Elon Musk’s Fortune Comes From Not Paying Taxes

So why does he complain all the time?

By Stephen Land, Bob Lord 

The valuation trends up and down, but one thing’s for sure: Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire this summer. At the height of the SpaceX IPO he was briefly worth around $1.45 trillion.

Then SpaceX stock tanked, rallied, then tanked again. But the most important thing about Musk’s wealth isn’t whether it stays above the 13-figure threshold — it’s that 94 percent of it comes from not having to pay taxes on unrealized gains.

That’s right: Musk’s fortune effectively comes from not paying taxes.

It’s no exaggeration to say that trillionaires (Musk likely won’t be the last) are creatures of the tax code. 

They ought to be called “taxillionaires.” If it weren’t for laws that permit the wealthy to endlessly defer paying taxes by keeping their gains unrealized, there would be no trillionaires — and many fewer billionaires.

According to Musk’s own account, when he sold his stake in Paypal in 2002, he netted $180 million, invested it all in SpaceX and Tesla, and borrowed to pay his living expenses. To get from $180 million to a trillion today implies annual returns of over 40 percent (returns that would be considered impossible for ordinary investors).

Allowing these returns to compound untaxed supercharges growth.

Musk paid some taxes along the way, when he exercised stock options or sold some Tesla shares, but any taxes he paid are insignificant compared to his wealth. By contrast, for most working Americans earning a good salary, total state and federal taxes are significant — typically around 40 percent.

Latinos in U.S. are indispensable to nation's prosperity, health, future

Trump attacks are against US self interest

By Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Andrew Zinin

The conventional narrative that Latinos are taking more from the United States than they contribute is not just wrong—it is dangerous. In a new "Medicine and Society" analysis published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers from the Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health (CLAFH) at John Hopkins University School of Nursing report that Latinos are among the nation's most important contributors to economic growth, workforce participation, and population health.

At the same time, they warn that false narratives and discriminatory policies are exacting a measurable toll on Latino communities, contributing to rising rates of preventable illness, psychological distress, and death.

In "Correcting False Narratives—Indispensable Latino Contributions to U.S. Population Health," Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, PhD, RN, founding director of CLAFH and executive director of the Institute for Policy Solutions at the School, and colleagues document the breadth and depth of Latino contributions across economic, social, health, and political sectors—and make clear that addressing the health and social needs of the U.S. Latino community is not about serving outsiders: Latinos are not loose fringe at the edges of the great United States of America tapestry, they are essential threads woven throughout its core.

The paper presents striking data that overturn prevailing assumptions about the U.S. Latino community and what they contribute to the nation's well-being:

• Four in five Latinos in the United States—approximately 79%—are U.S. citizens by birth or naturalization, and one in four U.S. children is of Hispanic origin. Latinos are the second-largest racial/ethnic group in the country; by 2060, they are projected to reach nearly 100 million, or 27% of the U.S. population.

• The U.S. Latino economy generates more than $4 trillion in annual economic output. If measured independently, it would rank as the world's fifth-largest economy—larger than the United Kingdom, Germany, India, or France.

• Latinos hold the highest labor force participation rate of any racial or ethnic group. They represent more than one-third of the U.S. construction workforce, making crucial contributions to combating the nation's housing shortage. They also are contributing to U.S. wealth creation through higher rates of new homeownership than any other racial or ethnic group.

• Far from draining the health care system, undocumented immigrants (a small share of the overall Latino population) contribute more than $50 billion annually in health insurance premiums and taxes, five times as much as the system spends on their care. They effectively subsidize the care of U.S.-born citizens and sustain the system for everyone.

• Politically, a record 16.6 million Latinos voted in the 2024 presidential election—the highest U.S. Latino participation ever recorded, and a decisive factor in several key states. With approximately 1.4 million more becoming eligible to vote each year, Latinos are the second-largest racial/ethnic voting bloc in the country and a growing force in shaping federal, national and state policies. 

They don't want you to know the REAL reason Social Security is in trouble

But I'm going to tell you anyway

Robert Reich

The trustees of the Social Security fund said Tuesday that the fund will be depleted by late 2032, a year earlier than the trustees’ projection last year of 2033. If nothing is done, benefits will automatically be cut six years from now.

