OCG BLOG

In 2008 more than $20 million in taxpayer dollars was awarded by the Rhode Island General Assembly in the form of Community Service and Legislative grants. Even the severest recession in eighty years has not eliminated these grants for another $10.6 million was spent on them in 2009. They continue unabated in FY2010.

The general [...]

“Join us for Speech in Debate Forum Sept. 16
August 26th, 2009 jmarion
Common Cause Rhode Island and the A. Alfred Taubman Center at Brown University are pleased to announce a panel discussion:
“The Rhode Island Ethics Commission in the Wake of the Irons Decision.”
Description: Please join us for a panel discussion about the decision of the [...]

OCG Email Alert
Support House Resolution H-6070
Re-empower the Ethics Commission following the Irons’ Decision
Now that the R.I. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of former Senator William Irons, they have in effect granted each legislator a lifetime Get Out of Jail card. Because of this ruling, the Ethics Commission has [...]

The RI Ethics Commission used a R.I. Supreme Court decision to dismiss ethics charges against John Harwood after he was accused of representing clients in cases before state agencies (“Leaders defend paying ex-Speaker Harwood’s bill (ProJo, May 22, 2009). The reporter then asks our legislative leaders if they will also pay Ex-Senate [...]

Tom Sgouros, author of the RI Policy Reporter emails, has this to say to the organizers of the RI Tax Day Tea Party:  “The real issue is this: Taxes are simple. Government is complicated. If you don’t have an answer to the question of what is to be cut, perhaps you’d do us all [...]

Were you surprised, as were many, that the RI Tea Party would attract over 2000 energetic people who want to be recognized? What a great event for the taxpayers of Rhode Island. Now the question is where do we go from here to keep these people motivated until the next election. We have made our [...]

Readers of my blogs will jump to the conclusion that i blame government union workers for all RI’s financial problems.  Not true.  I blame the union bosses and thier allies in government–legislators at the state level and city managers, mayors, and town council members  at the local level.  Union workers, properly managed, will work just [...]

A Providence Journal editorial, “Courage, please, on COLAs,” ask the General Assembly to reform the pension plans for public sector workers–teachers and state workers.  The editorial ask state legislators to summon the courage to end the automatic 3 % compounded cost-of-living raises on state pensions and to at least raise the minimum retirement age to [...]

Ed Achorn’s column yesterday reveals a group of R.I. state Senators–Harold Metts, Jua Pichardo, Maryellen Goodwin, Elizabeth Crowley, and Charles Levesque–want to enact legislation (S-0156) that “would ban employers from denying a job to anyone because of his or her criminal history.”  If a business did not hire a criminal it would have to documnet [...]

T.R. Catanzarite, author of a Projo commentary titled “Unionized states are the best,” says “There are more people in Rhode Island and in the United States who want to join unions than who want to abolish them.”  He says this claim is supported by surveys and has been reported in the Providence Journal.  Yet he [...]