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Doomsday Predictions Tax Illinois

In order to crawl from beneath crushing debt and reach fiscal solvency, Illinois legislators must choose from a series of options that range from bad to worse, according to a prominent watchdog group.

The Civic Federation wants to launch an intervention that includes significant budget cuts and the largest tax increase package in Illinois history, all in an effort to save the state from a $12..8 billion budget deficit.

“Doomsday is here for the state of Illinois,” said Laurence Msall, Civic Federation President, to the Sun-Times.

Ruling Jeopardizes Ariz. Teacher Performance Pay

A state government program that rewards Arizona teachers for student performance is in jeopardy after a judge ruled that the program is unconstitutional because it isn't open to all school districts.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Dean Fink said it's up to lawmakers to decide on how it will fund the Career Ladder program.

Empire of Excess

Thanks to the interplay of federal and state tax rules, Albany's share of all income taxes paid by New York's wealthiest residents has actually been rising since the 1970s.  And it will soon rise to its highest level ever, if President Obama and congressional Democrats have their way.  This is bad news for New York's battered economy, says E. J. McMahon, a senior fellow for tax and budgetary studies, and Josh Barro, the Walter B. Wriston Fellow; both with the Manhattan Institute. 

Albany couldn't have picked a worse time to enact yet another temporary income-tax increase-- yet that's precisely what Governor David Paterson and the Legislature agreed to do last spring, as part of the 2009-10 state budget, say McMahon and Barro: 

Soft drink tax battle shifts to states

After successfully quashing discussion of a federal tax on soft drinks last year, Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc. and the fast-food industry are facing a new battle on the state level, where legislators are beginning to consider their own taxes on sweetened beverages.

The next showdown could be in California, where legislators last week pledged to pass such a tax in light of new studies linking soft drink consumption to obesity in children and adults. One study suggests that obesity and related problems cost California alone $41 billion a year in medical expenses and reduced productivity.

In the last year, proposals to alter the tax treatment of soft drinks have surfaced in 12 states, including a bill that recently passed the Colorado Legislature. The city of Chicago currently taxes soft drink sales.

Petition Drive: Stop Hess LNG because the Bay is not for sale!

Save The Bay's full-court press against the proposed Hess LNG terminal in Mount Hope Bay continues to gain support. Most recent developments include anti-LNG resolutions passed by the Bristol, Barrington, Jamestown, Middletown and Burrillville Town Councils. The Bristol resolution includes an appropriation of $10,000 from the Town Treasury to help fund Save The Bay's Stop Hess LNG campaign. Bristol voted to spend additional money to match communities that appropriate funds to fight the project. Urge your town leaders to take action and take advantage of the Bristol match.

You Can Make a Difference - Join the Fight

Stop Hess LNG Allies is growing and one of the newest names on the list is the Preservation Society of Newport County, representing 22,000 members. Please take time to sign the petition, if you have not done so already, and encourage others to sign. Also, check out "The Wall," where people are speaking out.

Save The Bay's 2010 Bay Agenda, presented to state lawmakers, includes the State House "to-do" list is pass legislation to stop the Hess LNG proposal. Read the press release.

Carcieri dismisses health plan

WASHINGTON — A comprehensive overhaul of the medical system is not necessary, Governor Carcieri said Monday, because the most important and affordable reforms can be done at the state level, in partnership with the federal government..

Rhode Island’s Republican governor reiterated his opposition to the Democratic effort to expand medical coverage to all Americans, as the Obama administration released its latest version of its proposed health-care system overhaul. The governor said he had yet to review President Obama’s new plan. But he repeated what he portrayed as a concern among governors of both parties — that expanding Medicaid to cover millions of uninsured would eventually increase the cost that states must bear.

Chafee calls for mediator in Central Falls teacher dispute

CENTRAL FALLS — Independent gubernatorial candidate Lincoln D. Chafee on Monday entered into the ugliest education battle of the year when he called for a mediator to help resolve the differences between the teachers union and school officials.

“This is important to Rhode Island,” Chafee said in an interview. “I can’t sit on the sidelines and just watch labor unrest get sparked.”

