Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council

• RIPEC released a report and video on housing policy in Rhode Island, finding that despite historic investments in housing production and preservation, policies that drive up production costs and subsidies have resulted in relatively few housing units and have not meaningfully affected the state’s broader housing challenges. The report also found that affordable housing developments were roughly 50% more costly to build than the private market and the state continues to face challenges from overlapping governance responsibilities among housing agencies.
  • Boston Globe, “Rhode Island’s ‘enormous’ housing investments are yielding ‘no meaningful impact’ for most residents, RIPEC report finds”
  • WPRI 12, “Report: RI still far from reaching ‘Housing 2030’ goals”
  • Rhode Island Current, “Rhode Island is burning through cash to build housing. It’s hardly made a difference, RIPEC says.”
  • Ocean State Media, “Rhode Island Authorized $644M for housing. A new report questions the return”
  • GoLocalProv, “Report: RI’s Housing Program Has Produced ‘Relatively Few Units at a High Cost’”
  • WPRO 99.7, “New RIPEC Housing Report”
  • RI News Today, “RIPEC Report: State’s Affordable Housing Inefficient, Few Units, High Cost.”

• RIPEC published an op-ed in the Rhode Island Current offering recommendations to improve the return on historic taxpayer investments in housing. These include dedicating at least half of future bond issues to middle-income housing, streamlining housing governance and programs maximizing unit production through strict cost controls and the de-emphasis of supplemental policy goals. Lastly, RIPEC is urging policymakers to pursue alternative strategies to create housing affordability—like rental assistance, public development, and subsidies to market rate developers.  

• RIPEC and the Center for Regional and Economic Studies at Bryant University released their quarterly Key Performance Indicators (KPI) Briefing, which showed several key economic indicators weakened in the first quarter of 2026. The Ocean State’s employment numbers fell to their lowest level in three years, the unemployment rate increased to 4.6%, and labor force participation dipped for the seventh consecutive quarter. This labor market softening occurred even as net sales tax receipts—a key measure of aggregate consumer demand—showed strong growth.
  • Boston Globe, “R.I. unemployment rises again as state’s economy shows ‘concerning trends,’ RIPEC briefing says”
  • Providence Business News, “RIPEC: R.I.’s unemployment rate highest since Q3 of 2021”

• RIPEC’s Director of Policy & Research Justine Oliva spoke to the Valley Breeze about RIPEC’s report on chronic student absenteeism, which found that wide variation in chronic student absenteeism rates across districts are linked to differences in the local implementation of best practices.  She noted that absenteeism in Woonsocket last year was 42%, compared to 26% in Central Falls, adding that both districts “have high proportions of students from high-need economic backgrounds” and “are the most obvious examples of over and under performers” in reducing chronic absenteeism.

• RIPEC President & CEO Michael DiBiase spoke to Channel 10 about the House Finance Committee’s fiscal year 2027 budget bill, which increases state general revenue spending by 4.5% over one year and 9.7% over two years. Noting that the state enacted an income tax hike on high earners despite a substantial surplus, DiBiase added that “we’re growing the spending … [but Rhode Islanders are] not getting new programs or new services or better services.”

• RIPEC testified before the General Assembly in opposition to a retroactive moratorium on charter public school expansion. RIPEC also testified in support of several bills, including a bill to totally revise the state’s school funding formula for K-12 education, a bill to create a legislative commission to study and make recommendations related to shared services between school districts, and legislation to create an Office of Inspector General.

Inside Insights

• A recent analysis of the best and worst state economies by WalletHub ranks Rhode Island 5th worst. The Ocean State’s overall standing was dragged down by a 49th-place finish in Economic Activity, which heavily weights GDP growth. Rhode Island ranked 35th in Economic Health and 31st in Innovation Potential, based on its share of high-tech employment. The study aligns with findings in a recent RIPEC report, which showed that Rhode Island’s economy is overly reliant on low-growth industry sectors and that the state’s five- and ten-year growth rates for key economic indicators lag the U.S.

• A Construction Coverage study ranked Rhode Island as having the worst roads in the country, with 36.2% of its major roadways rated in poor condition. The Ocean State’s share of poorly conditioned roads is seven percentage points higher than the next lowest state and more than two and a half times that of the U.S. (13.1%).

• The latest federal energy pricing data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration finds that Rhode Island faces some of the steepest energy costs in the country, ranking 6th highest nationwide for all-sector retail electricity rates. At 25.7 cents per kilowatt-hour, the Ocean State’s average electricity cost sits roughly 80 percent higher than the U.S. average of 14.1 cents.

What to Look for in June