R-ISLANDER

Rhode Island Children Thrown to the Wolves

Today it is reported that the state budget built by Gov. Don Carcieri, tweaked by Rep. Steve Costantino, and passed by a so-called Democratic legislature has thrown RI Children to the wolves...the first to feel the cuts in state services are over a thousand poor, needy children.  They chose to kill medical services so that they could preserve the tax cuts for RI's richest citizens.  SHAME....

Here's how today's story reads:

Some, in fact, are very sick children. Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island, the HMO that cares for about 60 percent of RIte Care enrollees, including 50,000 children, has tallied the number of its patients who were affected by the RIte Care change. Among those dropped from RIte Care are 54 children with asthma, 50 with attention deficit disorder and eight with diabetes. One is in the midst of treatment for bone cancer and has already lost a leg. One needs a ventilator to breathe and is currently living at the state-run Tavares Center. Several have cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, depression or sickle cell anemia.

What will happen to them? “I don’t know,” said Dr. Mack Johnston, the plan’s chief medical officer. “We are kidding ourselves if we think there’s somebody out there, some charitable pots of money, that’s going to pick up the responsibility. … The bottom line is that many will get sicker.”

And over 500 corporations don't pay any RI tax or less than $400.  Where is the compassion in that?  Where is the social justice?  Were are Catholic values?  Fight abortion and then when the poor children get sick...IGNORE them...cut their medical support...shame, shame, shame....

RI STATE BUDGET: OTHER TRUTHS

Here are some truths about the budget we are not hearing in RI: (from URI economist R. McIntyre)

It is true that health care costs, pension costs, and education spending,
especially on special ed, have risen in RI (and nationally). But the attention
to these issues in the media is way out of line with their relative
importance. Consider the following, all taken from Tom Sgouras's wonderful
publication, "Rhode Island Policy reporter" (www.whatcheer.net):

Corporate taxes have declined from 14% of the general
revenue in 1990 to less than 7% today. In today's
dollars, this is around $200 million in lost revenue.

We've cut the capital gains tax twice at a cost of about $40 million.

The personal income tax was cut 9% between 1997
and 2002, costing us about $110 million this year.

The phaseout of the car tax is costing $140 million
this year.

We've cut taxes on the richest taxpayers to a degree
that will eventually cost us $100 million.

So as the governor, the supposedly democratic legislature, and the supposedly
independent media, tell their story as if it were the only truth, there are
certainly others.

PENSIONERS AND POOR CHILDREN ARE DESTROYING RHODE ISLAND

Yes, the problem with the RI budget problems and we do have those, are the pensioners and poor children.  That's what Sen. Stephen Alves, Senate finance chair, URI Professor Maureen Moakley, and RI rich kid and corp. executive John Hazen White, Jr. (wearing all his gold "bling" to make sure we know he's "cool" and he's rich) said this morning on PBS' "Lively Experiment".

Imagine.  These people all think it is a hard thing to do, that is cutting services and pensions of RI's neediest, but they are advocating, indeed proposed, that we do it.  Hazen White was beside himself praising Carcieri and the Democratic legislature coming together to finally screw children and pensioners and balancing the budget on their backs rather than raise taxes...on corporations.

Even Alves noted that there are HUNDREDS of RI corporations making profits of over $10M per year who pay the minimum tax of $500.00.  Yet these people pass laws (Alves) or support passing laws (Moakley, Layman, Hazen White of Tacky, Inc.) that will reduce pensions for pensioners and cut THOUSANDS of poor children from the RI Ritecare (health insurance) roles.

RI constituencies, voters, unions, Hispanics, academics (Hazen White flaunts his money by donating to places like URI), public workers, and firefighters and policemen ( whom this group of VERY UNREPRESENTATIVE Rhode Islanders attack unmercifully as underserving of pensions and health care they negotiated in good faith with the state and or cities and towns) should come out in force to make sure they are all "thanked" for their concern about our first defenders and Rhode Island's working classes and the poorest of our children.

What is wrong with these people?  Heartless ... what is government for anyway, if not to help those in need...and yet they support corporations and the state's wealthiest by cutting their taxes and adding to the burdens of our citizens...who actually work for a living.

