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Rhode Island
The Fed just cut rates. Here is what it means for Rhode Island – The Boston Globe
For Rhode Island, the advent of a rate cut comes at a time when the unemployment rate has gone up while the labor market is seeing fewer jobs available for workers. Meanwhile, the housing market has registered record prices for homes amid elevated mortgage rates and limited supply of homes in the market.
Experts suggested that the Fed’s move would help stabilize the labor market in the state.
“We have seen some weakness, but we haven’t been seeing a whole lot of layoffs and hopefully this will continue to decrease the number of layoffs,” Lisa Murray, Citizens Bank’s Massachusetts president, told the Globe. “I think we got a little fat during the pandemic and that’s why we saw some of the activity that we’ve been seeing with layoffs. But I think people are going to continue to try to right-size their organizations for a much more measured economy going forward.”
Laurie White, the president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, told the Globe the Fed’s lowering of borrowing costs will help companies to source relatively cheaper capital to invest in their businesses.
“I think it could be euphemistically said hallelujah,” she said. “The reduction, the half-point reduction, is going to unleash additional capital expenditure activity.”
White described the Fed’s move as “aggressive” and anticipated more cuts over the coming months. She noted, however, how businesses react will be influenced by more than just what the Federal Reserve does, but also by the results of who will end up in the White House.
“I don’t think you’ll see anything, you know, truly, truly consequential from business in terms of making any moves until after the election in November, when it is determined what direction [of] the policy is,” White said.
One area of Rhode Island’s economy White said could be impacted by a drop in rates is the building sector, which could be helped by lower borrowing costs.
“The building and the construction industry is a very important sector to the Rhode Island economy,” she said. “There is a tremendous amount of pressure on homes, there is not…a lot of inventory. What we need is more inventory. But in order to get more inventory, you need to be able to borrow and build at rates that are competitive.”
John Marcantonio, the chief executive officer of the Rhode Island Builders Association, said he would wait and see how the rate cut impacts his members who represent the residential construction business in the state.
“When it was going up, the pace at which it went up, it certainly did affect, you know, housing,” Marcantonio said. “In many ways, how fast it comes down, the pace at which it comes down, where it would settle in, is going to be something we’re all going to have to sit back and watch and see how that effect happens. I would say I’m glad the Fed is finally cutting rates.”
Limited inventory is a major concern for the housing market in Rhode Island. A rate cut could lead to lower mortgage rates, which will spur demand for homes in a state struggling to provide enough properties for prospective buyers, said Chris Whitten, president-elect of the Rhode Island Association of Realtors.
Interest rates on home loans had been dropping in recent weeks in anticipation of a quarter percentage point rate cut, he said, but a 50 basis point reduction would put added pressure on the Ocean State’s housing market.
“For the Rhode Island housing market, which was already struggling with inventory,” he said, “I am going to see, I think, a lot more buyers getting in the market and therefore a lot more multiple offer situations and therefore the home values continuing to go up on their already record median high pace.”
In recent years, Rhode Island has lagged behind other states in the country in issuing new construction and building permits. An increase in local prospective homebuyers and from neighboring states would escalate competition and push up prices. Although lower borrowing costs may ease the cost of capital for builders, the sector would still face challenges to develop new homes.
“Even though it may be more advantageous for builders now, given the 50 basis points cut, it’s a matter of actually finding those opportunities and getting through the red tape that we have here in Rhode Island, at the local level, to build the inventory that we do need,” Whitten said.
Omar Mohammed can be reached at omar.mohammed@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter (X) @shurufu.
New East Bay Bike Path bridges are open and ready for bikes
What’s it like to ride over the new East Bay Bike Path bridges? We sent a reporter to try them out.
I’ve long thought bike paths are among Rhode Island’s premier attractions, up there with the beaches, the mansions and the bay.
We like to knock government, but credit where it’s due, the state has done an amazing job building out an incredible pedaling network.
It’s clearly a priority.
At least I thought it was.
But they’ve just dropped the ball on what should have been a beautiful new stretch.
The plan was to finish a mile-long connector from the East Providence end of the Henderson Bridge all the way to the East Bay Bike Path.
There was even $25 million set aside to get it done.
Except WPRI recently reported that it’s now been canceled.
The main fault lies with the Trump administration, which is no friend of bike paths, and moved to kill that $25 million.
But it gets complicated, as government funding always does.
To try to rescue that money, the state DOT reportedly worked with the administration to refunnel it into a road project. Specifically, the $25 million will now be spent helping upgrade the mile-long highway between the Henderson Bridge and North Broadway in East Providence, turning it into a more pleasant boulevard.
That totally sounds worthy.
But it’s insane to throw away the bike path plan.
Especially for a particular reason in this case.
They’d already put a ton of money into starting it.
When state planners designed the new Henderson Bridge between the East Side and East Providence, they included a bike path.
It’s a beauty – well protected from traffic by a barrier, a great asset for safely riding over the Seekonk River.
The plan was to continue it another mile or so along East Providence’s Waterfront Drive, ultimately connecting with the East Bay Bike Path, which runs all the way to Bristol. Which, by the way, is one of the nicest bike paths you’ll find anywhere.