The common understanding is that Social Security’s shortfall is due to the huge postwar baby boom, now retiring, and to America’s increasing life expectancy. The usual recommended fix is to reduce Social Security benefits or raise the age of eligibility. As Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, warned Monday, “entitlement programs” like Social Security “have to be adjusted and fixed.” He said Republicans will introduce a plan to do that. Brace yourselves.

I used to be a Social Security trustee, and I call bullsh*t.

The baby boom can’t be blamed for Social Security’s shortfall. The Greenspan Commission, which in 1983 recommended the reforms that Congress then made — raising Social Security payroll taxes and also raising the eligibility age for collecting Social Security benefits — knew all about the baby boom and figured it into its calculations. (Early boomers like me can now start collecting full benefits at age 66; late boomers born after 1960 have to wait until they’re 67 to collect full benefits.)

Americans’ increasing life expectancy isn’t at fault, either. While wealthier Americans are living longer, that’s not the case for lower-income Americans. The Urban Institute estimates that life expectancy in the top 20 percent of income-earners is 91 years for people born in the 1990s, four years more than people born in the 1950s. Yet the life expectancy in the lowest 20 percent of income-earners is fewer than 80 years.

So what’s the real cause of the Social Security shortfall? What did Greenspan’s commission fail to predict? Widening inequality.

Remember, the Social Security payroll tax applies only to earnings up to a certain cap. This year, that cap is $184,500. Earnings at or below this amount are taxed at 12.4 percent. The cap rises every year according to a formula roughly matching inflation.

Sen. Victoria Gu gives her review on the recently ended General Assembly session

Highlights from a productive session 

By Victoria Gu

Dear Friends and Neighbors,  We’ve finished another legislative session! After many nights of long committee hearings, bill sponsors and committee chairs work on their bill edits, and June is when bills can be approved for votes in committee and then gain final passage in the House & Senate.  New Leadership: In the past month the RI House of Representatives also elevated Majority Leader Blazejewski to the position of House Speaker and Majority Whip Katie Kazarian to the position of House Whip. Congratulations to them and the outgoing Speaker Joseph Shekarchi for their years of service.

Bills I Passed

Shoreline Access Disclosure for Oceanfront Property Rentals: The House & Senate passed my bill S-2734A to help make sure renters and short-term rental guests understand Rhode Island’s shoreline access rights. Part of the motivation for this bill came from seeing some short-term rental listings advertise a “private beach,” even though Rhode Island law protects public shoreline access up to 10 feet above the recognizable high tide line. This bill helps make sure visitors and tenants get clear information about those rights before they stay at an oceanfront property.  Food is Medicine: The General Assembly has passed my Food as Medicine bill, which creates a task force to design a Medicaid pilot program that uses medically tailored meals or other nutritional supports  to improve the health of patients with chronic, diet-related conditions.  Food insecurity is strongly linked to many of the most costly preventable chronic diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity, which drive enormous health care spending.  Medicaid accounts for about one-third of our state budget and is growing at an estimated 6% per year. Our budget will have a growing deficit unless we look at evidence-based programs like food as medicine. 60 Days Advance Notice of Home Insurance Non-Renewals: Insurance companies are being a lot more selective about the location and the condition of the houses they insure, declining to cover homes in coastal areas or with older roofs or water heaters. The bill that Rep. Azzinaro and I passed requiring 60 days’ advance notice will help homeowners find alternative insurance coverage and find tradespeople if they need to fix something at their house in order to continue insurance coverage.

