But the state’s key industries collapsed long ago, and its political leadership has refused to make adjustments to its high-cost, high-regulation governance system.
The result: a state with “the costs of Minnesota and the quality of Mississippi,” as Rob Atkinson, former executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council, told WPRI-TV. Indeed, Rhode Island is arguably America’s basket case, overlooked only because it is small enough to escape most national scrutiny. Its ruination is a striking corrective to the argument that states can tax, spend, and regulate their way to prosperity.
Building has gotten harder and harder. Grumbles Bob Baldwin, a home builder active in Rhode Island since the 1970s: “In the seventies you could look up the zoning requirements on the map, have your engineer design to that, and get approved in three to six months, max.” Today, it’s a different story. “They’ve changed the zoning to increase minimum lot sizes, even in areas where nothing is currently built to that size,” he says. “Plus, there are regulations that go well beyond the state minimums and vary from town to town.” Some of these building standards mandate high-end materials, such as granite curbs, which drive up costs.
The biggest problem for developers is that the approval process can drag out through endless cycles of reviews and objections. As John Marcantonio, executive director of the Rhode Island Builders Association, puts it: “It’s not one particular rule; it’s death by a thousand paper cuts. The process to develop land in Rhode Island can go on for years.” Baldwin says that local builders now budget for the inevitable lawsuits that will be needed to get projects approved. Worse, after waiting several years for planning approval, developers may have to wait again for building permits.
Various states have the bureaucratic mind set making them their own worst enemies, driving the population to relocate. NY has been going through this for the past 15 years. As the people move, those remaining pay more in taxes to keep the bureaucrats fat and happy. Detroit ( and Illinois) is the perfect example with inept, corrupt government destroying the business community, driving them out, spending and taxing ever increasing until the city/state is close to bankruptcy.
Rhode Island is one of the states where the cost of living is one of the highest in the country with some of the most corrupt politicians running the show.
Those in favor of strong and oppressive zoning, code, and build permitting laws (perhaps even working in it) will be along shortly to tell us how great it is--for them anyway.
But the state’s key industries collapsed long ago, and its political leadership has refused to make adjustments to its high-cost, high-regulation governance system.
The result: a state with “the costs of Minnesota and the quality of Mississippi,” as Rob Atkinson, former executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council, told WPRI-TV. Indeed, Rhode Island is arguably America’s basket case, overlooked only because it is small enough to escape most national scrutiny. Its ruination is a striking corrective to the argument that states can tax, spend, and regulate their way to prosperity.
Building has gotten harder and harder. Grumbles Bob Baldwin, a home builder active in Rhode Island since the 1970s: “In the seventies you could look up the zoning requirements on the map, have your engineer design to that, and get approved in three to six months, max.” Today, it’s a different story. “They’ve changed the zoning to increase minimum lot sizes, even in areas where nothing is currently built to that size,” he says. “Plus, there are regulations that go well beyond the state minimums and vary from town to town.” Some of these building standards mandate high-end materials, such as granite curbs, which drive up costs.
The biggest problem for developers is that the approval process can drag out through endless cycles of reviews and objections. As John Marcantonio, executive director of the Rhode Island Builders Association, puts it: “It’s not one particular rule; it’s death by a thousand paper cuts. The process to develop land in Rhode Island can go on for years.” Baldwin says that local builders now budget for the inevitable lawsuits that will be needed to get projects approved. Worse, after waiting several years for planning approval, developers may have to wait again for building permits.
Honestly, I think New Hampshire should just conquer them and take them over.
