Thoughts that run through an idle mind
Perhaps the season’s last dusting of snow fell on Rhode Island last week, leaving a gentle white blanket over lawns and shrubs in these early days of spring. A last reminder perhaps of a winter full of extremes, harsh by recent standards.
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Spring has arrived, if not in weather, at least by the calendar, a signal that Rhode Island will blossom as it usually does at this time of year. White apple blossoms will cover trees on the orchards that dot the countryside of northwestern Rhode Island in a few weeks, as other flowers begin to arrive and Rhode Island awakens to the busy season ahead.
The legislature will go into its usual frenzy hearing a variety of bills, from the absurd to the ultra important. They will debate everything from capital gains relief to a bill that would ban animals from circuses in Rhode Island.
This is also a time of preparation, getting ready for the summertime tourist season that is becoming more and more important in Rhode Island. For all we like to claim that our future here lies in technology and financial services, the total of those working in those industries pales by comparison with the numbers working in hospitality and tourism.
This may be one of our more challenging seasons. With the slowing of the economy it is likely that people will curtail some vacation plans, at least shorten them. Maybe some Rhode Islanders will stay closer to home, discovering that which attracts thousands of tourists here each year.
A lesson from the great Northwest
The announcement in Seattle that Boeing was moving its headquarters from that
city after 85 years is a jolting reminder of how important it is for any community
to diversify its economic base.
While initially it will only be corporate headquarters, where 1,000 are employed, that will be relocated, and early indications are that the Boeing plants around Seattle that employ nearly 80,000 will remain, the possibility now looms that ultimately those jobs will follow the headquarters.
In Rhode Island we don’t have any similar situations. No one company is as dominant to this area, as Boeing has been to Seattle. We haven’t had that since the Navy was so prominent at Quonset and Newport, and its leaving left thousands of Rhode Islanders unemployed.
We need to continue to find ways to advance the development of our technology and bio-technology communities, of financial services, and a manufacturing sector that is discovering new ways of developing products in a high-tech world.
Tax reform
At the legislature as the debate rages on a variety of issues, I fear that we will again look to a Band-Aid approach when it comes to tax reform.
The capital gains debate will get mired in a field of misinformation, of overstated costs and understated impact. If we are to grow jobs and companies, jobs that help the working poor and unemployed, then we need to work hard at creating an atmosphere that is welcoming to businesses and the executives who decide where those businesses will reside.
Capital gains relief is only a beginning. Total tax reform is necessary, including an end to Rhode Island’s piggyback income tax.
Ethics Commission
Members of the ethics commission under investigation for alleged ethics violations,
a dispute between the commission’s director and the new chief justice of the Supreme
Court, and alternative government groups filing complaints for some issues that
date back years.
No wonder people get disgusted with government, when the watchdog groups need watchdogs and the ethics judges’ own integrity comes into question.
