economic outlook dropped back into the bottom-10 among according to Rich States Poor States by ALEC.

Progressive Policies Sink Ocean State Back into the Bottom-10

Providence, RI– How much bad news can our state absorb before its political leaders change course, asks the Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity? Fittingly, it is on Tax Day that high taxes once again are cited for sinking the Ocean State.

Despite a booming national economy, many recently published metrics show Rhode Island is heading in the opposite direction, underscored by today’s announcement that the Ocean State’s “economic outlook” dropped three-slots and back into the bottom-10 among all states, according to the 12th edition of the Rich States Poor States publication, produced by ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council). 

“Our state is squandering its opportunity to remain competitive and to increase prosperity for its residents,” says Mike Stenhouse, CEO for the Center, who participated in a national conference call last week to preview today’s ALEC release. “This report reinforces all of the research and projections our Center has conducted in recent years. The upcoming a census will likely deliver the worst news for the Ocean State, which is losing the population battle. As this report again highlights, states with free economies and lower taxes are likely to see an increase in population, while the unfriendly economies with high tax and spend policies, like Rhode Island, are seeing a relative decrease.”

According to the Center, Rhode Island, is falling behind by standing still. While state politicians crow each year about not implementing broad new taxes, the unfortunate truth is that by nickle-and-diming residents and by not implementing aggressive reforms Rhode Island will continue to lose ground, nationally. As other states have moved to increase economic freedom for families and business, Rhode Island is losing ground by standing still: to reverse course, it must work quickly to reduce its onerous tax and regulatory burdens.

However, there is no indication that any political leader in Rhode Island has the courage to steer the state’s ship in the right direction. Encumbered by blind-dedication to a bloated budget, which itself is the state’s primary problem (with all of its taxes, fees, and mandates), lawmakers have put forth no vision and are stuck in the rut of continuing the policies of stagnation. 

According to ALEC’s Rich States Poor States, top-10 states such as #5 Indiana and #6 North Carolina are the most dramatic examples of states moving up the rankings by reforming their tax codes, as just a few years ago each state was in ALEC’s mid-20s. Conversely, Kansas, which has raised taxes in recent years has fallen from the mid-teens to 27th. 

Among the major factors cited by ALEC in Rich States Poor States leading to Rhode Island’s poor rankings are: 

  • High property tax burdens (47th)
  • High estate taxes (50th)
  • High Debt (46th)
  • High minimum wage (41st)
  • Workers Compensation costs (43rd)
  • Lack of workplace freedom (50th)
  • Unsustainable pension liabilities 

“Because of federal tax reforms, millions of good-paying new jobs are being created and trillions of dollars are being repatriated to US. But given RI’s hostile business climate, we are less likely to see major new capital investment or rapid job gains in our state,” concluded Stenhouse.

RI 2019 budget

Governor’s 2019-20 Budget: The Rhode to Serfdom

Providence, RI — Instead of seeking to shape Rhode Island’s future with the proven ideals of a free-society, Governor Raimondo’s proposed 2019-2020 budget is a stunning departure from America’s core values and, instead, would put our state on a “Rhode to Serfdom,” according to the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity.

With the Ocean State doomed to lose a US Congressional seat because of its hostile tax, educational, and business environment, which chases away wealth, families, and businesses, the policies presented in the Governor’s budget would make matters far worse.

“Just yesterday, I attended a thoughtful lecture by the chief economist for JP Morgan Chase at an event hosted by the RI Society of CPAs. His message was that economic growth is the best path to achieve prosperity and to manage deficits … not raising taxes and not necessarily cutting spending,” commented Mike Stenhouse, the Center’s CEO. “However, this Governor’s regressive budget points us 180 degrees in the opposite direction and would stifle any opportunity for growth. Ocean Staters are clearly being forced down a Rhode to serfdom.”

