Imagine that. Our corrupt legislators who to this day are still siphoning money out of the retirement fund to give 5 digit monthly pension payments to people who never contributed to get them & a second full pension to others (double dippers) who never contributed for those either get a pay raise based on a Cost Of Living but they eliminate COLA's for state employees.

Thank you Senator Christopher S. Ottiano.

Wish all the State reps would follow suit, however that is after all wishful thinking on my part.

When you consider the SS has not gotten a cola for 3 years, until this year. YOu have to wonder just how greedy some of the State reps are. But then they have no problem scamming for Studio 38, forming EBEC, 21 other quasi-agencies, that should be abolished and returned to private sector if they really actually do something, other than waste taxpayer money.

Then there is this constant idiotic thinking that tourism is the only business they need in this State, (Greece thought the same thing by the way). We need real jobs, manufacturing, tech business etc, not minimum wage or a little above that tourism only supplies. Would add those jobs are hardly entry level to a better job, when you have to leave the State, because; well there are no better jobs here.

I've been saying that for a long time Jack. Tourism is too fluid an entity to depend so much on. It's the same with the thinking that building more houses & condos will improve the tax base. I've yet to see property taxes get lowered with that one. In the past year the Aquidneck Land Trust(ALT) while attempting to secure funds to purchase farm land to keep it away from a developer proved to the town of Portsmouth that for every $1 they would take in from the homes to be built that the town would have to pay out over $1 for the services it had to provide to that proposed development. The fact is the only people who make out from home/condo building are the people who build & sell them.

Thank you Senator Ottiano for showing that you are indeed in touch with the real world out there! To you it may be a small amount of money, but the gesture speaks volumes!! And since you are running unopposed, it says even more! You are a true statesman,

The pension systemis not sustainable because for decades the state has been siphoning money out of the system to give pensions to many who never contributed for them. The monthly payments to these people go up to 5 digit payments a month. Also the state created a situation where an individual could get a full municipal & full state pension. & not contributing for the second one. These people are called "double dippers". For example after retiring from a municipal job say after 30 yrs they would then through a direct/indirect connectin in the state house get a state job. Then once they are there for 5 yrs they would then transfer the municipal time they are collecting a pension on over to the state & suddenly have 30 yrs with the state + the 5 they actually worked & have 35 yrs which gives them a full state pension. Both of these practices went on for many many years, decades & those pensions are still being paid out of the system. That's why the system became unsustainable. If that was done in the private sector the employer would be in the penitentiary.

The second reason the system became unsustainable is because the state made little or no payments into the system while spending money to increase an already top heavy bureaucracy with more mangement positions. If you want to see what I mean go to the Vets Home sometime when they are having another bogus
department head meeting." & peak into the Conference Room. Not only does every chair around the table have someone sitting in it but people are also sitting in chairs along all the walls around the room. A Lot of people with titles. Most are unnecessary. A perfect example of redundancy. Now multiply that by every facility in every department throughout the state & it increases every year.

I hear you Bear; amazes me is the young Union Members who keep voting in leadership that has done nothing but put the screws to them in the future. Had they tempered these golden, pensions and Benefits, and worked instead on making sure they were sustainable and the State was being fiscally responsible, they would not be on the losing side of the stick now and in the future.

To the appointee's, I think it is time to dissolve every single quasi-entity that serves no purpose other than raping the taxpayers. That’s about 90% of them. Appointees should all be fired immediately with no compensation at all. The corruption has got to stop. Well there may be some appointees who have done some good; they too must fall by the wayside if we are to start from scratch.

It is like this States Education system, no amount of money will solve it. 5th highest paid teachers in the Country, 41st in education, with cities and towns going bankrupt because of it. Should be closed for a year, fire everyone, eliminate tenor and start from scratch in rehiring also, only way to weed out the bad from the good. It is not bout the children, it is about the system that allows more rights to the bad at the expense of the good.

The time for so called fixes has ended. Only a total restart with a new system is the answer, obviously the current system, not only failed, but has put us backward in time with trillions wasted nationally. Really irks me that one could go on forever with reasons

I her ya Jack. But the RI Veterans Home isn't part of a quasi state agency. It's under Veterans Affairs which is under the selectively blind eyes of the Dept of Human Services (DHS). Are you aware that DHS has been dipping into a restricted fund that is supposed to be used on the residents at the RIVH? Is been going on for many years. That is just one reason why Carcieri & his golden child Gary Alexander who was the Secretary of DHHS put the screws to Veterans Affairs becoming a stand alone Dept. If it had DHS/DHHS would not be allowed to touch that fund. Are you also aware that the RIVH gets 1/2 million $ every month from the federal Govt? That agai n is another reason VA isn't a stand alone Dept. Vets Affairs should be the poster child for cronyism in RI. Contact your state rep & ask for the preliminary & final reports from the investigation into the administration at the RIVH that took place in 2007. Read them. Except for one all of the administrators mentioned in those reports are still gainfully employed at Vets Affairs/Vets Home/Vets Cemetery. They all have direct/indirect connections in the state house, on the Vets Advisory Board & who knows where else. And now there is a posting for another Asst. Administrator in VA. for another crony. See for yourself at the RI Govt website under "state jobs with no promotional list".

lol, Bear, well for once in a long time, I decided to not make a 20 part post. I would have gotten to individual boards and such eventually I am sure ;-}.
My problem is exactly as you State with these various state agencies, that are loaded with buddy's, and nepotism. Only people too me who should ever be on a board, dealing with Vets, are well Vets, and or wife’s or children of Vets, who have a background in Vets affairs. Why DHS has anything to do with it, is beyond me. The only thing they know about humans, are that we are bi-ped, other than that, they know we can be taxed to death and plan their budgets around that like most politicians in this state.

Again there is the problem, as you State. No simplicity, just agency, boards, committee's, adhoc's, studies groups etc. Not to actually do anything, just to give titles and waste our tax money. They never accomplish anything in a timely, fiscal, and efficient manner. They invariably just screw it up and form more BS to fix the BS they created in the first place, because they are full of BS. ;-}