Get Those Taxes in Early, or The Refund May Be Late

Here's a telling turn of events:

The state has delayed the payment of thousands of Rhode Island income-tax refunds because of cash-flow problems.

The delays involve more than 65,000 individual income-tax refunds, as well as some refunds of the state business-corporations tax, that were processed and ready to be issued in April.

State officials decided to hold back those refunds, totaling about $39 million, and release them over time.

The delays were disclosed on the fourth page of a six-page state revenue report issued Thursday.

The justification for the move is at least understandable: The state delayed the filing deadline because of the flooding calamity, and since people who are getting money back file early, while people who owe money file late, the cash flow is out of balance.

The adjustment does highlight the central fact of Rhode Island governance, though: the state is run so poorly that we're not in a position to absorb unexpected difficulties without disrupting basic operations, like returning tax money to people from whom the state took too much in its interest-free loan from workers' paychecks.