With new government-imposed health insurance mandates that will further burden already distressed families as well as employers who are already suffering from one of the worst business climates in the nation, and along with a bevy of new taxes and fees that will further restrain economic growth, the proposed budget takes a giant step backwards towards a centrally-planned society, where government controls more and more aspects of our lives. The entire country is thriving, economically, from reduced government intrusion into our lives, but these progressive-left policies would increase dependency on government.

The proposed Medicaid tax on businesses and the individual mandate are particularly egregious. Each would serve as yet another reason for large employers and families to stay away from Rhode Island. It is oppressive that the government would seek to punish employers for not compensating their workers how the government wants them to; or to punish individuals not being able to afford the high-cost insurance resulting from the government created Obamacare mandates.

“For the better part of a decade, the State has encouraged and bragged about the number of people enrolled in Medicaid with taxpayer funded ads, and now she wants to make businesses pay for it,” cynically question the Center’s research director, Justin Katz.

Equally disturbing, the budget contains no meaningful remedies to the many problems that plague our state, such as high taxes across the board, high energy and healthcare costs, and onerous regulatory burdens on job-producers.

“On top of her irresponsible new spending proposals, clearly designed to benefit special-interest unions, the reliance on SIN taxes to pay for these schemes will tear at the cultural fabric of our society,” continued Stenhouse. “The continued attacks against legal firearms owners and smokers, along with the unsustainable increase in overall government spending, with its immoral budget scoops, also points Rhode Island back towards a totalitarian form of government that I thought we were done with in America.”

For these reasons and more, Rhode Island suffers from an epidemic of people and businesses fleeing our state. “Maybe it’s time to build our own wall to keep people in,” joked Stenhouse earlier in the week.

The Center again calls on General Assembly leaders to reduce the state’s sales tax, citing existing law that requires such a rate-reduction if certain “internet” taxes are enacted. With the multitude of new sales taxes imposed in recent budgets, the Center maintains that we have essentially reached that legal threshold.

Center Opposes All Three Ballot Questions

The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity urges Rhode Island voters to reject all three 2018 ballot bond questions as too costly, near-sighted, and overly geared toward special interests.

Question 1, the largest bond question, would put Rhode Island significantly further into debt by spending a whopping $250 million to repair school buildings (and would ask for another $250 million in 2020), and is also flawed because it:

  • Bails out irresponsible city/town and school officials who have misappropriated existing local tax receipts by neglecting to address school building repairs over the years.
  • Lacks any long-term vision or strategy in planning for the anticipated educational environments of the future.

“Of course, no one wants unsafe schools,” said the Center’s CEO, Mike Stenhouse, “but when we are talking about this much of a new burden on taxpayers, it is imperative that we are strategic in how we deal with this problem.”

More details on Question 1 below.

Question 2 asks taxpayers to fund $70 million in non-vital new higher education facilities that would mostly benefit other states, as far too many of our college and university graduates end up leaving the state in search of meaningful work. Until we develop a growing economy that can absorb new young workers entering the jobs market, this bond spending would not provide a good return on investment.

Question 3, an extension of the RhodeMapRI scheme, advances a dubious green-economy strategy by spending $47.3 million on a multitude of politically correct sustainable-development projects.

Special-Interest Government Spending Does Not Replace Grassroots Development. All three ballot questions are designed to help special-interest cronies. Because of Rhode Island’s dismal business climate, including a burdensome tax and regulatory structure, our state’s economy is not attracting enough grassroots private money for major capital projects. Instead, seeking work and dues from their employees and members, construction company insiders and labor union officials continually pressure government to spend taxpayer money on unnecessary public-works projects. Taxpayers also suffer a “double hit” because, unlike privately-financed projects, these government-funded boondoggles require abnormally high “prevailing wages” and mandate other costly pro-labor mandates.

Already Too Much in Debt. All three ballot questions would worsen an already burdensome debt problem. Historically, Rhode Islanders pass almost all bond questions that make it to the ballot, and no indications have emerged that this election will be any different.  If anything, consensus that the Ocean State’s public schools are in deplorable condition is translating into even-greater-than-usual consensus that we ought to saddle taxpayers with another $250–500 million in debt.

