Rhode Island
Hasbro HQ vs. RIPTA funding: What’s at stake under a potential tax on R.I.’s top earners • Rhode Island Current
While Gov. Dan McKee pledged to not raise taxes during his 2025 State of the State address, a crowd of progressive advocates gathered a floor below him rallied for higher taxes on the state’s top earners.
The perennial push to bring a millionaire’s tax to Rhode Island got off to an earlier and more fiery beginning than usual this year. Not surprising, given what’s at stake on both sides of the debate.
To proponents, the tax policy offers a crucial way to boost state revenues, staving off cuts to social services, public transit and health care amid projections of a $223 million structural deficit for the fiscal year that starts July 1. Legislation proposing an extra tax on the top 1% of state earners is slated to be introduced in both chambers this week.
Equally stalwart in their opposition, naysayers insist the tax will cause employers and wealthy residents to seek tax-friendlier pastures.
Including Hasbro Inc. The Pawtucket-based toy and gaming empire is considering a move to Massachusetts, citing the stronger talent pool and access to amenities that Rhode Island lacks.
The absence of a millionaire’s tax, though, is one way the Ocean State can still compete against its northern neighbor, which began a 4% surtax on income over $1 million in 2023.
“It’s a competitive advantage,” House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi said, speaking to reporters after Gov. Dan McKee’s State of the State address on Jan. 14. “I think the governor is using that to keep Hasbro and the Hasbro workers in Rhode Island.”
Hasbro did not return multiple inquiries for comment. Company executives have never mentioned state income taxes in publicly released emails or investors’ calls regarding potential relocation plans.
But it’s clear to Laurie White that the company’s calculus on whether to stay or go hinges on costs associated with doing business — including income taxes.
“It’s about two things: access to talent and the cost structure,” White, president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview. “We can’t compete 1-to-1 with Massachusetts on the talent basis. But on taxes, that’s a consideration.”
Rhode Island lacks the appeal of states like New Hampshire or Florida, which don’t tax personal income at all. But it managed to edge out Massachusetts for the first time in a decade last year, in a ranking of state business tax climates by the Tax Foundation.
Rhode Island ranked 41st among states with the most business-friendly tax policies, while Massachusetts fell to 46th. The report cited Massachusetts’ millionaire’s tax as a key reason for its lower ranking compared with past years.
“We do not want to lose that momentum,” Olivia DaRocha, a spokesperson for McKee, said in an email. She also raised an oft-cited argument among opponents of wealth taxes: that states that raise taxes see their top-earners move elsewhere.
A separate Jan. 7 analysis by the Tax Foundation linked lower state income taxes to where people moved within the United States in fiscal year 2024.
The Commonwealth saw the sixth-largest net loss in residents in fiscal 2024, losing .39% of its population, based on an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. Rhode Island’s population shrank ever-so-slightly, down .03%, according to the report.
“Rhode Island should learn a lesson from its neighbor to the north about targeting residents’ incomes,” Katherine Loughead, senior policy analyst and research manager for the Tax Foundation, said in an interview. “Rhode Island is already trending in the wrong direction. Outbound migration could be expected to get considerably worse if Rhode Island was to adopt a significant tax increase.”
Not so, according to Alan Krinsky, director of research and fiscal policy for The Economic Progress Institute, which has supported a Rhode Island millionaire’s tax. Ahead of a forthcoming Institute research paper on the “tax migration myth,” Krinsky poked holes in the Tax Foundation’s analysis.
For one thing, Massachusetts was already losing residents at a similar clip even before voters approved the millionaire’s tax. Also noteworthy to Krinsky are the sizes of population swings, which range from .65% loss in Hawaii to 1.26% gain in South Carolina.
“That’s hardly a mass exodus,” Krinsky said.
Meanwhile, other studies suggest taxes hold little sway over where people move. New York saw the number of millionaire households increase by 17,500 from 2020 to 2022, despite imposing a higher tax on income over $1.1 million during that time period, according to a December 2023 report by the Fiscal Policy Institute. Residents who earned over $850,000 a year were less likely to move out of state than people in lower-income brackets, the report found.
Loughead acknowledged that taxes are just one factor in a complex decision of where to move: cost-of-living, particularly housing costs, also plays an important role. New England overall has seen its population decline because of a higher median age and migration to southern states.
Fiscal and policy experts largely agree it’s too early to draw conclusions from Massachusetts’ tax on millionaires. Initial state estimates predicted a $2.2 billion revenue boost from the surtax in fiscal 2024. The Massachusetts Department of Revenue projected $2.4 billion revenue from the tax in fiscal 2026 budget projections, according to news reports.
Less abstract than future forecasts about revenue and population are the financial woes facing the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority, hospitals, and social services. All the more reason, Krinsky said, to consider a surtax on top earners.
Rep. Karen Alzate, a Pawtucket Democrat, plans to introduce legislation this week calling for a 3% surtax on the top 1% of state earners. Preliminary number-crunching suggests that, if approved, the tax would bring in $190 million in revenue per year, affecting residents with net taxable income of $650,000 or more.
Alzate, who introduced similar, though not identical legislation last year, hoped the looming budget deficit might make previous critics take a fresh look at her proposal.
“This is the year to do it,” she said. “We are facing a real deficit and we cannot afford to cut social services and education.”
