Coming up in Committee: Nineteen Sets of Bills (Minus One Set) Being Heard by the Rhode Island General Assembly, February 25 – February 27

February 24, 2014/by Carroll Andrew Morse

2. S2399: Allows cities and towns to issue bonds for an amounts up to 5% of their budgets, in order to obtain loans from the “municipal road and bridge revolving fund administered by the Rhode Island clean water finance agency”, with a further provision that the bonds “may be issued under this section by any political subdivision without obtaining the approval of its electors…notwithstanding any provision of its charter to the contrary”. (S Finance; Thu, Feb 27) According to the Projo’s Phil Marcelo, there’s supposed to be an amendment coming to this bill, which will limit its impact to only this year. However, I still don’t see how that makes this a good idea.

3. Bud. Art. 21: An attempt to direct Rhode Island gas-tax revenue to “highway maintenance”, a “heavy vehicle replacement program”, “a drainage system preservation program” and a “preventative maintenance, preservation, and replacement program to address the condition of all state-maintained bridges”. (H Finance; Tue, Feb 25) Labeled as an “attempt” due to heavy skepticism about how effective provisions like this can be, due to the basic fungibility of money.

4. S2175: Limits annual electricity rate increases to the rate of inflation, as determined by the Consumer Price Index. (S Commerce; Thu, Feb 27)

5A. H7313: Prohibits “direct cash assistance funds held on electronic benefit transfer cards or access devices” from being used to purchase “alcoholic beverages”, “lottery tickets”, “tobacco products”, “visual material or performances intended to create or simulate sexual conduct or sexual excitement”, “firearms and ammunition”, “vacation services”, “tattoos or body piercings”, “jewelry”; “gambling” or “the payment to the state or any political subdivision thereof of any fees, fines, bail, or bail bonds”. (H Judiciary; Tue, Feb 25)

5B. S2382: Requires a photo ID when using a food stamp benefits card. (S Judiciary; Tue, Feb 25)

6. H7469: Creates a multi-step bureaucratic process for privatization of municipal services, including allowing unions to sue in Superior Court to stop privatization, so that a judge can make the final decision. (H Municipal Government; Thu, Feb 27)

The Pension Settlement from the Retirees’ Perspective

February 23, 2014/by Justin Katz

Straightening out the pension reform settlement agreement is no easy task, but it appears that 21,000 retirees are in a position akin to that of regular Rhode Islanders year in and year out.

‘Nuff Said in Woonsocket

February 23, 2014/by Justin Katz

One of Rhode Island’s problems in a nutshell (emphasis added):

Democrat primary winner Michael Morin has a strong grasp on the District 49 House seat, but to become a lawmaker he must defeat any write-in candidate who attempts to edge him out in a special election Tuesday.

Last month, Morin, a president of the Woonsocket firefighters’ union, defeated two other Democrats, Douglas T. Brown and Mark Chenot.

When the Jury Takes Over the Column

February 21, 2014/by Justin Katz

Rhode Island Public Radio reporter Ian Donnis has posted a much-anticipated weekly TGIF column featuring various Rhode Island notables and semi-notables from whom he requested blurbs, because he’s distracted with jury duty this week. Among the more “semi” folks on the list are me and fellow Current Anchor contributor Andrew Morse. I write on the political drama of the Sakonnet River Bridge tolls; Andrew takes on judicial gag orders.

Giving Local Government the Power to Take Without Permission

February 21, 2014/by Justin Katz

Scheduling prevented a Wingmen this week, but Justin did appear on the nightly news Wednesday, talking about allowing municipalities to borrow money without asking voters first.

Another Step in Dismantling Rhode Island Self Governance

February 18, 2014/by Justin Katz

It’s becoming a regular theme of Rhode Island government that when the rules don’t produce the outcome that the politically powerful want (even if only not efficiently enough), they change the rules. Another step in that direction is coming in the name of the “Municipal Road and Bridge Revolving Fund”:

Rhode Island cities and towns would not have to seek voter approval for certain projects financed through the state’s newly created “Municipal Road and Bridge Revolving Fund,” under legislation the state House of Representatives is set to vote on next Tuesday. …

[House spokesman Larry] Berman stressed that the measure, if approved, would only affect projects financed through the road and bridge fund and that cities and towns would be limited to borrowing only up to 5 percent of their most recent budgets before they’d have to seek voter approval.

