Gov. Gina Raimondo, The Grinch Who Raises Taxes

It’s the week before Christmas and Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo is imitating the Grinch – but instead of stealing Christmas, she’s headed straight for your wallets.

Faced with budget hole of up to $200 million, Raimondo is considering multiple tax hikes that could impact all Rhode Islanders to fix her budgetary mess. In an interview with the Providence Journal Raimondo listed at least three potential tax increases:

“I just have to find some money… It could come from anywhere. It could come from an income tax. It could come from a sales tax. It could come from a fee.”

Crippled by the sixth worst total tax burden in the United States, Rhode Islanders are clamoring for relief, not tax increases, which may be why Raimondo’s plan has already drawn a stiff rebuke from the state’s Democratic Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello. Mattiello cautioned against tax increases, stating, that people’s budgets are “stressed,” and Raimondo should be running government more efficiently, noting that under her Executive Office of Health & Human Services there is a “tremendous amount of waste,” in which, “you could probably find all of the money to balance this budget.”

“During what is supposed to be the season of giving, Governor Raimondo’s quest to take even more money out of the pockets of hardworking Rhode Islanders ensures she’ll be receiving coal in her stocking this Christmas,” said RGA Communications Director Amelia Chassé Alcivar. “Governor Raimondo’s attempts to shift the burden of her big-spending agenda to the taxpayers is a dangerous remedy that will hurt hardworking families and job creators.”