Rhode Island government to shut down state government for 12 days

AP ^

[thought]

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Rhode Island will shut down its state government for 12 days and trim millions of dollars in funding for local governments under a plan Gov. Don Carcieri proposed Monday to balance a budget hammered by surging unemployment and plummeting tax revenue.

The shutdown would force 81 percent of the roughly 13,550-member state work force, excluding its college system, to stay home a dozen days without pay before the start of the new fiscal year in July.

The closures come as the worst recession in decades has eliminated hundreds of millions of dollars in tax collections and pushed unemployment to 12.7 percent, the second-highest jobless rate in the nation behind Michigan.

Carcieri predicted the state's fiscal future could grow even bleaker.

[Gabrial]

This will likely be a boon for the legal whorehouses there.

[DesertConservative]

Arizona, which is more purple than red these days, is in almost as bad shape. Too many years of Gov. Janet and an influx of Californians and Micheganers have inflated the government entitlements and stripped away one billion in extra cash we had just four years ago. Not just Liberal states. Beware red states, Arizona could happen to you, too.

[M. Espinola]

Cutting down the R.I. pay offs and corruption using tax $$$ would solve the budget problems, but that will not happen.

[Theodore R.]

RI ought to petition to join MA and we could return to 49 states. MA would straighten out little Rhody, and that way Patrick Kennedy could take the Senate seat.

[kingpins10]

For the most part, red states are in better shape financially.