As always, it’s helpful to rephrase the bill in direct, descriptive terms of what it does: It will allow agents inside town and city governments to commit taxpayers to paying up to 5% of their annual budgets, plus interest, in additional debt. This just isn’t right, and it shouldn’t be allowed (and it wouldn’t be allowed if Rhode Islanders were paying any attention).

What’s more, legislators know it. That’s why they’re already planning to amend the bill so that it applies only to loans taken out this fiscal year… for now. This nod to the notion that town and city governments shouldn’t be allowed to take money out of people’s pockets is insufficient; it would be a minor matter — difficult to catch — when the legislature returns in the future to amend the law to include another year, and then another, and then to take the time limit out entirely.

Pension Settlement Game of Chicken

February 18, 2014/by Patrick Laverty

Which way should the General Assembly go on taking up the pension settlement bill? That’s got to be what Speaker Fox and President Paiva-Weed are wondering now. Or maybe not. In a joint message reported by Ian Donnis: “We will await the votes to be taken by both union and non-union members before we weigh […]

Why the Boots Are Walking

February 17, 2014/by Justin Katz

A New York Post editorial from a couple of weeks ago, about the problem of departing residents that New York state shares with Rhode Island, puts the problem well:

It’s not just taxes prompting migration to their shores, though certainly the lack of an income tax in either the Lone Star or Sunshine state has to be a large part of the attraction. These growing states are also creating jobs, and generally offer a lower cost of living. And as a general rule, human beings do not move away from opportunity.

“As a general rule, human beings do not move away from opportunity.”

The General Assembly can pour more money into failing public schools. It can layer on workforce training program after workforce training program. But even if every program does for its beneficiaries what it’s supposed to do, if there is no opportunity in Rhode Island, they will take their taxpayer-funded skill sets elsewhere.

The reality is that government officials like these programs because they give them something to do. They collect the taxes to pay for it all and keep control over how the programs operate, what they supply, and to whom they supply it.

Rhode Island is leading the region in blindly ignoring the unmistakable reality that it needs to rethink its priorities. We have to start trusting people to make their own way, rather than trusting politicians and special interests to allow some spare feed to scatter on the ground around them.

A Quick Broad Stroke on the Proposed Pension Settlement

February 14, 2014/by Justin Katz

Most of the many things that can be said about the proposed settlement on the unions’ lawsuit challenging the pension reform law, I’ll leave for later. You can peruse the various related documents, including the legislation that the General Assembly must past without amendment, some summaries, and the actuarial document, here.

The basic analysis is this: As I’ve said too many times to pick a link, the reform wasn’t adequate as it was, and this makes it even less so.

But there’s a more important broad-stroke point to pull from it all. Russell Moore articulated it succinctly on Twitter, but we can be sure that it’s the feeling of many and will be repeated many times in the halls of the State House. Explaining why I shouldn’t be so negative about the deal, he wrote:

because it maintains 94 percent of the savings and you no longer have to worry about some judge throwing the whole thing out .

That’s pretty much the attitude to which Rhode Islanders have been beaten, isn’t it? Shhh… at least we’re getting away with something! Don’t anger the insiders and special interests.

We need to change the attitude in this state. Reality is going to force us to do so. It’s just a matter of how painful it’s going to be.

Reforms have to be implemented and then expanded, not implemented and then we all cross our fingers and hope that a corrupt judiciary doesn’t throw them out because special interests complain, or a corrupt electoral system doesn’t allow the unions to flip enough seats in the General Assembly to undo it all.

This isn’t good enough. We deserve better.

10 News Conference Wingmen, Episode 20 (Pension Reform Mediation)

February 14, 2014/by Justin Katz

Justin and Bob Plain discuss the pension mess (and Justin adds a bit of after the fact textual elaboration).