Broadly, Rhode Island is relying too heavily on debt to cover its bills.  The Mercatus Center at George Mason University puts Rhode Island’s long-term liabilities at 90% of the state’s assets, which is higher than the average state.[1]  Truth in Accounting’s State Data Lab gives Rhode Island a D for finances, with $8,288,881,000 in bonds and other liabilities, plus another $4,316,527,000 in pension and other retirement liabilities.[2]  A recent Rhode Island Public Expenditures Council (RIPEC) report finds Rhode Island already among the worst states when it comes to debt per capita and debt per income.[3]

More debt is not the answer to the Ocean State’s problems; it is a major problem in itself.  Adding $589,462,045 in principal and interest by passing the three ballot questions will make it worse.

The State of Rhode Island and its municipalities must be more prudent with the tax dollars they already collect — for example, prioritizing school-building maintenance over more frivolous projects.

More on Question 1. The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity agrees that our education infrastructure is in lamentable shape, but we encourage Rhode Islanders to vote to reject Question 1’s new borrowing on the ballot.

Wrong to “bail out” irresponsible local officials. Focusing on the biggest ballot question — the $250 million school construction bond — the incentives that it would create will be damaging, as well.  Making this money available to local school districts that have been negligent in maintaining their infrastructure will only reinforce their habit of letting basic maintenance slide in order to fund other priorities, like above-market-rate increases to government worker compensation.  The legislation allowing these bonds to go on the ballot provides insufficient incentive for our cities and towns to change their ways. Further, it is unfair to ask state taxpayers to bail out local communities.

What do the “education futurists” say? Taking an even broader view, we should also question the wisdom of making these massive investments when our society is changing so quickly.  What will education look like 20 years from now?  What sorts of spaces will students require?  The weight of debt will hinder Rhode Island’s ability to adapt and to innovate in the future.

The Center does not believe it is prudent to burden Rhode Islanders with decades of new debt in order to rebuild an arguably obsolete, century-old school model, especially when new educational-environment models are rapidly evolving.

Many “education futurists” no longer envision that large and cold school buildings with walled-off classrooms will be how our children will be taught in the coming years. Creating more-productive learning environments that take advantage of ever-evolving Internet and other technologies could mean that home-based or large online-lecture type instruction may increasingly become the norm. This educational vision would require a far different kind of school campus than what this half-a-billion taxpayer-funded bond might be wasted on.

The Center is not aware of, but is open to review, any kind of long-term strategic educational plan that would justify massive investment in a potentially soon-to-be defunct school model.

Progressive lawmakers are once again seeking to hand out “free stuff”, this time to wealthy-out of staters, in a misguided attempt to bribe them to move to Rhode Island. The legislation, House bill H8018 is an extension of the state’s failed corporate welfare strategy.

Progressive Land of Make Believe Bad Bill of the Week: $10K Pays The Way (H8018)

Progressive lawmakers are once again seeking to hand out “free stuff”, this time to wealthy-out of staters, in a misguided attempt to bribe them to move to Rhode Island. The legislation, House bill H8018, has been named the “Progressive Land of Make Believe Bad Bill of the Week” by the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity, and is an individual-level extension of the state’s failed corporate welfare strategy.

“If we have to pay families, students, and businesses to move to or remain in Rhode Island, to survive our state’s oppressive tax and regulatory climate, then something is very wrong,” said Mike Stenhouse, the Center’s CEO. “Worse than the obvious face-value inanity of the bill, the ignorant belief of how an economy and family dynamics actually work is what is most troubling. The legislation openly acknowledges the negative economy in our state, yet, as with other progressive policies, it tries to band-aid the symptom rather than cure the core illness. ”

Dubbed by the Center as the #10kPaysTheWay Act, the legislation, sponsored by Representative Carlos Tobon, a progressive-Democrat from Pawtucket, pretends that taxpayer funded government hand-outs would be incentive-enough for upper-middle income people to relocate their lives to the Ocean State. It is the false premise of the progressive ideology that more government dependency is what people want; in this case, in desperate hope of increasing our state’s population so as to avoid losing one of its two U.S House of Representative seats after the 2020 national census is tabulated.

