Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council
Support RIPEC
Facebook Twitter Linkedin Youtube

Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council

Publications

Public finance

Rhode Island’s Road and Bridge Program: High Spending, Heavy Debt, Uneven Results

September 30, 2026

Spending on bridges and roads represents one of Rhode Island’s most substantial capital commitments, with over $1 billion expended annually in combined state and federal revenues. Launched in 2016, the RhodeWorks program reduced the number of structurally deficient bridges in the state by nearly half through targeted spending. However, this concentrated focus came with trade-offs:

More Public Finance

Education

Rhode Island’s K-12 System: High But Uneven Spending, Middling Results

June 30, 2026

Rhode Island’s large investment ($3.66 billion) in elementary and secondary education has not yielded correspondingly high levels of student outcomes.  Analyzing Rhode Island’s K-12 spending and outcomes, RIPEC’s new report finds that the Ocean State’s per pupil spending levels are 8th highest in the nation. The report also finds wide variation in spending and outcomes across the

More education

Human services

Rhode Island Property Taxes in FY 2026: Higher Increases and Growing Tax Shifts

June 15, 2026

Rhode Island Property Tax Update Higher Tax Increases in FY 2026 Burdens Continue to Shift to Businesses and Renters In FY 2026, about one in five municipalities exceeded the state-mandated 4.0 percent levy cap, andoverall property tax increases were higher than at any point in the last decade. As these increasestake hold, landlords, renters, and

More Human services

Economic development

Rhode Island Labor Market Weakens in Q2 2026

August 3, 2026

PROVIDENCE, RI – – Rhode Island’s labor market weakened in the second quarter of 2026, with a sharp decline in labor force participation and a substantial drop in the number of employed Rhode Islanders, according to the Rhode Island Key Performance Indicators (KPI) Quarterly Briefing released by the Center for Global and Regional Economic Studies

More economic development
Scroll to Top

Sign Up For Our Newsletter