PROVIDENCE,
R.I. — A lot of people here say that Rhode Island suffers from being
the smallest state in the country. Jimmy Saccoccio, manager of the
Olneyville New York System, a popular diner, agrees.
“They
say in Rhode Island, if you’re going to cheat on your husband or your
wife, go out of state because Rhode Island is too small,” he said with a
laugh.
Poor
Little Rhody. Not only is it the smallest state, it is often a punch
line. And in many state rankings, it comes out on top for the wrong
things, like having the nation’s highest rate of unemployment.
Now comes yet another blow to the state’s fragile self-esteem. A Gallup poll
found that of all 50 states, Rhode Island was the least appreciated by
its own residents. Only 18 percent of Rhode Islanders said their state
was the best place or one of the best places to live. Illinois did not
fare much better — only 19 percent were proud of their state. But even Mississippi,
a habitual laggard in standard-of-living metrics, earned higher marks
in the Galluppoll, with 26 percent of its residents calling it the best
state or one of the best.
These
levels of dissatisfaction stood in sharp contrast to the satisfaction
of residents in several states out West. Tied at the top were Montana
and Alaska, where 77 percent of residents thought highly of their state.
Most
of the top 10 states feature wide-open spaces and small populations;
Rhode Island, by contrast, is one of the most densely packed. But that
is cold comfort to Rhode Island, since two other small New England
states — New Hampshire and Vermont — made the top 10.
So what ails Rhode Island?
Many
people interviewed here on a recent soggy day pinned the blame on the
state’s struggling economy. Manufacturing declined after the textile
industry moved South, and the jewelry industry has been outstripped by
foreign competitors. And the state has been slow to rebound from the
recession.
“They
can’t get jobs,” said Mario Forte, 85, who is long retired from the
jewelry business. He was standing out of the rain in a storefront on
Atwells Avenue in Federal Hill, Providence’s Italian neighborhood, which
bustles with restaurants. “You give a man a job, he’s happy,” Mr. Forte
said.
And just as often, people pointed to Rhode Island’s reputation for corruption.
A Mini Poll of the Smallest State
Only 18 percent of Rhode Islanders said their
state was the best or one of the best places to live. A poll found that
of all 50 states, Rhode Island was the least appreciated by its own
residents.
Credit
“The
government is corrupt, and the poverty rate is high,” said Gary
Balletto, 38, a former professional boxer who was eating lunch at Venda
Ravioli.
They
spoke not far from the site of an old pinball business that was the
base of operations for a notorious New England crime family. The Mafia
is much diminished now, and studies suggest that, at least as measured by convictions of public officials, Rhode Island is far less corrupt than many other states.
Nonetheless,
the perception persists that Rhode Island, measuring just 48 miles from
north to south and 37 from east to west, is overstuffed with miscreants
and reprobates.
“Even
in good times, Rhode Island has had a little bit of an inferiority
complex, caused in part by being the smallest state and by having a
history of political corruption,” said John Marion, executive director
of Common Cause Rhode Island.
“People
like to go back to George Washington calling it Rogue’s Island and
Lincoln Steffens calling it a state for sale on the cheap,” he said.
Steffens, the muckraker, wrote a devastating article
in 1905 in which he detailed the graft and bribery here, starting with
party bosses buying citizens’ votes and calling those payments
“compensation for time lost in visiting the polls.”
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More recently, the speaker of the House abruptly resigned
in March under a still-unexplained cloud after federal and state agents
raided his office. Other highlights include the time the sitting
governor crawled into a Dumpster outside Walt’s Roast Beef in Cranston
to retrieve an envelope containing a $10,000 bribe; his waitress had
inadvertently tossed it out.
The
name Vincent A. Cianci Jr., who is known as Buddy, often pops up in
conversations about Rhode Island. A former mayor of Providence, he was
forced to resign after a felony conviction for assault (he threatened a
man with a burning log); he was later re-elected mayor and forced to resign a second time after another felony conviction.
