General Assembly Votes on the FY09 Supplemental Budget
(With thanks to Lance Chappell)

"Rhode Island confronts truly horrific problems: the worst tax climate for business in the country; an unemployment rate above the national average; state budget deficits in the hundreds of millions of dollars; skyrocketing property taxes; wildly unsustainable benefits for public employees; a culture of corruption in the legislature; rampant foreclosures and declining housing prices; the flight of upper-middle-class taxpayers to jurisdictions that punish them less; an influx of poor people, many apparently illegal immigrants, requiring services and putting a severe strain on the state budget; mediocre public schools and an education establishment that opposes greater accountability, parental choice, and the idea of serving students rather than unions." -Edward Achorn, The Providence Journal