The future of Rhode Island and our communities is directly tied to how we deal with the economic downturn and the severe budget shortfalls we seem to face every year. We must be future-oriented when working to solve our budget problems to pave the path to achieve economic success and get Rhode Islanders back to work.
Over the last few years, we have seen slash-and-burn policies led by Governor Carcieri that have cut funding for the public structures we need to build a strong economy. But we can do better.
Government can and must support the public structures that we all depend on. This means funding our roads, our schools, our hospitals, and our public transit system. In addition, we need to maintain essential programs such as disability and mental health services, elder care, and affordable child care.
The practical solution to fixing Rhode Islands budgetary problems is to fix our upside-down tax structure to make it more balanced. Our tax system asks more of those with the least financial resources, and asks less of those who have more. If that doesnt sound fair, its because it isnt!
According to the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, Rhode Islanders earning less than $51,000 a year (a majority of us) pay on average between 10.0 percent and 11.9 percent of our income in state and local taxes (property, income, sales and excise). But Rhode Islanders with incomes above $419,000 pay only half that -- an average of just 5.6 percent. For every dollar you make, about a dime goes to the state or city while the person who makes far more is just paying a nickel.
Ocean State Action leads the Campaign for Rhode Islands Priorities, a coalition fighting to fix our upside-down tax structure by moving away from our over-reliance on the property tax (which also increases rents) towards relying on taxes that are based more on peoples ability to pay. The Campaign is advocating for practical solutions to achieve this goal, like repeal of the alternative flat tax, which is a massive income tax break to less than one percent of Rhode Islands highest earners.
In fact, if we had repealed the flat tax last year, Rhode Island could have avoided cutting tens of millions in aid to our cities and towns that reduced local services and forced property taxes and rents to go up.
Our schools in Providence and other cities are now facing a potential three percent cut, which will mean teacher layoffs and other changes, after already having lost all professional development this year. The streets of Providence are full of potholes, but the state is withholding money from the city that could have helped to fix them. And so many people are out of work, and public investments could get them back to work. Isnt there a better way?
Please visit www.OceanStateAction.org