In
an interview, Mr. Cianci, 73, now a popular radio host and a potential
candidate for mayor again this year, blew off the notion that Rhode
Islanders were discouraged by the pervasive aura of corruption.
“Corruption is everywhere,” he said. “We haven’t cornered the market.”
He
attributed their dissatisfaction instead to high taxes, leaders who are
“bean counters” instead of “risk-takers” and the state’s size, which
makes everyone’s activities more noticeable.
“Here,
everybody knows what’s going on, and every little nitty-gritty thing
they do is under a microscope,” he said. “You could drop an atomic bomb
on parts of Texas and no one would know.”
Rhode
Island is heavily Democratic, heavily Roman Catholic and heavily
unionized. Some say the state is beholden to its unions, as evinced by
its generous pension system. But the high cost of government, said
Robert D. Atkinson, the former executive director of the defunct Rhode
Island Economic Policy Council, is not matched by a high quality of
services.
“Rhode Island has the high-cost structure of Minnesota but the low-quality services of Mississippi,” Mr. Atkinson said.
In fact, Rhode Island ranked lower than Mississippi on Gallup’s index measuring residents’ satisfaction with their standard of living for 2013.
For
some politicians, the Gallup results are a call to arms; the governor’s
race this year is shaping up in part as a contest over who can best
pull the state out of its funk.
“Lifting
the self-esteem of the state is absolutely something I need to address
as governor,” said Mayor Angel Taveras of Providence, a Democrat running
for governor.
Claiborne Pell IV, grandson of Senator Claiborne Pell
and another Democrat candidate, said restoring faith in state
government was “at the heart” of his campaign because without it,
nothing else could get done.
Gina
M. Raimondo, the state treasurer and also a Democrat running for
governor, takes a white board to campaign events and asks voters to list
why they believe in Rhode Island. It is her way of getting them to
think about the state’s positive attributes.
“The
malaise is driven by the economy and the lack of jobs,” she said.
“Rhode Island needs a leader who has optimism for the future and who
knows and believes we can be better.”
Despite
the complaints, many of those interviewed said they liked living here
and would never move. They love the easy access to the ocean. They are
proud of Newport, an old-world moneyed coastal community where
Jacqueline Bouvier and John F. Kennedy were married in 1953.
And
they are especially proud of their restaurants and their culinary
quirks. The official state drink is coffee milk, a mixture of milk and
coffee syrup. Rhode Islanders boast of their snail salads. They are
devoted to their version of the hot dog, called, oddly enough, New York
System hot wieners. They are served at Olneyville New York System, which
was just named a 2014 James Beard Foundation American Classic.
Mr.
Cianci, the former mayor, suggested that the 82 percent of residents
who told Gallup that Rhode Island was not among the best states should
spend a weekend in Newport, eat in a Providence restaurant or visit the
Rhode Island School of Design.
“Then,” he said, “they should go to Pocatello, Idaho, and see what they can do there on a Saturday night.”
Tax Report
A New Ruling on IRA Rollovers
A recent Tax Court decision changes the landscape. Here's what you need to know.
Updated May 9, 2014 6:19 p.m. ET
A veteran tax lawyer argued his own case in U.S. Tax Court about an
individual-retirement-account maneuver that long had been blessed by the
Internal Revenue Service. He lost, and now all IRA owners face dangers they didn't before.
The issue in question involves what is called an IRA rollover. In this maneuver, a taxpayer withdraws assets from a regular IRA or Roth IRA and redeposits them into a similar account within 60 days. During that period, he or she can use the money without owing taxes or penalties.
In Bobrow v. Commissioner, the court ruled that taxpayers can do only one such rollover per 12-month period, even though the IRS had previously told the public—in Publication 590—that owners could do one rollover per IRA every 12 months. In other words, someone could do three rollovers per 12 months if he or she had three separate IRAs.
Under the new regime, a taxpayer who does more than one IRA rollover in a 12-month period will have the second one disallowed, and the account will often be fully taxable and penalties could be assessed. And unlike with other IRA mistakes, says Mr. Slott, there will be no way for taxpayers to get a ruling from the IRS pardoning this misstep.
