An unofficial transcript of Cranston Mayor and Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Allan Fung’s presentation, to the Cranston Republican City Committee from Tuesday, January 7, seeking the committee’s endorsement in the 2014 Rhode Island Republican Gubernatorial Primary:

This is a very exciting opportunity to come before all of you, to seek your support for the gubernatorial nomination, as a Republican. For those of you who don’t know me…I’ve been a Rhode Islander born and bred, and Cranston has meant so much to my family. I’ve been living here in Cranston for well over twenty years now. For some of you who don’t know my story, it was the place where my parents, who were first generation immigrants that came from Hong Kong and were both born in China, first came when they wanted to start their small family business. It was right here, in this great city of Cranston. And they ran that business, a small Chinese restaurant, for 35 years, and it was there that I grew up, learning about the value of a dollar and the hard work that it takes, yes breaking a few child labor laws, washing dishes at 9 years old, but that is what built the character that is within me, and how I learned about what it takes to make a buck, and what it takes to run a small family business.

But this city and this state gave them that great opportunity to succeed and do what is right and live and pursue the American dream. And I’m proud of this city, and proud to be and privileged to be its mayor. I’ve been serving the residents of Cranston and the people of the state of Rhode Island for well over a decade now. Not only have I been Mayor over this time, I’ve also served for two terms on the City Council. And even though I’m a lawyer by trade — don’t hold that against me — this state gave me the opportunity to succeed. This state, as I went to Classical High School and graduated from Rhode Island College before I went to law school, going through that public education system, they gave me the foundation to succeed, and I knew in my heart that I wanted to come back here, with the family that I still love , who are still here in Cranston to this day, and be with them, and start my career. And I want that for every single family that’s here, but most importantly for the next generation.

I came into public service back in early 2000, yes, as a Republican, and I’ve proudly worn that Republican R next to my name, through many elections, with a decade’s worth of service to the people of the City of Cranston. I wanted to run back then, because I was not happy with the direction of our city, because the people that were in office at that time — mind you, an all Demcoratic City Council and Democratic Mayor at that time — made very bad financial decisions that put us on the brink of bankruptcy. And when I started looking into those decisions, and seeing the mismanagement that was going on, from budgeting for a 100% tax-collection rate, when we all know that you’re never going to get that, to other things in the budget that you knew were going to cause a deficit, it turned this city upside down during a time that we should have been prospering. That’s what got me angry and involved in running for office, as a Republican.

I remember sitting in Mr. Vierra’s house, right down the street, with only a few of us…Robin Schutt and myself coming before the committee, I think there were only four of us at that time. We built this party back then, and I was proud, because I came to be a Republican because of the fiscal values that were inherent in what Gary, Randy Jackvony and everyone else who was there at that time was trying to do in reviving this party. We took this city back for the taxpayers of Cranston. And that’s why I ran.

I was very fortunate, to serve on that council and be part of the team, because you can’t do it individually. I was part of that team, that helped get this city out of the junk bond status we were mired in. And that’s what made me want to run for Mayor, because I enjoyed that service. I enjoyed the pride that it took, the hard work and long hours of dedication of not only working with other council members, the Mayor, state officials. It took us time. It took us a lot of effort to turn this city around. We helped get the city back on its feet and get that junk bond status off of our backs.

I ran for Mayor. I wasn’t successful the first time. But I knew in my heart, this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to be the leader of this city. And I wanted to make sure that the vision that I had, for turning this city around would be implemented. And that’s why I continued to run, and I was fortunate to win the next time, and now into three terms, we’ve done a lot over the past five years to move the city forward. I’m proud to say that we’re at an A rating with all three ratings agencies.

We’ve done a lot during this time. When we first got into office, many of you might remember, we inherited a lot. Structural deficits, multi-million dollar cuts mid-year, in fact weeks into office. We made those hard decisions, working together to do what’s right and get the city back on its feet, and many of you have probably seen the results of that.

The past two years we have not had to raise taxes. Last fiscal year, we finished for the first time, with a half-a-million dollar cumulative surplus, and that includes the schools paying us back for the debt that they owed from the Caruolo action. We are rebounding, and that takes a lot of work and effort. How do we do that? With the people of Cranston, and also the business owners that have been here, struggling through this economy, listening to them, working with them.

