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 The Campaign for Rhode Island's Priorities is committed to fighting for an balanced state budget and tax system to ensure we can invest in the public structures that are the foundations of a strong economy.
Rhode Island faces an estimated state budget deficit of $219 million for the current fiscal year, and a projected budget deficit of over $500 million for next year.
The impact of the deficit is felt deeply in our neighborhoods. Workers are laid off, working families are without health coverage or needed child-care supports, more Rhode Islanders depend on RIte Care, school programs are on the chopping block, community grants that support victims of domestic violence and Meals on Wheels have been cut, and more.
The good news is, there are practical long-term solutions to fix Rhode Island's upside-down tax system, like repealing the "alternative flat tax" and closing the corporate tax loopholes by enacting combined corporate reporting.
The Campaign for Rhode Island's Priorities has been leading the fight in our state to fix our upside-down tax system that relies too heavily on property taxes. Our over-reliance on property taxes means that the less you earn, the more of your income you pay in state and local taxes, as the graph below from the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy shows.
You can be a part of fixing Rhode Island's upside-down tax system, and ensure that we can invest in the public structures and institutions that build the foundations for a strong economy!
Click here to sign up for the Campaign for RI's Priorities issue updates and email alerts.
The Campaign for Rhode Island's Priorities includes nearly 900 individuals and 50 organizations united by the belief that government has an important role in providing opportunity for every Rhode Islander to work, learn and stay well. |
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 Ocean State Action is the Rhode Island campaign coordinator of Health Care for America Now. Health Care for America Now (HCAN) is a national grassroots campaign organizing millions of Americans to win a guarantee of quality, affordable health care for all.
In Rhode Island, we're bringing together community organizations, nurses, doctors, small business owners, faith-based groups, organizations of people of color, and seniors who believe it's time we had an American solution that provides quality, affordable health care for everyone.
Sign the petition to declare your independece from the insurance industry.
See a list of the Health Care for American Now! campaign partners in Rhode Island and nationally.
October 15, 2009
New Report: Senate HELP Committee Bill Makes Health Care $983 more affordable than does Senate Finance bill for a typical Rhode Island family
According to a new report released on October 15 by Ocean State Action as part of Health Care for America Now, health care will be $983 more affordable per year for the average Rhode Island family under the health care reform bill passed by the Senate HELP (Health Education Labor and Pensions) Committee than under legislation passed by the Senate Finance Committee. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse sat on the HELP committee when the bill was being crafted. Neither was involved in the Senate Finance bill.
A typical Rhode Island family of three earning $70,117 a year – the state median income – would pay $983 less in premiums and out-of-pocket costs under the HELP bill.
“Rhode Island families will have good, affordable health care if the Senate enacts the HELP Committee bill instead of the Finance Committee bill,” said Ivette Luna, lead organizer for Ocean State Action. “We appreciate the work that Senators Reed and Whitehouse did to help craft the HELP bill. Now we need them to advocate for its superior provisions as the senate crafts final legislation.”
The HELP bill also will make insurance more affordable by giving consumers the choice of a public insurance plan and by requiring larger employers to contribute to their employees' coverage. The finance bill does neither of these.
The report is available here.
Take Action: You can call Senators Reed and Whitehouse to ask them to fight for the HELP bill by clicking here.
Reports about health care in Rhode Island:
See real health care stories from Rhode Islanders. |
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Committed to Securing Access to Quality Health Care for All Rhode Islanders
In 1997, Ocean State Action created the Health Care Organizing Project (HCOP), a coalition of twenty-seven consumer, health-care provider, labor and advocacy organizations fighting for access to high quality, affordable health care. (View HCOP Member Organizations)
HCOP is committed to building a health care system in Rhode Island that fulfills our core principles that will ensure the best for all Rhode Islanders, businesses, and health care providers.
By creating a diverse table for action, the Health Care Organizing Project (HCOP) builds connections and relationships between organizations, finds new allies and promotes a stronger vision for health care in Rhode Island. Our organizations represent all people affected by the health care system: families, businesses, patients, workers and providers.
Since its inception, HCOP has improved the daily lives of thousands of Rhode Islanders by winning creation of the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner to reform and regulate the states health insurance pans, winning legislation that mandates statewide coordinated health planning to make sure our state has a roadmap for rationally and sustainably reforming our system of hospitals, health centers and provider networks, helping to defend access to RIte Care for low-income families, supporting mental health parity and re-investments in primary care, and fighting to make prescription drugs more affordable.
Ocean State Action is a founding member of the HealthRIght policy roundtable, formed to develop a comprehensive reform proposal to win guaranteed affordable care for Rhode Islanders. We also serve as the state coordinating organization for Health Care for America Now, a nation-wide grassroots effort to win health care for every American.
Sign up for e-mail action alerts and information about HCOP.