McKee’s initial fiscal 2026 spending plan did not include higher taxes on top earners. Senate President Dominick Ruggerio has already signaled his opposition. Shekarchi pledged to remain open to all ideas.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Rhode Island
R.I. leading multi-state lawsuit against Trump administration housing policy – The Boston Globe
Rhode Island and other states had recently won a ruling against HUD’s attempt to overhaul a federal homelessness grant program in fiscal year 2025.
US District Court Judge Mary S. McElroy found that HUD acted arbitrarily and capriciously in imposing illegal conditions on billions of dollars in funding for the Continuum of Care program, through which HUD distributes billions of dollars to state, local, and nonprofit agencies to support housing and services for people facing homelessness.
For more than two decades, HUD had followed a “Housing First” model, which prioritizes rapid placement in permanent housing without requiring people to first meet conditions such as sobriety or a minimum income threshold.
However, on June 1, the Trump administration moved forward with new rules for fiscal year 2026 that seek to re-implement a cap on permanent housing. The new Notices of Funding Opportunity will set aside $1.3 billion for transitional housing and supportive service-only grants — which the coalition of states say will have the effect of capping permanent housing projects at about 68 percent of the funds.
HUD Secretary Scott Turner announced the new terms on June 1, saying the old model didn’t work.
“The ‘housing first’ experiment failed Americans by warehousing the vulnerable without results. This ideology promised to end homelessness. Instead, billions of taxpayer dollars were spent while homelessness increased to record levels,” Turner said in a statement. “Housing alone will not solve a crisis driven by addiction and mental illness. Under President Trump’s leadership, HUD is making necessary reforms to put recovery first.”
HUD said that the new Notice of Funding Opportunity for $4.04 billion through the Continuum of Care homelessness assistance program would support organizations that facilitate treatment and recovery and “prohibit funding the widespread use of illicit drugs and distribution of paraphernalia.”
The lawsuit alleges that the new conditions will mean a large number of permanent housing projects funded by the Continuum of Care program will lose funding, which will lead to people being evicted, placing further strain on state and local governments.
“Instead of investing in programs that help people stay safe and housed, the Trump Administration has embraced policies that risk trapping people in poverty and punishing them for being poor,” the 44-page lawsuit alleges.
The shift threatens housing for at least 97,000 residents of CoC-funded permanent housing across the country according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
The states argue that HUD’s actions violate the Administrative Procedure Act for failing to proceed with notice-and-comment rulemaking, and for being arbitrary and capricious. They ask the court to declare that the challenged conditions are illegal and to block HUD from implementing them.
Along with Neronha, attorneys general from all New England states except for New Hampshire have joined the lawsuit. The coalition also includes attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia, as well as the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
Amanda Milkovits can be reached at amanda.milkovits@globe.com. Follow her @AmandaMilkovits.
(WJAR) — Thirty-two years ago was the commissioning of a Navy submarine named after the Ocean State.
Maria Stephanos was on board the USS Rhode Island on July 9, 1994.
Rhode Island was the Navy’s 15th Trident class ballistic submarine.
It was commissioned in Newport and was the first to be christened in its namesake state.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WJAR) — They come from all walks of life, including many professionals in the community, taking time out of their busy days to welcome students to school with enthusiasm and handshakes.
“We learn a lot of new handshakes, too,” Kobi Dennis said. “High-fives. Pounds with an explosion. We get a little bit of everything.”
It’s the Handshake Initiative, the brainchild of now Central Falls Police Chief Anthony Roberson.
Everybody can use some encouragement, and students in Rhode Island get that the minute they head toward the school building.
Initially, the students and parents didn’t know what to think.
“I was confused because I thought it was going to be a normal day,” said one student.
“Their parents were getting out of their cars trying to see what’s going on,” Reservoir Avenue School Principal Cynthia Torres said.
But now, they crave it.
“It makes me feel motivated,” another student said.
Dennis adds in an etiquette component.
“Teaching the kids how to shake hands, look one another in the eyes with a firm grip — girl or guy — firm grip and say ‘hello’ and introduce yourself, that’s part of the initiative as well,” Dennis said.
Providence school superintendent Dr. Javier Montañez said it sends a strong message.
“We hear you, we see you, and we’re here for you,” Montañez said.
Torres strategically uses them on standardized test days.
“They say, ‘I’m going to do really good today,’” she said.
“It makes me feel encouraged to do better in school,” a student said.
They’ve connected with thousands of students across Rhode Island.
“It’s about shaking hands and building relationships, but it’s also about letting young people know that there are professionals in the community cheering for them every single day,” Dennis said.
Do you know of a nonprofit organization or volunteers doing great work in your community? Fill out a short nomination form for “Community Treasures.”
-
Massachusetts6 minutes agoHealey administration vows to appeal as Trump rejects Massachusetts blizzard aid request – The Boston Globe
-
Minnesota9 minutes agoMinnesota Looks to Add 1,100 Child Care Slots, With Melrose Among the 11 Funded Communities
-
Mississippi14 minutes agoDeath of Mississippi teen Nolan Wells under investigation
-
Missouri21 minutes agoMissouri realtors hold statewide rally to vote no on Amendments 4 & 5
-
Montana24 minutes agoDistrict court judge blocks new Montana GOP bylaws – WTOP News
-
Nebraska29 minutes agoNebraska ag experts say early detection for livestock parasites, illnesses will be important during summer show season
-
Nevada36 minutes agoLocal artists on Northern Nevada stages, now through Labor Day weekend
-
New Hampshire39 minutes agoTrans athletes drop lawsuit to gain access to girls’ sports in New Hampshire after SCOTUS ruling
