During her campaign, Gov. Gina M. Raimondo emphasized that turning Rhode Island’s economy around was a long-term project. Who, after all, can engineer a statewide recovery within, say, 100 days?
Well, actually, in 100 days it turns out, a lot can be accomplished.
For this week’s cover story, PBN asked a number of savvy thought leaders to come up with 10 ideas that really could make a difference in that short time frame, since Rhode Island needs improvement yesterday. After all, said Providence College professor M. Cary Collins, “This patient is on life support.”
Unfortunately, urgency has not been the watchword in the Ocean State. Too often since the Great Recession the response to transformative changes has been to set up a study commission.
This approach is a sure-fire way to not make a difference. The old way of doing things must be jettisoned.
Still, if 10 ideas are too many to accomplish in 100 days, pick the first four on the list. Create a tax break for every new job a small business creates while eliminating the corporate tax for the first five years of a company’s existence; hike the gasoline tax to build a highway-construction fund; start all voter-approved, bond-financed infrastructure projects now; and restart a robust historic-preservation tax credit program.
These projects would send a signal that the state’s leadership understands the necessity to act now, that it is willing to upset some apple carts to get it done, and that Rhode Island wants to turn itself into an economic engine running at full speed and not stuck in idle. •
