ECONOMICALLY

A June national 2024 report showed the Rhode Island’s economy is floundering, among the worst state economies in America, with the number of unemployed Ocean Staters exploding to 26,700. Our state’s unemployment rate increased 66% in July 2024 as compared with one year earlier.

The average two parent Rhode Island family will pay over $1,369,000 in taxes throughout their lifetime, over 30% higher than the US average!

In 2024, first-time homeowners in Rhode Island, because of exploding national and local inflation under liberal-left policies, are looking at average mortgage payments of about $2432 per month, more than twice as high as the $1158 monthly payments from just 4 years previously, when under conservative federal governance.

Also, family savings have completely reversed (-72% drop) under the Biden’s control over the national economy as compared with Trump’s (+129% rise).

The Left’s war on energy is major factor in the high electricity and heating costs that stress family budgets, as well as a driving force in raising inflation rates. It is immoral to heap massive energy price increases upon struggling families  just to meet arbitrary and unattainable climate targets.

The tax the rich and spend mentality of the progressive-left actually makes worse the problem of wealth inequality by robbing low income families of opportunities for upward mobility; instead of encouraging them to become dependent on government assistance.

When income or wealth is over-taxed at the individual or corporate level, there is less incentive to invest cash (capital) to hire and pay workers or to start or expand a businesses, while at the same time driving high-income investors out of Rhode Island and to other, less oppressive, states.

These kinds of natural human reactions are why increased taxation often leads to decreased revenues to the government.

Such counter-productive policies that borrow opportunity from future generations, in order to satisfy the present demands of corrupt insiders, inevitably lead to many negative and unintended economic consequences for families:

• Excessively High Local Property Taxes: Per a 2019 report, about 25% of all local property taxes can be attributed to ‘excessive’ costs from overly-generous collective bargaining agreements with public employee unions, whereby government forces taxpayers to overpay government unions for services, as compared with average costs in the private sector.
• Soaring “Local” Inflation (High Cost Of Living) means families are losing thousands of dollars of purchasing power each year, as prices on many staples continue to rise. Groceries cost too much. Clothing costs too much. Housing costs too much. Electricity costs too much.

• On top of the national inflation problem, Ocean State politicians have made local inflation even worse. RI politicians have continually and mindlessly collected billions of of dollars in federal aid and hundreds of millions in wasteful spending bonds … most of which end up in the pockets of insider cronies and special interest groups.

Inflation is a basic supply and demand situation: Combined with over-regulation (which limits output, or supply), these unchecked levels of federal & bond funds and indiscriminate state spending (which increases consumer spending power, or demand) are a direct and major cause why local prices have risen so significantly.

For too many families, rises in family incomes are not keeping pace with rises in the local cost of living. “Shrinkflation”, where consumers get LESS product for the same spend, is also a direct cause of government over-spending.

Real wages for families (income as compared with inflation) have fallen by 2.54% under the progressive policies of progressives in the White House

HOUSING CRUNCH

The affordable housing crisis in our state can be directly attributed to misguided government public policies that place costly red-tape burdens on builders and secret programs that designate housing units for illegal immigrants at the expense of struggling Rhode Islanders.

• Exploding housing costs and rents in RI are significantly higher than the national average, while misguided over-regulation by government has reduced the number of units to rent and homes to buy. Persistent permitting red-tape makes it harder and more expensive to build housing units.

Housing prices have exploded past the level of affordability for an increasing number of Rhode Islanders, with lack of availability even a bigger concern. Home prices are much higher, down-payments required are higher, and mortgage interest rates have more than doubled.

In fact, RI residents pay almost $40,000 per year in housing expenses … 26% above the national average, according to Cinch Home Services.

Never-ending government regulation in the housing industry has reduced the number of available units, while increasing costs on builders, sellers, and landlords all of which are passed onto buyers and renters.

Further, with RI effectively a sanctuary state, when undocumented immigrants are granted housing by the government, there are fewer available units for citizens in our state. This reduction in the available ‘supply’ of housing unit necessarily drives up the prices of all other housing across the state.

Latinos Especially Harmed: Misguided policies that restrict the building of new housing units, as forced upon our state by environmentalists and urbanists from the Left, have resulted in dramatically low home ownership rates for Hispanics in Rhode Island. In fact, Ocean State Latino home ownership rates are only about 36% of their white and Asian counterparts … the third-worst rate in all of America!

• • Property Taxes are among the highest in America, largely due to overly-generous collective bargaining agreements with unionized public employees
  • Most new and available public housing units are being developed for the benefit of illegal immigrants and NOT for hard-working Ocean State families.

SOLUTION: Allow natural market forces to determine what gets built, free from onerous regulation. Repeal 2014 “RhodeMapRI” regulations that mandate social-engineering and urban-planning policies (such as “sustainable development” and “smart growth”) that artificially increase the cost of building and restrict the supply of home and rental units. End free housing policies for illegal immigrants.

