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Great News for Civil Rights in RI!

Support for Same-Sex Marriage Jumps to 59%

"It shows, for the first time, a convincing majority of
Rhode Islanders supporting equality..."

"Marriage equality is inevitable," Walker said.
"The question is not whether, it is when"

Read the Full ProJo Story Here!

Help fight devastating cuts to our cities and towns that will result in higher property taxes.

Make your voice heard to repeal the flat tax.

Take 30 seconds to send this urgent message to your legislators by clicking here.

Tell Congress: Protect Consumers and Hold the Big Wall Street Banks Accountable!

Call Senator Jack Reed Toll Free TODAY at 1-866-544-7573.

Tell Senator Reed to support financial reform that holds big Wall Street Banks accountable.

Historic health reform has passed! The bill is a victory for the American people:

Insurance companies can no longer deny care for pre-existing conditions, charge you more if you’re sick, cap your benefits, sell you junk insurance, or raise rates with impunity.
For the first time, Members of Congress will get their health insurance from the same system regular Americans do.
Small business and working families will security and stability knowing they can afford good health insurance that meets their needs.
32 million uninsured Americans will get affordable coverage, saving over 30,000 lives per year.

Read an op-ed from a Rhode Island emergency physician explaining why we need reform.
Now write your own!

Support for Same Sex Marraige Grows in RI!
Flat Tax Repeal
Finance Reform
Health Care Reform

Ocean State Action

Ocean State Action on Governor's Tax Policy Commission recommendations: We need tax fairness for middle and low-income Rhode Islanders, not more cuts for big corporations

PROVIDENCE - Peter Asen, Associate Director of Ocean State Action, released the following statement today in response to the business tax recommendations of the Governor's Tax Policy Commission:

Why would the Governor's tax policy commission want to provide $38.8 million in tax giveaways to 50 of the largest corporations that do business in Rhode Island? At a time when taxes have already been shifted too far away from large corporations and onto middle class families, and when Rhode Island faces a serious budget deficit, this proposal to eliminate the corporate income tax is both deeply unfair and totally irresponsible. The largest corporations in America have received enough bailouts at the expense of low- and middle-income families.

Under this proposal, the fifty corporations with the highest taxable income would see a windfall of nearly $40 million dollars in tax cuts, or more than three quarters of a million per corporation. Meanwhile, more than 90 percent of corporations would receive a symbolic tax cut of only $50.

And yet the proposal lacks accountability and does not require corporations receiving breaks to prove it would actually create jobs. Over the past several years, Rhode Island has made huge tax breaks to the state's wealthiest and to corporations claiming they would create jobs, but all those cuts have been utter failures in achieving this goal. Unemployment in Rhode Island rose faster last year than in any other state in the country.

We oppose the alternate proposals to lower the corporate rate because they would reduce state revenues, again forcing more responsibility for funding state government onto middle-class families. The Assembly should indeed institute combined reporting to ensure that multi-state corporations are paying their fair share, but not combine it with a corporate tax cut that will reduce the amount corporations are paying.

Middle and low-income families and small businesses are hurting in this state, and cuts to local aid as the governor has proposed will only make the situation worse by forcing increases in the unfair property tax. These are the problems that real tax reform must fix.

Unions a key to getting economy back on track

Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, has a guest column in the ProJo about the essential role increased unionization would have in getting the U.S. economy rolling again. As Reich explains:

"WHY IS THIS recession so deep, and what can be done to reverse it?

"Hint: Go back about 50 years, when America's middle class was expanding and the economy was soaring. Paychecks were big enough to let us buy all the goods and services we produced. It was a virtuous circle. Good pay meant more purchases, and more purchases meant more jobs.

"At the center of this virtuous circle were unions. In 1955, more than a third of working Americans belonged to one. Unions gave them the bargaining leverage they needed to get the paychecks that kept the economy going. So many Americans were unionized that wage agreements spilled over to non-unionized workplaces as well. Employers knew they had to match union wages to compete for workers and to recruit the best ones."

As Henry Ford understood, the idea is quite simple and makes a lot of sense. When U.S. workers are paid fair wages and have job security, they have money to spend, and middle class spending is the real engine of our economy, despite what Governor Carcieri says about trickle down economics and tax cuts for the wealthiest.

Congressmen Kennedy & Langevin vote YES for children's healthcare! Senate to act soon too...

With the economy in crisis and the cost of health insurance skyrocketing, families are struggling to make ends meet. Our representatives in Washington made us proud this week by voting to expand Medicaid coverage to hundreds of thousands of children. With champions like our own Senator's Reed and Whitehouse, hope runs high that the Senate will act soon too so more hard-working families have the peace of mind that their kids can stay healthy. Taking care of our children is the first step towards true health care reform that guarantees all Americans have access to quality, affordable health care.

Expanding the children's health insurance program will demonstrate that the era of deadlock in Washington is over and Congress is ready to make comprehensive health care reform a reality.

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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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