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This is your RISC-Y Business email for July 17, 2010 |
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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 |
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Click here for an invitation to the RISC Annual Summer Meeting on August 7th! |
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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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BE THERE TUESDAY MORNING!!
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
The RISC Business Network will officially launch its Pro-Jobs/Pro-Business platform campaign and announce its list of endorsed candidates to date for General Assembly at a Breakfast Reception and News Conference on Tuesday, July 20th at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Warwick. The Breakfast Reception Meeting begins at 7:30 am and the News Conference will be held at 9:30 am.
The kick-off by the Network’s election campaign, called RBN2010, will include the unveiling of: a Candidate’s Pledge, which all endorsed candidates must sign; the Pro Growth Agenda Platform, which serves as the centerpiece of the campaign; and the introduction of both incumbent and new candidates who have thus far been endorsed by the Business Network or RBN2010. The RBN2010 endorsement carries with it an array of pledges of financial campaign support which is being managed through the RBN website. www.rbn2010.com
“Job creation is the top objective of this business network,” says RBN spokeswoman Arlene Violet. “We are engaging the business sector of this state right now, this campaign season, so there will be a business community left standing to provide jobs for the future.”
You don't have to be a business owner to get involved in this effort!
RSVP: 213-6316 or
cat@risc-ri.org.
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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?
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N. Providence: School Committee OKs teachers’ contract
Schools officials have reached a new, three-year collective-bargaining agreement with the teachers’ union.
The new contract calls for teachers to pay 20 percent of the cost of their health care and imposes a wage-freeze for top-step teachers.
The School Committee approved the proposed contract in a unanimous vote Wednesday night, and officials say the changes will save close to $6 million over the next three years.
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Federal Labor Board Sets Up Snap Union Elections
For private-sector labor unions that nationwide have lost nearly 2 million members in the last decade (more than 260,000 of those in Michigan) it has long been a priority to get their membership numbers (and dues revenue) back up by changing the law in their favor. Plan A was the Employee Free Choice Act and its "card-check" rule, which would allow unions to make use of authorization cards signed by individual workers in place of the secret ballot as a means of determining whether or not a union has the support of a majority of workers in a bargaining unit. Under card-check, union support could easily by manufactured by thuggish tactics, since the union would know who has signed, and there would be no way to tell if a signature was genuine or coerced. |
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Westerly tax bill mistake explained
WESTERLY - Tax bills - for property and motor vehicles - are raising questions from the public, and with good reason.
Town Assessor Charles Vacca said the property bills - mailed this week and due by the end of the month - contain a small misprint, but the overall tax rate and amounts due are correct. |
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RI jobless rate falls as firms add jobs
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - Rhode Island's sky-high unemployment rate fell for the fourth straight month in June, though partly because more of the state's residents gave up on looking for work.
Rhode Island's jobless rate was 12 percent last month, down from 12.3 percent in May and 12.7 percent back at the beginning of the year, the R.I. Department of Labor and Training said Friday.
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Retired judge steps in to run Central Falls finances
Retired Superior Court Judge Mark S. Pfeiffer has been named Rhode Island’s overseer of the financially flagging City of Central Falls, stepping in for a court-appointed receiver who is bowing out.
Pfeiffer, 62, who retired from the bench in 2009, will lead a team that will oversee all operational and financial functions for Central Falls, Governor Carcieri announced Friday. The governor made the appointment with Rosemary Booth Gallogly, acting state director of revenue. |
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Pawtucket: City leaders are grappling with millions in deficits
PAWTUCKET — City Councilman John J. Barry put it this way Friday: “We’ve got a pretty massive problem.”
The city and school district each have $2.4-million deficits for the budget year that ended June 30, said Deputy Finance Director Jeannine Bourski. And officials must decide what to do about a nearly $10-million hole in the current-year budget, created when state lawmakers cut most of a state-aid program that reimbursed communities for exempting from taxes the first $6,000 in the value of motor vehicles.
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Providence City Council moves for control on contracts
PROVIDENCE — The City Council on Friday unanimously overrode Mayor David N. Cicilline’s veto of an ordinance amendment that requires the council to approve all vendor contracts over $500,000 and all leases over $200,000.
The measure followed concerns about no-bid contracts approved by the city Board of Contract and Supply and is among a package of reforms the council is proposing to insert itself more into city governance as the Cicilline administration nears its end.
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Editorial: Matunuck’s battered beach
Looking out to the Atlantic from Browning Beach in South Kingstown can be a sad experience. In the last few years, erosion along the Matunuck shore has increased, and many of the sand dunes that once protected shoreline properties from the ocean’s unrelenting waves are gone.
Houses built a century ago have been expensively moved to new foundations at the back of their lots. Sand dunes have been recreated, reinforced with coconut-fiber roving to mimic the tough layer of peat that once underlay the dunes. But in the next hurricane, the waves will surely come and wreak havoc, not only to properties but to ponds and marshes beyond the thin barrier of the beach. |
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Marie Sorman: Ethics for everyone
Former R.I. state Sen. David Carlin says good government groups are so disdainful of politicians that they are willing to jeopardize parliamentary rights to punish members of the General Assembly (“Goo-goos vs. democracy,” letter, July 6).
Mr. Carlin cites House Resolution H7357, which would have placed a question on the 2010 ballot to let voters decide whether the state Ethics Commission should be able to investigate and prosecute state legislators when they use their votes to violate the state’s conflict-of-interest laws. H7357 was approved by 67 of the 75 members of the Rhode Island House, but Senate leadership refused to let it come up for a vote. |
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Editorial: Lost in Taxation
If it seems as if the tax code was conceived by graphic artist M.C. Escher, wait until you meet the new and not improved Internal Revenue Service created by ObamaCare. What, you're not already on a first-name basis with your local IRS agent?
National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson, who operates inside the IRS, highlighted the agency's new mission in her annual report to Congress last week. Look out below. She notes that the IRS is already "greatly taxed"—pun intended?—"by the additional role it is playing in delivering social benefits and programs to the American public," like tax credits for first-time homebuyers or purchasing electric cars. Yet with ObamaCare, the agency is now responsible for "the most extensive social benefit program the IRS has been asked to implement in recent history." And without "sufficient funding" it won't be able to discharge these new duties. |
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The Pain Index: 10 states placing the largest budget burden on residents
It's funny how government budget cuts trickle down to everyday people. I live in California, which ranks second on U.S. News & World Report's "pain index" of states that have suffered the biggest budget pains and have been forced to institute both tax increases and spending cuts. I can say firsthand that I see the effect of those cuts every day.
Our local pool is closed some days due to city budget cuts, the nearby city of Oakland is laying off more police officers a week after a major riot, and I'm not watering my backyard. That last one is more to save me money and the state some water in a drought. But spending cuts are the reason the road medians in my town aren't being kept up (that said, they look far better than my backyard). Look around, and you're likely to deal firsthand with federal and state budget cuts as they trickle down to your neighborhood.
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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. |