Spotlight: Youth Mental Health

988 on Student & Staff Ids: Last week the General Assembly passed a bill Rep Earl Read & I sponsored to put suicide prevention and substance use crisis hotline numbers directly on student and school staff ID cards. At a time when young people are facing growing mental health challenges, we need to promote awareness of resources like 988. The General Assembly also passed a youth crisis response service bill that codifies a successful pilot program into law. The program helps kids in crisis by getting them fast, specialized care with behavioral health clinicians (avoiding unnecessary emergency room visits) and connecting families to ongoing support. Thank you to constituents who wrote to me about the importance of funding 988: This year, the Senate also advanced a separate bill by Senator Melissa Murray to protect the long-term funding of Rhode Island's 988 crisis line and BH Link services. More than 90% of 988 calls are resolved through phone support alone, connecting people with trained counselors before a crisis escalates. The bill stalled in the House, but we hope to pass it next year. More info here

Looking ahead: Vote for the Green Bond this Nov & Op-Ed on Managed Retreat

We got an extra $5 million for climate resiliency in the Green Bond which will be on the ballot in November! Annually, each town can apply for grants from this pool of funding to strengthen their infrastructure. One example: Westerly received funding for a flood wall around a pump station for the wastewater treatment plant.  Managed Retreat: These photos I took in South Kingstown show how shoreline armoring—like rock walls and elevated structures—disrupt the dynamic beach ecosystem and make it harder for people to walk along the beach. As sea levels rise and more coastal property owners build hard structures to protect against erosion, the public part of the beach gets narrower, and in these pictures, it has become impossible to pass along the shoreline. That's why we need to plan ahead before the next major storm. Instead of repeatedly rebuilding in areas that face increasing flood and erosion risks, towns can identify safer places for homes and infrastructure over the long term. Read more about our work to help Rhode Island communities prepare for rising seas and protect public access to our shoreline:  https://www.providencejournal.com/story/opinion/columns/2026/04/18/rhode-islands-managed-retreat-plan-for-rising-seas-opinion/89628806007/

Next rail advocates meeting: June 22nd 6pm @ Westerly Library

Budget Highlights

62-65 year old early retirees will now get the same exemptions from Social Security tax as people 65 and older. Seniors still must have incomes under $107,000 for single filers and $133,750 for married filers in tax year 2025, to qualify. Child Tax Credit - see this press release Rural Health Transformation Grant - RI received over $150 million in the first year of this federal program and will use it to implement innovative programs like Community Paramedicine - see this website for more information. Stay tuned for more healthcare highlights and impacts of HR1 on our healthcare system

Read the full budget press release

Senate Highlights

Labor Protections: We passed many noteworthy bills like S-2921 to give domestic workers the same protections under the Fair Employment Practices Act (FEPA) as other Rhode Island workers. Immigration bills: see this press release and another for protecting constitutional rights Education Funding Formula: only minor changes this year by increasing the “student success factor” - which is an additional amount of funding for each low-income student - from 40% to 43%. We will need to monitor the new Senate commission to study the funding formula, specifically the one suggested by the Blue Ribbon Commission Status of CRMC reform bill: The bill that passed last year required the Governor to appoint members with expertise in coastal matters. There are some new members that the Senate confirmed this year with expertise with civil engineering, coastal wetlands, law, etc. but it remains to be seen whether the political dynamic will change and I still support the overall reform that would restructure CRMC so it’s similar to DEM, with a staff and director making the decisions instead of a politically appointed all-volunteer council. Status of Bottle Deposit & Recycling bills: The bill that passed last year began the first stage which is a needs-assessment to look at our recycling system as a whole. That is still in progress

Feds restore home energy rebates, but with a catch

Among other things, heat pumps take a hit

By Dan Gearino

Major new limits on eligibility

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.

Federal energy efficiency rebate programs will no longer cover a switch from fossil fuels to electricity for heating, according to long-awaited guidance from the Department of Energy.

The department published an update on how it will implement consumer programs with $8.8 billion in funding. The new provisions include eliminating use of diversity, equity and inclusion considerations, among other changes.

This follows legal challenges after Donald Trump issued an executive order last year, upon returning to office, canceling the release of funds from President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, including rebates for home energy efficiency. A coalition of states successfully sued to restore the funding, obtaining an injunction in March 2025.

States have been waiting for the Department of Energy to reopen funding, a process that begins with this latest publication.

Clean energy and environmental advocates said the guidance was overdue and severely flawed.

FY27 budget heads to Gov. McKee’s desk after Senate approval

Republicans fail in effort to remove new tax on the rich

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

A $15.2 billion budget — the highest state spending plan on record — heads to Gov. Dan McKee’s desk, following the Rhode Island Senate’s approval Tuesday.