DEMOCRATIC LEGISLATURE BACKS CARCIERI CUTS OF HUMAN SERVICES

The RI Legislature closed the budget deficit.  How did they do it?  As reported in the Projo, ..."cutting health-care and welfare benefits for thousands of children, and reducing retirement benefits for all state workers who retire after Sept. 30, not to mention cutting benefits in other human services programs. 

How cowardly is it for the Assembly to balance the budget on the backs of children and state workers?  CHILDREN...no health insurance for children.  A major cut in health insurance for the working class on a variety of fronts.

They cut needed benefits of poor children and save dollars...and then give it away with tax cuts for the rich and coporate entities.  I can understand the Republican Carcieri making such unconscionable choices, but a D_E_M_O_C_R_A_T_I_C legislature?  I thought Democrats supported those at the margins of our society.  What the hell happened?  When did they become Republican who gleefully cut programs for the poor and working classes?

SHAME, SHAME....time to check voting records and to "reward" those democrats who are so in name only!

RI LOSES JOBS UNDER CARCIERI

Under the Republicans, Rhode Island is going down the tubes economically.  Under the current Republican Governor, Don Carcieri, the state has lost more jobs under his stewardship than under any recent governor. 

Workers in RI are also in a panic over the Governor's fiscal policies, especially state employees.  He's recently given very high paying patronage jobs to his friends while at the same time telling those at the bottom of the economic ladder to essentially "Eat Cake!"

The Democratic legislature has done very little to help those in need, either.  Rep. Steve Costantino, the Leader of the House Finance Committee, has worked closely to help the Governor destroy the future of many working class Rhode Island families.  It must stop somewhere and only the Democratic legislature in Rhode Island can turn the state around.  Legislators like Costantino need to stop the cutting of taxes of the very rich, stop the patronage of the Carcieri Administration, and begin to focus on how to shore up the loss of jobs, especially those of the state workers.  They are Rhode Islanders, too, they make little in comparison to most workers, and it is time to give them their due instead of demonizing them as Carcieri and the Democratic legislature have done recently.

CARCIERI GIVES US UNEMPLOYMENT--WORST IN TEN YEARS!

This is what the Carcieri government and the Rhode Island Republicans have given us.  If you want more, unemployment and cuts in taxes for the rich, vote Republican whenever you can!

R.I. unemployment rate highest in more than a decade

February 29, 2008, PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Island’s unemployment rate climbed last month to 5.7 percent, the highest in more than a decade.

The state Department of Labor and Training says there are now 32,800 unemployed Rhode Islanders. The state lost 1,700 jobs in the last month alone and 7,200 jobs in the last 13 months.

Rhode Island ended last year with the first annual jobs decline since 2001.

The unemployment rate jumped .5 percent. It’s the highest it’s been since 1995

UNLIKE RI, NEW YORK COURT ALLOWS GAY DIVORCE

New York judge allows divorce trial for lesbians married in Canada.  Weeks ago, bowing to pressure, both political and religious I suspect but have no proof for, our judicial leaders said "No" to a same-sex couple's request for divorce.  They were married in Massachusetts.

History will not be good to either Bishop Tobin, Governor Carcieri or the legislators who refuse to allow people to get married because they are of the same sex.  Like slave-holders they will be the shame of Rhode Island and their families in the future, just as the De Wolfe's are the shame of their descendents.

WILL TOM RYAN GO TO JAIL TOO?

After reading this article about how legislators have been found guilty of influence peddling, the question is will the corporate officers who benefitted monetarily also go to jail? I bet not!

Rhode Island: Prison for Ex-Official

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (NYT)

A former top state lawmaker was sentenced to more than three years in prison for using his legislative influence to benefit a pharmacy chain and an insurance company. Judge Mary M. Lisi of Federal District Court said Gerard Martineau, a former House majority leader, had used his office “in the most perverse way” but also had shown genuine remorse. Judge Lisi sentenced him to 37 months and fined him $100,000. Prosecutors also said Mr. Martineau, a Woonsocket Democrat, was cooperating in an influence-peddling inquiry at the Statehouse. Mr. Martineau pleaded guilty to using his influence to benefit the CVS pharmacy chain and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island while doing hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal business with them.

