From the Providence Journal, Monday, July 6, 2007.

IN AN ECONOMY that’s producing fiscal surplus for most of America, Rhode Island is projected to continue facing enormous deficits for the foreseeable future because the state’s expenditures are growing faster than the revenue being generated. And for this tremendous debt we’ve gotten very little in return.

Rhode Island social-service expenditures are among the highest in the country, even though we lag behind the nation in reducing poverty. Our public-education system also spends more per capita than most other states, yet academic achievement ranks below average. High taxes and burdensome regulations make for an environment in which many large companies are willing to do business in our state only if they are awarded special deals, while the smaller businesses are left to fend for themselves, if they survive at all.

Many politicians and citizens recognize that this results from legislation tailored for “special-interest groups.” This is the problem of faction that America’s Founders anticipated. In the trenches, this amounts to complaints that the legislature lacks a coherent opposition, that all branches of government have their own agenda shaped by themselves and their closest advisers. But, this reasoning assumes that we live in a world of constant “market failure,” in which private action can’t solve problems and the government must be the deus ex machina puppet-master of our existence.

While concerns about a lack of access to education and welfare, exploitative workplace practices, and the environmental consequences of development have legitimate foundations in America’s and Rhode Island’s history, there are sound arguments for government to constantly revisit the possibility of abstaining from arenas where individual liberty and personal responsibility work better.

As the Founders well understood, government in moderation is beneficial, but excessive government inevitably impinges upon individual liberty, fostering dependence rather than empowering prosperity.

Ironically, Rhode Island is stuck in a “conservative” cycle protecting the “liberal” status quo of excessive workplace rules, generous social programs, retentive regulation, entrenched unionism in state government and Horace Mann’s approach to education. Harking to the days of the Dorr War (1842) and the Bloodless Revolution (1935), our oligarchy is unwilling to risk the progress it has made by reassessing these circumstances lest the robber barons should rise from their graves.

A voice for a more independent perspective has been missing on the Rhode Island scene until this Independence Day heralded the founding of the Ocean State Policy Research Institute. This nonprofit foundation intends to promote free-market ideals not as partisan choices, but as foundational American aspirations no less worthy of consideration than socially collective compassion epitomized by the Great Society.

Rhode Island is replete with a collection of “special-interest groups” promoting government intervention as the solution. Such groups as the Poverty Institute, at Rhode Island College, Ocean State Action and other nonprofits and public institutions lobby for more government programs and spending. Paradoxically, your taxes fund part of this activity, effectively government lobbying itself in a spiral to budget insanity.

Of course, lobbying is by no means limited to promoters of populist redistribution. Businesses, social services and labor unions alike advance their own interests by lobbying government, more often than not for particularized solutions of interest to their sector or their particular firm, and without regard to the impact upon the economy and society as a whole.

Principled interests on both sides, if truly supporting the pursuit of happiness by Rhode Island citizens, should support serious analysis of when and where government action is, or is not, the best avenue for improvement of our quality of life. Evidence from the solid accomplishments of free-market institutes in 46 other states suggests that Rhode Island should re-examine the prevailing ‘’wisdom” that expanding government is the way to solve problems.

We are proud to dedicate “our lives, our property and our sacred honor” to invigorating that discussion, taking up the pen if not the sword in the tradition of those who so declared on July 4, 1776. Please join the Ocean State Policy Research Institute in welcoming its charter fellows, who will advance the institute’s mission of crafting sound policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, and traditional American values through timely research on important issues to be shared with elected officials, the media, business leaders, community organizations and individual citizens:

Fellow for Economic Development: Edward Mazze, Ph.D.; Fellow for Regulatory and Environmental Policy: Brian Bishop; Fellows for Educational and Social Welfare Policy: Robert Ledermann, Ph. D., David Anderson, Ph.D., and William Felkner.

But, of course, we are not alone in our battle for reform. Ocean State Policy intends to collaborate with other national, statewide and local-issue organizations through the formation of the Rhode Island Center Right Coalition. We don’t always have common goals but have a common interest in thinking outside of the box.

We must expect less from our government and more from ourselves, and when government does intervene, it must be efficient, effective and uphold the values of our culture. We believe that advancing these principles will ensure that Rhode Island remains a vital home for our children and grandchildren.