Entries by Monique Chartier

PawSox Upgrade RFP: Taxpayer Participation Ends with Funding of the RFP

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The Pawtucket Red Sox will be issuing an RFP today. The cost of the $100,000 RFP will be underwritten by state taxpayers, Pawtucket taxpayers and the PawSox. It will determine, in the words of Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien

… what McCoy Stadium’s needs are both from a physical standpoint, an economic standpoint and the value it brings to the community.

That’s nice. Undoubtedly, many Rhode Islanders will be watching with mild interest.

However, whatever the results/recommendations of the RFP, taxpayer participation ends here, today. The headline of GoLocalProv’s editorial today nails it.

Not One Penny of Public Money for the Billionaire PawSox Owners

Will Governor’s Toll Projections Fail as Badly as Her Admin’s Short-Term Rental Tax Projections?

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Of course, Governor Raimondo’s new tax on vacation-home rentals needs to go. Rhode Island government doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem.

The bigger take-away from this Providence Journal article is how far off base her administration’s projections have turned out.

So far, Rhode Island’s plan to collect an extra $7.1 million in annual revenue through new vacation-home rental taxes is falling short of expectations.

In the first eight months since collections began, from last July 1 to the end of February 2016, the state has received just $1,563,565 in new rental taxes, according to Neil Downing, chief revenue agent for the state’s Division of Taxation.

Even on the basis of another projection – $5.3 million – presumably revised to account for a shorter season last year, the $1,563,565 actually collected is far short. Meanwhile, the biggest effect of the introduction of a new (ineffective) tax/fee is to reinforce Rhode Island’s reputation as heartily anti-taxpayer and anti-business.

Is this a preview of how far off the projections by her administration about toll revenue are? If so, what happens then? We know the answer: “Sorry, our projections were off. We now need to toll all vehicles including cars.”

Lawmakers Moving to Tighten Up Punishment Procedure of Toll Violators

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Isn’t this charming.

A package of toll scofflaw bills sought by the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority are moving slowing through the General Assembly and drawing questions about whether they might apply to the state’s planned truck toll network.

The bills, sponsored by Middletown Democrat Louis DiPalma in the Senate and Tiverton Democrat John Edwards in the House, would allow the Turnpike and Bridge Authority, through the Division of Motor Vehicles, to block toll violators from renewing their driver’s licenses or registrations.

Important to note that these toll scofflaw bills are sponsored by East Bay legislators – DiPalma and Edwards – who fought tolls on the Sakonnet River Bridge but voted in favor of statewide tolls. Tolls for thee but not for me appears to be their repugnant philosophy.

Now they are going a step further and spearheading the legislative effort to make it easier for the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority to crack down on toll violators. At this point, the RITBA only administers tolls on the Newport Pell Bridge. But the RhodeWorks toll law enables them to administer statewide tolls if RIDOT wants it. Even if RIDOT goes with a private firm to administer tolls, it’s a snap that these tougher measures would quickly apply to statewide tolls – just as it’s a snap that litigation will morph tolls on trucks into tolls on all vehicles INCLUDING CARS.

We know how DiPalma and Edwards voted on Governor Raimondo’s highly destructive statewide toll plan. How did your legislator? Find out here for reps and here for senators, then please keep that in mind in November. Rhode Island DOES NOT need toll revenue to repair its bridges, only legislators who are willing to think for themselves and act in the best interest of all Rhode Islanders rather than blindly accept destructive marching orders from above.

Dan Doyle Proclaims His Innocence

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… though he offered almost no specifics at today’s news conference as to why and how. “I can also assure that I will not leave this planet until my name is cleared, as in completely cleared,” he said. “And I will not leave this planet until the individuals behind this are held fully accountable and […]

Whew, No Subsidies for Superman Building – At Least, This Year

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WPRI’s Dan McGowan reports the good news (pointing out that the ProJo had announced it first).

The effort to secure millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded subsidies to revitalize Providence’s tallest building has again stalled at the Rhode Island State House.

This is a very good thing, as far as it goes. City and state taxpayers already pay too much in taxes, fees and cost-of-living without also being compelled to compensate property owners for the effects of both a real estate market that has not fully rebounded but especially for the state’s abysmal business climate that is keeping prospective tenants out of the state.

“As far as it goes”, however, because, like the Terminator, the owner of the Superman Building has promised, “I’ll be back” next year to once again try to tap into the taxpayer’s already seriously overextended wallet.

