Rhode Island

Landmark pension overhaul legislation cleared Rhode Island's House and Senate finance committees in amended form Thursday night, and the General Assembly is scheduled to vote on the measure, proposed by Gov. Lincoln Chafee and General Treasurer Gina Raimondo, later this week.

Rhode Island's House and Senate finance committees are scheduled to meet at 5 p.m. Thursday to consider an amended version of pension-overhaul legislation on the heels of a report that pegs the state's unfunded pension liability at nearly twice what state officials have estimated.

Rhode Island's state and local unfunded pension liability is $18 billion - nearly twice what state officials estimate - according to an Arlington, Va., think tank.

Retired police officers and firefighters, and unions representing municipal employees in Central Falls, have filed objections in federal bankruptcy court to Rhode Island-appointed receiver Robert Flanders’ plan to change their pensions and contracts.

Rhode Island, the nation's smallest state, has a big problem - unfunded pensions. And it's not alone.

Rhode Island's General Assembly was scheduled to meet late Tuesday afternoon in special session to consider overhauling the state's pension system.

A $50 million housing issue that voters approved in 2006 has led to the development of more than 1,200 homes in Rhode Island, an advocacy group said.

Standard & Poor’s revised its outlook to stable from negative and affirmed its BB-minus rating on the Rhode Island Health and Educational Building Corp.’s remaining $12.7 million series 1998 revenue bonds, issued for Roger Williams Medical Center.

Moody's Investors Service late Thursday downgraded the general obligation rating of North Providence, R.I., to Baa2 from Baa1. The outlook remains negative.

Supporters of the library in bankrupt Central Falls, R.I. have scheduled a “Save the Library” fundraiser for Sept. 30 to help keep it open.

North Kingstown voters rejected two bond measures while authorizing the sale of a vacant school in a referendum where turnout was low.

A court ruling favorable to Rhode Island state employees in a pension case is expected to further complicate debate in the state, where pensions have been central to a municipal bankruptcy and where a special legislative session will convene next month to discuss pension overhaul.

Rhode Island's retirement system is essentially "an implied contract" between the state and its employees, a judge said Tuesday in a ruling that favored the Ocean State's pension workers.

Rhode Island revenue collections increased 2.2% over that of the previous fiscal year, the state’s Department of Revenue said in a special report on preliminary fiscal 2011 revenues.

Central Falls' state-appointed receiver has stepped into the bankrupt Rhode Island city's school district contract talks with teachers.

When Rhode Island sold $169 million of general obligation bonds on Wednesday after a two-day retail period, two words echoed amid huge jumps in yield: Central Falls.

Another downgrade hit Rhode Island as Moody's Investors Service lowered its rating to A2 from A1 on the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp.'s motor fuel-tax revenue bonds, affecting $77 million of outstanding debt.

With a bankruptcy in Central Falls and pension-debt problems engulfing her state, Rhode Island General Treasurer Gina Raimondo has announced a bond sale for next week, accompanied with a marketing campaign.

The dominoes continue to fall in Rhode Island as Moody’s Investors Service downgraded East Providence to Baa1 from A1, while on the same day it lowered to A2 from Aa3 the Rhode Island Health and Educational Building Corp.’s revenue bond financing program.

Ron Davis only recently found out about Central Falls' predicament."Somebody sent me an e-mail two days ago," Davis, the mayor of Prichard, Ala., said Thursday in a telephone interview.But his city of 23,000 residents along Alabama's Gulf Coast and the Rhode Island city in bankruptcy court, both with similar population sizes, have experienced major struggles with pension-debt gridlock.