RI Center: Legislators Should Not be Rewarded for Their Past Negligence

Having put forth its own Pay-As-You-Go concept earlier this year, the nonpartisan RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity supports the general approach put forth by the RI Republican policy group earlier today to fund necessary infrastructure upgrades - without tolls and without an overly costly bond as proposed by the Governor.

"If fixing our bridges and roads is a top policy priority, as it should be, then that priority should be reflected in our existing state budget, without new revenues being extracted from our struggling state economy," suggested Mike Stenhouse, CEO for the Center. "Legislators should not be rewarded for their past negligence of this issue; it is now time to make the tough budget decisions necessary to fund upgrades to our bridges and roads largely out of existing revenues."

The Center plans to release a third funding model next week, a hybrid plan that incorporates a PayGo funding approach and that also removes direct management of this major public works project from the inefficient RI Department of Transportation. ​