Warwick Rep Not Happy with Ranking on Freedom Index

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A sincere thank you to the Warwick Beacon for printing a lengthy article about the rankings of all of Warwick’s legislators’ on the RI Center for Freedom and Prosperity’s Freedom Index, which looks at

legislators’ votes in terms of their likely effect on the free market, the size and scope of government, the balance of residents’ interests against those of public employees and beneficiaries, and the constitutional structure of a divided government with limited power over the people whom it represents.

(Check out the Freedom Index here. How do your legislators rate on it?)

In my capacity as Communications Manager for the Center, what I had sent to the Beacon was Rep Patricia Morgan’s ranking on the Index, which was and is highest in the RI House of Representatives. The Beacon diligently took it upon itself to look at the ranking of all members of Warwick’s delegation to the RI General Assembly.

That includes Rep Joseph McNamara, who is the lowest ranked legislator in the city’s delegation (and is currently tied with eighteen other reps for third worst ranking in the House). Rep McNamara, you may recall, had some strong words about the toll mailers sent around a couple of weeks ago. It appears that he is also not happy about his ranking on the Freedom Index and communicated this to the Beacon.

While Morgan may have ranked highest, Rep. Joseph McNamara (D-District 19) has the lowest ranking for Warwick legislators. His score is -24, but he feels that the index is, “convoluted and extremely biased.” He accuses the center of being an “organization cloaked in secrecy with dark money.”

Oh dear. One question. Is this “dark money” any more or less dark than the TAX-PAYER FUNDED grants that went to former Rep Ray Gallison’s non-profit organization about which the state Auditor General is getting no answers?

Burrillville Power Plant: Torn Between Empowered Taxpayers & Much-Needed Energy

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On the one hand, I support the gas-fired power plant that Invenergy is proposing to build in Burrillville, in large part, because the EPA has UNNECESSARILY shut down other large fossil fuel-powered energy generating plants, leaving New England with few reliable, reasonably priced fuel sources for making electricity. On the other, even though it might […]

Why Didn’t Then-Treasurer Raimondo Participate in Competitive Bond Auctions?

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So I know nothing about this stuff. But Michael Riley does. And, in his GoLocalProv column today (and previously), he says this was a big mistake by then-General Treasurer Gina Raimondo when she was managing the state’s pension fund.

A few weeks back Magaziner touted his recent competitive bond auction as an obvious fix saving RI taxpayers millions of dollars. He said it had not been done in 10 years. OUCH!

That backhanded criticism of Raimondo’s debt management in the years prior to Seth Magaziner had to sting. Didn’t Raimondo understand competitive auctions or did she prefer to direct underwritings to donors or future donors?

Mr. Riley is also very concerned about and recommends that General Treasurer Magaziner rid the state pension fund of

all high fee hedge funds, Private Equity funds and high fee Real Estate investments

Apparently, the first item, at least, was added to the state pension fund by G.T. Raimondo. One thing Governor Raimondo supposedly has is good financial chops. But even that is looking shaky at this point. And this is not good as it is Rhode Island taxpayers who are on the hook for the mistakes and failings of her tenure as General Treasurer.

Handy Round-Up in ProJo of Amendments to Legislators’ Ethics Filings

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Nice, informative work by the Providence Journal’s Kathy Gregg in today’s must-read-as-always Political Scene rounding up all of the changes – mainly ADDITIONS – to ethics disclosure filings made by state legislators. Gregg also helpfully includes disclosures previouisly made on those filings.

Many of the lawmakers’ amendments were relatively minor: an acknowledgement, for example, that they each received income from their part-time, $15,414-a-year roles as state lawmakers, which they had disclosed elsewhere on the form in response to a different question: “Current positions?”

But others corrected significant omissions.

Rep. Anastasia Williams, D-Providence, belatedly acknowledged her employment by the city of Providence’s planning department , and her chairmanship of the financially troubled John Hope Settlement House, a $300,000 General Assembly grant recipient that is currently in court appealing a Rhode Island Department of Education aid cutoff stemming from concerns about how past dollars were spent.

Sen. James Doyle, D-Pawtucket, filed a series of amendments, in which he belatedly acknowledged he owed “in excess of $1,000” to a number of previously undisclosed creditors, including the Internal Revenue Service, which has placed federal tax liens ranging from a low of $5,453 to a high of $53,904 on his property since 2012.

Speaking of Senator James Doyle, for the record, he continues to omit from his ethics filings the debt his company owes to a medical billing company for the reason he indicates below.

