Time is money, and overtime is extra money.
Just ask the Rhode Island Department of Corrections, which needs more and more state funding to cover overtime costs because it can’t hire enough correctional officers.
The Ocean State spent the 14th most per capita on its correctional facilities and operations of any state nationwide in fiscal 2023, despite having the third lowest number of incarcerated people, according to a Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council report published Monday.
The 37-page report highlights how Rhode Island compares with other states on various spending categories, along with state and local tax rates.
Rhode Island ranks near the top of the pack on per-person spending, boosted by a tranche of federal pandemic aid and congressional infrastructure and economy funds.
“A lot of the stories we see in this report are the same,” Justine Oliva, RIPEC’s policy and research director said in an interview Monday. “We are a relatively high tax state, and a relatively high spending state. We have historically spent a lot on government administration and on public safety.”
The business-backed policy group last reported Rhode Island’s tax and spending comparisons in 2019. The new edition also includes fiscal 2018 data to offer a five-year evolution in state spending and tax patterns relative to its peers.
Rhode Island boasted the highest per capita spending on general government administration of any state in the nation, reflecting personnel, planning and zoning and allocations to government and legislative agencies. The first place finish marks a slight rise from fiscal 2018, when Rhode Island rounded out the top three states based on per capita government administration spending.
A bigger shift over the last five years: spending on the state corrections agency, which rose more than 35% per capita from fiscal 2018 to fiscal 2023. Not because its prisons are full — the 124 incarcerated people per 100,000 state residents is only greater than Maine and Massachusetts, according to 2022 federal data.
The report does not specify where the funding for the state corrections operations is going. But like other state agencies, personnel — including pensions and benefits — consume a big chunk of the bottom line, Oliva said.
70 correctional officer vacancies
Especially true for the Department of Corrections, which has been plagued by vacancies that result in costly overtime for the remaining employees.
In fiscal 2025, the state agency paid for nearly 594,000 overtime hours, according to the agency’s fiscal 2027 budget request to Gov. Dan McKee. The budget request did not specify the cost of overtime in fiscal 2025, but the longstanding staffing woes were projected to cost nearly $43 million in overtime for the year, according to a March presentation to lawmakers.
Director Wayne Salisbury Jr. proposed hiring 150 more officers — to fill the 70 existing openings and add funding for more workers — to “properly staff” facilities and decrease overtime costs.
“If these positions are authorized and filled, it is anticipated that the Department would see a significant decrease in overtime,” Salisbury wrote in the Oct. 1 letter to McKee.
The request remains under review. The governor is expected to release a preliminary version of fiscal 2027 spending plan early next year.
A spokesperson for the corrections department did not immediately respond to inquiries for comment on Monday.
Corrections is not the only area where Rhode Island outspends its peers, including most of the region. Police spending per capita ranked fifth overall in fiscal 2023, while spending on fire protection came in third. While states with densely populated cities typically spend more on fire protection, Rhode Island’s costs are still higher than other densely populated states, such as New Jersey, according to the National Fire Protection Association.
RIPEC’s report stops short of offering budget tips to state and local lawmakers. But Oliva pointed to Rhode Island’s disproportionate public safety spending as one area ripe for examination.
“We have to ask about what we are getting for what we are spending and the efficiency of those dollars,” Oliva said. “There is not a clear reason why Rhode Island is spending more than the nation, and neighboring states, on public safety.”
The report does not separate spending by the state government from what is spent by municipal governments, which can also vary widely, Oliva noted.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current. Read the rest of the article here.