The upper chamber’s 32-6 vote followed more than two hours of debate and a dozen failed amendments, including three Republican-led attempts to strike down or weaken the millionaire’s tax headlining the fiscal 2027 budget. All four chamber Republicans voted against the budget, along with Democrats Sam Bell of Providence and Leo Raptakis of Coventry.

The Senate’s blessing marks the penultimate hurdle for the tax-and-spend plan ahead of the July 1 start date. But where McKee stands remains in question — especially because last year he declined to sign the budget, letting it take effect without his signature. 

The governor’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

The budget features a 1% increase in taxes on income over $1 million, followed by 1% increases in the next two years, rather than the 3% hike in one year McKee proposed in January. Lawmakers explained the phased-in approach would strike a balance between revenue generation that offsets federal funding cuts and economic and business development. 

Taxing top earners has dominated debate throughout the legislative session, including across the rotunda on Friday, where the Rhode Island House of Representatives reviewed and ultimately approved a carbon copy of the spending plan, again with opposition from its 10 Republican members.

The triple toll of Trump’s terrible tariffs

Ultimately, American workers and consumers suffer three different ways.

Tom Schaller

Following the Supreme Court’s February ruling that Donald Trump’s tariff policy violated Congress’s tax authority, the administration must now refund the $159 billion it collected from its unconstitutional tariffs.

But unfortunately for American workers and consumers, winding down this fiscal fiasco results in a lose-lose-lose situation:

• First, most Americans will never be reimbursed for what were effectively temporary sales taxes they paid for various imports, nor will they receive the public benefit of having those sums spent on government programs or projects.
• Second, because it is logistically easier to reimburse the American companies that directly paid the tariffs, some corporations may enjoy windfall refund profits — presuming, that is, those companies did not go bankrupt.
• Finally, the surviving businesses and the employees who still work for them — hundreds of thousands of workers were laid off because of the tariffs — will for the foreseeable future continue to suffer because foreign countries, companies, and citizens quite rationally retaliated against Trump’s policies.

Let’s work through the three-fold ruin wrought by Trump’s catastrophic policy.

House approves $15.2B FY27 budget with marquee acquisition: millionaire’s tax

Rhode Island budget almost done

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

A record $15.2 billion fiscal 2027 budget breezed through the Rhode Island House of Representatives in near record time Friday, with the 65-10 vote finalized with an hour to spare before sunset.

The approved budget is almost identical to the version given preliminary vetting by the House Committee on Finance one week ago, featuring a phased-in millionaire’s tax, a state inspector general’s office, and additional funds for healthcare, families with children, and the state public transit agency. 

The $15.2 billion bottom line for fiscal 2027 marks the highest spending in state history — roughly $300 million more than what Gov. Dan McKee proposed in January, and $900 million above the current fiscal year budget approved one year ago. 

“Sustainability was at the core of what we’re looking at to make sure we’re investing not just today, but for our families for the future,” House Speaker Christopher Blazejewski, a Providence Democrat, told reporters after the vote on Friday. 

All 10 Republican lawmakers voted against the budget, blasting the unsustainable growth in state spending and the controversial millionaire’s tax, which dominated debate throughout the legislative session.

Revenue for Rhode Islanders Coalition urge General Assembly to tax the rich

They can afford it and it's the right thing to do

Steve Ahlquist

As the Rhode Island House releases the FY2027 state budget, the Revenue for Rhode Islanders Coalition and more than 50 statewide organizations and businesses¹ are calling on legislative leaders to meet this moment with courage and urgency by including meaningful revenue solutions — including the top one percent surtax proposal — in the final budget. On Thursday, they held a rally outside the Rhode Island State House and then went inside to lobby in both chambers.

“We are here to demand that lawmakers tax the rich,” said emcee Alisha Pina, director of Rhode Island Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty. “We are here today because we know Rhode Island needs more revenue. We are here today because most of us are not thriving; we are struggling paycheck to paycheck. We know that tax fairness and more revenue from the 1% will bring in more money that we all need. Rhode Island can take care of itself, and we do that by doing it together. We know that federal cuts will be on the order of $400 million for fiscal year 2028, so the money found a few weeks ago is not enough. What we need is tax fairness, and tax fairness means taxing the top 1% to bring in more money for all of us and to address the inequities we see every day in education, housing, and healthcare.