Ninth Circuit Says You Don’t Have to Explain Your Reason for Wanting to Exercise the Right to Bear Arms

February 14, 2014/by Carroll Andrew Morse

The Ninth Circuit says that California’s requirement that “good cause” be shown in order to obtain a concealed carry firearms permit is unconstitutional. Rhode Island law requires “a proper showing of need”, when trying to obtain a concealed carry permit from the Attorney General.

Rejected alternate title: “It’s Not a Right, if it Depends on Some Guy in Sarasota”.

Measuring Legislative Success Against the Unknowable

February 13, 2014/by Justin Katz

Based on Paul Grimaldi’s reporting, one hopes those who attended the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce luncheon, yesterday, left with a profound sense of despair.

The legislators on the stage talked about their regulatory reform, but mainly what they’ve got to show is a bureaucracy researching regulations. Meanwhile, the General Assembly piles on new regulations and mandates every year.

On taxation, even the “little bit more aggressive” approach proclaimed by Senate Minority Leader Dennis Algiere (R, Westerly) amounts to a piddling poking around the edges of Rhode Islanders’ tax burden. The biggest claim to success that Speaker of the House Gordon Fox (D, Providence) could come up with was what hasn’t happened (yet):

“Sometimes you need to measure where you may have been,” save for certain actions, Fox said. …

Also, Fox noted, much energy has been used to blunt efforts to undo some of that work, such as the decision to lower the top personal income tax rate from 9.9 percent to 5.99 percent.

“There’s a large effort to backtrack on what we’ve done,” Fox said.

This is as much as to say to the unemployed: “Sure, you’ve got no hope of a job, but at least we haven’t driven every employer out of the state.”

It brings to mind something in a John Stossel column, out yesterday:

What about all the new businesses that would have gotten investment money but didn’t have [Al] Gore on their boards? What new ideas might have thrived if old industries weren’t coddled? We don’t know. We will never know the greatness of what might have existed had the state not sucked the oxygen out of the incubator.

Rhode Island government’s goal posts are devastatingly out of place if it’s touting the fact that it hasn’t allowed itself to do even more damage. Stossel suggests that we’re turning into “a nation of favor-seekers instead of creators and producers.”

I say, look to Rhode Island for the lesson. We’re already there. If some of the businesspeople at the luncheon left despondent, at least we’d know that they aren’t all in on it.

Coming up in Committee on February 11 and 12: The Worst Institutional Design in Education History?

February 10, 2014/by Carroll Andrew Morse

1. S2265/Bud. Art. 20: Completion of a full Dilbert cycle of Rhode Island’s education bureaucracy, where one board that was created by merging together two previous boards is re-reorganized into one board with two “councils”, each council being given basically the same responsibility as one of the original boards. (H Health, Education and Welfare/H Finance joint meeting; Tue, Feb 11, as Bud. Art. 20 & S Education/S Finance joint meeting; Wed, Feb 12, as S2265)

Coming up in Committee on February 11: Bypassing the Voters, to Saddle them With Municipal Bond Debt

February 10, 2014/by Carroll Andrew Morse

2. Two bills being heard in General Assembly committees this week would allow city/town councils to ignore home-rule charter requirements requiring voter approval of long-term debt, when borrowing via the “municipal road and bridge revolving fund administered by the Rhode Island clean water finance agency”.

In the case of Pawtucket, one of the bills subjects all taxable property in the city to “ad valorem taxation…without limitation as to rate or amount”.

Coming up in Committee: Eighteen Sets of Bills (Minus Two) Being Heard by the Rhode Island General Assembly, February 11 – February 13

February 10, 2014/by Carroll Andrew Morse

3. H7262: Driving “privilege” licenses for illegal immigrants. (H Judiciary; Tue, Feb 11) In order to obtain a license, a “foreign national” must submit (for starters) “a foreign birth certificate, a valid foreign passport that is unexpired or expired for less than three (3) years before the application for a license including a certified translation if the document is not in English, or a valid, unexpired consular identification document issued by an applicant’s country of citizenship”. So if nothing else, this should end (if we assume a rational world) the question of whether illegal immigrants can honestly be described as “undocumented”.

