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They know better than we do?

By Christopher Curran
Posted 2/11/16

This past week, the governor presented her fiscal year 2017 budget during her State of the State address. Meanwhile, in the General Assembly, Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello attempted to ram …

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They know better than we do?

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This past week, the governor presented her fiscal year 2017 budget during her State of the State address. Meanwhile, in the General Assembly, Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello attempted to ram through a bridge repair tolling bill that no one except unions, infrastructure contractors, and of course the cabal of the governor, speaker, and Senate president actually want.

In the spirit of the 38 Studios debacle, the state officials who are pushing these ideas feel that they possess a societal and governmental wisdom that we do not. Thus, the governor’s budget is pervasive with the proposed inception of numerous lab experiment programs that expand our already bloated government in a time where austerity and streamlining should be the foundation of reform. Mattiello and Paiva-Weed, along with the governor, are ramrods for a truck-tolling plan that has raised the ire of small business, in-state trucking companies, high-profile retailers, and citizens who know they eventually will be tolled.

The anti-populous approach to governing in which our “leaders” assume an aristocratic attitude where they believe with certitude that they know better than we do is why the Ocean State has waned for decades. Our status of last or close to last in all measurable categories nationally is a direct result of the stagnancy produced by a long list of self-assured know-it-alls on Smith Hill who kowtow to special interests and ignore the will of the people.

Hopefully, this time the electorate is awake and alert and vigilant, so we can impress upon our representatives that if they go along to get along with these proposals, they shall not be re-elected.

In her State of the State address, Gov. Gina M. Raimondo, presented a $9 billion state budget that includes many initiatives that seem like grand lab experiments that use taxpayer money on the whim. Instead of crafting a plan that lessens the scope and size of government with a goal of efficiency and taxpayer savings, Raimondo has formulated a variety of costly programs.

The sheer size of Rhode Island’s budget is astronomical and full of ever-escalating spending when one contemplates the following. Outrageously, the budget has grown from $4.8 billion in 2000 to the current $9 billion when the intrinsic value of the dollar has only changed 22 percent. Obviously, this begs the question: What are we buying with our tax revenue, and why is what we are purchasing in goods and services costing so much?

If we lived in a utopia where our infrastructure was top-notch and our schools were state-of-the-art and our government services were accommodating and proficient, our degree of taxation might be justified. However, since by every national barometer Little Rhody is dead last or close to the bottom, it is inescapable that the government is wasteful and inefficient. This truth should propel a chief executive to pare down government and seek reorganization and redundancy.

On the contrary, our governor has treated the state budget like a lab experiment in which she is willing to try varied and obscure ideas, with her gambles being funded by taxpayer dollars. Her basic paradigm of government intervention in virtually everything is a testament to liberal economists John Maynard Keynes and Paul Krugman and will create an ineffective bureaucratic nightmare even worse than it is now.

For instance, Raimondo wants $5 million for expanded research and development tax credits for new biomedical companies. Before we create incentives for R&D for some entity that may come here, we need lessen the current oppressive taxes and regulations on existing businesses.

The governor wants $2.75 million to assist state universities and colleges to attract faculty. In a world where there is a glut of credentialed educators seeking full-time teaching positions, it makes little sense to subsidize the search for potential professors. The money would be better spent at reducing tuition or providing scholarships for academically deserving students, if it has to be spent.

Additionally, Raimondo wants to spend $1.5 million for “Rhody Pass.” This idea would provide discounted train fares and better travel information. Forget this nonsense and call AAA. Also, she wants $1.5 million to entice airlines to offer more direct flights out of Green Airport. Airlines make these terminal lease arrangements solely upon a cost-benefit and profit basis. If it makes sense to use Green as a hub, they will. We do not need to “entice” them.

More ridiculous is the notion of spending $20 million to create an “Innovation Center,” a brick-and-mortar site to try to bring together thinkers and inventors to possibly stimulate new concepts in commerce. What our governor fails to see is that these proposed programs, along with many others that her administration are trying to incept, are conceptual rolls of the dice.

If Raimondo truly wants to attract new commerce, then she should strive to create a fertile field in which businesses can plant their companies here and cultivate them to flourish. The way to accomplish that goal is to reduce business taxes, lessen regulation, eliminate stratification of physical plant and building inspection, enlist a single licensing system, and reduce the multiple fees due to duplicative permitting. Then, business owners would start to view our state as business friendly. They would plant their businesses here, and with the stranglehold of taxation and regulation gone, they would flourish here and employ people here in droves. We do not need more government. We need streamlined and efficient government and responsible government. Creating obscure and risky new government programs in antithetical to the cause of commerce and private sector job creation.

