The governor unveiled her $9.4 billion state budget plan for fiscal year 2018-19 and many features of it are disheartening. Take, for example, the expected tax yield from “vices”, i.e. online gambling, and upping the marijuana centers from 3 to15 and adding acute pain as one of the qualifiers for eligibility for weed. In addition to these vices the smokers of Rhode Island will get burnt again with another whopping tax increase. Put aside a moment the wisdom of basing a budget on such “gambles” like the United States Supreme Court giving its imprimatur to online gambling, or rolling the dice that marijuana use will increase without a scintilla of research disputing its impact neurologically on young men under 27 (the only studies show further neurological impairment because the nervous system isn’t fully developed until then), or that there are no diagnostics to identify impaired driving , what counts as acute pain, etc. or de minimus regulations in place, the governor appears willing to fan the flames of dysfunction as long as it brings money into the state coffers. Am I the only one troubled by this reliance on “sin” taxes?

Of course, the budget is going up again so the bloat is never ending. Why is cutting state spending so verboten? Rhode Island is like the obese patient who continues to overeat through new sources of food. Adding over 200 plus jobs to the state government is, at a minimum, a future budget buster. The reality is that the heart of this budget is a gimmick, just like the early retirement program and added bonuses to do so, which are occurring in government right now.

Rather than cut spending, the assumption is always to just raise more tax revenue. Two more categories hitherto exempt will now be taxed and Medicaid co-pays will be upped. While the latter is probably laudable and overdue since, for example, there would be higher co-pay for non-emergency use of emergency rooms, hospitals will be stiffed since payment rates will be frozen and nursing homes will only get a 1 percent increase. Yet, no cuts are targeted for all the public relations staff that populate state government and who seem to increase and multiply and fill the earth. While the Government wants to scoop unspent money out of the accounts of quasi-public agencies, this has 2 effects: it masks why there is a surplus, i.e. was too much money provided initially, and secondly, prompts these agencies not to make the same mistake again by having a surplus so they will spend it no matter what in the future. The analytics look bad.

So, here we are again with the equivalent of spending about $8,850 per person in Rhode Island (Ted Nesi, January 18, 2018) without a whisper of how to streamline this top-heavy government. Taxpayers apparently are supposed to break into their “happy dance” since the budget is going up “only by 1.5 percent as opposed to last year’s gouging at a 3.5 percent increase.
Most sad is that your government is hoping that you have a lot of “acute pain” so it can reap taxes from your malady. I wonder if the psychic pain from reading this budget qualifies for “acute pain” relief?

Arlene Violet is an attorney and former Rhode Island Attorney General.