The ladder compound Sr14Cu24O41 is of interest both as a quasi-one-dimensional analog of the superconducting cuprates and as a superconductor in its own right when Sr is substituted by Ca. In order to model resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) spectra for this compound, we investigate the simpler SrCu2O3 system in which the crystal structure contains very similar ladder planes. We approximate the LDA dispersion of SrCu2O3 by a Cu only two-band tight-binding model. Strong correlation effcts are incorporated by assuming an anti-ferromagnetic ground state. The available angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) and RIXS data on the ladder compound are found to be in reasonable accord with our theoretical predictions