While it is unclear how much of a population increase Rhode Island might need to preclude losing a Congressional seat, the legislation seeks to pay up to 30,000 new families. The cost to state taxpayers for this program, estimated at $300 Million, at the proposed handout rate of $10,000 per family … but only to wealthier families that make over $100,000 per year.

There are so many make-believe assumptions underlying this bill that do not exist in the real world, that it is difficult to know where to begin to enumerate them:

  • Families have left Rhode Island not because of deficient government programs, but because of sub-standard job and educational opportunities. Until we can break away from the self-imposed budgetary constraints and special interest influences that impede reforms in our state, Rhode Island’s bottom-10 business climate and family prosperity rankings, will continue to make Rhode Island a relatively inhospitable place to build a career and raise a family.
  • This regressive ‘wealthy-welfare’ scheme is unfair.  Not only would all current Rhode Island residents, including low-income families, be taxed more so that wealthy out-of-state families can be given our money, but those in-state families that have worked hard to become successful will receive nothing. This is similar to how existing Ocean State businesses have to pay for corporate tax credit handouts to other companies, often their own competitors.
  • People not want to be dependent on government. Current and would-be Rhode Islanders want to live productive, soul-fulfilling, self-sufficient, and prosperous lives … even though progressives like to pretend this that more government programs define success.
  • A government hand-out is not enough to overcome the “long-term and short-term negative economic trends” that the legislation itself admits are currently plaguing our state. Already damaged by too many current job-killing progressive policies, more progressive policies cannot possibly make our state more attractive to families and entrepreneurs.
  • Rhode Island’s population would not likely increase. As with most tax schemes, progressives pretend that there will be no adverse economic impact or other unintended consequence to their simple-minded and purely emotional-based policies. In the real world, tax policy drives behavior. In this case, the increased taxes that will be heaped on every family and business will cause even more people to flee our state.
  • Most importantly, progressives pretend that the obvious solution to Rhode Island’s economic and population stagnation is not staring them directly in the face. Proving that the theoretical benefits of the tax and regulatory reductions that our Center have espoused since its inception in 2011, and which is the foundation of conservative economic policy, the recently implemented federal tax and regulatory reductions have led to unprecedented economic optimism and renewed economic growth across America.

Similarly, if Rhode Island were to abandon its government-centric corporate-welfare and wealthy-welfare agenda, and instead start working on creating a reality-based and improved economic climate, where businesses and families can thrive on their own and without costly government assistance, the Ocean State might soon be able to regain the Congressional seat that progressive policies have likely already doomed us to lose.

The Governor's budget for FY2019 stands in stark contrast to the successful path to prosperity blazed by the federal government via tax and regulatory reductions in the past year.

Center Critical of Governor’s “Wrong Direction” Budget

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

January 18, 2018

“Keep Going” Strategy Headed in Wrong Direction

Recent Federal Reforms Demonstrate the Path to Prosperity

Providence, RI – The Governor’s proposed “Keep Going” FY2019 budget stands in stark contrast to the successful path to prosperity blazed by the federal government via tax and regulatory reductions in the past year.

“In perpetuating a stagnant economic status quo for Rhode Island, this budget includes a number of new revenue schemes, even while the Administration claims there are no broad based tax hikes,” said Mike Stenhouse, CEO for the Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity.”Treading water simply is not good enough for a state that ranks in the bottom-10 in multiple broad, national indexes: business climate, Family Prosperity Index, Jobs & Opportunity Index, and in regulatory burdens.”