“We need money for childcare, the unhoused, RIPTA, and healthcare. Every session, we tell our legislators the same thing: It is your moral obligation to help all of us, not just some of us. To think that the budget that’s going to be announced tomorrow may not include any millionaires or 1% tax ... It’s not fair, logical, or good for Rhode Island. We’re here to demand what we need. Listen to your taxpayers. We’re the ones who elect you, and yet you make decisions that are against what we want. That’s why we’re here today.”

“In April 1978, martyr and Saint Óscar Romero wrote, ‘A church that doesn’t provoke any crisis, a gospel that doesn’t unsettle, a word of God that doesn’t get under anyone’s skin, a word of God that doesn’t touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed -- what gospel is that?’² The original column was written for an archdiocesan newspaper in response to secular attacks from the Salvadorian oligarchy, corrupt and fraudulent leadership supported by the U.S. government,” said Jeremy Langill, Executive Minister of the Rhode Island State Council of Churches. “Romero had been accused of being a communist, but like many inspired by liberation theology and the reality that the gospels compelled action, he continued to insist that his care and support for the rights of the poor were a matter of faith.

“But Saint Romero is not the only leader who understood the Christian call to action. Karl Barth, arguably the most preeminent Protestant theologian of the 20th century, wrote that the churches have injured the cause of the gospel by the way they have identified the gospel with the badly planned and ineptly guided cause of the West. Bart, too, was responding to claims that he was a crypto-communist because of his consistent critique of the attempt to identify Christian faith post World War II with the economic and political systems of the United States. His commentary was theological. It was grounded in the gospel. It could not be assimilated into market forces that prioritized profits over people.

“Friends, a marginal tax rate on the top 1% is, to speak simply, a no-brainer. It’s a no-brainer because it does not even get close to addressing the deep structural inequities that drive our dystopian and immoral economic reality. It merely addresses a symptom, the excessive accumulation of wealth by a handful of people. As a minister of the gospel of Christ, I already know what Jesus thinks about wealth. The gospels go straight to the heart of the matter: ‘The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.’ (Matthew 20:16) It is a teaching that comes just after the parable of the workers in the vineyard, where the manager paid every employee equally, regardless of the number of hours they worked.

Candidates for Governor talk taxes and the economy

Gubernatorial candidates Foulkes, Gregerson, Guckian, and McKee speak out at EPI Tax Policy Summit

Steve Ahlquist

Front runners Foulkes and McKee

“What I’m hearing is visionary leadership,” said Weayonnoh Nelson-Davies, executive director of the Economic Progress Institute (EPI), to the audience gathered in the Hotel Providence. “The people in this room want our leaders to be moved, to dream, and to make things possible. We want leaders who can confront affordability and energy costs, but what does that mean when we’re making policy?

“I’m really inspired by the message that we don’t want a Rhode Island where we are surviving, we want a Rhode Island where we can thrive. That is my dream. I’m so competitive. Rhode Island has been my home state since I immigrated to the United States at 16. I want us to win so bad. I want that fire in our guts. We can make everyone jealous because they don’t live in Rhode Island.

“I’m also very grateful to the candidates running for governor who showed up to not just share with us what they think,” concluded Nelson-Davies, “but to listen to what the people they might be leading tomorrow think as well.”

The Economic Progress Institute held the People’s Tax Policy Summit and Gubernatorial Candidates Reception on Wednesday. The event brought together residents, advocates, and state leaders to discuss rising living costs, tax equity, and the state’s financial future. Here’s the video:

Four candidates for governor, including Helena Foulkes, Will Gregerson, Aaron Guckian, and incumbent Daniel McKee, were provided three minutes to address those in attendance. The candidates were introduced by Chelsea Speaks, from the RICJ (Rhode Island for Community and Justice), and Joseph Ortiz, a “Tax Justice Ambassador” with ARISE (Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians).

The following has been edited for clarity.

Helena Foulkes

“It’s been so fascinating to listen to all of this, and I especially love Weayonnah’s call to all of us to be bold. It’s important. It’s easy to think about the barriers, but her challenge to dream big puts us on the map.

