Gov. Lincoln Almond’s new Tax Competitiveness Committee is an impressive collection of business leaders, public officials, and non-profit representatives. It would have been nice to get them together two or three years ago.
Why is it in Rhode Island we often seem to be a step or two behind logical thinking?
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For years we have reported some very consistent opinions of local economists — most notably, that Rhode Island had better prepare itself for an inevitable economic slowdown. That slowdown — to one degree or another — has arrived.
It is indeed unfortunate that such a committee has not been in place so that a real restructuring of Rhode Island’s tax system could have been completed by now. There seems little question that Rhode Island needs to make its tax structure more competitive to be on an even playing field with not only Massachusetts, but states throughout the country.
This, in fact, is a message the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council has been delivering for years, most recently in a report titled; “A System Out of Balance.”
Almond’s intention to introduce legislation to either sharply reduce or eliminate the Capital Gains Tax is long overdue. Equally overdue, is the need for Rhode Island to break its dependence on federal initiatives through the piggyback tax.
We hope the Tax Competitiveness Committee gets to work quickly. There seems to be consensus that change needs to take place — that jobs depend upon it.
This committee must not let the current legislative session pass without introducing some very real recommendations — recommendations that can be turned immediately into a restructured and more efficient tax system for all of Rhode Island.