HIGHER EDUCATION IN RI AND CARCIERI

It is pretty clear from news accounts over the weekend and from the Boston Globe this a.m. that Don Carcieri, Steve Costantino, et al are really working to make it very difficult for RI students, especially those from the working and middle classes to get the education they need to compete in today's world.  In order to balance the state budget that Carcieri has mismanaged for years now, the Governor with the help of the democratic state legislature is cutting funding to education programs at URI, RI, CCRI and in fact, scholarship money for the poorer of students.  Along with this, in order to correct their mismanagement of the state's funds, Carcieri with the help of the legislature is cutting funding for the disabled, the young, the old, and virtually every other at risk group in the state.

The only group that does well in Carcieri's world are the super rich.  Carcieri with the help of the legislature has given outrageous tax cuts to Rhode Island's wealthiest--along with tax credits--that has destroyed the social programs of the state, which were minimal at best.

As far as Higher Education in Rhode Island, it is reported that all other states are pouring money into Higher Education at an average rate of almost 8% over the last four years.  RI at the bottom and because of Carcieri's mismanagement of budgets over the last several years of his administrative incompetence.  Here's most of the article:

Students at Rhode Island's three public colleges could be hit hard by proposed budget cuts, including higher-than-anticipated tuition and fees and less money for scholarships. Governor Don Carcieri is proposing a $17.8 million cut in the state's higher-education system for the next fiscal year and is asking the colleges to give back $3.7 million this spring. At least $2 million of the cuts would require professors and college staff to work six days without pay. Carcieri's plan would also reduce the state's scholarship program by half a million dollars this year and by $1.1 million for the 2008-2009 academic year. As a result, about 670 college students who would have received last-minute scholarships of about $700 this month will not receive the grants, according to the Rhode Island Higher Education Assistance Authority. "If you look at [the $3.7 million cut] plus roughly $17 million for next year, we are looking at a two-year deficit of over $20 million," Jack Warner, the state's higher-education commissioner, told the Providence Journal. "That's a very big whack against higher ed." The state Board of Governors for Higher Education will probably vote this spring to raise this fall's tuition and fees at the state colleges beyond the rates it set last September, according to Warner. Those earlier rates included a 6 percent increase at the University of Rhode Island, for a total of $8,678 for in-state tuition and fees; a 5.6 percent increase at Rhode Island College, for a total of $5,552; and a 5.4 percent jump at the Community College of Rhode Island, for a total of $3,000. Average room and board for in-state students in 2008-2009 is set at about $10,000 at URI and $8,300 at RIC. The tuition and fee increases come at a time when state education officials are trying to encourage more first-generation, low-income, and minority students to attend state colleges. Carcieri is recommending the cuts to try to help close a looming state budget gap of $151 million for the current year and up to $410 million for the new 2009 fiscal year, which begins July 1. Rhode Island is out of step with other states who have managed to pour more money into higher education. Nationally, states saw their higher-education budget rise by 7.5 percent, the fourth year of increased state investment.

HOW TO BALANCE RI'S BUDGET MESS

Gov. Donald L. Carcieri proposed deep budget cuts to close a $151 million deficit, including forcing state workers to take unpaid days off, removing children of illegal immigrants from state health care rolls and cutting back on welfare spending. The plan by Mr. Carcieri, a Republican, seeks to close a budget gap in the current fiscal year. It now goes to the General Assembly, which Democrats control.  That's what this a.m. newspapers are reporting.

Notice that all the correctives are aimed at those least able to survive such budget cuts.  He's also called on retirees to pay for their healthcare benefits...you know, those people on a fixed income!  He's balancing the state budget, the disaster he created in the first place with his tax credits and tax cuts for the wealthiest Rhode Islanders, on the backs of Rhode Islanders least able to tolerate cuts to their salaries and incomes.

How about instead of screwing the middle class and the poorest among us how about we ask churches, privates universities and colleges, and all those others not paying any taxes to get together and come up among them the needed $$$ to balance this year's budget deficit and next year's as well.  That will give the state legislature and the governor time to develop a plan that doesn't screw the middle classes and the poorest of Rhode Islanders.  The Casino owners might want to kick in too!

Come on Bishop Tobin, Brown University, Roger Williams, Johnson and Wales, Providence College, CVS and other corporate people....come up with the money to bail out the state....to help the middle class and poorest among us.  Rhode Island has been giving you huge $$$ perks for years...time to help out!