“Four years ago, I walked into a room of about 75 carpenters, and I’ll be honest with you, I thought I knew what that conversation was going to be about: wages, job sites, material costs, etc. Then the first man stood up and started talking about childcare. He talked about what it was doing to his family. I looked around the room and watched them nod, one after another, like he was saying out loud what all of them had been experiencing for years. That moment has never left me because that man wasn’t asking for anything special. He was asking for a Rhode Island that works for families like his, and we have not given it to him.

“The cost of infant care in this state is now higher than in-state college tuition and the average rent. The people who have been running this state will tell you we have universal pre-K, but they are not the parents on the waitlist, the ones who, year after year, get a letter that says there’s no more space.

“It’s not universal if it doesn’t apply to everyone. Less than a third of low-income children are enrolled in Head Start or pre-K. That is not a gap. That is a choice the people in charge of our state government have made year after year, with a $15 billion budget at their disposal. That ends with me.

“Earlier today, I announced the Rhode Island Employer Match Childcare Fund, a $20 million pilot that brings the state and Rhode Island employers together to share the cost of childcare. Employers who invest in childcare retain their workers, grow their teams, and build stronger companies. When families win, Rhode Island wins. I’ll expand tax credits for childcare assistance, and by the end of my second term, every Rhode Island family will have access to universal pre-kindergarten, not universal in name, universal in practice. Childcare is only the beginning because the truth is the squeeze does not stop there: Rhode Island is ranked dead last in the country in new housing starts last year. There’s not a single community in this state where a family making $100,000 a year can afford to buy a home.

“I hear it everywhere I go. People who grew up here, want to stay here, and love this state are being told by the cost of living that there’s no room for them anymore. That’s wrong, and it has to stop. My Rhode Island housing program will build 20,000 new homes and apartments that Rhode Islanders can actually afford, and the wealthiest Rhode Islanders will pay for it.

“And we’re done cutting RIPTA one year and then funding it again in an election year. If people can’t afford to live here and can’t afford to get to work, it doesn’t matter how many good jobs we attract or grow. I will invest $15 million in job access transit routes connecting workers to Quonset, hospitals, and other work sites. No one should have to leave a place they love because they can’t afford to stay.

“So here’s what I’m asking of you: Do not let them tell you this is the best we can do. Do not accept taglines that say ‘affordability for all’ when our state is not affordable. Talk to your neighbors, coworkers, and the parents on the wait list. Tell them things can be different.

“Sixteen years ago, I lost my mother to cancer. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever been through, but before she died, she gathered my siblings and me together, and she said something I’ve always carried with me: ‘Take care of each other.’ That’s why I’m running for governor, because that is what Rhode Island has always been at its best: Neighbors looking out for neighbors and people who show up for each other even when it’s hard. That’s the Rhode Island I believe in, and that is the Rhode Island we’re going to build together.”

Will the rich run away if Rhode Island tries to tax them?

Weayonnoh Nelson Davies & Patrick Crowley call out vague claims and weak evidence in RIPEC's anti-millionaires' tax report

SteveAhlquist.news

"With the report’s vagueness about the possibility of economic consequences and failure to quantify risk, RIPEC’s warnings ought not to persuade policymakers or anyone considering the evidence." 

The Economic Progress Institute (EPI) and Rhode Island AFL-CIO find that the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC)’s recent report, Rhode Island’s Millionaires’ Tax Proposal: The Economic Risks of Becoming Less Competitive and Losing Taxpayers, falls woefully short on data or evidence to justify its claims and opposition to raising taxes modestly on the state’s highest-income filers.

Here are the Top 5 reasons why the report is unreliable and misleading – plus a critique of the report’s main data point and statistical claim:

Cotter proposes sales tax holiday weeks for restaurants

Gives customers and restaurants a welcome break

Rep. Megan L. Cotter has introduced legislation to create two tax-free weeks each year for restaurants in the state.