(The list does not reflect the repeated legal efforts since March 2013 by Phoenix Administrators, a medical billing company, to collect $6,843, plus interest, from Doyle’s company, Doyle Respiratory LLC. Asked why, Doyle said he did not personally guarantee that payment plan.)

Only ten days ago, Doyle Respiratory LLC was ordered a second time by a court to repay debt owed to Phoenix Administrators.

Thanks, Mr. Vice President, But We Already Well Understood the Problem

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… our bridges are bad.

Before his speech, Biden got a close look at the notorious “Lincoln logs,” as he called them, holding up the McCormick Quarry Bridge over Warren Avenue, and described them as “shameful.”

The question is, how to pay for the repairs. A large part of the problem is that the “middle-class jobs” you and Governor Raimondo tout,

“Infrastructure is about a lot more than delivering people from Point A to Point B; it is about middle-class jobs,” Biden said. “Nobody is making minimum wage pouring concrete on a highway job. No one is making minimum wage surveying a new road. …

when funded by yet another government fee, tax or toll, simply come at the cost of other members of the middle class (and every other “class”). The middle class – and all Rhode Islanders on the economic spectrum – would be better off if the repairs came from more prudent budgeting – quite easy to do when the net money that will actually go into bridge repairs from the RhodeWorks toll plan, after bond interest and gantry costs, is only approximately $15 million/year, not the $45 million that RhodeWorks will cost us. Best of all, none of those “middle class” jobs go away just because they are funded more responsibly by the Governor and the General Assembly.

Speaking of the General Assembly, very interesting that neither the Rhode Island House Speaker nor the Senate President were present yesterday in East Providence as Vice President Biden was praising tolls, RhodeWorks and Governor Raimondo.

Larry Berman, spokesman for Mattiello, said the speaker needed the morning to work at his private law practice. Greg Pare, spokesman for Paiva Weed, said in an email that the Senate president’s “schedule did not permit her to attend today.”

As they are both very much members of the Vice President’s political party, it is odd that they would miss such a high profile event, especially in an election year.

Is anyone hearing why? Were they not invited? Or did they choose not to go …?

Legislature’s Budget Expected “As Soon As Possible”

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The Democrats caucused on Wednesday. Stand by, everyone.

Asked the likely date for the unveiling of the legislators’ version of Democrat Raimondo’s proposed $ 8.9 billion tax-and-spending plan, Mattiello again told reporters: “As soon as possible.”

Interesting observation by Rep Marcello about an admittedly small but highly controversial item in the budget.

“The elephant in the room [was] the legislative grants,’’ said Rep. Michael Marcello, D-Scituate, of the budget earmarks that have mired the General Assembly in controversy again this year, especially the $70,875 grant that went to an education non-profit that employed Raymond Gallison, the House Finance Committee chairman who resigned mid-session amid a police investigation.

Shall we start a pool? What’s going to happen in the budget with community service and legislative grants? Is it too much to expect that they will all be cancelled, along with tolls, and the revenue directed to repair our unsafe bridges??? (Okay, that last item may border on delusional. But it would certainly be the right thing to do!)

Big Red Flag When Left & Right Agree: End RI’s Corporate Welfare

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Gary Sasse, founding Director of the Hassenfeld Institute for Public Leadership at Bryant University, and Sam Bell, state Coordinator of R.I. Progressive Democrats, have written an op-ed correctly condemning Governor Raimondo’s brand of lazy (my word) and expensive (to the taxpayer) economic development, printed in yesterday’s Valley Breeze.

We think that the core of voter discontent in Rhode Island originates in the widespread belief that public policy is disproportionately benefiting the well-connected. The poster child for this is the emphasis that the governor and General Assembly place on corporate welfare.

Corporate welfare exists when tax dollars are used to finance preferential tax deals, loans, and direct cash subsidies to specific businesses.

One of the biggest initiatives of the governor and General Assembly was the massive expansion of the corporate welfare agency that did the 38 Studios deal. Rebranded the Commerce Corporation, the controversial agency now has the power to hand out millions of dollars per year in cash subsidies directly to corporations.

Well said. And disturbing.

Remarkably, on her ongoing listening tour, Governor Raimondo actually lists her expansion of these tax credits and subsidies, via the agency that implemented 38 Studios (formerly the RI EDC; now the RI Commerce Corp), as an achievement of her administration. Further, as Sasse and Bell note, the General Assembly is fully complicit in this highly undesirable expansion of state-sponsored corporate welfare as it approved these line items in the budget.