Already spending significantly more per capita than its more prosperous neighboring states, the proposed budget irresponsibly proposes $135 million in new spending, including the planned hiring of hundreds of new government workers. The budget also seeks to extract significant new revenues from the public via a bevy of narrow tax and fee increases, such state sponsored sports gambling and increased marijuana usage, and “scoops” from other agencies. Additionally, the projected $41 million in new trucker toll receipts will inevitably lead to higher prices for grocery and other consumer products.

With a highly successful 180 degree opposite approach, and less than one month after becoming law, the recently enacted federal tax reforms prove that bold reductions in personal and corporate tax burdens, when combined with meaningful regulatory reforms, will lead to real and immediate economic growth. Further, as the nation has witnessed by the hundreds of companies that have recently announced employee bonuses and pay increases, such growth directly benefits workers at all levels.

The $350 BILLION investment plan announced by Apple this month, and the expected $38 BILLION in new federal taxes it will pay, clearly demonstrates – as the Center has consistently advocated, and as America also saw during with Reagan era tax cuts – that lower tax rates that spur economic growth can actually lead to increased revenue flows to the government.


Rhode Islanders need a credible alternative to the status quo and its destructive progressive ideas. You can help.

Click here to find out more >>>

The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity is the Ocean State’s leading voice against the wreckage caused by our state’s progressive agenda.

As the state’s leading research organization, advancing family and business friendly values… the mission of our Center is to make Rhode Island a better place to call home – to raise a family and to build a career.

While progressives value government-centric, taxpayer-funded dependency… our Center believes in the value of hard work and the free-enterprise system.

We understand that in order for more Rhode Island families to have a better quality of life, that more and better businesses are needed to create more and better jobs.

Your donation will help us fight the union-progressive movement and, instead, advocate for pro-family, pro-business policies and values.

Please make a generous, tax-deductible gift to support our Center today!

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“Sadly, per Amazon’s announcement this, we find again that Rhode Island’s political class was fooling itself into believing that our Ocean State was in the running for a new Amazon corporate campus,” continued Stenhouse. “As we have maintained for years, until RI takes serious steps to improve our dismal business & educational climate, we will continue NOT to make Top-20 lists, and we will continue to hemorrhage from small business shutdowns and transplants to other states.”

Instead of even more taxpayer money dedicated to fund crony corporate welfare handouts, this money could be used to fund broad-based tax cuts that can spur economic growth. If Rhode Island were to work towards a pro-growth, lower tax and regulatory business climate, there is no reason to believe our state could not share in the same dynamic economic growth that we are now seeing across America. With national jobless claims at 40 year lows, with record low African American unemployment, and with Hispanic unemployment also approaching historic lows, it is a win-win situation for Rhode Island to consider meaningful tax cuts and regulatory reforms.

As with last year’s budget, the Center criticizes the ledgerdemain in the budget regarding the deceptive process referred to as “scooping.” Scooping creates the appearance of more general state revenue receipts, by moving off-budget funding from specific state agencies or quasi-publics (e.g., $5 million from the Student Loan Authority) into the general fund. Over time, these agencies may seek to recoup lost funds by shifting the burden to municipal taxpayers or by other increased fees.

The Raimondo administration is heaping additional burdens on employers by doling out tens of millions of their hard-earned tax dollars to Infosys.

Statement on Infosys Announcement: Small Businesses Should Be the Focus

Pro Small Business Measures Would Benefit Ocean State More than Infosys-Type Corporate Welfare

Federal Tax Reforms Could Open Door for Real Economic Growth

Providence, RI – Just days after touting “Small Business Saturday” the Raimondo administration has heaped additional tax burdens on employers and taxpayers in the Ocean State by doling out tens of millions of their hard-earned dollars to Infosys. Today’s announcement of yet another astro-turf corporate welfare scheme underscores how little is being done to nurture small business employers, who account for well over 90% of all jobs in the state.

Ironically, the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity points out that it may be reforms in Washington, DC … often the target of scorn by the Governor … that could be the main reason behind the Infosys announcement, and that may spur real, grass-rootseconomic growth.

