Good intentions do not transform bad choices into good ones. Exhibit A now on display is the Raimondo administration’s proposal to take money from the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund and direct it toward the Real Jobs Rhode Island program.
There is no argument that Real Jobs RI is a success. Nearly 400 Rhode Island companies have used the program to help hire better-trained workers. But it faces a 65 percent budget cut largely due to a reduction in federal funding.
The administration says that the $6.6 million shortfall can be made up by a “scoop” from the UI fund.
The unemployment insurance trust fund is supported by a dedicated stream of taxes from Rhode Island employers. And now that its level is where it should be following the Great Recession, the state has been lowering that tax rate, which had been among the highest in the nation.
Dipping into the UI unfortunately fits in a Rhode Island pattern of robbing one program to pay for another.
If the Real Jobs RI program is worth funding – which it is – the governor should fund it without scooping the UI fund.