TRANSPARENCY: State officials should disclose how many illegal immigrants are receiving housing assistance and housed in shelters … not to mention how many (and how much money is being spent) are enrolled in our schools and other social welfare programs. 

ENERGY: Ever increasing cost of utilities and exploding energy prices while simultaneously decreasing energy choices, when it comes to heating our homes and driving our vehicles. Our state government’s foolish race to be the first net-zero-emissions state will actually result in zero world-wide benefit. Instead, it will impose massive energy costs upon families while limiting our freedom of choice.

High energy costs are a direct result of agenda-driven government officials who are beholden to a forced “green-energy” transition … ignoring reality and clinging to unachievable and costly goals.

Family budgets are being crushed by residential electricity prices are nearly two and a half times more than the U.S. average and are expected to keep rising rapidly, due to RI lawmaker’s oppressive green energy mandates.

Wind farms, we are told, are the solution. But wind energy is unreliable and extremely costly. The destruction to the environment and sea life when it comes to building, maintaining, and disposing of obsolete and oft-broken wind-turbines and their parts … is astronomical!

On top of the massive cost over-runs, and despite the now clearly evident environmental, marine, and beach-goer dangers of offshore wind farms now clearly evident … Rhode Island government officials continue to recklessly push for even more destructive offshore wind projects.

With both US Presidential candidates disavowing strict federal EV mandates … it is time for our governor to withdraw Rhode Island from its commitment to California’s even more oppressive EV mandates. Further, it is time for state lawmakers to repeal the 2021 “Act on Climate” (optional: “, which requires RI to reach net-zero emissions by 2050) in favor of a more realistic and less costly state energy policy.
The hundreds of millions of dollars paid to enrich these wind-farm developers comes at the great expense of everyday families. Who wins and who loses?

• • In recent years, RI lawmakers enacted green energy mandates for power suppliers and voluntary entered our state into a regional cap-and-trade market … each of which artificially drives up the cost of electricity, hoping many families will use less
    • The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is a regional compact between participating states, whose goal is to artificially raise electricity prices
  • By next decade, Rhode Island motorists will be banned from buying lower-cost gas powered cars, and will be forced to buy significantly higher-priced and less-reliable Electric Vehicles … because state lawmakers mandated that RI must follow California’s (CARB) oppressive vehicle emissions standards. RI should follow the recent lead of CT and VT and decouple from CARB’s  unattainable and oppressive emissions standards.
  • The TCI Gas Tax: Just prior to the pandemic RI lawmakers sought to heap even more unnecessary costs on RI families, when they committed to passing a new tax on gasoline call the Transportation Climate Initiative. Fortunately, the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity was able to raise enough awareness about the TCI Gas Tax, whereby Governor McKee was compelled to cancel the plans for RI. However, radical climate alarmists are sure to try again in the near future.
  • SOLUTIONS:
    • Every candidate for statewide office should pledge to never vote for the TCI Gas Tax in coming years. 
    • End Rhode Island’s EV mandate, and allow consumers to choose which type of vehicle they want to drive
  • The “Act On Climate”, passed by RI lawmakers in 2021, supports our state’s  unachievable path to eliminate carbon emissions … a path that will lead to increased utility and energy prices even more rapidly than we have seen in recent decades.
  • SOLUTION: Accept the reality of the limitations of green energy. Repeal the Act of Climate and end RI’s voluntary membership in RGGI and CARB

JOBS: Fewer good paying jobs will be available for many Rhode Islanders as they are increasingly going to illegal immigrants welcomed into our state by Rhode Island’s and Providence’s “sanctuary state” and “sanctuary city” policies.

Small businesses, the main source of jobs in our state, are being crowded out by high local inflation and oppressive regulations imposed by progressive lawmakers that make it costly to produce goods or provide services.

Major corporations, like Hasbro and CVS, are increasingly considering leaving our state as their Headquarters or have decided to expand operations in other states.

Also, RI’s high and ever increasing minimum wage mandates, means employers will hire fewer workers and will cut back on the hours of part-time or hourly workers.

SOLUTION: Reform RI’s minimum wage laws to match the federal minimum wage minimums. This will increase job availability and allow good-performing workers to quickly earn higher wages from employers who will want to keep them.

Reductions in Public Assistance for low-middle income families are at threat because of the Left’s misguided polices. First, the influx of illegal immigrants means more public funds are being diverted away from long-time Rhode Island resident families. Second, our high tax and cost-of-living environment means thousands of people are leaving our state every year, which will lead to a loss of one of our two prized House of Representative seats in the US Congress resulting in lower levels of federal aid for Rhode Island. Who wins and who loses?