PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- An advocacy group is hailing a Senate committee's passage of legislation to require reviews at least once every three years of what Rhode Island has gotten in return for the tax incentives it has doled out.
"Given all of the areas where we need to invest to create jobs - education, transportation, and health care for example - it's more important than ever that tax breaks receive the same scrutiny as spending through the state budget,'' said Kate Brewster, executive director of The Economic Progress Institute.
As stated in the leadership-backed bill now headed to the full Senate for a vote: "Rhode Island relies on a number of tax incentives, including credits, exemptions, and deductions, to encourage businesses to locate, hire employees, expand, invest, and/or remain in the state...[but] The state needs a systematic approach for evaluating whether incentives are fulfilling their intended purposes in a cost-effective manner.''
Brewster noted: Rhode Island is among the 25 states that have done the least to evaluate whether state tax incentives are achieving their intended goals, according to a 2012 study by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
The Economic Progress Institute - formerly known as The Poverty Institute - is a nonpartisan research and policy organization focused on "the economic well-being'' of low- and modest-income Rhode Islanders.