“This is a bill to help boost small businesses,” said Representative Cotter (D-Dist. 39, Exeter, Richmond, Hopkinton). “Mom-and-pop businesses make up a substantial portion of the restaurant industry. A tax-free week is a great way to encourage people to visit a restaurant they’ve never tried, hopefully one they’ll want to visit more often. This will put more money directly into the hands of servers and small business owners alike and encourage Rhode Islanders to enjoy the many fantastic restaurants we are fortunate to have all over the state.”

The legislation (2026-H 8512), which Representative Cotter introduced May 1, would establish one sales tax-free week in the summer and one in the winter for restaurants statewide. The specific dates would be determined by the General Assembly.

The tax holiday weeks could essentially create statewide “Restaurant Weeks” which several communities in Rhode Island currently organize. Such weeks usually include special menus and deals to entice customers who might not otherwise visit.

The legislation is supported by the Rhode Island Hospitality Association.

What’s in the price of a gallon of gas?

Biggest factor is the price of crude oil

Robert I. Harris, Georgia Institute of Technology

The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects nationwide retail gasoline prices to average near US$4.30 a gallon for April 2026 – the highest monthly average of the year. The political response has been familiar. Georgia has suspended its state gas tax, other states are weighing their own tax holidays, and the White House has issued a temporary waiver of a law known as the Jones Act in hopes of moving more domestic fuel to East Coast ports.

As an energy economist, I am often asked about what contributes to gas prices and what different policies can do to affect them.

The price of a retail gallon of gas is the sum of four things: the cost of crude oil, refining, distribution and marketing, and taxes.

In nationwide figures from January 2026, crude oil accounted for about 51% of the pump price, refining roughly 20%, distribution and marketing about 11% and taxes about 18%. That mix shifts with conditions: When crude oil prices spike, that can drive more than 60% of the price; when the price drops, taxes and logistics are larger shares of the cost.

WTF is Van Slyke talking about?

CCA Town Council mouthpiece warns spending emergency money on an emergency will decrease the amount in Charlestown’s emergency fund

By Will Collette

Joined at the hip

After years of trying to make sense out of the nonsensical, maybe I should quit trying. After all, no amount of fact-checking and debunking seems to stop the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA’s) only Town Council member, Bonnita Van Slyke from making foolish remarks.

Her latest nonsense is a critique of Charlestown’s proposed budget, due for a vote on June 1 to take effect July 1. In it, she argues that the town should defer major spending to repair significant winter storm damage to Town Hall until the Town’s 5-year capital improvement plan is adopted.

She criticized an April 27 decision by the Town Council majority to transfer $650,000 from the town’s bloated emergency fund (a.k.a. Unassigned Fund Balance) to deal with short-term costs exceeding the town’s Capital Maintenance account.

To understand why this gives Van Slyke agita, remember that the CCA holds as a sacred principle that we must accumulate a very large, unassigned fund balance – their goal seems to set a target of 100% of town operating costs– to deal with unforeseen emergencies.

Apparently, the extensive, costly damage done to Town Hall by our recent brutal winter doesn’t qualify as “unforeseen” and thus does not warrant drawing down emergency funds. As Van Slyke puts it:

The Town Council cannot draw down Unassigned Fund Balance year after year to lower/maintain a relatively low tax rate without jeopardizing services and /or without, eventually, services being reduced or the tax rate increased substantially. [Emphasis is Van Slyke’s]

During the Charlestown Citizens Alliance decade of control of the Town Council and Planning Commission, the unassigned fund balance was often used to fund over-priced land acquisitions by the CCA’s de facto leader, Charlestown Planning Commissar Ruth Platner. 

They would pay cash so they could argue that paying way over assessed value for Ruthie's deals was somehow offset by not paying interest on voter-approved $2 million Open Space bond. Also, Platner could keep buying land using the excuse that there was still leftover open space bond money even though that was a fiction.

The open space bond fund is still a sore subject for Platner and the CCA, especially after Town Council President Deb Carney moved to correct the misuse of funds. Carney’s motion directed that just over one million dollars be transferred from the open space account back to the unassigned fund balance.

That’s the amount the CCA lifted from the unassigned fund balance to fund Ruth’s shady land deals instead of using the bond fund the way voters intended. But OMG, you would think that someone pissed on Platner’s petunias! Oh the horror!

