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This is your RISC-Y Business email for July 7, 2010 |
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Bristol’s Fourth of July parade provided a preview of the upcoming campaign season: The heat is on, and politicians are starting to sweat.
John E. Faria, chairman of the Bristol Democratic Town Committee, lives on Hope Street, near the start of the 2.5-mile parade route so, on Monday, he sat beneath a canopy in his front yard, lighting a Don Mateo cigar as he talked about the election year atmosphere for incumbents.
“It’s 95,” Faria said of the temperature. “But for them, it’s 100.”
The Providence Journal, Ed Fitzpatrick: Incumbents really starting to feel the heat, July 7, 2010 |
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TO TRACK KEY VOTES OF YOUR LEGISLATORS, SEE THE RISC WEBSITE |
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Today's News! |
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Rhode Island Statewide Coalition is on FaceBook and myRISC.com
RISC Business Network is on FaceBook , Twitter, LinkedIn, and myRISC.com |
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RBN pro-business, pro-jobs candidates to be announced
July 20th
THE RACES ARE ON!
SENATE AND HOUSE SEATS ARE SEEING CHALLENGES IN ALMOST EVERY DISTRICT! THIS IS AN HISTORIC MOMENT FOR RI, AND RBN 2010 IS AN HISTORIC IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS ARRIVED!!!
We've reached the $100,000 mark in funding and campaign pledges, but we need EVEN MORE PLEDGES to elect a slate of pro-business, pro-jobs candidates!
THIS IS AN AMAZING OPPORTUNITY TO CLEAN UP RI AND GET SOME FRESH BLOOD FLOWING IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE! ARE YOU IN?
WE MAY NOT HAVE SUCH AN OPPORTUNITY AGAIN!
TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW:
RBN2010.COM IS GOING TO CHANGE THE R.I. GENERAL ASSEMBLY!!
FIND OUT MORE!
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Vote on this week's poll: www.statewidecoalition.com:
Over 300 candidates-- an unusually high showing- -filed papers last week to run for the 113 House and Senate seats in the state Legislature. Do you believe the high number of candidates reflects the public’s dissatisfaction with the General Assembly and anger at many incumbents? |
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The government pay bonus
Pay cuts, layoffs and the highest unemployment rates in decades have reignited a debate over the relative treatment of public and private workers. USA Today reported in March that federal workers earn substantially higher wages than private sector employees who work the same types of jobs.
White House budget chief Peter Orszag responded that these pay differences merely reflect the superior skills of federal workers, not government largess. Adjusting for education and experience, he said, federal workers make about the same salaries as private workers. Mr. Orszag also correctly pointed out that public and private job categories aren't directly comparable, so we shouldn't necessarily expect them to have the same pay.
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Editorial: House bill could push home care workers into unions
The state House appears to be helping foster unionization among self-employed Michigan service providers. It's moving a bill that would set up a "shell" state employer and seal into law the union dues collected from contractors who provide home help to the elderly and disabled as part of a state pilot project.
Lawmakers must make sure this doesn't become a repeat of the deal under which home-based day care providers quietly ended up in a union in 2006. The state's human services department has yet to adequately explain its role in that development, which has led to a legislative inquiry and a lawsuit involving day care providers who don't recall being asked if they wanted to join a union.
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North Kingstown, R.I. reach new deal on taxes, services at Quonset Business Park
NORTH KINGSTOWN – North Kingstown will receive at least $4.3 million annually in lieu of taxes from tenants at Quonset Business Park under an agreement that went into effect July 1.
The agreement, which was signed publicly Tuesday, simplifies how businesses leasing state-owned land in the park make payments to the town. (State-owned land is exempt from municipal property taxation.)
Under the new agreement, businesses will pay North Kingstown an amount equal to 15 percent of their gross rent. Privately owned land in the park will continue to pay normal municipal taxes. The agreement replaces a complicated formula that expired June 30. |
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CLF, AG ask PUC to reject Deepwater power buying agreement hearing
WARWICK – R.I. Attorney General Patrick Lynch and an environmental group want the R.I. Public Utilities Commission to stop a hearing key to the advancement of an offshore wind farm. In papers filed with the PUC Tuesday, the Conservation Law Foundation Rhode Island chapter and Lynch called the process unconstitutional.
The PUC is mulling whether to approve a power-purchase agreement between wind farm developer Deepwater Wind and utility National Grid. The PUC rejected a similar contract in March after deeming the price too high. The commission is hearing the case again after the General Assembly passed a law ordering it to take a second look. |
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Municipal debt levels putting U.S. banks at risk as local budget deficits grow
NEW YORK – Citigroup Inc., State Street Corp. and U.S. Bancorp are among U.S. banks whose municipal bond holdings have reached a 25-year high just as state budget deficits swell to $140 billion, the most since the start of the recession.
Commercial lenders have added more than $84 billion to their holdings since 2003, according to the Federal Reserve, pushing total investments to $216.2 billion at the end of the first quarter. Bank regulators and ratings companies are ramping up scrutiny of banks most at risk of being forced to raise more capital should debt prices slide.
