As a parting gift to the citizens of Rhode Island before he heads off to run the R.I. Department of Revenue, Gary S. Sasse offered up another in the long-running series, How Rhode Island Compares.
In this edition, the outgoing executive director of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council highlights state and local expenditures.
Because of its dense population and old buildings, Rhode Island spends more on police and fire protection than other states. But such outlays represent a relatively insignificant portion of the overall budget.
When looking at the more contentious issue of transfer payments, Sasse found that the Ocean State is relatively generous in its cash assistance and Medicaid outlays – placing it in the top 10 states in the country.
On the other hand, we are well behind other states in investments in both physical infrastructure and intellectual capital. Expenditures on elementary, secondary and higher education, highways, parks and recreation, and housing and community development amounted to 37.9 percent of Rhode Island’s public spending, compared with a national average is 43.6 percent (based on RIPEC’s calculation of spending per $1,000 of personal income in the state).
These numbers – and the reasons behind them – provide a good starting point for the budget discussions that should open the 2008 legislative session.
If the state really wants to deliver on its plans to create a high-wage, innovation economy, it must invest in education, especially higher education, an area in which Rhode Island ranks 47th. And we must also remember that many of the workers in our innovation economy will come from the growing – and poor – immigrant community in the state, for which many social service programs are the beginning of their progress out of poverty. •