Last year, a taxpayer-subsidized baseball stadium proposed for Providence was killed by a loud, across-the-political-spectrum bronx cheer. Similarly, this bi-partisan/non-partisan denunciation by Sasse and Bell – who speak for many, many of us across the spectrum – of these programs should be a big red flag for both the Governor and the General Assembly that a serious re-assessment and sharp cutting back of these programs are in order.

… Wait, What? Tourism Dollars Were Spent to Attract BUSINESS to RI?

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So NBC10’s Bill Rappleye reports that a special legislative commission is having a tough time getting satisfactory answers as to how the state Commerce Corporation (former the EDC, the agency that enabled 38 Studios) spent a bunch of tourism dollars.

Lawmakers put $5 million in this year’s budget to create a statewide tourism marketing plan. A legislative commission is trying to find out what happened to the money.

“You have almost $4 million being spent and not one paid tourism ad that I’ve seen,” Evan Smith of Discover Newport told NBC 10 News. “Not one.”

And via the Providence Journal today, we learn from that hearing where at least some of the state’s tourism money went. Turns out it wasn’t to … well, tourism. (Emphasis added.)

Evan Smith, CEO of Discover Newport, had a number of concerns, including the state’s focus on public relations and “earned media,” which account for $3 million of the total budget, rather than traditional advertising. “The amount dedicated to public relations is absurd,” Smith said.

He also blasted the one major commercial the state has purchased so far, a spot produced by CNN that appears in airports and on long-haul flights, for missing the “local drive” market the campaign was supposed to focus on. The airport spot, geared more toward CEOs than families, played in to a major complaint across the commission, that the Commerce Corporation was focused on luring new companies to Rhode Island at the expense of growing tourism.

Smith said he had asked six times to see examples of the paid tourism commercials the state was running, and only last week found out that they were all targeted to business attraction. “I thought it was very misleading and under the table, quite frankly, and didn’t appreciate it at all,” Smith said. “We would like to see a separation in business development and tourism.”

Hear, hear, Mr. Smith! So Governor Raimondo’s economic development efforts to date are comprised of 1.) corporate welfare and 2.) plundering the tourism budget???

This is NOT WORKING. The Raimondo administration took a bunch of tourism dollars back from regional tourism councils and squandered it. The money needs to go back to these councils, where it clearly was better spent by people who where in far better touch with the product that they were marketing. As for any statewide tourism efforts, it is now evident, from this eye-opening hearing, that the General Assembly would be chumps to give even one dollar, much less a budget increase (laughable idea), to the Commerce Corporation, which has demonstrated a lack of both competence and accountability in this area.

Pawtucket Train Station – So RI is Just a Suburb of Boston?

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My main beef with the proposed Pawtucket train station is that it is completely absurd to spend north of $40M to accommodate only eighty nine (89) net new riders.

But in its weekly look at Best and Worst Bills of 2016, the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity (disclosure: I am their Communications Manager) raises another unfortunate aspect of the proposed station. They point out that it offers a disturbing insight into the economic development philosophy of state officials who are pushing for the station, which is that it

… perpetuates a submissive philosophy that the State of Rhode Island should be considered a suburb of Boston and should rely on the Massachusetts capital’s economy to achieve growth. The Center strongly disagrees and for years has advocated that broad-based reforms can transform the Ocean State into a vibrant and independent economy of its own that will benefit all families and businesses, as opposed to the insider few industries targeted by the Brookings plan.

Best of all Worlds for 38 Studios Bond Holders – At Taxpayer Expense

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Excellent, disturbing report by WPRI’s Ted Nesi Tuesday. Buyers of 38 Studios bonds didn’t care about the company’s financial condition because they knew taxpayers were on the hook to repay the bonds – even though they were moral and not general obligation bonds.

The notes from SEC officials’ November 2014 interviews with 38 Studios bondholders show the lenders paid little attention to the underlying financial condition of Curt Schilling’s company, instead seeing the bond offering as a routine round of taxpayer-backed borrowing that posed little risk of nonpayment. …

In his interview with the SEC, [senior executive of USAA Jon] Spear analogized the moral obligation to a parent co-signing a child’s loan, saying he saw a “very, very low” risk that Rhode Island would not pay the bonds and “never assumed that Rhode Island would ever violate the moral obligation.”

Yet at 7.5%, the bonds paid a much higher interest rate – i.e., are costing the taxpayers a lot more – because they were supposedly riskier than general obligation bonds! As has been repeatedly pointed out, bond buyers are sophisticated, well informed people who understand the difference between moral and general obligation bonds. Why are our state officials pretending that bond buyers do NOT understand this difference and giving them (these eeeeeevil Wall Street bankers, remember) the best of all possible worlds – high paying interest plus no risk of default – by needlessly compelling taxpayers to repay these MORAL obligation bonds? How is it in Rhode Island’s best interest to repay these bonds?

