Chafee mum on whether his next budget includes tax increases
Governor Lincoln Chafee is declining to talk specifics about whether his next budget will include revenue increases — a.k.a. tax hikes.
The governor offered this comment during an interview last week (excerpts of which were broadcast on RIPR Thursday morning):
“The budget will come out in January … we’re still putting it together.”
The governor’s latest budget is expected to emerge by January 17. Previous tax hikes proposed by Chafee have been lightning rods for public criticism. The General Assembly has mostly squelched the governor’s intended tax program.
Chafee says his top goal for 2013 is crafting a stable foundation for building Rhode Island’s economy.
The governor offered this response when asked if his administration is bringing enough urgency to economic development:
“There’s nothing I think about more every day — and that has not changed from the day I took the oath of office — than the Rhode Island economy. So it’s a complete inaccuracy to suggest in any way there’s not a sense of urgency about the Rhode Island economy.”
As Rhode Island still wrestles with high unemployment, some individuals and groups outside government have clamored for a tangible plan to improve the state’s economy.
Chafee calls his approach “a methodical conservative way” of investing in education, roads and bridges, and fiber-optics. The governor says some of those criticizing his efforts supported the state;s losing investment in 38 Studios. “Sense of urgency is sometimes how you define it,” Chafee says.
UPDATE: Gary Sasse on Thursday uses a ProJo op-ed to slam what he calls an absence of economic leadership:
Rhode Island’s major challenge is not financial, regulatory or educational, though these are critical matters. Rather, it is the lack of effective leadership that has the political will to connect the dots. As written in the Book of Proverbs, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
On Politics 
The fiscal cliff could whack us with higher taxes. Obamacare surely will hit us with additional taxes. Local property taxes will undoubtedly rise…
This is insane. Stop the spending!
America must be about freedom and enabling its citizens to live and prosper. It is not about what it seems to be rapidly becoming — a socialist country controlled by governments at every level that suck the lifeblood out of its citizens to support itself and its dependents.
“The fiscal cliff could whack us with higher taxes”
…if you are a rich person that is. Going over the “cliff” will just mean that the next Congress will almost immediately vote to cut most people’s tax rates back to where there are right now.
“Obamacare surely will hit us with additional taxes”
…only if you’re rich or if you choose not to purchase private health care insurance…for which there will be many available subsidies for many lower & middle income persons.