Rhode Island Politics News

In today's Projo story on binding arbitration, School Committee Lobbyist Tim Duffy said to the paper:

In Connecticut, arbitration favors teachers unions more than half of the time, Duffy said, and strains emerge when the final decision is perceived as too expensive for the community to pay.

“Even if a district does not go to arbitration, their [negotiated] settlements reflect what arbitrators have ruled in neighboring school districts,” Duffy said.

 But the actual settlements say something different.

The Connecticut experience also says something very different about the impact on cities and towns.

And don't forget, these were contracts settled when the economy was doing much better than today. Also, a small portion of contracts go through arbitration, only around 10%.

How much of the criticism of binding arbitration is really just a criticism of the right to collective bargaining, period?  Most of it I think.

Progressives picked up a number of seats in the Rhode Island General Assembly in 2008.  A small part of this positive development was the work of the "New Voices Campaign Institute."  Organized by Ocean State Action, New Voices is a training program designed to give real world experience to people looking to run for office or manage campaigns.

The 2009 New Voices Training is starting to accept applicants.  Here is the latest information from the Ocean State Action web page. check it out and apply online!

New Voices Campaign Institute

The New Voices Campaign Institute is a comprehensive training that provides the skills needed to run a winning electoral campaign.

I have been looking at some numbers. I have taken the 10 states with the highest tax burden, and the 10 with the lowest. Rankings per Tax Foundation.

Methodological glitch: I included Mass, which is #28 according to the rankings, and excluded Nebraska, which is #9.  I'll go back and correct this, but I don't think anyone can accuse me of leaving it out because it's such a bastion of liberalism. Remember, these are preliminary.

Then I have ranked them according to which states have the highest percentage of population earning over $200,000, per IRS data.  I used 2007 data, which is the latest available.

As expected, Secretary of State Ralph Mollis has indicated he won't appeal a court ruling that handed the Moderate Party, a nascent third party, a partial victory on ballot access.

US District Judge William Smith struck down a provision of state law Friday that required new parties to wait until January 1 of an election year to collect signatures for ballot access.

Smith upheld a portion of the law that requires parties to collect signatures equivalent to 5 percent of the turnout of the previous statewide election.

From Mollis' office:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (June 1, 2009) -- A decision this afternoon by Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis eases the way for new political parties to be officially recognized under state law.