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Rhode
Island's jobless picture
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They
say that a picture is worth a thousand words. The following
graph, published by Business Week, shows how Rhode Island's jobless
rate stacks up against the rest of the
nation.
It
is notable and sad that in all of New England, where every other
state 'enjoys' a jobless rate of less than 7% to 9%, Little Rhody is
listed here at 11%. Rhode Island's most recently published
unemployment rate was 12.9%, but the real number of Rhode Islanders
out of work is closer to 20%, which translates to almost 1 out of
every 5 Rhode Islanders being out of
work.
It
is abundantly clear that Rhode Island's laws (tax policy
and regulations) and our outsized economic issues (systemic
budget deficits and monstrous unfunded pension liabilities) have led
us to this point, where we are significantly
underperforming every other state in our
region.
Businesses
and jobs will not come to Rhode Island while our economic
situation is so dire.
The
January 5th edition of the Providence Journal reports that Rhode Island's
unemployment benefits are among the most generous in the
nation. Can we afford this? No! We must bring our
benefit programs in line with those of our neighboring states.
Rhode
Island's unemployment benefits are paid by a tax on all RI
businesses (one of the highest unemployment taxes in the
country). Our unemployment fund is broke (Providence Journal) and we have already
borrowed more than 125 million dollars from the federal
government to pay out 2009 unemployment benefits. We are about
to borrow another $100 million. Very soon, this $225 million
loan will need to be repaid. To pay it back the
state is going to levy another tax on Rhode Island's already
beleaguered business community.
At
what point will our elected leaders realize that Rhode Island cannot
afford to be driving a Rolls Royce on a Ford Fiesta budget?
This
$225 million shortfall almost doubles our current state budget
deficit - but you won't hear our elected officials talk about
it. Our leaders won't tell you that our deficit is double the
currently acknowledged number because to admit this requires courage
and political will and, to date, they have demonstrated
neither.
We
have to reign in our spending to match our revenues. We
have to align our social service programs with neighboring
states. We must create an environment where business can
flourish. To not do these things will only serve to
broaden the gap between Rhode Island's competitive
posture and the other New England states and further sink us
into a hole we may very well be stuck in for a
generation.
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