Tax relief for jobs
Now that there appears to be growing support for a tax break for the wealthy, the burden clearly is on the proponents of the bill to produce the 7,500 or more quality jobs they’ve promised. Failure to deliver on the promise would do severe damage to the improving relationship between the business community and the legislature, not to mention the community in general. There is enough skepticism about approving tax relief that mostly benefits our wealthiest residents.
There is also great logic in it, if it creates the kind of environment that will attract quality jobs and new businesses.
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By following through on the jobs’ promise, the business leaders can clearly demonstrate that if the legislature takes business’s concerns seriously, then businesses will view Rhode Island as much more fertile ground for business growth and job creation.
Aquidneck partnership
Aquidneck Island faces a decision. It can plan for future growth, mapping out how it wants to develop its remaining undeveloped acres, or it can wait for growth to overtake it, leaving residents to wonder what became of the island’s charm.
Thus far, it has chosen the former. The Aquidneck Island Partnership, which unites government, business, and conservation groups, formed in 1996 to identify ways residents can deal with problems collectively. Now, the communities are considering a proposal to meld that cooperative spirit into a formal document, hiring consultants to coordinate each community’s Local Comprehensive Plan so that each complements the other. They should do it.
Numerous concerns are held in common. Traffic and development along East and West Main Roads is one example. Open space and watershed protection is another. They must also decide how to handle the imminent decision by the U.S. Navy to make as many as 450 acres of waterfront land available for development.
Consensus has not always been easy to come by on the island. That seems to be changing, however, as officials now realize that suburban sprawl is placing incredible pressures on each community, and that without good planning, the very features that made the island attractive in the first place could be gone – as soon as five years, the partnership and others, such as Scott Wolf, executive director of Grow Smart Rhode Island, warn.
It’s time then to put provincial differences aside and create a unified plan for the future of Aquidneck Island.
Class of 2000
Hello class of 2000 – and congratulations! You – both high school and college graduates – will be entering a workforce in which employers are expecting a little more from you.
This week’s executive poll of top executives indicates that many employers expect you to be more productive, and a little less loyal than new employees hired a decade ago. Many will be paying you higher wages than new employees of a year ago.
You come equipped with the newest, most improved technological skills in a world in which technology is evolving at a faster and faster pace. You are eager, ready to put to work in practice that which you have learned in theory these past several years.
What we hope you find – and the lucky ones will – are workplace environments that are ready to embrace your energy, consider your new ideas, provide you with the space to dream and develop visions, in an atmosphere that rewards creativity and innovation.
And we hope that you enter the workplace ready to re-energize your co-workers with your enthusiasm, and with the attitude that there is much to be learned from every worker, no matter their age. Even those who see your coming as another reminder that retirement is closer, can provide you with wisdom that is just not contained in computer programs, on the Internet, or in your textbooks.
Welcome to the workplace. It can be more fascinating than the classrooms that you have left behind.