“There is little doubt in my mind that the primary reason why Infosys is now locating more jobs in America is because of the easing of federal regulations that we have seen this year,” commented Mike Stenhouse, CEO for the Center. “If Congress next passes its Tax Cuts & Jobs Act, companies won’t need taxpayer-funded hand-outs to decide to become established and to flourish in our state.”


Rhode Islanders need a credible alternative to the status quo and its destructive progressive ideas. You can help.

Click here to find out more >>>

The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity is the Ocean State’s leading voice against the wreckage caused by our state’s progressive agenda.

As the state’s leading research organization, advancing family and business friendly values… the mission of our Center is to make Rhode Island a better place to call home – to raise a family and to build a career.

While progressives value government-centric, taxpayer-funded dependency… our Center believes in the value of hard work and the free-enterprise system.

We understand that in order for more Rhode Island families to have a better quality of life, that more and better businesses are needed to create more and better jobs.

Your donation will help us fight the union-progressive movement and, instead, advocate for pro-family, pro-business policies and values.

Please make a generous, tax-deductible gift to support our Center today!

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The Center has long-maintained that Rhode Island’s corporate welfare based economic development strategy, like the Infosys deal, is not sufficient to spur robust economic growth and jobs creation. Instead, the Center has advocated that broad-based tax and regulator reforms – that will lessen burdens every business in our state – are the only means by which more and better companies will produce more and better-paying jobs.

“The Infosys deal does nothing to improve our state’s dismal business climate and will help very few Rhode Islanders,” continued Stenhouse. “Interestingly, while statewide legislative leaders continue to hamper small business growth, it may be the federal government that will take concrete steps to actually improve the climate for all small and large businesses.

“According to the Center, corporate welfare schemes will do little to alleviate the problems suffered by Rhode Island employers and families … as exemplified by bottom-10 national rankings in such broad-based indexes as: overall state business climate, Family Prosperity Index, Jobs & Opportunity Index, occupational licensing burdens, and the recently released poverty report.

Rhode Islanders would be hit with a tidal wave of new costs to fund the most destructive progressive bills.

15 Progressive Bills would Cost Rhode Islanders over Six BILLION Dollars

PROGRESSIVE TIDAL WAVE of New Costs ?

Opportunities for Rhode Island families to move up the income ladder and achieve a better quality of life would be threatened if the progressive-left’s agenda were to be fully implemented. Already drowning from a 45th rank in business climate and overall family prosperity, Ocean Staters would be asked to bear a tidal wave of new costs totaling multiple billions annually in order to fund the legislative vision of the state’s progressive-Democrat wing.

According to research released today by the RI Center for Freedom and Prosperity, potential increased costs of $6 BILLION per year would be heaped upon our state’s families and businesses via tax hikes, higher ratepayer fees, and new employer mandates if just 15 bills that are now on a path in the General Assembly were taken up again in future years and became law. Such added government-imposed burdens would run counter to productive reforms in other states … and would create new barriers to job creation, while reducing disposable income for virtually every Rhode Islander.

Already suffering from a serious out-migration problem in our state, taxpayers, residents, and business owners should be alarmed that the wave of intrusive bills introduced in 2017 … in the areas of healthcare, business regulation, energy, and education … would likely sweep away even more Rhode Islanders into other states.

The most onerous piece of legislation is a proposed single-payer healthcare system, sponsored by progressive-Democrat activist Representative Aaron Regunberg. In ceding management of the state’s entire healthcare insurance to an overly politicized and incompetent government bureaucracy, this one piece of legislation alone would heap about $5,403,000,000 per year in new costs on taxpayers.


Rhode Islanders need a credible alternative to the status quo and its destructive progressive ideas. You can help.

Click here to find out more >>>

The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity is the Ocean State’s leading voice against the wreckage caused by our state’s progressive agenda.

