Rhode Island Highlights Revised Revenue Projections

Governor Donald L. Carcieri today issued the following statement regarding the Revenue Estimating Conference’s revised revenue projections for the current fiscal year.

The Revenue Estimating Conference projected revenue shortfall for the current fiscal year is $130.5 million.

“The revenue forecast is poor,” said Governor Carcieri “It is clearer than ever, Rhode Island is still in the throes of an economic recession. Unfortunately, this is not a surprise, as we have continued to see the economy worsen and revenues decline.”

“There are more difficult decisions to be made in order to live within our means. Whatever our course of action, we must avoid raising taxes to solve this problem. Rhode Islanders are already struggling to pay bills and bear one of the highest total tax burdens of any state in the nation. This is not the time to ask Rhode Island families to pay even more of their hard-earned dollars to state government.”

“In addressing these budget shortfalls, we need to avoid overtaxing, overspending, and trying to do more in government than we can afford. Just as importantly, we need to position ourselves for a prosperous future. That means continuing our initiatives in education reform and doubling our efforts to build a new economy around renewable energy and bio-technology, instituting tax reform, ridding ourselves of regulations that inhibit job growth, and giving towns and cities the tools they need to save money and deliver services with reduced resources.”

“The Department of Administration and the Budget Office have met with agency directors for the past several weeks to identify additional cost savings and ways to restructure state government. Additionally, we expect to build upon our efforts to reign in the costs of entitlement programs. Having made sizeable reductions in personnel and social services expenditures, attention is now on the third major area of state spending, local aid to cities and towns. The fulcrum of lifting the state out of this deficit will be determined by how we pay for municipal services. We cannot afford to have a fiscal tug of war between the state and municipalities. We will only make progress if we pull together in the same direction.”

“State and local officials may wish for a rosier picture, but as leaders, and stewards of our future, we have the very unpleasant but critical task of managing our way through what is the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. We know that the old way of doing business that has contributed to our fiscal crisis must be abandoned. If we have the courage to do that and to make bold choices, we can build a new Rhode Island that will prosper for decades to come.”

Topics: economic recession, Economy, Governance, revenue, Rhode Island, state government, U.S., United States

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