PROVIDENCE – Eighty-two percent of attendees at the Smaller Business Association of New England’s monthly breakfast meeting are opposed to Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee’s proposed 1 percent sales tax on currently exempt items.
According to a poll conducted on Jan. 26, only 9 percent of the 65 attendees were in favor of the 1 percent sales tax and 9 percent were “unsure.”
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“I actually thought more [attendees] would be opposed to it,” said Grafton “Cap” Willey IV, chair of the Rhode Island chapter of SBANE, to Providence Business News.
The poll was conducted before the speaker’s presentation. This month Leonard Lardaro, professor of economics at the University of Rhode Island, spoke on the topic “Rhode Island’s economy: Where we’ve been and where we’re going.”
Willey said one of the more common questions on the poll in recent months, “What is your opinion of the state of Rhode Island’s economy?” revealed an increase in optimism.
Forty-three percent of attendees said their opinion was “the same” or “stable,” 34 percent it was “decreasing slowly,” 18 percent said it was “increasing slowly” and 5 percent said it was “decreasing rapidly.”
The last time the question was asked, in September, only 10 percent said it was “increasing slowly” while 52 percent said it was “decreasing slowly.” Thirty-three percent of the 50 attendees said it was “stable” and 5 percent responded it was “decreasing rapidly.”
The poll also asked about the attendees’ optimism toward the local unemployment rate.
“Currently, the Rhode Island unemployment rate is [11.5 percent] – what will the rate be one year from now?” Most – 52 percent – thought the situation would be slightly better, between 10 to 11 percent, while one-quarter thought it would be between 9 to 10 percent. Twenty-three percent said it would stay the same, between 11 to 12 percent.
However, no one thought the unemployment rate would decline to below 9 percent or increase to more than 12 percent.
Other questions ranged from what attendees thought the consumer price index would increase by in 2011 to Rhode Island’s three-tier diploma system.
“I [thought] 80 to 85 percent of the attendees were on board with [Rhode Island’s Commissioner for Elementary and Secondary Education] Gist’s policies, which is why I was surprised so many were opposed to [the diploma system],” commented Willey.
When asked if they were in favor of the Rhode Island public schools using a three-tiered diploma system – Honors, proficient with distinction; Regents, proficient; and the R.I. diploma, partially proficient – 47 percent expressed they were opposed to the system while 43 percent supported it. Ten percent said they were “unsure.”
On other questions, the majority (58 percent) thought the Fed prime interest rate, currently at 3.25 percent, would remain between 3 to 4 percent one year from now, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which closed 2010 at 11,578, would be at 12,000 to 13,000 (40 percent), and 59 percent said the consumer price index, which rose 1.5 percent last year, would increase by less than 1 percent in 2011.
