Gov. Bev Perdue asked for $15 billion in taxpayer money funneled through the federal government to pay for state ($7.5 billion), county ($3.5 billion), city ($2.8 billion), and school ($1.1 billion) projects. She’s counting on another $900 million in secondhand taxpayer money to bail out the state Medicaid program. This more than offsets the good idea she had in asking state agencies to find ways they can save seven percent of their budgets in the year ending June 30.
Rhode Island, instead of asking for a larger federal share of a Medicaid program the state can’t afford, has received a waiver turning it into a federal block grant that can limit growth in the program.
Rule number one: Don’t tax your citizens through the federal government – whatever the state gets in federal assistance roughly equals what taxpayers have had taken from them by the federal government.
Rule number two: If you get a stimulus check, don’t use it as an excuse to create more programs.
