Budget Season

With the General Assembly session nearing the end, we fully expect the new state budget to contain 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. In our Public Union Excesses report, we identified that there are $888 million per year in excessive collectively-bargained costs, responsible for driving up local property taxes by up to 25%. When will our public officials learn that Rhode Island doesn’t have a revenue problem? Our state has a spending problem!

Time is running out for Rhode Island to change direction. We all know that by heaping more privileges upon those who helped to get them elected, politicians continue to lose the trust of the people. After ten years of perhaps the slowest economic recovery among all states, Rhode Island’s political leaders are not fulfilling their promise to help the average family. We need bold solutions to pull ahead, treading water by keeping taxes where they are is not good enough.

Only through the efforts of the people of Rhode Island can things change for the better, things do not have to be this way. It is up to each of us to speak out.

Thank you.