Chamber News

This is your RISC-Y Business email for July 18, 2010

Get up Tuesday morning, c'mon over to the Crowne Plaza, have some coffee, and start Election Season right!!!

RISC BUSINESS NETWORK TO KICK OFF CAMPAIGN AND ANNOUNCE ENDORSED CANDIDATES
                  

TUESDAY JULY 20 CROWNE PLAZA HOTEL, WARWICK
BREAKFAST MEETING 7:30 am - 9:30 am
NEWS CONFERENCE TO FOLLOW 9:30 am LOBBY

Click here for an invitation to the RISC Annual Summer Meeting on August 7th!

TO TRACK KEY VOTES OF YOUR LEGISLATORS, SEE THE RISC WEBSITE

Today's News!

Rhode Island Statewide Coalition is on FaceBook and myRISC.com

RISC Business Network is on FaceBook , Twitter, LinkedIn, and myRISC.com

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!

Vote on this week's poll: www.statewidecoalition.com:

A record number of candidates filed papers to launch campaigns for General Assembly seats recently. Some political observers say because the public is angry at elected officials, they are more likely to volunteer to help new candidates than in past years. Are you more likely to get involved in a local campaign effort this year than in years past?

Slow to start, summer rentals are picking up

Property owners who count on summer rental receipts to offset town tax tabs continue to feel the effect of an unstable economy, as the season heads into the heart of the vacation months.

Prospective renters are wrestling with job security, overburdened budgets, vacation time and even weather as they consider committing large amounts of cash for shoreline digs. While some property owners haven't exactly lowered their prices this year, they haven't raised them either.

Click here to read more...

State rejects Chariho’s $1.4M aid request, again

WOOD RIVER JCT. — The state, again, has rejected the Chariho Regional School District’s claim that it owes the district $1.4 million in school aid.

Chariho accused the state education department of neglecting its rules to fully fund the salary, fringe benefits and travel costs for the Chariho Career and Technical Center’s director and guidance counselors since 1991. It wanted the state to pay $1.4 million in “owed” payments, plus interest, from 1991 to 2008.

Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist rejected the district’s claim in January. Although the education department’s regulations call for the state to fully fund salaries for those employees, the General Assembly has not provided that funding in annual state budgets — which she ruled trumps the department’s rules.

Chariho appealed the commissioner’s decision to the state’s education policy-setting body, the Board of Regents. This month, the board upheld Gist’s ruling.

The district plans to appeal the board’s decision to Providence Superior Court, said Jon M. Anderson, a Providence lawyer who serves as Chariho’s solicitor.

The education department has “an obligation to follow regulations, especially when they are the regulations of the department,” Chariho Superintendent Barry J. Ricci said.

Chariho’s allegation was part of a joint complaint filed in 2008 with Cranston Public Schools, which operates one of the seven other regional vocational schools in Rhode Island. Cranston claimed $7.2 million in owed aid from 1990 to 2008.

On June 30, Chariho filed a similar complaint in Providence Superior Court, claiming $281,251 in owed aid for salaries for its center’s director and guidance counselors for the 2009-10 fiscal year alone, which ended that day. Cranston is also claiming $506,866.

Resolution of the matter is pending.

Editorial: Where the recession is no problem; City manager makes three-quarters of a million

From the public sector compensation run amok file:

At 2.5 square miles and with a population of 36,600, Bell, Calif. -- just southeast of Los Angeles -- has a per capita income about half that of the United States. Yet it pays its top officials some of the highest salaries in the nation, including nearly $800,000 annually for its city manager, according to a recent Los Angeles Times story.

In addition to the $787,637 salary of Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo, Bell pays Police Chief Randy Adams $457,000 a year.

Click here to read more...

Do state governments have a gambling addiction?

Boston

New England, settled by Puritans centuries ago, has gambling fever. Several states are grappling with efforts to expand gambling and harvest the resulting tax revenue.

The Massachusetts legislature is hammering out details of a bill to bring two or three resort-style casinos to the state to supplement its lottery and racetrack betting parlors. In Maine, developers have already put down a deposit on a site for a casino, which is subject to voter approval in November. A similar initiative was just vetoed by Gov. Donald Carcieri (R) in Rhode Island, prompting talk of an override by the legislature.

Click here to read more...

Too many searchers; too few jobs

CRANSTON — Chris Woodhouse was laid off in July 2008 from his job as a collections manager for a museum.

Two years later, he is still looking for work.

He has two college degrees and a work history that includes 10 years as a broadcast designer at the ESPN sports network.

Despite the breadth and depth of his resumé, however, he cannot land a job. He would prefer museum work, but has not found any. He is thinking about returning to the graphic design field but, “They’re having difficulty, too,” he said.

Click here to read more...

Commissioner Deborah A. Gist completes her first year on the job

Deborah A. Gist was so impatient to start her job last summer as the state’s new education commissioner, she was at her desk weeks early and ventured out publicly June 30 — a day before her official start date.

Before long, Gist was zipping around the state in her black and silver Smart car, her own silver hair streak making her instantly recognizable.

Her first goal, she said, was to visit every school district, charter and state-operated school, a feat she completed in four months, aided by 15-hour work days and too many Diet Cokes to count.

Click here to read more...

Di Lullo takes reins as Johnston schools superintendent

JOHNSTON — The long-awaited arrival of a new schools superintendent coincides with the departure of several top administrators in the system, including the district’s assistant superintendent and the high school principal.

The new superintendent, Bernard Di Lullo Jr., took the reins of the school system on July 1, moving out of his office as principal of Sarah Dyer Barnes Elementary School and into the office of outgoing Supt. Margaret A. Iacovelli.

Click here to read more...

Changing Stance, Administration Now Defends Insurance Mandate as a Tax

WASHINGTON — When Congress required most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, Democrats denied that they were creating a new tax. But in court, the Obama administration and its allies now defend the requirement as an exercise of the government’s “power to lay and collect taxes.”

And that power, they say, is even more sweeping than the federal power to regulate interstate commerce.

Administration officials say the tax argument is a linchpin of their legal case in defense of the health care overhaul and its individual mandate, now being challenged in court by more than 20 states and several private organizations.

Click here to read more...

RISC
P.O. Box 567, Charlestown, RI 02813/ Phone: 401-213-6316 / Fax: 401-213-6307 Email: info@risc-ri.orgWeb: www.statewidecoalition.com

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