Also, adverse to the cause of commerce is the truck-tolling bill currently being debated not only on Smith Hill but across the state. Currently, the tolling proposed would toll Class 8 trucks and higher.

Overwhelmingly, the majority of citizens do not want tolling of any kind to repair our roads and bridges. There are three alternative plans from legislative Republicans, trucking organizations, and good government entities that would use pay-as-you-go funding without incurring any additional bonded indebtedness to achieve the needed repairs.

Despite the voices of the people, Raimondo, Paiva-Weed, and Mattiello are pushing hard to bring a tolling plan to bear. Either these three officials are politically tone deaf, or they are beholding to union construction interests, or they are erroneously self-confident in their wisdom. Whatever the reason, an already downtrodden and justifiably cynical electorate will not soon forget their betrayal of our interests.

Mattiello has attempted to express that the plan is “full of fairness.” He claims that the tolling “does not add to the cost of goods/freight.” He also says that citizens are protected from cars eventually being included because that would require a referendum. However, the General Assembly can eliminate that safeguard with a vote anytime a shortfall occurs. DOT Director Peter Aliviti, a former union activist, claims that currently that our no-toll status is “helping pay for every other state’s infrastructure” because some other states toll. Their theories defy common sense and logic.

The portion of the state budget that can be trimmed is $3.7 billion out of the aggregate $9 billion. If legislators and the governor cut 2 percent of the $3.7 billion, that would more than cover infrastructure costs with no further borrowing!

The tax-and-spend Democrat leaders refuse to even consider it. Furthermore, Raimondo’s stated theme of jobs, jobs, jobs, is belied by this wholly misbegotten tolling plan. Although short-term construction jobs will be produced by these projects, more permanent jobs will be lost in the private sector.

As a direct result of the possibility of this plan becoming law, Ocean State Job Lot has put a hold on a $50 million expansion that would have employed 100 more workers. Chief Executive Officer Marc Perlman has stated: “Rhode Island truck tolls would cost more than six times what we pay in tolls in every other state we do business in combined.” A Cumberland Farms spokesman has stated they would have to possibly rethink distribution. Chris Maxwell from the Rhode Island Trucking Association has said that many businesses will be strongly injured by this tolling scheme. Brian Newberry, Republican Minority Leader in the House, stated the overall business sentiment well: “Additionally, the governor’s anti-business tolling plan sends a contradictory message about Rhode Island’s competitiveness.”

Yet, despite the business community’s angst, the citizens’ uproar against the tolling, and the apt trepidation toward accumulating more bonded indebtedness, Weed, Raimondo, and Mattiello are forging ahead. These three truly believe they know what is better for us than we do. Their thinking is arrogant, aristocratic, condescending, and politically inane.

We citizens know we can correct our infrastructure problems with one of the pay-as-you-go plans. We know we do not have to create more risky government plans to generate commerce – we simply need to reduce the undue burdens on business. We know more than you think we do and you work for us, not visa-versa. And we will remember if you ignore our voices should you run for re-election.

Comments

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  • Straightnnarrow

    There is nothing aristocratic about this tolling solution. Its the way the RI establishment gives the shaft to its constituents. Period. The smartest woman in the world, our Governess, knows that this tolling solution is absolutely the worst answer to the problem. She knows that this solution will destroy businesses here and will discourage any business from coming here. She also knows that the truckers will pass the cost of tolls to their products so the consumer will pay. She knows that there are other solutions that will cause less harm to this fragile economy. She knows that these tolls against the truckers will be thrown out of court because they discriminate unfairly against a certain class of transport and she knows that the eventual payee will be the auto drivers. She knows she is stiffing us and she continues to spew forth her talking points. The truckers should use the State House as a land fill and dumping ground for all the trash they collect until this awful bill is reversed and the Governess is run out of State to be with her lying mentor, Hillary. Birds of a feather do flock together.

    And let's not forget that the Warwick Beacon editors endorsed this lying woman to become Governess!

    Thursday, February 11, 2016 Report this

  • Justanidiot

    I thought our governess was Mary Poppins. Boy did I get the wrong ballot last election.

    Friday, February 12, 2016 Report this