It simply is not, though it almost certainly is in the selfish best interest of state officials who would prefer to avoid the boatload of awkward questions, not to mention subpoenas and summonses and (yikes) the need for statements to be made under pains and penalties of perjury that would quickly come in the wake of the state’s default on these MORAL obligation bonds.

A Teacher Calls Out Teacher Seniority

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Whoa. Exactly right, dude. (From an op-ed in yesterday’s Providence Journal.)

Is putting such emphasis on seniority really in the best interests of the teachers? We, as teachers and professionals, look foolish showing the door to a rising superstar while retaining the services of “Mr. Deadwood” upstairs in history.

If I’m clearly an underperforming teacher why am I not on the short list to be shown the door? What can we possibly tell students who lament losing that rising superstar when they sincerely ask, “Why is the abysmal Mrs. Do-Little still here?” Good question, kids. Unfortunately, the answer has nothing to do with what’s best for you. Sad.

Speaker & Legislators Lash Out at the State’s Biggest Newspaper

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It was an amazing spectacle yesterday evening at the rostrum and on the floor of the Rhode Island House. (Is this what is called, in parliamentary terms, making a point of personal privilege?) From a front page article in today’s Providence Journal.

But, in a highly unusual move, Mattiello on Tuesday also joined a chorus of lawmakers slamming The Providence Journal for what they described as “unfair’’ coverage of the House Finance Committee’s hearings on a controversial $11.6-million grant program that, year after year, has entangled the General Assembly in controversy. …

When Mattiello finished speaking Tuesday, he received a standing ovation from his House colleagues.

I’m still holding out hope that the review of grants promised by Speaker Mattiello – and the subject of the ProJo’s criticism – doesn’t end with these committee hearings, which were woefully inadequate. If that doesn’t materialize, the ProJo editorial of today will be proved right and it will be clear that these hearings

… were never intended to scrutinize these grants. Rather, they were cynically designed to cultivate support for them by bringing in needy recipients who might tug at the public’s heartstrings.

Gov Raimondo Hands out Another $7M in Tax Dollars In Lieu of Real Econ Development

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From the Providence Business News.

The R.I. Commerce Corp. voted to approve more than $7 million in state relocation and redevelopment credits Monday to several corporations that plan to invest in or bring jobs to Rhode Island.

“These are three fine projects that are helping to advance our economy,” said R.I. Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor.

What is actually needed to advance the state’s economy, Mr. Secretary, is substantive improvements to the tax and regulatory climate to signal to out-of-state businesses (and the jobs they bring) that they can come here and prosper without having to go on BENDED KNEE to state officials for CORPORATE WELFARE.

What is even more disturbing is the revelation that taxpayers are, in fact, being forced to come out of pocket via these subsidies to compensate for the business climate and market conditions created by decades of costly, anti-business policies that the Raimondo is studiously choosing not to address.

The company has developed two other hotel properties in Rhode Island, including the Hampton Inn & Suites in downtown Providence. Like those, this project needs state assistance in bridging the financial gap created by market conditions. In Boston, he said, the company has properties built at similar cost that fetch $300-a-night for rooms. In Providence, similar rooms would be booked at $170 a night.

“But for this supplement, this project would not happen,” Karam said.

Remarkably, at a recent stop on her “listening tour”, Governor Raimondo actually touted the fact that she had increased such taxpayer-funded tax credit and give-away programs as though it were an achievement of her administration!

Rhode Island needs someone at the State House to be the adult here. Minimally, these taxpayer-funded subsidies need to be shut down while we wait for the governor to come to her senses about the real action needed on economic development … or, if that is not going to happen, until the next governor is installed which, hopefully for the sake of the taxpayer’s wallet, will be in two and a half rather than six and a half years.

UPDATED – Monetized Firefighter Sick Time is Straight Up Rip-Off of Taxpayer

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Great, important and infuriating article in the Warwick Beacon a couple of weeks ago written by publisher John Howell. From city documents obtained by taxpayer advocate Rob Cote, it demonstrates that Warwick taxpayers are being compelled to needlessly pay for monetized, unused sick days.

An examination of payroll records and information provided by Fire Chief James McLaughlin show that virtually no paid sick leave is used by department personnel, and that at the end of the year department members get a bonus – in some cases more than $5,000 – for unused sick days.

