Friday, June 24, 2011

Editorial: A Pretty Good Budget?

It's disgraceful that the Providence Journal does not speak out about the many citizens impacted by the proposed budget--cuts to services for individuals with disabilities are not "sad but necessary," as many protesting the state capitol today will attest.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - It has been another brutal year to do a state budget, but the plan likely to be approved today by the Rhode Island House is a pretty reasonable piece of hard work.

First, while the package would extend the state sales tax to a few items and services, the House tax package looks little like Governor Chafee’s proposed two-tier system, to be applied to many items and services, and whose costs and time-consuming complexity would hurt job creation as the state struggles to get out of its long slump.

Meanwhile, to avoid big tax increases, there are sad but necessary cuts to social-service, housing, mass transit (perhaps a false economy) and some other programs in the House budget. We hope that at least some of those funds can be restored in coming years, assuming that the budgets that do so are fiscally prudent.

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