RI “Cheat Sheet” — GE and Johnson & Johnson Jobs, RI Has 6th Highest Tax Burden, & Celtics Chances

RI “Cheat Sheet” — GE and Johnson & Johnson Jobs, RI Has 6th Highest Tax Burden, & Celtics Chances

Welcome to this week’s edition of the RI Cheat Sheet.

The weekly feature focuses on important and interesting numbers, data, and high-value factoids that impact Rhode Island and the economy.

1) GE and Johnson & Johnson Were Supposed to Have Big Impact on RI's Economy

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When General Electric and Johnson & Johnson were announced by Governor Gina Raimondo the two blue chip companies were going to help transform Rhode Island's economy.

Now, years later the two companies combined have barely broken the century mark for job creation. GE has created just 64 jobs. It was to have surpassed 100 in February of this year and the long-term hope was more than 300 jobs. As Commerce announced in June 2016,  “The total credits are anticipated to be approximately $4.6 million based on the projected hiring schedule of the first 100 employees. GE is eligible for credits up to and including 300 full-time employees if certain hiring milestones are met.”

In January 2017, Commerce RI awarded millions to Johnson & Johnson -- the total credits were anticipated to be approximately $4.4 million based on the projected hiring of 75 employees.

"Rhode Island is a great home for our Johnson & Johnson Health Technology Center, with a strong network of universities, industry and decision makers that are advancing work at the intersection of health and technology," said Maureen Boudreau, Director of the Health Technology Center for Johnson & Johnson in September 2017.

2) Rhode Islanders Don't Watch Much TV

RI's ranks 36th for watching TV at 2:47:26 per day. The favorite genre is "Reality TV."

According to Wall St. 24/7, West Virginia is #1. The average Mountaineer watches 4:30:54  and their favorite genre of shows are "Soap Operas."

3) Celtics Chances of Winning the NBA Championship

CBS Sports sports predicts that the Golden State Warriors have a 61.6% chance of winning the NBA Championship in 2019. The Celtics chances of winning is just 1.9%.

4) Netflix 

CNN reports that 2.7 million Netflix subscribers still use DVDs-by-mail.

"The familiar red envelopes have been arriving in customers' mailboxes since 1998 and helped earn the company a healthy $212 million profit last year."

5) Big Tax Burden

With a new tax code taking effect this year, this year’s taxes will be quite different than last year’s -- and for Rhode Islanders, the burden comparatively may be a bit higher.

"One simple ratio known as the “tax burden” helps cut through the confusion. Unlike tax rates, which vary widely based on an individual’s circumstances, tax burden measures the proportion of total personal income that residents pay toward state and local taxes. And it isn’t uniform across the U.S., either," says WalletHub.

Rhode Island has the 6th highest tax burden in the United States. 

To determine the residents with the biggest tax burdens, WalletHub compared the 50 states across the three tax types of state tax burdens — property taxes, individual income taxes and sales and excise taxes — as a share of total personal income in the state. 

New York has the highest in the country and Alaska ranks 50th.