Rhode Island: Rhode Island is the smallest state in the Union, having only 1,214 square miles of land area. The State is divided into 39 municipalities ranging in size from 1.3 to 64.8 square miles. The industry of the State is very diversified, and most manufacturing operations are now comparatively small, with no single industry dominating the local economy. Rhode Island ranks 43rd in population nationally, and has 1,048,319 people, a 4.5% increase over the 1990 U.S. Census.

  Rhode Island is located in the heart of the New England marketplace, and in a national perspective, the population within 75 miles of Providence is greater than those of the largest metropolitan areas west of New York City, including Chicago and Los Angeles. Boston, Massachusetts, is located 45 miles away; while Worcester, Massachusetts, is 40 miles; Hartford, Connecticut, is 75 miles; and Route 128, the Massachusetts technology highway, is 30 miles away from the city of Providence.

  As with the region, a main attraction for new employers looking at the State of Rhode Island as a possible business location is its abundance of a highly skilled and trainable work force. This is due to the legacy of past industrialization, as well as the significant amount of higher educational facilities located here and the students who graduate from them.

  The Rhode Island work force approximates 500,000 people. While the past State economy relied heavily on manufacturing, the State is rapidly becoming a service oriented economy. Rhode Island is now considered more of a white collar state than a blue collar one, and the state is now ranked nineteenth among the 50 states in average annual pay at $34,000 per year.

  Generally speaking, the State benefitted by a strong national and regional economy, which through the year 2000 had experienced low inflation, high employment, and a robust Wall Street. Those trends benefitted the State relative to employment, job growth, budget surpluses, and consumer confidence. As a result, all segments of the commercial real estate market absorbed the over-building which occurred in the late 1980s to a point of equilibrium and to a moderate extent, a buyer demand for certain types of real estate. At the forefront of this demand was the single family housing market. Medium home prices rose significantly as fueled by a strong demand for housing and a dwindling supply of available homes. In turn, rising home equity enabled many homeowners to refinance their primary mortgages for more favorable interest rates, with monthly mortgage savings spent on durable goods, or extended the limits of equity-based personal lines of credit, which are tax deductible and offered lower rates thanks to U.S. Monetary policy.

  In January, 2001, two prominent economists, Gary L. Ciminero, Economic Advisor to the Rhode Island House Policy and Research Office, and Dr. Leonard Lardaro, of the University of Rhode Island, had agreed that the Rhode Island economy should remain fairly stable through 2001 providing that the State did not rely solely on retail sales and tourism to be the State's economic engine as in years past. However, their opinion was also contingent upon the assumption that the Rhode Island economy would "mimic" the Massachusetts economy. That is to say, that if Massachusetts continued to grow, so would Rhode Island.

  As noted, the Nation, the New England region, and the State of Rhode Island are now experiencing recessionary pressures which began in mid-2001 and further exacerbated by the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack.

  From August, 2001, to present, Rhode Island has seen its general revenue decline, but at a relatively smaller rate than Massachusetts (5.4% versus 10%) due to a vibrant housing market and housing/related construction. The real estate market has witnessed an increased demand of Massachusetts job holders to locate their residence to nearby Rhode Island and be within easy rail commuting distance to the Boston metro area. Also, Rhode Island dodged the high-tech investment decline that ravaged the Nation and tech heavy states such as Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

  For fiscal year 2003, the state expects to face a budget deficit of $50 million to $70 million. Officials have already set aside $77.3 million in proceeds from the State's tobacco securitization, and an additional $35.6 million from the bond sale has been placed in reserve to help address a projected fiscal year 2004 deficit of $110 million.

  Governor, Carcieri announced in March, 2003, that the Administrations budget proposes only minor adjustments in existing programs, while not seeking increases in broad based taxes by counting on an increase in lottery revenues from $237 million to $342 million and a $.29 increase in the cigarette tax. The Governor has also called on teachers and state employees to absorb the brunt of rising pension costs by paying 2% more of their salary into the retirement fund.

  To foster the state's transformation into a white collar economy, the state administration has the goal of creating 20,000 new jobs over the next four years. A proposed jobs program will be geared to further establish a strong biotech industry in the state and foster the growth of small technology companies. The Samuel Slater Technology Fund is slated to receive a doubling of its annual budget to $5 million in order to make investments in local technology companies in helping them to attract venture capital and expand. The state now has Dow Chemical and Amgen, Inc., as major employers within this fledging industry, not to mention Fidelity Investments leading the way for jobs in the financial market sector of the economy.