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1/30/2025
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Rep. Handy welcomes Economic Policy Institute to State House to highlight needs and solutions for working families
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STATE HOUSE – Rep. Arthur Handy today joined the Economic Progress Institute (EPI) and African American Museum of Rhode Island Executive Director Christopher West for a State House event highlighting the difficult realities facing working families and propose solutions to advance their economic security.
At the event, EPI Director of Research and Fiscal Policy Alan Krinsky presented the findings of EPI’s 2024 Rhode Island Standard of Need (RISN), demonstrating the tremendous challenges faced by Rhode Islanders living in poverty, and even much of the middle class.
RISN’s key finding is that even with work supports such as the Child Care Assistance
Program and RI Works factored in, many Rhode Islanders’ wages are too low to meet basic living costs such as housing, food, health care and child care.
“EPI is known for producing research — reports and policy briefs — on various topics related to poverty, income inequality, and social welfare,” said Representative Handy (D-Dist. 18, Cranston). “These publications often serve as valuable resources for policymakers like me, journalists and advocates. I find the Standard of Need report to be particularly helpful for centering on the goal of economic and racial justice in Rhode Island — and how to get there.”
The nonprofit EPI, which advocates for policies that improve economic security and opportunity for Rhode Islanders, also used the event to advocate for its 2025 legislative priorities, which include raising revenue through an income tax surcharge on personal annual income over $625,000, increasing the wage replacement in the state’s temporary caregiver insurance program, expanding child care assistance eligibility and increasing assistance provided through RI Works.
Representative Handy has sponsored legislation to increase RI Works for years, and championed a budget item in 2022 that provided recipients the first raise in cash benefits in 30 years.
For more information, contact:
Meredyth R. Whitty, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 222-1923
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