Rhody FAILS Report Card

Related Links: Progress Report: 2013 budget fails to improve Report Card

Providence, RI — The state of Rhode Island suffers from failing grades in an overwhelming number of indexes, according to the first-ever state Competitiveness Report Card, published today by the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity, a non-partisan public policy think tank.

Download 2-page Report Card PDF handout version, here …. (right click to save as PDF)

Download 3-page  Report Card PDF version w/ data sources, here … (right click to save as PDF)

The report card, which measures the Ocean State’s regional and national rankings in 49 sub-categories, shows how non-competitive the state has become as compared with its New England neighbors and among all states.

“This number of “F”s is appalling”, said the Center’s CEO, Mike Stenhouse. “We’ve all seen the depressing headlines over the years, but when compiled into a single report, the report card shows how utterly incompetent our policymakers have been over the past decades. With so many of our citizens suffering as a consequence, it should be painfully clear that an entirely new approach to public policy must be considered to save our state.”

The Competitiveness Report Card organizes the sub-categories into 10 major categories, such as Tax Burden, Business Climate, Education, Energy, and Infrastructure. In the major categories, the Ocean State graded “F” in five, and “D” in five others. Of the 49 sub-categories, the state graded 28 “F”s, 11 “D”s, 9 “C”s, and 1 “A”.

“The most troubling aspect about the report card is that Rhode Island is not even in the ball-game when it comes to economically competing against the other 49 states with Fs in both the Tax Burden Index and Business Climate Index”, said Scott Moody, a nationally recognized economist who reviewed and edited the report card, and who serves as an adjunct scholar to the RI Center for Freedom. “The good news, however, is that the report card also shows that by lowering or eliminating some of the major taxes, Rhode Island can quickly move to the head-of-the class regionally; this would be a bold step toward getting the Ocean State’s economic competitiveness back on track“, added Moody.

“While other states are making bold moves to reduce taxes and regulations so as to make themselves more attractive to businesses, capital investment, and migration, our state scores “F” in overall tax burden, “F” in business climate, “F” in population growth and does nothing to improve its standing”, continued Stenhouse. “Our Center for Freedom hopes that this report card will serve as a wake-up call that we need to abandon the big government, special interest agenda that has failed us so miserably, and instead implement bold reforms that will unleash the great potential that for too long has been squashed in our state.”

Download 2-page Report Card handout version, here ….

Download 3-page  Report Card PDF version w/ data sources, here … (right click to save as PDF)