Taxation
The Ocean State Policy Research Institute has shot holes – on the basis of sound figures from the US Dept of Ed – in the well repeated and well intentioned suggestion to merge most of Rhode Island’s thirty six school districts. This from an OSPRI press release of today. [Emphasis added.] As more towns and…
A bill has already been introduced in the Rhode Island House (H5034) to lower the state’s corporate income tax rate from 9.0% to 7.4%. As far as I can tell, there are no gimmicks in this particular bill, no lowering-but-broadening schemes or anything like that, just a permanent lowering of the corporate tax rate starting…
Governor Carcieri’s appearance on this weekend’s Newsmakers is already online. He certainly makes me a lot less self-conscious about talking with my hands on television. Performances aside, Ian Donnis was responsible for an interesting exchange: Ian Donnis: Governor, wealthy Rhode Islanders have received tax cuts over the last ten years, so how do you respond…
Pat Crowley’s been working diligently to prove that, when it comes to taxation in Rhode Island, night is day. Yesterday, he stated his starting point thus: Maybe, just maybe, we are loosing population because we have a cash and carry tax structure that benefits the elite at the expense of the poor, not the other…
I think what I find most distressing about the reports of potential transportation-related tax increases that Marc mentioned this afternoon is that nobody is even hinting at the possibility of increasing money for such a basic government function as transportation infrastructure by taking it from less fundamental government functions. (Pick your favorites.. or rather, your…
Proving yet again that unintended consequences occur from government policies, we’re hearing noise about increasing the gas tax at both the state and federal level. The reason? We’re driving less, conserving fuel and helping the environment as we’ve been urged to do. But now we’re not buying enough fuel to generate the “revenue” to pay…
Kathy Santos, of Riverside, proposes some new taxes to which I find it difficult to object: Perhaps there are some new taxes that should be considered, though, ones that would not be such a burden to businesses and citizens: Incumbent politician tax Legislative grant tax Union dues tax Legislative slush fund fee Campaign donation fee…
Efforts to “update,” or otherwise change, Rhode Island’s taxation regime give the unmistakable impression of tinkering. That impression is solidified under one insidious phrase, which I’ve italicized in the following paragraph: “It may be in the ’10 [fiscal year budget], not in the supplemental,” Carcieri said [of a plan to broaden the sales tax]. “I…
Could be that New York Governor David Paterson is offering a taste of things to come in Rhode Island: Gov. Paterson’s proposed $121 billion budget hits New Yorkers in their iPods – and nickels-and-dimes them in lots of other places, too. Trying to close a $15.4 billion budget gap, Paterson called for 88 new fees…
It appears that Kate Brewster is fully back from hiatus, offering the Rhode Island College Poverty Institute response to every new suggestion for changing the state’s oppressive and ill-considered tax structure. Her conclusions all translate into the principle of “take more from them, and give it to my preferred group”: The Poverty Institute, a think…