Rhode Island is the smallest state in the Union in terms of land, whose borders have been the subject of ongoing arbitration with Connecticut and Massachusetts.
One element that is beyond debate: Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, with the longest legal name of the fifty states, is also saddled with the greatest ratio of debt to state revenue, and getting bigger with 155 statewide pensions plus the central government's entitlement investments.
According the New York Times, ten cents of every dollar of state revenue goes to public pensions, a figure that is certain to double if nothing is done to curtail lavish public sector benefits.
Little Rhody, already riled up with all of its teachers fired in one school district, hired back those teachers if they agreed to much needed education reforms. Perhaps it's time for the Little State that could to start laying off excessive staff and ending the outrageous handouts to public workers at the expense of the state taxpayers.
Governor Lincoln Chafee, RINO turned Liberal Independent, secured the Govenor's mansion for himself last year. Yet he has not secured the fiscal state of his state; at least his disastrous economic policies are not short-changing the American tax-payers across the country.