And that’s been the focus of what we’ve been doing for the past five years out of the Mayor’s office, working with many of those business owners here, and recognizing what they’re going through, day in and day out, creating a better business environment by, most importantly, cutting through the red tape that is the bureaucracy of government and getting out of its way. That’s how we’ve been successful in creating, during my first four years, over a thousand new jobs into the City of Cranston…

Working with those business owners from day-to-day is what’s given me the proven experience to know that what we’ve done in this city, from the financial decisions that we’ve made within our budgets, living within our means, to working with those business owners, working with those developers, building that central part of the city, Garden City and Chapel View, and many more, [working with] community stakeholders like Taco, and helping them in a $17 million expansion, even in these difficult times, that’s what government should be doing, because it’s the private sector that should be putting people back to work. How government can help is making sure that they have the right environment to succeed…and there is no doubt in my mind that this can happy in many cities and towns, in every city and town throughout the state of Rhode Island.

And that’s why, ladies and gentlemen, I am running for governor as a Republican, because my key goal is to make sure that we put people back to work, and on day one of a Fung administration, we are going to let people know that we are serious, and we are going to put that sign on the statehouse lawn that says we’re open for business.

We’ve got a lot of aggressive goals, and some of you that were at my announcement heard many of our plans for putting people back to work. And you also saw in the paper recently, talking about having a comprehensive look at our entire tax structure. That has to happen. It’s great that the discussion right now is focused on the sales tax. That’s one component. We have to start taking a look at all of our taxes to make it a fairer, simpler way, so that businesses that are already here can take advantage of any reductions, whether it’s that minimum $500 corporate tax, to income tax, to even yes, that estate tax.

Let’s make it fair and simple so that all businesses here, and anyone outside the state can know that we’re serious about having them be here and stay here. And that’s an important component of where you’re going to create a better business environment for the state for the businesses to succeed. And that’s what I’m going to continue to support, to make sure that our tax environment is competitive not only with our neighboring states of Massachusetts and Connecticut, but across the region.

And on top of that, we need to make sure that we have that educated workforce. And I disagree with my competitor sitting to my left; he is talking about changing just one certain aspect. We need to make sure that our kids are not just prepared from K through 5 or K through 4, we’ve got to make sure that they’re ready from kindergarten, to when they leave elementary school, to when they leave high school, and most importantly to when they leave our colleges and universities, so that by the time they are finally prepared, they are ready for the workforce of the future. And that’s why, most importantly, we’ve got to reshape our curriculum and have a focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics, to increase the skills that are needed for a manufacturing economy.

We have to do a better job of trying to make products back in our country, never mind our state. This state was the hub, the hub, of industry years ago, and there’s no reason we can’t bring that back, to where we’re making a product and being part of a vibrant economy. That starts with that workforce, and that means an educated child all the way through, who is going to leave our educational system ready for the jobs of the future, because manufacturing now, compared to manufacturing 10 years ago, never mind manufacturing 20 years ago is completely different, as I’ve seen as I’ve toured many manufacturers across this state. It’s highly technical.

And lastly, infrastructure is so much an important part of our state, it has to be addressed. We have to find a better mechanism to deal with that. In Cranston, we’ve been trying to do that, making sure that we use our dollars wisely, and investing them not just in this street here, or that street here, or this ward because someone complained that their street needed to be fixed, but taking a serious look at where we can be and should be putting those dollars. And some of the dollars I have invested in have really been focused on businesses, taking some of those dollars from the Feds to put it into Gansett Avenue, Rolfe Street, or Wellington Avenue, so that it increased the traffic flow for our business owners, for small, medium size businesses and industrial businesses along those corridors. And I’ve heard from those business owners that that has helped their businesses.

And that’s what we have to do at the state level, make sure we have a consistent plan, not only to address roads, but all of our roads and pipes and systems, our bridges, everything, on a continual basis, and the way we’re going to do that is to find alternative fundings, like starting an infrastructure bank, and leveraging public-private partnerships to fund those types of programs that are needed not only across the state, but in many cities and towns.

That is how we are going to get people back to work in the state of Rhode Island. It’s going to take a lot of effort, but most importantly, it’s going to take proven established leadership. I’m ready for this. I’ve done this, not only during my three terms as Mayor, but even during the time that I was serving on the Council. I’m ready for the task. I know the philosophies that we put into place in Cranston will work for the state, because we are a microcosm of what goes on throughout the state of Rhode Island. I’m looking forward to using those skills, to help put people back to work.