As the state’s leading research organization, advancing family and business friendly values… the mission of our Center is to make Rhode Island a better place to call home – to raise a family and to build a career.

While progressives value government-centric, taxpayer-funded dependency… our Center believes in the value of hard work and the free-enterprise system.

We understand that in order for more Rhode Island families to have a better quality of life, that more and better businesses are needed to create more and better jobs.

Your donation will help us fight the union-progressive movement and, instead, advocate for pro-family, pro-business policies and values.

Please make a generous, tax-deductible gift to support our Center today!

show less


The second biggest burden of the progressive bills, would be a $391,200,000 annual burden on employers under a $15.00 minimum wage mandate, as proposed by Representative Marcia Ranglin-Vessel, also a member of the progressive-Democrat caucus.

The third most costly bill, which will be considered next month when the General Convenes in a rare September session, is the controversial and high-profile paid-time-off mandate, also sponsored by Regunberg, which would add a $48,713,985 burden on employers.

Consistent with past trends, bills often take years to work their way through the internal politics of the General Assembly. Carbon tax and other energy-related legislation that would raise energy rates on everyone, “fairness” taxes on investment managers, affordable housing incentives, and a statewide charter-school tax … make up some of the other most costly and misguided bills.

For decades, Rhode Island state politicians have practiced allegiance to a budget that has failed its people; a budget that requires unhealthy levels of taxation and regulation. This, as opposed to the allegiance they are sworn to uphold to the people of Rhode Island.

Massive Deficits: The State’s Budget is the Enemy of the People

BACKGROUND:

Should the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of Rhode Island families be limited by an arbitrary, politically driven budget number at the bottom of a spreadsheet? Unfortunately, our state is now suffering the consequences of such an approach, dragged-down by the progressive-left’s big-spending agenda; as projected economic growth has not materialized, leaving the state with massive budget deficits.

Failure of Budget-Centric Apporoach. Yet, for decades, state politicians have practiced allegiance to a budget that has failed its people; a budget that requires unhealthy levels of taxation and regulation. This, as opposed to the allegiance they are sworn to uphold to the people of Rhode Island.

Despite the false hopes expressed by lawmakers based solely on a reduced unemployment rate, on broader measures, in 2016 the Ocean State suffered the worst business climate and the 48th rank in family prosperity in the nation. Furthermore, Rhode Island was the only state in New England to see its labor force decline in size in recent years, as hundreds of thousands of people have chosen to leave our state since 2004. This is not a recovery. The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity maintains that the high levels of taxation and over-regulation imposed for the sake of the state budget are the primary culprit in causing this stagnant performance.


Rhode Islanders need a credible alternative to the status quo and its destructive progressive ideas. You can help.

Click here to find out more >>>

The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity is the Ocean State’s leading voice against the wreckage caused by our state’s progressive agenda.

As the state’s leading research organization, advancing family and business friendly values… the mission of our Center is to make Rhode Island a better place to call home – to raise a family and to build a career.

While progressives value government-centric, taxpayer-funded dependency… our Center believes in the value of hard work and the free-enterprise system.

We understand that in order for more Rhode Island families to have a better quality of life, that more and better businesses are needed to create more and better jobs.

Your donation will help us fight the union-progressive movement and, instead, advocate for pro-family, pro-business policies and values.

Please make a generous, tax-deductible gift to support our Center today!

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It should now be plainly clear that this progressive-left, big-spending, budget-centric approach is not working. Indeed, the state budget itself, could be considered the enemy of the people! Put another way, overspending by a government that primarily seeks to perpetuate and grow itself, actually works against the best-interests of the very people it is supposed to be serving. Instead of seeking to grow prosperity, government seeks to grow itself. This approach must end.

A battle of visions. The progressive-left vision measures compassion and progress by how many people are enrolled in — and become dependent upon — public assistance programs; and by how much money is thrown at a perceived problem. Conversely, the Center believes that Rhode Island families can improve their quality of life and increase their level self-sufficiency only if more and better businesses are free to create more and better jobs and if families can keep more of their hard-earned incomes!