4. H7026 requires teachers to be notified of layoffs due to “fiscal exigency or program reorganization” by June 1. (Currently, layoff notices of any kind must be sent by March 1). H7193 adds program reduction/elimination and budget reduction to a “decrease in pupil population” as cases where teacher layoffs must be carried out on the basis of seniority, and sets May 15 as the corresponding layoff notice date. (H Labor; Tue, Feb 11)

5. H7368: Places a moratorium on “approvals for new healthcare equipment or new institutional health services prior to July 1, 2015”, with what appear to be exceptions for “domestic medical tourism” and “currently licensed multi-practice physician ambulatory surgery center[s]” (H Health, Education and Welfare; Wed, Feb 12) An attempt to explain the purpose of this bill is available here.

6. S2036: Moves the amount of time served to be eligible for parole from 20 to 30 years in cases of life sentences for 1st or 2nd degree murder, and from 10 to 20 years in cases of life sentences for other crimes. Also, convicts serving consecutive sentences would be required to serve their minimums consecutively. S2029 would require 50% of any non-life sentence for 1st or 2nd degree murder to be served, before a convict would be eligible for parole. (S Judiciary; Tue, Feb 11) By the numbers, this means that life is potentially a more lenient punishment than a sentence of greater than 60 years. How important this is depends on actual sentencing guidelines and practices.

(Top two bills to follow, in separate posts).

How to Thrive in a Fading Land: Join the Government

February 10, 2014/by Justin Katz

I find myself thinking of the tens of thousands of Rhode Islanders who are unemployed (including those who no longer tell government pollsters that they are looking for work) and the thousands of struggling self-starters and small-business owners and wondering what they think when they read the Providence Journal. Consider:

The start of the new legislative session sparked raises of up to 22 percent for more than two dozen General Assembly staffers, a high-level promotion and the hiring of another former state lawmaker.

Promotions: Lawyer Frederic Marzilli was promoted to director of … Legislative Counsel … salary up from $90,458 to $121,566 a year. He replaces John O’Connor, who was given a new title — “senior legal counsel to the Speaker” — at the same $116,890 salary he had before.

And so on. From a different segment of the same link:

[Matt] Jerzyk, who held a number of titles in Providence City Hall, including deputy city solicitor, has been named legal counsel for the House Labor Committee … Jerzyk also serves as legal counsel to the House Small Business Committee… He is being paid $2,500 a month for his work on the two committees…

Jerzyk is also city solicitor in Central Falls and consulting on Providence City Council President Michael Solomon’s campaign for mayor and former state General Treasurer Frank Caprio’s bid to regain his former job as treasurer.

And then there’s the Foster teacher complaining in an op-ed about pension reform:

The reduction and suspension of the cost-of-living adjustment for state retirees is just one component of the pension reform that the legislature adopted during the 2012 legislative session. The other two components that no one chooses to discuss are deep cuts to the defined benefit of the teacher or state employee and the additional requirement that they work years longer to attain their deeply reduced pensions.

Of course, circulation numbers suggest that much of Rhode Island’s struggling population isn’t reading the Providence Journal, perhaps because of demographic shifts, perhaps because they’re all too busy struggling, or perhaps because it’s become a conduit for sowing hopelessness among them, so why bother.

Concern for the Community or Preparation for Submission?

February 5, 2014/by Justin Katz

So the local Twitterverse has exploded with commentary on CVS’s decision to stop selling tobacco products, even though it will cost the chain $2 billion of its roughly $125 billion annual revenue.

Ted Nesi puts it in context of the company’s move toward the health-services space, what with the MinuteClinics that it announced an intention to open, in November. In Ted’s telling, it’s a peer-pressure, good-for-the-image thing, perhaps to defuse some of the opposition that had the clinics on the receiving end of Rhode Island’s infamous licensure blockade back in 2005.

