PROVIDENCE – Gov. Donald L. Carcieri on Tuesday pledged to create more jobs through tax relief and tax credits for small businesses and balance the budget through regulatory reform and structural changes to reduce and restrain municipal spending, all without the need to raise income or property taxes.
In his eighth and final State of the State speech, Carcieri said that he believed increases in property taxes could be avoided by a wholesale restructuring of municipal control of budgets. He asked the General Assembly to provide municipalities authority to oversee and control school budgets, which he said make up 70 percent of municipal spending, taking that authority away from school committees.
Invoking the image of the Independent Man sitting atop the Statehouse, Carcieri said the “liberty of conscience” will guide the goals and ambition of his last year in office. The message from the recent Senate election in Massachusetts, he said, was clear: “Get the economy on track, put people back to work, and protect us from terrorists.”
Carcieri began by recognizing the current dire economic circumstances. Rhode Island, he said, “is facing the most severe economic turmoil of the last 30 years. … with [more than] 73,000 … out of work, with little sign that employment will improve significantly anytime soon.”
In broad strokes, Carcieri then offered plans – without specific details – for his political and fiscal agenda in 2010.
His first area of focus will be an attempt to encourage small, independent businesses to flourish once again in Rhode Island, with an emphasis on regulatory reform and tax reform. He said that at the turn of the 19th century, Rhode Island had the highest per capita wealth of any state – and he said that “our economy will rise again on the tide of an entrepreneurial revolution. Programs will include tax breaks for job creation, regulatory reform that will “streamline, simplify and shorten” the regulatory process.
Citing a quote by the U.S. Department of Interior claiming that the East Coast was the “Saudi Arabia of wind,” Carcieri praised the efforts of his administration to promote wind farms in Rhode Island.
A second area of Carcieri’s business focus will be on “education and work force development.” Higher education, he said, is an economic engine in its own right. Carcieri championed the new reforms proposed by Education Commissioner Deborah Gist, under “The Race to the Top.” However, he said that Rhode Island needed to embrace its heritage of independence and enlightenment by fostering more charter schools, producing high school graduates with 21st century skills. No mention was made of Gist’s plans to create a more equitable formula for school funding.
The third area of emphasis in the governor’s last year will be “to reduce reliance on government, with a goal of reshaping and state government, streamlining it, and ensuring that it does not become a greater burden on its citizens.” In his seven years in office, he said, “we have balanced our budget without raising either the sales or income tax.”
Carcieri said that while Rhode Island could not control the national economy, there were things that the state could control: “We can control our spending. We can control the burden of taxation we place on our citizens. … We need more taxpayers, not more taxes.”