Alvan Bobrow, the taxpayer in the case, used a series of back-to-back IRA rollovers in a way that waved a red flag at the IRS, and the judge disallowed the maneuvers after looking at the original language of the statute. That, in turn, upended the IRS's own more generous—but nonbinding—interpretation of the law.
The tax case involved IRS guidance that was more generous than the letter of the law.
Associated Press
The decision offers a number of lessons for taxpayers. Here is what to consider.
Don't appear to taunt the taxman. Tax experts say Mr. Bobrow's case likely drew the IRS's attention because he and his wife made sequential rollovers involving IRAs that gave them access to about $65,000 for six consecutive months. "It seemed abusive," says Natalie Choate, an IRA expert at Nutter McClennan & Fish in Boston.
If you claim to be an expert, be sure you are. The judge pointed out that Mr. Bobrow asserted that he was a tax specialist and understood the letter of the law in the statute. When the judge concluded that he didn't, he imposed $10,260 of penalties.
Know the limits of IRS guidance. In an order issued following the decision, the judge said that "taxpayers rely on IRS guidance at their own peril" and cited several cases.
While the judge's pronouncement may technically be true, experts say this case is highly unusual. It involved IRS guidance that was more generous than the letter of the law and a tax lawyer who seemed to take advantage of it.
The judge's order also noted that after the decision, the IRS extended some relief to Mr. Bobrow and his wife that lowered their tax and penalties.
Understand the difference between an IRA transfer and an IRA rollover. This decision doesn't affect taxpayers' ability to transfer one or more IRAs directly from one trustee to another, such as between Fidelity Investments and Vanguard Group. In such transfers, the taxpayers never take possession of assets. Rollovers, by contrast, allow the IRA owners access to their funds.
Shun IRA rollovers whenever possible. Experts say to handle rollovers with extreme care. Use them rarely, if at all. "It's easy to forget the 60-day deadline, and then the entire account becomes taxable—plus a 10% penalty if the taxpayer is under 59½," Ms. Choate says.
That said, sometimes rollovers are necessary. For example, paperwork-averse IRA sponsors sometimes tell IRA owners who ask for a transfer to another sponsor that doing so will take months—and then offer to write a check for the assets immediately.
Understand the nuances of the new regime. The one-rollover-per-owner restriction applies to IRA-to-IRA rollovers, but it doesn't apply to moves from a 401(k) plan to an IRA. If an employer gives a departing worker a check for 401(k) assets that he moves to an IRA within 60 days, that doesn't count as an "IRA rollover."
Note also that the new restriction applies to one rollover per 12 months, not per calendar year. So if a taxpayer does an IRA rollover on Feb. 1, he can't do another one for 12 months with any IRA.
Be wary of the postponed deadline. Because the IRS itself was surprised by the decision, it delayed the new regime until next year.
But it's unclear whether a rollover done in, say, May of this year would taint one done in January of next year, says Mr. Slott. "We've had enough surprises with this issue. Stick with IRA transfers," he says.
Write to Laura Saunders at taxreport@wsj.com
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Dear Fellow New Yorker,
This Mother’s Day, we honor and cherish our mothers, who are one of the most important people in our lives. I am grateful to have a loving mother who taught each of her children to work hard, serve our communities and be kind to others. Mothers are shaping the next generation of our State, and the values they impart are critical to our society’s future. To all New Yorkers, I wish you and your families a very happy and special Mother’s Day. Sincerely,  Governor Andrew M. Cuomo |
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who does not believe in NY Const.Art. 1, Sec. 3 and the right of the bettors of the State of New York to do as they please every day of the year. Brought to you by patrons of Nassau OTB, the official betting corporation adored by the people of Rhode Island who are as uniform in their beliefs as Japan is in its identity of who is Japanese. Tax ReportA New Ruling on IRA RolloversA recent Tax Court decision changes the landscape. Here's what you need to know.
Updated May 9, 2014 6:19 p.m. ET
A veteran tax lawyer argued his own case in U.S. Tax Court about an
individual-retirement-account maneuver that long had been blessed by the
Internal Revenue Service. He lost, and now all IRA owners face dangers they didn't before.
