Fiscal Policy
Philip Marcelo‘s story on Providence City Auditor James Lombardi’s memo expressing “grave concern regarding the financial stability” of Providence is running in today’s Projo. The memo addresses several issues, one of which concerns the reserve fund that the City is supposed to maintain. According to the memo, the balance in the “reserve contingency funds cash…
The floor (aka the comments section) is open, for people who’d like to discuss why they will or will not be voting for or against the fourth question that will appear on the Nov. 2 Rhode Island ballot…OPEN SPACE AND RECREATION BONDS — $14,700,000 Approval of this question will authorize the State of Rhode Island…
The floor (aka the comments section) is open, for people who’d like to discuss why they will or will not be voting for or against the third question that will appear on the Nov. 2 Rhode Island ballot…TRANSPORTATION BONDS — $84,700,000 Approval of this question will authorize the State of Rhode Island to issue general…
The floor (aka the comments section) is open, for people who’d like to discuss why they will or will not be voting for or against the second question that will appear on the Nov. 2 Rhode Island ballot…HIGHER EDUCATION FACILITIES BONDS — $78,000,000 Approval of this question will allow the State of Rhode Island to…
In response to my post from yesterday on the potential crunch coming to the Rhode Island budget based on the loss of Federal dollars, spurrued by Professor Leonard Lardaro’s Staurday Projo op-ed, commenter Bill replies…Most respectfully and to the contrary, there will always be “bailout” or other “funny” money from Washington for RI. Obama knows…
In an op-ed in today’s Projo, University of Rhode Island Economics Professor Leonard Lardaro connected the macroeconomic to the macropolitical…The upcoming election is more important than is generally assumed for Rhode Island, because federal bailout money will no longer be available by this time next year. Fiscally, this will force us to go “cold turkey.”…
Ted Nesi has responded to my post, yesterday, about state conduit debt. Giving some further details about the situation in Rhode Island, Nesi writes: To return to Justin’s critique, the reason it’s easier and cheaper for these institutions to borrow through the state isn’t because of an implicit Fannie-Freddie promise; it’s because state bonds are…
Not because Andrew’s post is deficient (on the contrary) but because sometimes I’m thick, I hunted out two more definitions of “moral obligation bonds”. tax-exempt bond issued by a municipality or a state financial intermediary and backed by the moral obligation pledge of a state government. (State financial intermediaries are organized by states to pool…
Via this piece against the implementation of a Value-Added Tax (ie; “A VAT is a terrible idea if it triggers bigger government, and a VAT is a bad idea if it merely finances bigger government.”), I came across the below from a decade-old interview with Milton Friedman. It was 2000 and we had a budget…
If you see the words “moral obligation” being repeated in statements and news reports related to the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation’s loan guarantee program with 38 Studios (like this one from Jim Baron of the Pawtucket Times, or this one from Ted Nesi of WPRI-TV (CBS 12)), there is a specific reason why: there…