School Supt. Frances Gallo has recommended that the school Board of Trustees fire all 74 teachers at Central Falls High School, after talks to improve the struggling school broke down earlier this month.

Parents are scarce at meeting to improve education system

PROVIDENCE — Stephanie Jones wanted an answer: Where are all the parents?

Jones was one of only seven parents who showed up at her child’s high school one evening recently to hear what officials have in mind for dramatically improving — or perhaps shutting down — five of the city’s worst schools.

“There is something very, very wrong here,” Jones told the administrators running the meeting at the Health, Science and Technology Academy, a South Side high school. “We’re missing the parents. We’re not going to have a successful school if we don’t get parent engagement.”

Cranston: Cuts in school sports expected Tuesday night

CRANSTON — The budget the School Committee approves Tuesday night is expected to include more than $1 million in cuts to programs and staff, including $130,000 in sports.

But the process is far from over.

School officials are scheduled to make their case Thursday to the Rhode Island Interscholastic League’s Principals Committee on Athletics to merge most teams at Cranston East and Cranston West high schools. If the mergers were approved, the district would not eliminate the girls cooperative hockey team, Supt. Peter L. Nero said.

Tuesday’s meeting will be held at 5 p.m. at Cranston East and will focus primarily on the proposed cuts to sports, including $90,000 in cuts that school officials have held off releasing.

Caprio to join gubernatorial hopefuls at forum

General Treasurer Frank T. Caprio’s campaign confirmed Monday that he will join a crowd of gubernatorial hopefuls at a Meet the Candidates forum Wednesday night, offering the public its first opportunity to watch a key Democrat face off against independent, Republican and Moderate Party candidates.

“Frank will be attending,” Caprio campaign spokeswoman Margie O’Brien wrote in a brief e-mail following a Journal inquiry Monday.

Organizers for the event — hosted by the Rhode Island Voter Coalition, which describes itself as nonpartisan and has participated in various Tea Party events — did not initially include Caprio among the list of participants. Those gubernatorial candidates confirmed in a Friday news release included independent candidate Lincoln D. Chafee, Republican John Robitaille and Moderate Party candidate Kenneth Block.

Edward Achorn: Bitter lessons from the Garden State

Ideology-driven politicians who don’t know much about either economics or human nature –– and they are legion in Rhode Island — often think that taxation is a static game.

Tax more, and you’ll get more money for all the spending programs that appeal to constituencies who keep you in power.

What they forget is what happens after higher taxes go into effect.

In the real world, people respond. And the outcome of higher taxes can be less revenue — and a severely depleted quality of life for everyone, especially the poor and lower middle class. The hated rich, for example, pick up and leave, taking their money, their charitable donations and their businesses and jobs with them.

Donald F. Cady: Wake up, R.I. voters

CRANSTON — Already facing a $9-million budget deficit, the School Department must now tackle a possible $1.26-million loss in state aid –– roughly $500,000 more than originally projected.

The district’s $124.9-million budget proposal for 2010-11 accounts for a projected state aid loss of $756,822.

“Another cut that we are going to have to make,” Schools Supt. Peter L. Nero said after learning of Governor Carcieri’s budget proposal.

R.I. lawmakers want to record votes online

PROVIDENCE – State lawmakers have introduced bills that would make more information about members’ voting records available to the public through the General Assembly’s Web site.

Rep. Edwin R. Pacheco, D-Burrillville, is among those sponsoring a bipartisan bill that would require the General Assembly to report each member’s voting record on its Web site.

Recession Tightens Grip on State Tax Revenues

The recession can now claim another troublesome record: state tax collections shrank at the end of 2009 for a fifth consecutive quarter, the longest period of continuing state revenue declines since at least the Great Depression, according to a new report.

Over all, state tax collections fell to $134.5 billion in the last quarter of 2009, a 4.1 percent drop from the $140.2 billion collected during the same period a year earlier, according to the report, which will be released Tuesday by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government.

While the drop in tax collections was less severe than earlier in the year — the record for the steepest drop was set last spring when tax collections fell by 16.6 percent compared with the same period in 2008 — the continuing declines are putting even more stress on states.