Rep. Jon D. Brien Co-authors Commentary on Pension Reform

The Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity published today a compelling commentary from a member of its special pension Task Force comprised of national experts on state pension and budget issues.
 
Rhode Island State Representative Jon Brien (Democrat - District 50, Woonsocket) joined with Jonathan Williams in co-authoring commentary that discusses how results from different pension reform decisions by Michigan and Illinois should make clear the path Rhode Island should take as the RI General Assembly considers the historic pension reform bill before it.
  
The analysis discusses how, via the American experiment, we have 50 laboratories of democracy in our states, where various policies have succeeded, while others have failed and where valuable lessons can be learned.
 
The piece recommends that Rhode Island residents should look not to the failed pension reform policies in Illinois, but rather to Michigan's successful pension policy reforms, for proof that pension reform is possible and can produce positive long term results.
 
The full commentary can be accessed from the Center for Freedom's website at www.rifreedom.org.

The Center's Task Force members, include Bob Williams (President of State Budget Solutions), Jonathan Williams (Director Tax & Fiscal Policy for ALEC), Jagadeesh Gokhale (senior fellow at the CATO institute), Rich Danker (Project Director at American Principles Project), and Eileen Norcross (senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center). Additional bio information for all Task Force members can be found on the Center's website at www.RIFreedom.org/pension-reform.
 
The Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity is the state's leading free-enterprise public policy think tank. Non-partisan, yet firm in its belief that freedom is indispensable to citizens' well-being and prosperity, the Center for Freedom's mission is to restore competitiveness to Rhode Island through the advancement of market-based reform solutions.
 
ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, is a non-partisan membership association of state legislators.