Ken Block is founder of The Moderate Party of Rhode Island and was the Moderate Party candidate for Governor of Rhode Island in 2010. He received over 22,000 votes, 6.5% and came in 4th. Lincoln Chafee was elected Governor as an Independent.
Among the many shocking facts that I learned on the campaign trail last year was the fact that there are more than 100,000 illiterate adults in Rhode Island (data from The Poverty Institute).
Rhode Island desperately needs manufacturing jobs to provide employment to our seriously undereducated work force. Governor Chafee’s proposed tax scheme is certain to cause our already decimated manufacturing base to shrink further as some of our remaining manufacturing businesses bolt for less expensive locales.
It is important to remember that Rhode Island’s once vibrant manufacturing industry has withered away due to competition from other regions of our country, and competition from around the world.
Governor Chafee’s tax increases will further deteriorate our already decimated manufacturing industry. To illustrate how the Chafee tax scheme will hurt manufacturing businesses, I will use my traffic-signal manufacturing business as an example.
For starters, Governor Chafee is proposing a 1% tax on “purchases for manufacturing purposes.” Everything that goes into my traffic signals is sourced from other companies. My business assembles the final product and ships the signals out around the country. So, my margins will now shrink by 1% – a huge competitive disadvantage in a highly competitive market.
This 1% tax has a more sinister aspect to it. I source the printed circuit boards for my traffic signals from a Rhode Island-based company. This company has to buy a lot of small electronic components then mounts those components on a circuit board – they are manufacturing my boards for me.
So, the cost of my in-state-purchased, made-to-order circuit boards will go up by 1% because the manufacturer will pass the cost of the 1% materials on to me – and then I will have to pay a 1% tax on the finished circuit board because my business integrates the board into a larger assembly
I now have a powerful incentive to look for a manufacturer for my circuit boards outside of Rhode Island. I can save 1% on the cost of my boards by doing so and I can save 2% on the boards by moving my manufacturing business out of the state!
Full Commentary by Ken Block @ http://blogs.wpri.com/2011/04/05/block-chafee-plan-will-decimate-ri-manufacturing/
More information on The Moderate Party of Rhode Island @ http://www.moderate-ri.org/
which is only occasionally, not always, available ——— but thx for telling me where to go!
I’d suggest the Open Thread https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2011/04/readers-news-open-thread-march-2011/
[a] could not find ‘new independent post(s)’ catagorie any where, as it is not a permanent thread as in ‘Prop 14’
[b] could you plz tell me where it might be better placed?
[c] could you plz tell me where to go ………..
Don – what does your comment have to do with the post?
officially BAN, Third Party Watch, and IPR are non religious. Traditionally we give lip service to the separation of church and state.
And yet the god squad inserts religion left right and center. Her goes for ‘one more’:
As a way to convert the pagans to Christianity, missionaries began turning the festivals into Christian holidays.
It’s a story with many similarities to the story of St. Patrick and the four-leaf clovers. According to Catholic.org, “Patrick used a three-leafed shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to the locals. However, other sites call this story just a myth.” The Easter Bunny was another example of Christians using pagan symbols.
As for the modern version of the Easter Bunny — you know, an enormous rabbit who wears a bow-tie and looks very cute — he’s mostly taken from German traditions that stretch back to the 1500s.
Again according to Mental Floss, “The Germans converted the pagan rabbit image into Oschter Haws, a rabbit that was believed to lay a nest of colored eggs as gifts for good children.”