Amy Payne, from Heritage, proclaims it as evidence that corporations can do the right thing without government coercion.

Of course, it’s also possible that the company has been given reason to believe that the government is preparing to change the rules of the game. One indication of that possibility is House bill 7166, which would prevent any “health care facility” from having a license for tobacco sales “issued, renewed, or maintained.”

It’s win-win. The government makes a threat, and the company gets to respond to that threat by shooting for some good publicity. The only losers are consumers buying the legal product from their local stores, taxpayers who find the government shifting the tax burden to other collections than cigarettes, and company shareholders whose stocks lose value to the extent that the company can’t continue selling a profitable product while also branching out into new healthcare services.

Coming up in Committee: Twenty Sets of Bills Being Heard by the Rhode Island General Assembly, February 4 – February 6

February 3, 2014/by Carroll Andrew Morse

1. Two minimum wage bills; H7056 provides a one-time raise in the minimum wage to $9 per-hour, and H7194 sets the minimum wage at $9 per hour for 2015, $10 per hour for 2016 and automatically adjusts it upward for inflation after that. (H Labor; Tue, Feb 4)

2. H7050/S2008: A “person, corporation, or other entity who has resolved” 38 Studios project claims “is not liable for claims for contribution or equitable indemnity regarding matters addressed in the settlement”. (H Judiciary; Tue, Feb 4) Passed unanimously by the Senate, this bill’s fast-tracking continues.

3. H7067: An attempt by legislators to prevent expansion of the Blackstone Prep Mayoral Academy, by not allowing schools to be built on the sites of former mines, even if the building site meets every other building code and engineering regulation in the state of Rhode Island, and with no provisions for variances, clean-up or appeals. (H Health, Education and Welfare; Wed, Feb 5) This bill is also an end-run by legislators around the principle that their job is to pass laws for the benefit of all and not to punish specific organizations.

4. Bud. Art. 12, sec. 1: Persons who have “neglected or refused to file a tax return(s) and/or to pay any tax administered by the tax administrator” will not be allowed to register or transfer registrations of motor vehicles. (H Finance; Wed, Feb 5)

Minimum Wage Bidding War By Raimondo & Taveras Swiftly Rebuked By Latest Unemployment Rate

January 28, 2014/by Monique Chartier

On Thursday, citing his mother’s employment history (how could you say no to his mother, you hard-hearted person???) , gubernatorial candidate Mayor Angel Taveras announced at a press conference that a hike to $10.10/hour of the state’s minimum wage should be phased in by 2018. A couple of hours later, General Treasurer Gina Raimondo, who, […]

Coming up in Committee: Six Bills to be Heard by the RI General Assembly, January 28 – January 30

January 27, 2014/by Carroll Andrew Morse

1. H7050: A “person, corporation, or other entity who has resolved” 38 Studios project claims “is not liable for claims for contribution or equitable indemnity regarding matters addressed in the settlement”. (H Judiciary; Tue, Jan 28) This bill has already passed by the Senate Judiciary committe 9-0 (including Senator Dawson Hodgson voting in the affirmative), so it’s on a fast track.

2. H7053: Creates a “Joint Committee of the Repealer” within the legislature, to recommend laws & regulations for repeal. (H Judiciary; Tue, Jan 28)

Government Revenue Analyst Implies Getting People to Quit Is Job Growth

January 23, 2014/by Justin Katz

The state’s director of revenue analysis offered misleading testimony concerning the state’s unemployment rate as a member of the commission to study the elimination of the sales tax.

Coming up in Committee: Eight Bills to be Heard by the RI General Assembly, January 21 – January 23

January 20, 2014/by Carroll Andrew Morse

1. S2008: A “person, corporation, or other entity who has resolved” its claims related to the 38 Studios project “is not liable for claims for contribution or equitable indemnity regarding matters addressed in the settlement”. (S Judiciary; Thu, Jan 23) Any lawyers with civil litigation experience want to tell us what this means? Also, what are the limits, with regards to how much latitude a legislature has in creating unique rules of procedure for a particular civil case?