The total cost to taxpayers for the calendar year ending Dec. 31, 2015, was $442,913.87.

The huge problem here is that the basis for this abuse – sick days – shouldn’t even exist but is a completely unnecessary addition to the firefighter contract because Rhode Island law, Title 45-19-1, effectively stipulates that firefighters and police officers (more specifically, “police officer, fire fighter, crash rescue crewperson, fire marshal, chief deputy fire marshal, or deputy fire marshal”) shall receive unlimited sick and injury days.

This is not a criticism of firefighters but of Warwick officials who have agreed to a contract which includes these completely unnecessary, utterly wasteful provisions funded by Warwick taxpayers. Ken Block, who had previously completed a statewide analysis of the high cost of Rhode Island fire departments, identifies in the article why elected officials have done so.

He reasons payment for unused sick time has simply become a means for elected officials seeking firefighter union support to bloat their pay without making it obvious to the taxpayers who have to foot the bill.

Two things.

1.) Warwick officials, you’re busted. This utterly wasteful practice is a rip-off of taxpayers and needs to end immediately.

2.) What other cities and towns are similarly abusing their taxpayers by including sick days in their first responder contracts? Remember, Rhode Island law (Title 45-19-1) makes sick days completely unnecessary. Accordingly, the presence in any police or firefighter contract of sick days – which can then be monetized and abused – is not out of necessity but due to the selfish motivation of that municipality’s elected officials.

UPDATE

After review of the law and contracts, Justin Katz contacted me to point out a couple of errors.

1. The RI law cited is not quite as blanket about on-duty sick and injury as indicated in my post and the Beacon article. Justin reports:

In order to get injured on duty (IOD) pay, personnel have to file affidavits that they received their injury or contracted their illness directly as a result of their work. Just catching the flu wouldn’t do it. There is justification for having some provision that allows emergency personnel to call in when they aren’t physically up for doing their job for some reason.

2. The Warwick police contract does, in fact, include provision for sick and injury days, though it is far more tightly capped than the fire contract.

The Warwick police contract currently in effect includes separate sections for sick time and injured on duty time, *as does the fire contract,* …

It doesn’t look like the police get to cash in their sick days. However, they do get 8 hours of “miscellaneous time” if they go six months without using sick days.

Grant Inequality is Also by Community

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Today’s must-read-as-always Political Scene in the Providence Journal does a good job breaking down the top recipients, both legislator and community-wise, of legislative grants this year. (It was community service, not legislative, grants, that were the subject of the very lame House hearings last week.) Because legislative grants are given out entirely at the whim of leadership, those legislators who are favored are presumably going to get a larger share of the grants. But the result of that selection process is also a disproportionate distribution of grant monies by city and town. Here’s what that looks like.

Of the $537,040 given out by the 10 lawmakers, $113,850 went to organizations in Mattiello’s home district of Cranston, $82,700 went to Providence groups, $42,000 went to East Providence groups, and $38,500 landed in Warren-based organizations.

Legislative grants need to go away, largely because they are unconstitutional. But they also need to be gone because they are obviously unfair. Why should one city or town get more than another? Democrats wring their hands about income inequality. It’s interesting that, when political considerations enter the picture, Democrat leadership on Smith Hill not only tolerates inequality but deliberately creates it via the grant process.

ProJo’s Fire-And-Brimstone Editorial About Grant Hearings is Spot On

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The Providence Journal’s all out, fire-and-brimstone editorial yesterday against the sham House hearings on grants is welcome and fully warranted.

The hearings came across as nothing but a dog-and-pony exhibition, an insult to the intelligence of most Rhode Islanders, a fraud, a farce.

The editorial not only calls for an immediate end to grants but goes on to point out that the line item veto would be a curb on such excesses. (My comment: ahem, yes, in the hands of a Governor interested in wielding it.)

The editorial, further, makes reference to federal authorities.

This is rank enough, but the system has evidently metastasized into funneling money directly to legislators and other allies working for dubious nonprofit groups. If crimes have been committed in this manner, we hope federal authorities bring an iron fist down on the perpetrators.

It is very difficult to believe that leadership is attempting to pass off these Potemkin hearings as the promised review and oversight of the very troubled grant program and that they won’t, in fact, be bringing in independent investigators. If that is the case, however (and I would be thrilled to be wrong here), legislative oversight is pointless and it is clearly time to bring in a phalanx of feds. Grants and every campaign account on Smith Hill: let them go top to bottom. The “stench”, as the editorial calls the miasma emanating from the grant program, will not clear until this happens.

