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Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is always as pleasure to appear before you and the members of the House Finance Committee.

 

We’re here today to continue our all important discussion on tax competitiveness and how it impacts jobs at all points of the economic spectrum.

 

I am joined by my colleagues from our partner chambers… Northern Rhode Island and Newport.

 

I am also joined the chair of the Chamber’s Small Business Council who will talk a little about his own company and the challenges it faces.

 

In preparing for today’s hearing, I was thinking about what I could present that would be impactful and serve to clearly focus our thoughts on what’s at stake.

 

I prepared a graphic for the occasion… snippets of headlines from news papers nationally and internationally chronicling RI’s steep jobless rate… So, yes, it’s all about jobs.

 

And lots of pain and suffering … unfulfilled potential and lack of opportunity

 

Certainly no one has more sobering perspective on these issues than the members of this body. The harrowing testimony you have taken over the course of this legislative session has crystallized the very nature of the problem.

So why is my message any different from anyone else’s message?

 

It’s different because increasing the tax BASE through jobs and economic growth is absolutely the ONLY way out of this difficult situation. 

 

You can’t dig your way out of a hole with a shovel… and you can’t build a private sector by having one of the most unfriendly climates in the nation.

 

Job growth is at the head of the line… it’s the locomotive… it’s what has to come first…we can’t do anything else downstream… like appropriately fund child care, health care, higher ed, etc. until we can get things moving on the front end.

 

We need to get ourselves revved up and into a hyper growth mode.

 

You and your colleagues have been leaders on that front for many years now with the optional flat tax… which we call the regional tax competitiveness option.  And we recognize the work you have already done in this regard.

On the specific articles being heard today, I can’t emphasize enough that Rhode Island must create a tax climate which is at least competitive with, if not superior to, our neighboring states if we are to have any hope of reversing recent trends and creating good jobs for all of our citizens. 

 

The governor’s tax competitiveness panel has put forth a number of compelling proposals to help RI achieve that level of competitiveness. 

 

We realize that our fiscal situation this year is highly precarious. But that doesn’t mean that --- as a state --- we should give short shrift to the thinking behind these ideas. The proposals produced by this panel must remain a working document and implemented incrementally, as the House Finance Committee deems appropriate.

 

Gary Sasse as the leader of this panel is highly respected within state government for his in-depth knowledge of RI’s fiscal underpinnings as well as for his understanding of how Rhode Island compares to our competitors on the jobs front both domestically and internationally.
 
We owe him and each member of the commission our thanks for investing the time to  strategically take apart the tax code to ensure that it works for everyday Rhode Islanders…. and purposefully drives investment!  Purposefully would be the operative word here.

 

We must continue to work in partnership to move RI’s ranking as a jobs friendly state from our current position of 46 and into to the top ten.

 

Embracing the ideas contained in this road map will do that. Let’s have a short term and long term strategy. Needless to say, we must be faster smarter and stronger than we have ever been before.

 

Rhode Islanders know that private sector job growth is the only real solution. They are writing about it on the mainstream blogs, talking about it on the radio and comparing notes on the ball field.  The chatter is incessant and the message is consistent. We need more taxpayers, not more taxes.

 

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to share our thoughts.