To realize this latter vision — and for true prosperity to be realized — the size of government via budget spending must be cut, so that taxes can be decreased.

What is really in the best interests of Rhode Island families? Is dependence on an unreliable and inefficient government what people hope and strive for? Or, should it be the American dream; where promised freedoms and opportunities abound so that we can increase our own own personal wealth and quality of life?

Deficits: An Opportunity to Reverse Course. Rhode Island’s budget spending rises every year — far beyond the rate of inflation and population growth — as lawmakers are resistant to spending cuts, even when such cuts could lead to increased prosperity for its residents!  If phasing out the car tax and cutting the state sales tax to 3.0% would keep more money in the pockets of residents … and could create thousands of new jobs and better opportunities at the same time … why should any budget number stand in the way?

The state budget should be constructed to reflect the opportunities we want for our people; it should not be the tool to restrict those opportunities.

The nearly $134 million budget deficit presents a new opportunity for our state and a test for lawmakers to determine if they will be wise enough to begin to reverse this budget-centric trend, and move toward an approach that will free its families and business to become more self-sufficient. To bridge the gap, our Center urges lawmakers NOT to continue to seek to extract new revenues from the people they represent; instead we ask them to appreciate our state’s recent history lessons and cut spending instead.

BUDGET CUTS: Over $250 million previously identified

The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity recommends that, to balance the 2018 state budget, spending cut must be implemented. Further, now is the exact time to consider even greater spending reductions so that bold, pro-growth tax cuts can benefit every Rhode Island resident and business. Only budget and tax cuts can spur the economic growth.

The obvious question then becomes: Where can be spending be trimmed without adversely affecting our people? Over recent years, the Center has put forth many specific ideas that can easily account for hundreds of millions of reductions to unnecessary spending items.

If there’s a will, there’s a way. In its 2014 Spotlight on $pending report, as well as in its 2013 recommendations on how to pay for sales tax reduction and in its 2015 PayGo policy brief on how to pay for bridge and road repairs without imposing new tolls, the Center has suggested many items for reduction or elimination.  Some of the numbers or programs may have changed in the years since, but the following examples (based on the former budget value) give an indication of what can be done:

  • $116 million in handouts. Legislative and Community grants; Workforce Board and Training grants; subsidies to film, television, motion pictures, and the arts industries; historic tax credits, etc.
  • $44 million in other corporate welfare. WAVE and other Brookings Institution-inspired economic development corporate subsidies and tax credits.
  • Up to $80 million in Medicaid and Social Services waste and fraud.
  • $22 million in government operations savings. Facilities management; Convention Center (net $15M annual operating loss; level fund this loss-leader while state arranges to sell), Corrections and inmate-related expenses, excessive administrative expenses, etc.
  • $30 million in personnel savings. Executive and Legislative branch staff, excessive overtime pay, non-essential departments and offices; etc.
  • $6 million in government overreach. UHIP contributions, pre-K and full-day kindergarten, Commerce Corp. administration, etc.
  • $8 million for shutdown of HealthSource RI. If the U.S. Congress passes its AHCA legislation, there will no longer be a need for a state-based exchange.

Additionally, newly adopted or proposed spending programs can also be reduced or eliminated.

  • Up to $35 million for free college tuition.

The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity is the Ocean State’s leading voice against the wreckage caused by our state’s progressive agenda.

As the state’s leading research organization, advancing family and business friendly values… the mission of our Center is to make Rhode Island a better place to call home – to raise a family and to build a career.

While progressives value government-centric, taxpayer-funded dependency… our Center believes in the value of hard work and the free-enterprise system.

We understand that in order for more Rhode Island families to have a better quality of life, that more and better businesses are needed to create more and better jobs.

Your donation will help us fight the union-progressive movement and, instead, advocate for pro-family, pro-business policies and values.

Please make a generous, tax-deductible gift to support our Center today!