Justin Katz
A quick update study from the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity finds that legislative proposals at the state level to increase the minimum wage to $8.25 per hour would cost workers in the state 432 jobs, measured against last year’s $7.40 per hour rate. Even worse would be the proposal suggested by U.S. Congressmen…
The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity has posted state payroll information to its transparency Web site, RIOpenGov.org. The site lists all state employees by name, department, and division, and presents their pay, including overtime, for the years 2010 and 2011. The Ocean State Current drew some attention to this data last week, with reports…
It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, so I had intended to watch The Passion of the Christ on Good Friday. But life’s being what it is, these days, I couldn’t manage the 126 minutes required. And by the time Saturday rolled around, it felt more appropriate to turn attention toward the Resurrection, which…
Because Providence Journal staff writer Lynn Arditi never made any attempt, of which I’m aware, to contact me or anybody associated with the Ocean State Current while writing her article,”Overtime reports inflated, say R.I. officials,” a few moments of a Saturday morning are justified for response. In the article, the Projo reports on the payroll…
For many months, Rhode Island has been exchanging places with two other states for worst, second worst, and third worst official unemployment rate in the United States. February marked the milestone of Rhode Island’s breaking free from the dance. The Ocean State’s 9.4% unemployment rate tied with North Carolina for fifth worst, behind California, Nevada,…
Following the announcement of Dan Harrop’s withdrawal as a candidate in the contentious race for Rhode Island Republican Party chairman, some question arose as to the move’s significance. The evening before, the RIGOP’s Credentials Committee had ruled to dismiss Harrop’s complaints about registration irregularities in a prior vote that he lost by one and that…
In a statement provided to the Ocean State Current, Dr. Dan Harrop of Providence announces that he has decided to bring his campaign for chairman of the Rhode Island Republican Party to a close.
The State of Rhode Island spent $89.6 million on employee overtime in 2011, according to payroll data acquired by the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity. The free-market think tank will make the individual payroll data for fiscal years 2011 and 2010 available next week through an interactive transparency Web site. The average overtime payments…
From the time she took a job with the State of Rhode Island in 1979 to 2011, Judith Andrade had worked her way up to regular pay of $37,091 as a laundry worker at Eleanor Slater Hospital. According to payroll data collected by the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity she actually took home $76,320…
The Ocean State Current has an article up by Suzanne Bates (freelancing from Connecticut’s Yankee Institute) detailing the sky-high overtime that some staff at the state-run Eleanor Slater Hospital take home. These numbers come to light every now and then — usually with just a glimpse because a nurse or two makes the top however-many…