But alas, that connector plan has been canceled.
So the expensive stretch over the Henderson Bridge to East Providence is now a bike path to nowhere. Once the bridge ends, the path on it continues a few hundred yards or so and then, just … ends.
Too bad.
We were so close.
Most of the stories on the issue have been about the complex negotiation to rescue the $25 million by rerouting it to that nearby highway-to-boulevard project. But I don’t want to get lost in the weeds of that bureaucratic process here because it loses sight of the heart of this story.
Which is that an amazing new addition to one of the nation’s best state bike path systems has just been scrapped.
You can knock the Rhode Island government for blowing a lot of things.
The PawSox.
The Washington Bridge.
But they’ve done great with bike paths.
And especially, linking many of them together.
Example: not too many years ago, Providence bikers had to risk dicey traffic on the East Side to get to the more pleasant paths in India Point Park and on the 195 bridge to the East Bay Path.
But the state fixed that by adding an amazing connector that starts behind the Salvation Army building and beautifully winds along the water of the Seekonk River for a mile or so.
That makes a huge difference – and no doubt has avoided some bike-car accidents.
We were close to a comparable stretch on the other side of the river – that’s what the $25 million would have done.
But it’s now apparently dead.
Online commenters aren’t happy about it.
On a Reddit string, “Toadscoper” accused the state of being “complicit” with the feds in rerouting the money from bikes to cars.
And there was this fascinating post from FineLobster 5322, who apparently is a disappointed planner who worked on the project: “Mind you money has already been spent on phase one so rejecting it at this point is wasting money and also against the public interest … but what do I know? I only worked on the project as an engineer … I didn’t get into this to build more highways. I do it … to give back to communities and give them more access to their environment.”
Wow. One can imagine the state planning team is devastated. That’s not a small consideration. Good people go into government to make life better in Rhode Island, and it’s a bad play to take the spirit out of the job by first assigning a great human-scale project and then, after a ton of work, trashing it.
A poster named Homosapiens simply said, “We just accept this?”
Hopefully not.
The first stretch of the path over the Henderson Bridge is done, money already sunk.
What a shame to leave that as a path to nowhere.
It doesn’t have to happen.
Between Governor McKee and our Washington delegation, there’s got to be a way to get this done.
There’s got to be.
mpatinki@providencejournal.com
WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) — Two people are dead and another person seriously hurt after a crash involving two vehicles on the highway in Warwick Saturday.
Rhode Island State Police said the crash happened around 1:34 p.m. on the ramp from Route 113 West to I-95 South.
According to police, a Hyundai SUV that was driving in the middle lane of the highway started to drift to the right, crossed the first lane, and then crossed onto the on-ramp lane. The car struck the guardrail twice before driving through the grass median.
The Hyundai then struck the driver’s side of a Mercedes SUV that was on the ramp, causing the Mercedes to roll over and come to a rest. The impact sent the Hyundai over the guardrail and down an embankment.
The driver of the Hyundai, a 73-year-old man, and his passenger, a 69-year-old woman, were both pronounced dead at the hospital.
A woman who was in the Mercedes was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital in critical condition.
State police said all lanes of traffic were reopened by 4:30 p.m.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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A federal judge on Friday tossed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit aiming to force Rhode Island to hand over its voter information as part of the Trump administration’s push to acquire voter data from several states.
Rhode Island U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy wrote that federal law does not allow the DOJ “to conduct the kind of fishing expedition it seeks here,” siding with Rhode Island election officials. She added that the DOJ did not provide evidence to suggest that Rhode Island violated election law.
McElroy, a Trump appointee, wrote that she sided with the similar decision in Oregon. That decision ruled that the DOJ was not entitled to unredacted voter registration lists.
“Absent from the demand are any factual allegations suggesting that Rhode Island may be violating the list maintenance requirements,” she said in her ruling.
Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore (D) praised McElroy’s decision. He said in a statement that the Trump administration “seems to have no problem taking actions that are clear Constitutional overreaches, regularly meddling in responsibilities that are the rights of the states.”
“Today’s decision affirms our position: the United States Department of Justice has no legal right to – or need for – the personally-identifiable information in our voter file,” he said. “Voter list maintenance is a responsibility entrusted to the states, and I remain confident in the steps we take here in Rhode Island to keep our list as accurate as possible.”
The Hill reached out to the DOJ for comment.
The DOJ called for the voter lists as it investigated Rhode Island’s compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which allowed Americans to register to vote when they apply for a driver’s license.
The DOJ sued at least 30 states, as well as Washington, D.C., in December demanding their respective voter data. This data includes birth dates, names and partial Social Security numbers.
At least 12 states have given or said they will give the DOJ their voter registration lists, according to a tracker operated by the Brennan Center for Justice.
The department stated after it lost a similar suit against Massachusetts earlier this month that it had “sweeping powers” to access the voter data and that, if states fail to comply, courts have a “limited, albeit vital, role” in directing election officers on behalf of the administration to produce the records. The DOJ cited the Civil Rights Act as being intended to unearth alleged election law violations.
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