Read OSA's report:  "Small Businesses and the Health Care Crisis in Rhode Island"
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Looking Back at 2009 and Ahead to 2010
December 21, 2009
by Peter Asen, Executive Director
Moving Ahead on Health Care, One Step at a Time
We are still locked in a long, exhausting battle for health care reform. We’re not giving in to the conservative Democrats in the Senate who have greatly weakened the bill—we’re urging Rhode Islanders to contact Congressmen Kennedy and Langevin, and pressing them to fight for the stronger provisions of the House bill in the conference committee. The congressmen, along with progressive Senate allies like Senators Reed and Whitehouse, can help pass a final bill that truly makes coverage more affordable for all Americans and that holds big insurance accountable—and that protects women's access to reproductive health care from being held hostage to politics in the Capitol and at the Rhode Island state house.
Our delegation certainly knows how many Rhode Islanders support real health care reform! Since May alone, we have worked with more than 1,500 of you to contact our members of Congress numerous times, to ensure that our voices were heard strongly throughout this process. More than 1,200 supporters have been part of dozens of public events and action days over this time. We have released reports on health equity, how to make coverage affordable, and the conduct of the insurance industry. We have conducted 20 lobby meetings, in person and on-the-phone, to members and staff of our Congressional delegation support of health insurance reform.
Many of us are deeply frustrated about the senate legislation that will be voted on in the next few days, given how long and hard we have fought for a public option and ensuring that larger employers pay their fair share. While I truly believe we can and will end up with a final health care bill that is better than what is in the Senate now, I also know that we will have only taken one major step towards truly winning quality, affordable coverage for everyone. That’s why Ocean State Action will continue to work with a broad range of community, provider, small business, and consumer organizations to improve upon federal reform at the state level. Rhode Island has long had a health care system that was stronger than that in many other states – and we will once again not settle for the national baseline.
With the state’s budget woes what they are, protecting public investments in health care and further making coverage affordable will require some creative solutions – especially, ramping up our efforts for greater accountability from major health care institutions in the state. Please contribute today to help Ocean State Action continue to fight for health care, until we truly provide each and every person in Rhode Island with quality, affordable coverage.
Righting the Ship of [The Ocean] State
Last week saw Governor Carcieri put forward a budget proposal that would slash more than $125 million from our cities and towns, forcing harsh cuts to education and other key services and inevitable increases in the unfair property tax. Combating this change – as well as the inevitable efforts the governor will make in his final year to further shift our tax system towards being less fair – will take an energetic effort to engage as many Rhode Islanders as possible.
Ocean State Action was a leader with our allies to oppose two separate proposed rounds of cuts to cities and towns during the 2009 session, in the earlier case supporting successful efforts by progressive legislators to prevent $25 million in cuts. We also succeeded in convincing the Assembly to reform the capital gains tax, so that capital gains are no longer given preferential tax treatment to regular income – the first tax increase specifically targeted to wealthy taxpayers in years.
We had a successful march and rally for Jobs and Dignity Now with our partners at Jobs with Justice in February, and continued to build grassroots pressure on the assembly to maintain critical investments in the state budget and to undo tax cuts on wealthy Rhode Islanders and businesses – rather than further squeezing the poor and middle class.
In addition, we worked with close allies to put forward budget amendments that each received 23 votes – one during the supplemental 2009 budget and one in the 2010 budget – to repeal and freeze the alternative flat tax, respectively, and to use these fair tax reforms to restore funds to cities and towns. All in all, more than one-third of the Assembly’s members voted for one of the amendments. We have made major progress advancing the argument that cuts to municipalities get us further away from the urgent goal of fair school funding, and that these cuts increase the pressure on the property tax.
Despite the deeply challenging budget deficits that Rhode Island faces, we can and must take meaningful steps towards a fairer tax system that depends less on the property tax and is based more on what businesses and individuals are actually able to pay. To support this campaign for a fair budget, please contribute to Ocean State Action today.
Building the strength of the progressive movement
While we saw the General Assembly becoming more progressive in certain areas in 2009, the challenges we faced in the legislative session – on the budget but also on environmental, women’s rights, workers’ rights, and LGBT rights issues – reflect the ongoing need to build a stronger progressive movement in Rhode Island. This September, Ocean State Action convened our second-ever “New Voices Campaign Leadership Institute,” which brought together more than 30 progressive activists from throughout the state to learn the nuts and bolts of political campaign leadership.
Many of these activists will play a meaningful role in our ongoing organizing work for health care and fair budgets, but they will also grow the core of progressive political activism in Rhode Island around the 2010 elections and beyond.
We’re not done building the infrastructure of this movement for real political change in Rhode Island – and your contribution can help us continue to build skills and capacity for Rhode Island’s progressive movement. Click here now to donate. |
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Our Partners' Campaigns
Ocean State Action's partners head several other important campaigns to improve the quality of life for all Rhode Islanders. These include projects to protect our environment and promote renewable energy development, to protect all Rhode Islanders' civil rights, to fight for workers' rights and improved lives for Rhode Island's working families, to preserve consumer justice, and much more.
Click here for info and links to some of our partners' campaigns. |
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Visit the Rhode Island Policy Reporter at What Cheer! for up-to-date policy analysis and reports.
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