Pro-growth coalition endorses 9 candidates, asks businesses to finance change

Small business has become the darling of the 2010 campaign.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Frank Caprio has latched on to small business as both the substance of Rhode Island and the means to turn the economy around. He says that if each of the state’s 35,000 small businesses were to hire just one additional employee, the state’s unemployment rate would be cut in half. Independent candidate for governor Lincoln Chafee has brought his campaign to businesses, soliciting their concerns and pledging to work to bring sides together to address their problems. The correlation between small business and the economy is being made by candidates of all political persuasions.

On Tuesday members of the Rhode Island State Coalition Business Network called on small businesses to become involved in the political process by opening their checkbooks. They also released the names of the nine General Assembly candidates who have signed on to network principles, the top being the creation of jobs, at a press conference at the Crowne Plaza. The endorsements bring pledges of financial support.

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U.S. goes from leading to lagging in young college graduates

The United States has fallen from first to 12th in the share of adults ages 25 to 34 with postsecondary degrees, according to a new report from the College Board.

Canada is now the global leader in higher education among young adults, with 55.8 percent of that population holding an associate degree or better as of 2007, the year of the latest international ranking. The United States sits 11 places back, with 40.4 percent of young adults holding postsecondary credentials.

The report, to be presented Thursday to Capitol Hill policymakers, is backed by a commission of highly placed educators who have set a goal for the United States to reclaim world leadership in college completion -- and attain a 55 percent completion rate -- by 2025.

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Portsmouth: School committee chairman hangs hat in November

PORTSMOUTH — He retired from his long-time job as management consultant last year, so now Richard Carpender is ready for a break from local politics as well.

The school committee chairman has decided not to run for re-election in November. Over the 13 years he’s served on the school committee he had to juggle his local service, lots of traveling for work and time with his family.

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Robert Cushman: Holistic representation needed to reform

Since its inception, one of the centerpieces of my column has been to expose the unsustainable costs associated with employee and retirement benefits and the need for reform not only for the sake of taxpayers but also to ensure current employees have a sustainable plan when they retire. Unfunded liabilities, consisting of outstanding borrowing, $201 million; healthcare, $385 million; and pension, $220 million, for a combined $806 million in future obligations will soon will grow to over $1 billion without meaningful reform. Already these costs are threatening the financial stability of Warwick and the ability of taxpayers to continue to fund them while maintaining desirable programs and services we come to expect in the city.

During the year, programs, services, schools, teachers, fire, police and municipal personnel have been cut, yet every dollar saved has not been enough to supplement the new dollars collected annually in taxes, to halt the spiraling increase in liabilities. State and municipal leaders have ignored the plight of struggling citizens and business, rather focusing on maintaining their position in office by courting special interests and believing that the bill associated with the cost of the luxurious benefits promised are of little concern today.

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Matt Miller: The Great Recession is just the beginning

Here's a cheery midsummer thought. You know those 15 million unemployed, and that sluggish growth, and the debt hangover and de-leveraging, and those soaring deficits? Well, these woes aren't our biggest economic problems.

The real test for the U.S. economy starts once we get past the fallout from the burst housing and banking bubbles that triggered the Great Recession. And when it comes to that challenge -- which involves preserving U.S. living standards in a world of global competition -- we either (1) don't know what to do, or (2) we do know but seem to have little intention of doing it.

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Pension Politics; Symbols and substance will clash in 2010 and beyond

Change is in the air in the public pension world. A year ago, there wasn't a single nightly newscaster who knew beans about public pension funds. Now it's a regular topic in the media. Several columnists have made it a regular subject. Nonpartisan public policy groups like the Pew Center for the States have published in-depth research studies to provide background information on the scope of the problem. The SEC has stepped in to clean up campaign payola that the pension funds failed to fix themselves. Blogsters are having a field day. Traditional supporters of public employee unions are having second thoughts about their pension policies. Pension envy is rising in some states as the media publishes lists of "$100,000 Club" public pensioners. As we head into the November elections, public pension reform is sure to be a hotly debated topic in many states

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Editorial: Where is a deal not a deal? Here.

When is a deal not a deal? Apparently when you’re dealing with government agencies As the state’s deficit continues to rule the day and influence so many decisions — consider the car tax exemption that was pulled off the table — towns and school districts are finding out piecemeal all that they can’t count on from the state regardless of previous pledges.

The Chariho School district right now is embroiled in a type of surreal confrontation with the state Department of Education whereby the district has to prove that the department years ago committed to funding the salaries of the director and guidance counselors of the career and technical school on its campus.

Chariho and the Cranston School District filed a complaint with the department in 2008, claiming the state was not living up to the deal, which dates back some 20 years. Cranston is claiming it is owed $7.2 million going back to 1990 and Chariho says it’s owed $4.1 million going back to 1991.

Department attorneys denied the claim, saying the fault lies with the General Assembly, which decided the state should fund the positions, but never really appropriated enough money to make it happen. The two districts appealed and the Board of Regents, the department’s governing body, backed the department. Now, Chariho is taking its case to Providence Superior Court. We encourage this course of action.

