My wife Rachel and I have been residents of Burrillville since 1997.  We have three children, Claudia, Caroline and Douglas.  All three children are in the Burrillville school system.  My wife and I own the Alashan Cashmere Company and we are proud to maintain its corporate office and warehouse in Harrisville. 

When you think of the General Assembly do the words, ethical and honest pop into your head?  No, they do not!  They do not because the House of Representatives, which is the primary governing body in this state, is broken.  It is controlled by one party and that party has lost its way.

1. JOBS, JOBS, JOBS – We should focus our efforts on industries that make sense.   Government should not be our largest job sector.  In addition to general small business, industries such as bio-tech, aqua culture, defense, and renewable / green energy are but a few of what RI’s local representatives and senators should be focusing on, not fat-cat deals for supporters of their political machine in Providence.  Cutting taxes, fees and layers of bureaucratic paperwork is what we need to grow jobs in RI.

If we do not figure out how to start bringing jobs back to this state, all bets are off on our economic future. 

2. LOWER TAXES – How do we get those jobs, jobs, jobs???  We must make our state more attractive to small businesses.  They are the engine of growth for RI.  We need to cut sales, income and corporate tax rates.  The data below paints a very grim picture for our future:

RI is currently ranked as follows among the 50 states:

Donald with family enjoying a day on Wallum Lake in summer of 2009.