Grant Hearings: No Hard Questions … Or Even Committee Members Half the Time

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Good article by Tom Mooney in today’s Providence Journal about the subcommittee hearings this week on legislative and “Community Service” grants. He reports that not only were no hard questions asked … but testimony was given often with committee members largely AWOL.

But if anyone was waiting to hear if any of the $11.6 million in community service grants distributed this budget year was misused, they’ve been disappointed. One reason is there’s virtually no one around to ask the question.

Following the revelation of an ongoing federal investigation into now-resigned Representative Raymond Gallison and state grant monies sent to non-profits affiliated with Gallison that may largely have gone to his salary, Speaker Mattiello had promised to review all such grants. It is to be sincerely hoped that the intended review will extend considerably beyond these hearings, for which the description “Potemkin” would be generous.

Pro-Business? DLT Refuses to Cite Basis for Giving Unemployment Benefits to Striking Workers

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Two weeks ago, the RI Department of Labor and Training authorized striking Verizon workers to receive unemployment benefits by erroneously labeling the action a lock-out. Not only does this egregiously wrong decision come at the expense of all RI businesses but, if it stands, it could set a costly precedent.

True to their word, Verizon was in Superior Court Wednesday contesting the decision and asking that unemployment benefits “be immediately suspended”. But DLT was not forthcoming, at least publicly, about the basis for its ruling.

[DLT Spokesperson Michael] Healey declined to discuss the evidence or the factual statements that led to Jensen’s decision, telling The Providence Journal that such information is “confidential.”

Two things. Why can’t they discuss the basis for the decision? Is it because it is so weak and indefensible?

Secondly, Governor Raimondo claims to be working vigorously on the economy and the state’s business climate. Does she agree with this blatantly anti-business, pro-union decision by the RI Department of Labor and Training?

Huh. Why is Vice President Biden Really Coming to RI?

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Governor Raimondo says its because her toll-funded

RhodeWorks, a program that is set to charge tolls on some trucks, and other construction projects, has turned heads, including in Washington

But could the real reason be to try and get someone, ANYONE other than those who would directly benefit from it (or is a personal friend of the Governor), to say something good about her toll program? If so, it’s interesting that Governor Raimondo’s administration had to go out of state and all the way to Washington, DC, to find someone to talk up this highly destructive new revenue stream. It would also confirm the generally held view that Governor Raimondo’s toll program, passed by the General Assembly (how did your legislator vote?), has pretty much the same political popularity as a new government Puppy Kicking Program.

Good Grief – No Grants or Any Other Tax Dollars Should Go to Lobbying

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Good article in today’s Providence Journal by Patrick Anderson, headlined: “Do R.I. General Assembly grants funnel back into lobbying?”

The answer, in many cases, is “yes, they do”. And for those recipient organizations who use this defense of the dollars they receive from Smith Hill:

Many said they use only non-grant funds to lobby.

Bosh. If your organization does ANY lobbying, grant dollars free up other dollars in your budgets to be used to lobby.

Often, the goal of lobbying is for policies that are antithetical to the best interest of the taxpayer. Accordingly, it is grotesque that tax dollars, whether via grants or any other source, would go to an organization that lobbies any arm of the government of Rhode Island.

JOI? About that Unemployment Rate, Governor

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Governor Gina Raimondo’s approval rating isn’t good and, in fact, is going in the wrong direction due to

a sharp rise in her negative ratings this year, according to a newly released poll.

Asked about this in a couple of different instances by the press, the Governor responded by citing purported achievements of her administration but always including a reference to the state’s dropping unemployment rate – this one courtesy WPRI.

Asked Thursday how she reacted to seeing her approval rating at 41%, Raimondo replied: “I was pleased.”

“You know, it’s early in my term,” she continued. “We’ve been on for a year. We’ve had a lot of momentum. Our unemployment rate dropped.”

Actually, the unemployment rate is an inadequate reflection of the measure of employment as, among other things, it fails to distinguish between part and full time employment and actually counts a declining labor force participation rate as a good thing.

The Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity has developed a more comprehensive snapshot, called JOI (Jobs & Opportunity Index), of the larger state economic picture, as opposed to the narrow snapshot of the monthly unemployment rate. From the JOI webpage:

JOI is a national index of states that incorporates three major factors, comprised of over a dozen variables derived from government reported data:

1) A proper measure of employment as it relates to labor force,
2) A measure of job/employment levels as compared with public assistance rolls, and;
3) A measure of personal income as compared with government tax receipts collected”

By this measure, Rhode Island ranks forty eighth nationally – not at all a ranking that any state official should or could brag about.