Someone dropped the ball here and local taxpayers are getting charged with the penalty.

The General Assembly agreed to fund these positions, agreed that it is the state’s duty — not the district in which a state facility is run — to pay the leaders of an educational service provided by the state. Chariho superintendent Barry Ricci summed it up best when he said the education department has “an obligation to follow regulations, especially when they are the regulations of the department.”

Chariho is right to demand what it is owed, and the Department of Education looks foolish — at best — claiming it has no role in this debacle.

The department should be working with the district, not against it.

Study: Classroom Spending Dips as Ed. Funding Rises

Spending in California classrooms declined as a percentage of total education spending over a recent five-year period, even as total school funding increased, according to a Pepperdine University study released Wednesday.

More of the funding increase went to administrators, clerks and technical staff and less to teachers, textbooks, materials and teacher aides, the study found. It was partially funded by a California Chamber of Commerce foundation.

Total K-12 spending increased by $10 billion over the five-year period ending June 30, 2009, from $45.6 billion to $55.6 billion statewide. It rose at a rate greater than the increase in inflation or personal income, according to the study. Yet researchers found that classroom spending dipped from 59 percent of education funding to 57.8 percent over the five years.

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NJ: Newark Budget Cuts

MYFOXNY.COM - Things are getting so bad in Newark that the mayor has ordered the government to stop buying toilet paper.

It's part of Newark Mayor Cory Booker's belt-tightening plans that include reducing most city workers to a 4-day work week and shuttering city pools.  Booker estimates that the pool closures alone would save $250,000.  He also says that no gas will be purchased for municipal vehicles that are not deemed critically important. 

Police officers, firefighters and sanitation workers would not be affected by the furlough plan. City workers were already bracing for furloughs starting in August. The number of unpaid days would increase from 11 to 19 with Booker's plan.

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White House Backs Bill to Collect Employee Pay Information from Businesses

(CNSNews.com) – The Obama administration is backing legislation that includes regulations requiring U.S. businesses to provide to the government data about employee pay as it relates to the sex, race and national origin of employees.
 
In an orchestrated effort that included a statement by President Barack Obama and an event at the White House featuring Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Eric Holder and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, the president and his cabinet endorsed the Paycheck Fairness Act

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The Tax Tsunami On The Horizon

Fiscal Policy: Many voters are looking forward to 2011, hoping a new Congress will put the country back on the right track. But unless something's done soon, the new year will also come with a raft of tax hikes — including a return of the death tax — that will be real killers.

Through the end of this year, the federal estate tax rate is zero — thanks to the package of broad-based tax cuts that President Bush pushed through to get the economy going earlier in the decade.

But as of midnight Dec. 31, the death tax returns — at a rate of 55% on estates of $1 million or more. The effect this will have on hospital life-support systems is already a matter of conjecture.

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W. Warwick: Schools go to court seeking $3.4 million from Town Council

WEST WARWICK — The School Committee has filed a complaint asking a Superior Court judge to order the town to pay $3.4 million in local tax dollars that the committee says is owed to the School Department.

The three-count complaint asks for payment of $1,162,343 for each of three budget years — those ending in 2009 and 2010 and the current fiscal year. Days after the complaint was filed July 15, School Committee Chairwoman Lindagay Palazzo said the board plans to vote Tuesday whether it intends to go through with the legal action. Palazzo said the School Committee and Town Council are in the midst of negotiations that might settle the complaint outside the courts. David G. Lussier, the school board’s lawyer, could not be reached for comment.

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East Greenwich: Council to consider road repairs

EAST GREENWICH — The Town Council is expected to decide Monday night whether a $2-million bond for local road repair will be a question on the November ballot.

Town Manager William Sequino Jr. is asking the council to seek the necessary legislative approval for the referenda, saying that roads on the western side of the town are long overdue for repaving and repair. Also, he said, with the state cutting aid and capping the amount municipalities can raise in taxes each year, there is no way the work can be covered by the annual capital budget.

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Editorial: Pension predicament

In this election year, the General Assembly did some tinkering with state pensions but declined to pass the serious reforms needed to make the system sustainable.

So it is no surprise that state and local taxpayers are confronting huge increases –– vastly outstripping inflation — in the amount of money they will have to pay for pensions in the coming years, under rates approved by the state Retirement Board.

Some of that increase is the legacy of huge losses on Wall Street. Some is because employee contributions to the retirement plans are capped by law — while taxpayer contributions are not.

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Block Says Teachers’ Endorsement of Chafee ‘Uninformed’

Moderate Party candidate for governor Ken Block today criticized the American Federation of Teachers for endorsing independent Lincoln Chafee before meeting with the all the candidates.

“The American Federation of Teachers’ choice to endorse before meeting with all of the candidates was uniformed and demonstrates that union leadership is out of step with its membership,” Block said. “The fact that they never even took the opportunity to meet with me and hear my stance on the issues is just another example of preserving the status quo.”

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