video: NEW: RI Congressional Delegation—No ‘Silver Bullets’ for Economy

Monday, April 18, 2011

Stephen Beale, GoLocalProv News Editor

Businesses hoping for some help were told there are no silver-bullet solutions for the state economy by members of Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation this morning at a Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce breakfast.

Instead, Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse said many of the federal funds that had been available in the past for economic development efforts—such as the so-called knowledge district in downtown Providence—will be more difficult to obtain in the new Congress. Reed and Whitehouse pointed to the pressure to close the deficit and the elimination of earmarks by the GOP-controlled U.S. House.

Whitehouse told the audience—which gathered at The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick—that he believed the earmarks ban would be temporary. Reed predicted that earmarks would return in some form or another.

Congressman Jim Langevin and David Cicilline also participated in the panel discussion, which was moderated by Laurie White, President of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce.

Closing tax loopholes

At the forum, the two Senators also spoke about the need to overhaul the tax code. Whitehouse said Americans spend about 6.1 billion hours a year on tax compliance. “Think about what could be innovated or built with 6.1 billion hard-working innovative hours?” Whitehouse said.

Whitehouse and Reed called for closing loopholes in the tax code as well. Reed said he was willing to bet that most businesses in represented in the audience pay more in taxes than GE—which paid zero, he said. Whitehouse compared Carnival Cruise Lines, which pays just one percent of its profits in taxes to the Rhode Island-based CVS Caremark, which he said pays 30 percent of its profits in taxes.

Cicilline and Langevin: no tax hikes in the works

Cicilline and Langevin both said they don’t expect any tax increases to come out of Congress. The vast majority of the new GOP freshmen, Cicilline said, have taken a no-new taxes pledge. As a result, tax hikes aren’t on the table as an option for dealing with the deficit, Langevin said, adding that further spending cuts in all areas of the budget—including Social Security—are possible.

Cicilline also called for federal investments in infrastructure and transit in the knowledge district in Providence.

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