Photo by Andrew Augustus 

By Sam Wroblewski, reporting by Andrew Augustus WPRO News

Republican Allan Fung announced his newest plan as candidate for Governor to reduce the state’s sales tax to be more competitive with Massachusetts.

“I’ve proposed an economic plan that will meet this challenge head-on, and in year one of my administration we will reduce our state sales tax to 6.25% bringing our rate in-line with Massachusetts and slightly lower than Connecticut’s,” said Fung.

Fung outlined his new plan outside of a job fair for retail businesses; Fung said Rhode Island’s current tax rate is too high and hits working families and people on fixed incomes the hardest.

“It’s been projected that this simple step will create more than 2,000 new private sector jobs in Rhode island and will generate nearly $17 million in new revenue,” said Fung.

The Cranston Mayor said the move would keep more shoppers inside state borders, and keep dollars out of Massachusetts and Connecticut.

“Ultimately, the goal would be to reduce our state sales tax 5.5%, equal to Maine.”

Fung said he believe his plan would be able to create 3,800 private sector jobs in Rhode Island.