“There is a huge untold problem here,” said Walter J. Mix III, a former commissioner of the California Department of Financial Institutions who closed 30 banks during the last banking crisis in the 1990s. “The economics lead to the conclusion that there will be downward pressure on these bonds.” |
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Forget Grade Levels, Kansas City, Mo., Schools Try Something New
Forget about students spending one year in each grade, with the entire class learning the same skills at the same time. Districts from Alaska to Maine are taking a different route.
Instead of simply moving kids from one grade to the next as they get older, schools are grouping students by ability. Once they master a subject, they move up a level. This practice has been around for decades, but was generally used on a smaller scale, in individual grades, subjects or schools.
Now, in the latest effort to transform the bedraggled Kansas City, Mo. schools, the district is about to become what reform experts say is the largest one to try the approach. Starting this fall officials will begin switching 17,000 students to the new system to turnaround trailing schools and increase abysmal tests scores.
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Public workers are straining state budgets and ought to accept cuts
It's probably just as well that Rita O'Neill-Wilson, a special education teacher at the high school in Rutherford, N.J., doesn't teach math.
Ms. Wilson had a spirited confrontation with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at a town meeting last month. It's become a YouTube sensation.
The governor earned the ire of the teachers' union when he asked teachers to accept a one-year pay freeze and contribute 1.5 percent of their salaries toward the cost of their benefits package to help close an $11 billion state budget deficit.
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Safe haven from the tax storm
ZURICH (MarketWatch) -- It's easy to see why so many companies from a variety of different sectors choose to base themselves in Switzerland, which is well known for its home-grown financial and pharmaceutical industries.
The alpine country's low taxes, discreet and stable government, good transport infrastructure and high-quality of life has attracted firms from around the globe during the past decade , including house-hold names like Yahoo Inc. and Kraft Foods. But there are some clouds on the horizon for firms wishing to join them. |
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Unions outspending corporations on campaign ads despite court ruling
Labor unions have dominated spending on independent campaign ads so far this election season, despite a recent Supreme Court decision that freed spending by corporations, a Washington Post analysis shows.
The findings are an indication that corporate money is not flooding into campaigns as many predicted would happen after the landmark decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
So far this year, $24.7 million in independent spending has been reported to the Federal Election Commission, campaign filings show. Unions have spent $9.7 million (or 39 percent of the total), compared with $6.4 million (26 percent) spent by individuals and $3.4 million spent by corporations. |
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Ed Fitzpatrick: Incumbents really starting to feel the heat
Bristol’s Fourth of July parade provided a preview of the upcoming campaign season: The heat is on, and politicians are starting to sweat.
John E. Faria, chairman of the Bristol Democratic Town Committee, lives on Hope Street, near the start of the 2.5-mile parade route so, on Monday, he sat beneath a canopy in his front yard, lighting a Don Mateo cigar as he talked about the election year atmosphere for incumbents.
“It’s 95,” Faria said of the temperature. “But for them, it’s 100.” |
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Editorial: Opaque inflation
Some health insurance, mostly now held by members of public-employee unions, still offers incredibly cheap co-pays of $5 for a doctor’s visit, as well detailed, for example, in Boston Globe reporting on municipal costs in Massachusetts. The public ultimately gets a big bill, however, for every visit. |
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A Case Study in Teacher Bailouts
The Obama administration is pressuring Congress to spend $23 billion to rehire the more than 100,000 teachers who have been laid off across the country. Before Congress succumbs, it should know about the unfolding fiasco in Milwaukee. Wisconsin is a microcosm of the union intransigence that's fueling the school funding crisis in so many cities and states and leading to so many pink slips. It also shows why a federal bailout is a mistake.
Because of declining tax collections and falling enrollment, Milwaukee's school board announced in June that 428 teachers were losing their jobs—including Megan Sampson, who was just awarded a teacher-of-the-year prize. Yet the teachers union, the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association, had it within its power to avert almost all of the layoffs.
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King Releases Tax Returns, Raimondo Won’t
General Treasurer candidate Kerry King, a Republican, released his tax returns yesterday, while his Democratic opponent Gina Raimondo, refused. Raimondo stood by her decision even after a GoLocalProv investigation raised questions about how much money she was making from $5 million the General Treasurer has invested in her venture capital firm.
King said he was releasing his returns because the public deserved to know that their next General Treasurer will not use the office for personal benefit or to help friends.
“Gina Raimondo preaches transparency but refuses to practice it. We need new leadership in Rhode Island that is open, honest, and respects the tax payers. No more special interests—no more back door deals,” King said. “You cannot be a person in charge of people’s money and refuse to disclose how you make your living.”
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RISC
P.O. Box 567, Charlestown, RI 02813/ Phone: 401-213-6316 / Fax: 401-213-6307 Email: info@risc-ri.orgWeb: www.statewidecoalition.com
The information included herein, not otherwise identified by source or author, is the copyright of the Rhode Island Statewide Coalition, Inc. "RISC-y Business", and the RISC logo are trademarks of the Rhode Island Statewide Coalition, Inc. Copyright © 2010 Rhode Island Statewide Coalition, Inc. |