2. S2011: Adds a phrase to last year’s law supposedly reforming the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, so that it now reads “Nothing in this act shall be construed to change or modify the corporate existence of the former Rhode Island economic development corporation, which shall now be known as the ‘Rhode Island commerce corporation'”… (S Commerce; Tue, Jan 21) …just in case anyone was led mistakenly to believe that last session’s “reform” significantly changed anything!

3. H7053: Creates a “Joint Committee of the Repealer” within the legislature, to recommend laws & regulations for repeal. (H Judiciary; Tue, Jan 21)

Sasse’s Great Illustration of Rhode Island’s Perspective Problem

December 24, 2013/by Justin Katz

Testing a claim about state aid’s effect on property taxes returns us to Rhode Island’s real problem (and suggests solutions).

Looking Forward From the Exeter Recall

December 17, 2013/by Carroll Andrew Morse

What Lessons Will the Town Council Take from the Recall Experience?

How Attorney General Kilmartin Can Improve the Chances of Moving All Firearms Permitting to His Office

The Referendum Option That the Town Council May Not Know it Already Sort of Supported

Since Constitutional Rights are Involved, So Too May be the Courts…

That WPRO Boycott List & Representative Priorities

December 16, 2013/by Justin Katz

Rep. Mike Chippendale (R, Coventry, Foster, Glocester) writes to request that I note his position on the total boycott of WPRO as identical to Allan Fung’s — namely, that he’s not going to appear on John DePetro’s morning show, but is not going to shun the other hosts. According to Chippendale, his name was on the list of politicians who’ve signed on to the whole-station boycott, but it appears to have been removed, at least on the For Our Daughters site.

Simply because of the proximity of this morning’s reading, as I skimmed the list, the names of Rep. John Edwards (D, Portsmouth, Tiverton) and Sen. Louis DiPalma (D, Little Compton, Middletown, Newport, Tiverton) stand out. Earlier, I noted their confidence that they can sway the legislature to eliminate the tolls on the Sakonnet River Bridge, and the two issues seem to sit together uncomfortably.

Do Edwards and DiPalma mean to say that if the push to eliminate the tolls comes to a head — hits one of those points in politics at which every Rhode Islander who can be reached with a message could be critical — they’ll refuse to reach out to the audiences of Gene Valecenti, Dan Yorke, Buddy Cianci, Matt Allen, Tara Granahan, Steve Klamkin, John Loughlin, the station’s news reporters, and even Rep. Deborah Ruggerio (D, Jamestown, Middletown), who has a Sunday show called “Amazing Women”?

That says a great deal not only about the general civic blindness of Rhode Island’s governing class, but also the specific priorities of the people on that list.

Ethics Commission as Green Light for Corruption

December 16, 2013/by Justin Katz

Senators David Bates (R, Barrington, Bristol, East Providence) and Edward O’Neill (I, Lincoln, North Providence, North Smithfield) illustrate exactly what I was talking about, the other day:

[General Assembly spokespeople] also said that Bates and Sen. Edward O’Neill, an independent from Lincoln, contacted the state Ethics Commission prior to the event and, based on what they learned, believed they had a green light.

As I suggested, the Ethics Commission is supposed to set a line beyond which unethical behavior will not be tolerated. Instead, it’s become a referee giving a “green light” to all unethical behavior up to that line. Consider that there are no gradations; the Commission has no mechanism to label things “unethical, but not illegal,” for example. (Although, it mightn’t be a good idea to consider it qualified to do so.)

We’re to the point, I’d say, that voters should not only set their own — much higher — standards for what’s ethical for an elected official, but give additional marks against a politician who cites the Ethics Commission as justification for violating them.

Are the Tolls Really on Their Way Out?

December 16, 2013/by Justin Katz

A Fall River Herald article gives the impression that East Bay legislators foresee the disappearance of the tolls on the Sakonnet River Bridge.