Be sure to keep an eye out for Rhode Island’s JOI ranking as the Center will be updating this important new measure every month when the state’s unemployment rate is released.

Now They’re Coming After Uber

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… by they, of course, we mean a few highly misguided legislators at the General Assembly. From the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity’s weekly blast about good and bad bills at the General Assembly.

By adding unreasonable burdens, H8044, sponsored by House Majority Whip Rep. Jay Edwards (D, Portsmouth), would impose heavy regulations and fees for transportation network companies (like Uber), including (among other things) $150 fees for each driver, unusual insurance regulations, bans against cash use, bans on driver gun licensing, and disability mandates.

In other words, Rep. Edwards wants to do instantly what the Rhode Island General Assembly usually does more gradually and unobtrusively, which is to regulate a business out of existence. (Okay, slight exaggeration. But not much.)

Is this to protect the taxicab industry? If so, here’s an idea. Rather than regulate Uber and Lyft, DEregulate taxicabs. Does RI charge a taxicab medallion fee on the state or local level? Stop charging it. (Cue the gasps of horror from revenue hungry officials.)

Let a new form of commercial transportation lead the way to a new way of treating business here in Rhode Island, rather than allowing bad old government ways to damage a new industry.

“Field of Trains” Redux: Why Would We Spend Millions for 89 Riders Net Per Day?

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The Wickford Junction is an unmitigated disaster. So, of course, it makes sense (???) to strive to repeat it in Pawtucket.

Rhode Island has taken its biggest step yet toward building a new train station to serve Pawtucket and Central Falls, requesting $14.5 million from the federal government to cover about a third of the project’s cost.

But a new train station in Pawtucket would net only eighty nine new riders per day, with hundreds more poached from the South Attleboro and Providence stops. By the way, it isn’t just federal dollars that would be involved.

Separately on Tuesday, the House Finance Committee is scheduled to take up a bill sponsored by Rep. Carlos Tobon, D-Pawtucket, that would appropriate $10 million to help underwrite the cost of the Pawtucket train station. Tobon proposed a similar bill pegged at $20 million last year.

RIDOT is currently looking to fill a $126,648 – $140,920 position of “Administrator, Office of Transit, New Starts, Operations and Transportation Alternatives“. It looks from the job description that this proposed new train station would fall under the purview of this position. Is this taxpayer-funded job the sort of “opportunity to transform the area and provide much needed economic opportunity for local residents” that RIDOT Director Peter Alviti is referencing when he tries to justify this completely unneeded project?

This is serious derangement. The “If You Build It, They Will Come” approach to expensive public transit projects didn’t work in Wickford. We know NOW it won’t work in Pawtucket, either. So why are our elected officials working to repeat Wickford’s costly mistake in Pawtucket?

Marijuana Legalization Referendum Not Looking Good This Session – And That’s Good

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The Providence Journal is reporting this morning, as did WPRI, that

Chances are dwindling that a referendum on legalizing marijuana will appear on the November ballot in Rhode Island.

“A referendum on this year’s ballot is unlikely,” House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello told The Providence Journal in an email Monday.

This is a good thing, with apologies to my friend Pat Ford and others who support the legalization of cannibis. One of the pro-legalization arguments is that use of the substance is the same as legal liquor. I might, might, might entertain that argument if it meant that the total number of people who use mood-altering substances did not change. But all indications are that this is not what happens.

Further, legalization hasn’t gone wonderfully in Colorado – far from it. When this discussion comes up at the General Assembly next year, these statistics need to heavily weigh on the ledger against the increased tax revenue often cited by cannibis advocates. Colorado’s experience strikes me as too high a price for Rhode Islanders to pay to legalize marijuana.

Karen MacBeth Will Step Away from Politics Altogether

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… that was the startling announcement that State Representative Karen MacBeth (D then R) made on the Tara Granahan Show yesterday on WPRO.

Republican State Representative Karen MacBeth tells WPRO’s Tara Granahan that she has abandoned her short-lived race for Congress against sitting Congressman David Cicilline, and would also not seek reelection to her General Assembly seat.

Rep MacBeth was a straight shooter on Smith Hill (we need more like her). Thanks to her for trying to get to the bottom of why and how taxpayers came to be on the hook for $89 million in the 38 Studios debacle and especially for trying to get answers and accountability in the critical matter of the seven figure fees paid to the crony of former Speaker Gordon Fox, Michael Corso. (Your cue, Attorney General Kilmartin.)

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