The issue in question involves what is called an IRA rollover. In this maneuver, a taxpayer withdraws assets from a regular IRA or Roth IRA and redeposits them into a similar account within 60 days. During that period, he or she can use the money without owing taxes or penalties. In Bobrow v. Commissioner, the court ruled that taxpayers can do only one such rollover per 12-month period, even though the IRS had previously told the public—in Publication 590—that owners could do one rollover per IRA every 12 months. In other words, someone could do three rollovers per 12 months if he or she had three separate IRAs. Under the new regime, a taxpayer who does more than one IRA rollover in a 12-month period will have the second one disallowed, and the account will often be fully taxable and penalties could be assessed. And unlike with other IRA mistakes, says Mr. Slott, there will be no way for taxpayers to get a ruling from the IRS pardoning this misstep. Alvan Bobrow, the taxpayer in the case, used a series of back-to-back IRA rollovers in a way that waved a red flag at the IRS, and the judge disallowed the maneuvers after looking at the original language of the statute. That, in turn, upended the IRS's own more generous—but nonbinding—interpretation of the law.
The tax case involved IRS guidance that was more generous than the letter of the law.
Associated Press
The decision offers a number of lessons for taxpayers. Here is what to consider. Don't appear to taunt the taxman. Tax experts say Mr. Bobrow's case likely drew the IRS's attention because he and his wife made sequential rollovers involving IRAs that gave them access to about $65,000 for six consecutive months. "It seemed abusive," says Natalie Choate, an IRA expert at Nutter McClennan & Fish in Boston. If you claim to be an expert, be sure you are. The judge pointed out that Mr. Bobrow asserted that he was a tax specialist and understood the letter of the law in the statute. When the judge concluded that he didn't, he imposed $10,260 of penalties. Know the limits of IRS guidance. In an order issued following the decision, the judge said that "taxpayers rely on IRS guidance at their own peril" and cited several cases. While the judge's pronouncement may technically be true, experts say this case is highly unusual. It involved IRS guidance that was more generous than the letter of the law and a tax lawyer who seemed to take advantage of it. The judge's order also noted that after the decision, the IRS extended some relief to Mr. Bobrow and his wife that lowered their tax and penalties. Understand the difference between an IRA transfer and an IRA rollover. This decision doesn't affect taxpayers' ability to transfer one or more IRAs directly from one trustee to another, such as between Fidelity Investments and Vanguard Group. In such transfers, the taxpayers never take possession of assets. Rollovers, by contrast, allow the IRA owners access to their funds. Shun IRA rollovers whenever possible. Experts say to handle rollovers with extreme care. Use them rarely, if at all. "It's easy to forget the 60-day deadline, and then the entire account becomes taxable—plus a 10% penalty if the taxpayer is under 59½," Ms. Choate says. That said, sometimes rollovers are necessary. For example, paperwork-averse IRA sponsors sometimes tell IRA owners who ask for a transfer to another sponsor that doing so will take months—and then offer to write a check for the assets immediately. Understand the nuances of the new regime. The one-rollover-per-owner restriction applies to IRA-to-IRA rollovers, but it doesn't apply to moves from a 401(k) plan to an IRA. If an employer gives a departing worker a check for 401(k) assets that he moves to an IRA within 60 days, that doesn't count as an "IRA rollover." Note also that the new restriction applies to one rollover per 12 months, not per calendar year. So if a taxpayer does an IRA rollover on Feb. 1, he can't do another one for 12 months with any IRA. Be wary of the postponed deadline. Because the IRS itself was surprised by the decision, it delayed the new regime until next year. But it's unclear whether a rollover done in, say, May of this year would taint one done in January of next year, says Mr. Slott. "We've had enough surprises with this issue. Stick with IRA transfers," he says. Write to Laura Saunders at taxreport@wsj.com
HI-
Thanks for
the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy,
if you give me a mailing address.
Claude
Solnik
(631)
913-4244
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Island
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Smithtown Ave.
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