Other than that, Van Slyke’s and presumably her master’s voice Ruth Platner, haven’t got much to say about the substance of the budget. Expenses are increasing modestly, requiring 2.5% more tax revenue. Despite that, the Budget Commission projects that our tax rate will actually DROP from the current $5.93 to an estimated $5.07.

Van Slyke asks the obvious question: how can expenses go up and the tax rate go down? For once, she actually gives the accurate answer: the tax base, i.e. property values, went way up.

There was a time when all the CCA cared about was the tax rate. They took credit for Charlestown’s comparatively low rate even though actual taxes people paid during their reign constantly increased. 

Now that the Town Council is controlled by Charlestown Residents United (CRU) and tax rates have dropped dramatically, the CCA no longer cares about tax rates.

It’s an election year and you can be sure the CCA will make another run at regaining control of the Town Council. But they haven’t got much to go on when it comes to local issues.

Their main theme so far this year seems to be “local control over zoning,” a flawed local campaign issue for two reasons. First, it’s a dispute between Ruth Platner and the state legislature. Second, there’s no one arguing AGAINST local control in zoning although the subject is not as black and white as Platner and Van Slyke would have you believe.

We still have a while to see whether voters care as much about zoning as Platner hopes they will.

What agriculture contributes to the Rhode Island economy

We need to take the threat of GOP LG candidate John Loughlin's bad economic policy seriously

He's also aligned with MAGA PACs in Rhode Island pushing for lower taxes for the rich 

Steve Ahlquist

Loughlin at left (facing away from camera) at a League of
RI Businesses PAC event. 
Photo by Michael Salerno/Rhode Island Current)

In a press release, Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor John Loughlin, “[c]iting hard IRS migration data from Massachusetts and New York,” labeled the proposed 3% surtax on incomes over $1 million as a “proven job-killing, wealth-repelling mistake.” 

Unfortunately, the interpretation of the “hard IRS migration data” that Loughlin cites (without attribution) comes from the wealth lobby in the form of right-wing think tanks, such as Investment News and others. 

It ignores better studies from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities demonstrating that “[s]ince its implementation in 2023, the [Massachusetts] levy has delivered billions of dollars in new funding for transformative investments [like universal free school meals, fare-free buses, and affordable childcare.] The tax has also routinely exceeded initial revenue projections — outpacing expectations by $3 billion over roughly its first three years.”

Stephen Miller's Strait of Hormuz

Trump's Bigot in Chief

Robert Reich

Trump’s chief bigot, Stephen Miller, said on Fox News that immigrants to the United States bring problems that extend through generations.

“Not only is the first generation unsuccessful,” Miller claimed. “You see persistent issues in every subsequent generation. So you see consistent high rates of welfare use, consistent high rates of criminal activity, consistent failures to assimilate.”

Bullshit. The children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of most immigrants are models of upward mobility in America.

In a recent paper, researchers found that immigrants today are no slower to move into the middle class than immigrants were a century ago. In fact, no matter when their parents came to the U.S. or what country they came from, children of immigrants have higher rates of upward mobility than their U.S.-born peers.

Stephen Miller’s great-great-grandfather was born in a dirt-floor shack in the village of Antopol, a shtetl in what is now Belarus. He came to America in 1903 with $8 in his pocket and spoke no English. Three generations later, little Stephen was born in 1985 to American parents but somehow developed a visceral hatred for immigrants.

Miller and Trump have been dealing with immigrants the same way Pete Hegseth and Trump have been dealing with Iran and the Strait of Hormuz — inflicting pain on both them and the United States, in the hope their pain will be worse than the pain we endure.

Tax Day was supposed to be a big PR boon for Trump, in which he touts his “no taxes on tips” and other ersatz tax “cuts” for average working Americans (while hiding that his Big Ugly bill actually gave most of its benefits to the wealthy and big corporations, and paid for them by taking money from Medicaid and food stamps and other programs the working class and poor rely on).

But the war in Iran has made everything — even Stephen Miller’s war on immigrants — feel like the Strait of Hormuz.

Fortune Magazine confirms that WE pay Trump's tariffs, not foreign countries, despite Trump claims