Rep. John Edwards (D, Portsmouth, Tiverton): “If we are successful in the Legislature, which I think we will be, the tolls will go away.”
Sen. Louis DiPalma (D, Little Compton, Middletown, Newport, Tiverton): “We are going to win this with a phased approach. I am cautiously optimistic.”

Rep. Raymond Gallison (D, Bristol, Portsmouth) and Sen. Christopher Ottiano (R, Bristol, Portsmouth, Tiverton) were at the progress-proclaiming meeting but were not quoted.

I’m still skeptical, and here’s why:

Increased fees on gas, driver’s licenses, car insurance and car inspections are all on the table, Edwards said. Estimates are as high as $300 million a year for the next decade to completely repair all the state’s roads and bridges.

“We have to come up with an alternative funding source,” Edwards said. “I believe what we need to do is dedicate the money we raise every year on our inspection fees, our license fees and our speeding fees.”

There’s a reason the legislature hasn’t already done the obvious and prioritized infrastructure: The tax base is maxed out and too much money goes to things it shouldn’t, but about which somebody powerful cares enough to defend it. A few hearings from a special legislative commission don’t change that or make it likely that legislators across the state want to announce a major tax/fee increase during an election year at the same time they’re tearing down an expensive tolling system on the SRB.

The most likely explanation is that this remains about political cover for local politicians. If an increased toll is coming, appearing to have been out-manned or even duped helps East Bay reps and senators stay on the us side of us versus them.

And nobody knows what’s wrong.

December 11, 2013/by Justin Katz

Today, Dan Yorke was all over an example of the consequences of the things I’ve been writing about. Here’s Kim Kalunian’s relevant news story:

It was all about the luck of the draw for competitors at the Twin River Holiday Blackjack Charity Tournament. …

Thirty-six players went head to head to win up to $10,000 for their charity of choice.

The bulk of the players were Rhode Island politicians…

The included photo drives the point home. The winning player, Representative Scott Slater (D, Providence) got a big phony $10,000 check made out to his charity, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Providence. Presumably, the prop is meant to be taken home and handed off in a ceremony, getting a picture in the local paper, giving the politician an electoral boost.

Dan was incredulous that nobody seems to understand an ethical problem that is so plain. He could hardly do more to explain it than simply to repeat that the General Assembly oversees and negotiates with Twin River, which has an incentive to charm legislators. It’s the kind of thing that just has to be obvious.

But when nobody’s willing to call this stuff what it is, when there’s a neutered Ethics Commission giving a false sense of review, and when the news media lacks either the interest or the resources to continually hammer the wrongness home, well, people lose the ability to see the corruption. And those who do see it understand that nothing will come of speaking out except to raise a target above their heads, which is something about which to be uneasy if they ever want to run for office or do business in the state.

That, sadly, is one thing that people still seem to find obvious.

That Tears It: “New report shows wind power doesn’t reduce CO2 emissions”

December 8, 2013/by Monique Chartier

Paging the energy Quixotes in the R.I. General Assembly and the Governor’s office. Now there is literally NO reason to continue tilting at wind by foisting on state rate payers the highly expensive energy generated by the proposed, boutique Deepwater Wind project.

From Roger Helmer at The Hockey Schtick. (Emphasis added.)

I’ve just come across a report by energy consultant Duncan Seddon in the Australasian Power Technologies publication. The title is “Do wind farms/gas turbines save carbon?”. (Of course he means “CO2 emissions”, not carbon – but I’m delighted to see the explicit link of turbines plus back-up).

Find the report here, page 25: Hat-tip to Benny Peiser of GWPF for drawing my attention to it.

The answer to the question, in brief, is “on average, no”.

So the “Dual Role” Has Become An Excuse to Give the President of CCRI A Hearty Raise?

December 8, 2013/by Monique Chartier

This week, GoLocalProv‘s Kate Nagle shined a multi-part spotlight on various spending items at CCRI, the Community College of Rhode Island, one of three state colleges/universities and, accordingly, annual recipient of many millions of state tax dollars. We have yet to hear why, for example, it is prudent and appropriate that college funds are used […]

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