…that voted against imposing a minimum 15% co-pay on health care for municipal employees.  They are the same people that voted against giving town councils the right to approve teacher contracts.  They are the same people that voted against any substantial pension reforms.

These are the Reps that voted “YES” to a supplemental budget that would cost taxpayers $2.2 BILLION over the next 25 years. They are owned by the unions…

George Nee

This should make every taxpayer in RI sick to their stomach. It proves once and for all that the your General Assembly is completely bought and paid for by the unions in this state. Maybe this will prove to a few more people that it’s the unions that are pulling the strings at the state house and preventing any type of serious reform.

In a last minute move, after their supplemental budget was presented, the GA removed requirement that municipal workers pay at least 15 percent of the cost of their health insurance coverage…

The proposal was yanked without explanation from the budget bill approved by the House Finance Committee four hours after it was acknowledged…

It was a proposal that didn’t sit well with AFL-CIO President George Nee..

George Nee vowed to spend the coming days “aggressively lobbying every member of the House” to reverse the plan, characterizing the move as “a totally unacceptable intrusion into collective bargaining.”

It only took him a few hours to get his way and to put the onus back on the taxpayers of RI.

The minimum co-sharing requirement was supposed to be one of the tools the General Assembly gave communities to save money so they could more easily deal with state aid cuts without having to raise local taxes.

Great job GA, you’re really earning your keep up there.

Updated: Video from ABC6

Teresa Paiva-Weed

It took over 4 months for the Rhode Island General Assembly to formulate their supplemental budget to plug the $220 million hole in the deficit.  Surely the $9 BILLION in unfunded state and city pensions had to be the big issue.  It was in Gov. Carcieri’s plan:

Carcieri wanted to save at least $45 million in state and local dollars by eliminating the promise of annual pension increases to future retirees, including state workers and public school teachers.

Putting these benefits in perspective, the average pension paid a retired state worker in Rhode Island today is $25,400; a retired teacher, $42,356; a retired police officer or firefighter in one of the cities and towns, $26,399, and other municipal workers, $12,319.

The vast majority of these retired state workers and teachers get 3-percent compounded annual increases in their benefits. Some future retirees still qualify, but for many, this guaranteed increase has already been scaled back to a level that matches the annual cost-of-living index, up to a maximum of 3 percent.

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As the smoke clears in DC and AG’s around the country prepare their cases , more and more facts about the healthcare bill emerge.  Only wish  RI’s AG had the intestinal fortitude to shake this state by the bootstraps and join the wagons.

Here are just a few more tidbits.

• Causes 9 million people to lose the insurance they now have;
• Increases the already bloated deficit by $260 billion over the next decade when all the components are included;
• Adds $371 billion to the deficit by not including the Medicare physician fee schedule change, also known as the “Doc Fix” provision;
• Raises taxes by $569 billion on small businesses and creates a new marriage penalty with new income and investment taxes;
• Cuts Medicare by $523 billion;
• Increases premiums by 10% for people without employer-based insurance;
• Expands the power of the IRS to enforce a government mandate that requires Americans to purchase government-approved insurance; and
• After all the spending is done and the bill is fully implemented, 23 million people will still be uninsured in 2019.
  (source RNC)

A charter school steps forward to save several sports, that were cut due to budget concerns, at Cranston’s high schools. The donation, $90,000,  falls short of the $130,000 needed to save all the programs but at least co-op hockey, boys and girls indoor track and tennis, and co-ed golf will be restored.  Freshman baseball will not be.  The offer still has to be voted on to take effect.  Nice to see someone stepping up because, god knows, you can’t consolidate even one of the essential army  of $70k-90K paid personnel roaming the halls including;

• coordinators
• self contained teachers
• social workers
• ESL teachers
• federal specialists
• nurses
• computer techs
• shrinks
• occupational therapists
• vision teachers
• director ($96k)
• fiscal manager (my personal favorite)

More Essential worker salaries here

If you get too cold...

With the passing of the new health care bill and its mandates, additional taxes, and potential premium hikes (see: taxes) I’ve been amazed at how many working people I’ve encountered that shrug their shoulders and say “hey, it’s just another tax”.

That got me to wondering, do these people realize how many taxes they are already paying? Do I? So I started to compile a list. It’s incomplete, and some may not pay all of these, but here’s a list of taxes you may be required to pay the government based on how you live your life.

If you have a job…

• Social Security
• Medicare (FICA)
• Federal Withholding Tax
• Federal Income Tax
• Federal Unemployment Taxes
• State Unemployment taxes
• State Disability Insurance
• State Income Tax

If you own a home…

• Property Tax
• Sewer & Water Tax
• Septic Permit Tax

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School officials in Bristol-Warren are asking for a $45 million budget this year, a 1.1 percent increase over last year’s budget.  On Thursday night we’ll find out what’s in that budget and why they need hundreds of thousands more this year.

It might also be a good time to ask if they are still offering $4,200 each year to employees that do NOT take health insurance.  Or if they are still giving out longevity bonuses in addition to annual raises.

Bristol-Warren Teacher Package Overview

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Patrick Lynch

Did you ever feel like you lived in a state that was in a perpetual coma? While Attorneys General,  from 13  states, file federal suits against the Constitutionality of the Health care Bill,  it seems Rhode Island’s own AG could care less.  Governor Carcieri continues to question the legitimacy of a mandate that, he says, will add 50,000 Rhode Islanders to the Medicaid rolls and eventually end up costing  the state upwards of $150 million.  But still the issue doesn’t appear to be on Lynch’s radar saying, “I don’t like a lot of the decisions that the legislature makes every day. Do I go up and sue them? And do you have the basis to do so, more to the point?”. Well,  let’s hope voters have a pulse this coming November.

More at Anchor Rising

On a weekend that could alter America, as we know it, perhaps one man’s words never rang more true.