R.I. receives D- on Competitiveness Report Card

RHODE ISLAND RECEIVED an overall grade of D- on the Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity's 2015 Competitiveness Report Card. Its best score was a C- for K-12 education. / COURTESY RHODE ISLAND CENTER FOR FREEDOM & PROSPERITY
RHODE ISLAND RECEIVED an overall grade of D- on the Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity's 2015 Competitiveness Report Card. Its best score was a C- for K-12 education. / COURTESY RHODE ISLAND CENTER FOR FREEDOM & PROSPERITY

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island ranked last among the New England states on the 2015 Competitiveness Report Card from the Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity with an overall grade of D-.
Rhode Island received two Fs, seven Ds and one C in 11 categories. The first year for the report card was 2012, and that year the Ocean State received five Fs and five Ds, according to the nonprofit organization.
Rhode Island’s best grade was C-, in K-12 education. It received Fs in infrastructure and health care, and Ds in tax burden, spending and debt, employment and income, and public sector. Grades of D- were received in business climate, energy, and living and retiring in Rhode Island.
The other New England states did not fare that much better than Rhode Island. New Hampshire received the best grade of C+, followed by Maine with a C-, Vermont and Massachusetts tied with D+, and Connecticut, a D.
The center said that when it began compiling the annual competitiveness report card in 2012, it wanted to find out how the state was doing compared with its New England neighbors and the nation as a whole.
“Burdened with public policies that discourage work and a productive lifestyle, the state’s poor grades in the 10 major categories evaluated (two Fs, seven Ds, and one C) reflect a government culture geared to benefit special interest insiders, while at the same time promoting job-crushing and soul-crushing dependency among the general populace,” the report from the center reads.
Upward mobility, according to the report, is hampered by a “non-competitive business climate” and “onerous family tax burdens.”

“This report card clearly demonstrates the wreckage that decades of liberal policies have wrought upon our state. These unacceptable grades should be a wake-up call to lawmakers that a government-centric approach is not producing the social justice and self-sufficiency that Rhode Islanders crave,” Mike Stenhouse, CEO for the center, said in a statement. “If we want to provide more mobility and opportunity for our neighbors and entrepreneurs, we must completely reform our public policy approach. We must learn to trust in our people and remove the tax and regulatory boot of government off of their backs by advancing policies that empower the average family with choices, that reward work and that grow the economy.”

The report card, which the center said was originally developed by a national economist, studies state rankings among key economic and social indexes, as published by national organizations.

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