Pennsylvania website takes taxpayers' ideas to save money

HARRISBURG - Another rough-and-tumble budget season has rolled into the Capitol. Feeling shut out of the process? Got a great idea to save money in these tough economic times and don't know where to go?

Fret no more. Access is now a click away.

A group of House Democrats, albeit backbenchers, want to hear from taxpayers and they've created a website to make it easy.

The website, www.yourpabudget.com, launched Wednesday and already almost 200 people have offered ideas.

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Woonsocket: Residents protest budget hikes

WOONSOCKET — A public hearing on the proposed budget drew a comparatively small crowd to Harris Hall last night, despite the fact that Mayor Leo T. Fontaine's proposed $116.7 million spending package will have many residents paying hundreds of dollars in new taxes next year.

Most of the seats in the historic auditorium were empty as Fontaine, flanked by aides, outlined the genesis of the city's economic crisis with the help of Power Point computer images flashed onto an overhead projector. About 40 people were in the spectator section.

But many of those who showed up came packing a heaping dose of righteous indignation over the rising cost of local government.

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R.I. Schools Chief Helps Deliver New Funding Formula

Whether you agree with her policy positions or not, it would be hard to deny that Deborah A. Gist, Rhode Island's education commissioner, is having quite a run as that state's schools chief.

In today's good news for Gist, Rhode Island, for the first time in nearly two decades, will have a statewide funding formula for public schools that supporters say will bring equitable funding to districts that serve large numbers of poor students.

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The Trouble With Teacher Tenure

Colorado did right by its kids recently when Gov. Bill Ritter signed into law groundbreaking education reform to overhaul teacher tenure and evaluation. The bill elicited an outcry from many teachers. But the many states now considering similar measures must not be cowed by the firestorm.

As a former teacher, principal and district leader, I've devoted my life to providing children with the excellent education they deserve. And in my 23 years on the job, there are two things I've learned for certain.

First, teachers have a greater impact on student learning than any other school-based factor. Second, we will not produce excellent schools without eliminating laws and practices that guarantee teachers—regardless of their performance—jobs for life.

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Casino question before voters leaves questions unanswered

When Rhode Island voters are asked to decide on whether Twin River and Newport Grand should become full-scale casinos this November, they will be making that decision without knowing several important details.

The question will ask Rhode Island voters if the state’s owned and operated slot parlors should become casinos.

Supporters argue that without full gaming at Twin River, full casinos in Massachusetts would put the facilities out of business.

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R.I. jobless rate continues to fall in May

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island’s unemployment rate continued its retreat from the historic highs of late 2009, dropping two-tenths of a percentage point last month to 12.3 percent, the R.I. Department of Labor and Training said Friday.

It’s the third consecutive monthly decline, the longest sustained drop since the state’s jobless rate started its long climb in November 2006. The rate has fallen four-tenths of a percentage point since the high in December of 12.7 percent.

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Mortgage-fraud crackdown hits R.I.

NEW YORK – Authorities have arrested 485 people, including a state senator and a broker from Rhode Island, since March in the largest-ever nationwide mortgage-fraud crackdown of its kind, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday.

State Sen. Christopher B. Maselli, D-Johnston, was indicted for bank fraud on Thursday for allegedly falsifying bank and tax documents and lying about his income and assets to get $1.5 million in mortgages, U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha said in a statement. Maselli is a real estate attorney in North Providence.

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R.I. car insurance N.E.’s least affordable

PROVIDENCE – Car insurance rates in Rhode Island are among the most expensive in the country, according to an annual affordability index compiled by a website that compares insurance prices.

InsWeb Corp. determined the affordability of insuring a car by dividing the state’s median household car insurance rate by its median household income. The lower the resulting percentage, the less the median family spends on insurance relative to its income.

Rhode Island ranked 41st out of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., for affordability, with the median household spending 3.98 percent of income on car insurance.

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Central Falls withdraws state bankruptcy petition

PROVIDENCE — A Superior Court judge ended Central Falls’ state bankruptcy Friday morning, issuing an order that financial control of the city be turned over to the state Department of Revenue.

Associate Justice Michael A. Silverstein didn’t set a specific deadline for the handoff, but scheduled a July 2 review of the progress.

In a consent order negotiated by the city and the state, Central Falls withdrew its state receivership petition. In its place, Silverstein said, the receiver he had temporarily appointed, lawyer Jonathan N. Savage, would continue in the post but report to the state Department of Revenue until the state appoints its own receiver.

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Cranston mortgage broker charged in fraud

A Cranston mortgage broker is among 15 people indicted Thursday in a federal probe of mortgage fraud in Connecticut.

The Day newspaper of New London reported that Nathan Russo of Action Mortgage Corp., Cranston, was implicated in a nationwide mortgage-fraud initiative called Operation Stolen Dream. The Connecticut case focuses on two New London-centered mortgage-fraud cases. U.S. Attorney David B. Fein said that those indicted were involved in multimillion-dollar scams across the state.

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Cicilline seeks nearly $50 million in loans to cut city’s deficits

PROVIDENCE — With the city facing huge budget deficits this year and next, Mayor David N. Cicilline is proposing that the city take out nearly $50 million in loans, using as backing its streetlights, fire stations, the headquarters of the Providence Water Supply Board and about 40 acres of mostly vacant city-owned land.

The plan is facing criticism from City Council members, who say it represents one-time fixes that would saddle the city with more debt in coming years.

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Manufacturing pay, hours rise slightly

Manufacturing workers in Rhode Island earned an average wage of $14.76 an hour in May, up 7 cents from April and 79 cents from May 2009, according to data from the state Department of Labor and Training.

Production workers in the manufacturing sector worked an average of 38.8 hours a week in May, up seven-tenths of an hour over the month and 1.7 hours over the year.

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Editorial: Cut to the bone, cont.

Rhode Island’s municipal officials, bitterly protesting reductions in state aid, often declare that they have “cut to the bone” and that there is nothing left for them to do but hike taxes.

But some of the details of local spending that have emerged as financial pressure is applied are interesting, to say the least.

In North Providence, for example, lieutenants serving on the town’s police force enjoyed weekends off for 12 years, even though their contract called for them to work the same six-day schedule as those they were supervising: i.e., four straight days, then two days off.

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W. D. Whitman: They only want to tax us more

State Rep. Arthur Handy’s solution to repair of the “tattered transportation system” by raising fees and taxes is a typical political mindset (“Lawmaker looks to raise $2.8 billion over 10 years,” news, May 12). He does not get my applause. We are already overtaxed! The excessive 32 cents-a-gallon in gasoline taxes motorists pay now is presumably for the maintenance of the highway system, but the money ends up in the general fund. Boosting the fuel tax will further hurt already over-taxed consumers.

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