Another General Assembly session has ended and once again neither the legislature nor the governor has put forward any bold proposals that would actually help the average working Rhode Islander.

The General Assembly seems to be in lock step with the corporate mindset of the Carcieri administration on every issue of statewide importance. It is not so much that Rhode Island has a one party system as a one philosophy system - a philosophy expecting tax cuts for the rich to trickle down; layoffs of state workers to create jobs; fewer social programs to reduce poverty; and cuts to higher education to make us more competitive. This is the philosophy we have been following since the turn of the millennium and it has netted negative economic development. It simply doesn't work.

It is time for a populist economic development vision for Rhode Island, not based on the self serving rhetoric of our current political leaders but one based on the needs and projected needs of the people. Here are three suggested economic development ideas that can move our state forward:

1. Statewide WiFi available everywhere to everyone ... for free

And let the cable/telephone companies bid on the right to be the State's sole provider. How would it be paid for? The company winning the bid to provide the service will maintain sole rights to sell advertising space on the statewide network. Imagine students in our poor urban and rural areas having the same access to the Internet as the kids from more affluent areas. That is one less expense that parents would have to pay for and is a huge step forward to crashing the digital divide. Imagine a small business owner not having to pay the Internet WiFi expense and how they could then use that money to reinvest in their company or pay their workers more money. Imagine the pitch to companies looking to relocate to Rhode Island about how this is one less infrastructure need you have to compensate for.

2. PAY - GO budgeting at the General Assembly

Nothing aggravates working people more than the idea that the way we run our household budgets is somehow too quaint for the state. Every family doing kitchen table calculus knows if you to spend more, unless there is more income coming in, you have to find something to spend less on. The faith working class folks could re-establish in the General Assembly through such a simple idea, to say nothing of the long term health it builds into economic planning for the State, would move Rhode Island light-years ahead of its current morass. And it works! One recent example: more money for education aid to local communities by allowing expanded hours at Twin River in Lincoln. You can disagree with the source of the revenue but the idea that the State will only spend more money if it has it should appeal to both the conservatives among us as well as the liberals.

3. A $250 property tax rebate from the state

To every household, regardless of income, paid for by repealing the flat tax and reversing the drop in the capital gains tax. Conservative estimates from sources such as the House Fiscal staff say that these two programs alone will cost the State close to $100 million in fiscal year 2010. $250 might not seem like a lot of money - but tell that to someone who doesn't have the disposable income to go out to eat, buy new school clothes, or pay for car repairs. But more important than the amount each household would receive is the amount of money pumped back into the state's economy. Right now the flat tax benefits less than 7,000 people, half of which do not even live in state. The capital gains tax, while nominally benefits everyone in reality benefits only a few thousand tax payers (mostly the same ones who benefit from the flat tax). With so much money going to so few people the likelihood of that money being re-introduced into the State's economy is minimal. If we give every family, regardless of class, net worth, or even income, the same $250, the likelihood of the bulk of the $100 million being reintroduced into the economy is greater, generating more sales opportunities for small business owners and more sales tax revenue. It is a win-win for the state and the people.

I am a proponent of fairness and equity in our tax system and have often made the case for a more egalitarian system. Those arguments I reluctantly admit are not working to influence decision makers. So let's change the conversation, talk about how economic development benefits all Rhode Islanders, and then attack the problems with a progressive, not regressive mindset.

- Patrick Crowley is the chairperson of Rhode Island Jobs with Justice and chairperson of the Lincoln Democratic Party.