Governor Refuses to Include GOP Legislators in School Funding Formula Working Group; Tried to Use Speaker as Cover

December 2, 2015/by Monique Chartier

House Minority Leader Brian Newberry this morning issued the following statement via e-mail. The proposal to implement a fair funding formula is already fraught with concern and suspicion that “fair” has been pre-defined as “divert ever more funds from suburban and state taxpayers to certain cities”. The governor’s refusal to include a Republican legislator in the working group only heightens the perceived bias of the working group’s goal.

Newberry Questions Transparency, Purpose of Funding Formula Group; Calls Governor’s Actions “Bizarre”

STATE HOUSE – House Minority Leader Brian C. Newberry (R. North Smithfield) has questioned the transparency and purpose of the “Fair Funding Formula Working Group” announced on October 22 by Governor Raimondo to study the current school funding formula. Said Newberry: “I was immediately struck by the lack of Republican legislative appointments to this important high profile endeavor despite the Governor’s ability to squeeze four Democratic legislators onto the 29 member committee. Given that protocol calls for bipartisan legislative appointments to committees like this I assumed it was an oversight and the next day I requested a Republican House member be added to bring some bipartisan flavor, an obvious benefit to all.”

“First they ignored it. Then the stonewalling began. They told me they needed the Speaker’s permission, an odd excuse given this was an exclusive Gubernatorial operation but I suggested they were free to ask him if they thought it important. Speaker Mattiello confirmed that no one broached the subject and, of course, he had no objection to adding a GOP member.”

“Delay followed delay with no answers. Finally 39 days later they refused without comment. This is bizarre behavior with only two explanations. Minority representation provides transparency so the whole operation may be a sham with an ulterior motive. If so, current members ought to be resentful that their time is being wasted and their good names are being unwittingly used to provide cover for something. The other explanation is that the Governor lives in a tone deaf bubble with no care for public perception and this is another in a long line of missteps such as hiding the ball on her truck toll plan, fighting common sense public records requests and generally trying to prevent public scrutiny of her actions. Frankly, I suspect it is a combination of both, which is one reason for her lowly 40.7% approval rating.”

The Tip of the Public Manipulation Iceberg

November 30, 2015/by Justin Katz

Katherine Gregg has more on Rhode Island state government’s spending to promote itself and spin its programs to the public in today’s Providence Journal:

Rhode Island taxpayers paid upward of $6,234,093 last year to private companies that do “communications and marketing” for state government in Rhode Island. The “quasi-public(s)” paid another $617,555 to consultants, and expect to pay $987,216 for salaries for their in-house public-relations staff.

That’s on top of the $4.3 million for in-house public relations people. But this is all just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the government’s efforts to get the public to accept its expansion. After all, if you’re going to include the payment for the Raimondo administration to design its RhodeWorks logo, why not also include the $50,000 the state paid for a predictably positive economic projection from REMI? For that matter, part of the $1.3 million study the Brookings Institution is currently conducting in Rhode Island will be instructions for how the Raimondo administration can bring agencies, private organizations, and private companies into line with the government’s agenda.

If we opened the net wide enough not just to catch people with the phrase “public relations” in their job description, but all of those activities that have as their goal the persuasion or manipulation of the public, you’d catch not only REMI and Brookings, but GrowSmart, the RI Foundation, and many other organizations known and unknown. The bill wouldn’t be a few million dollars per year, but tens of millions or more.

This is an inevitable consequence of an expansive government that has its fingers in every activity and massive, indecipherable budgets. The worst part is that we’ve all fallen asleep on the job when it comes to tracing and pushing back against the manipulation.

R.I. Center for Freedom & Prosperity: 2015 RI Report Card on Competitiveness Confirms Status Quo is Failing Rhode Islanders

November 30, 2015/by Mike Stenhouse

The grades are out, and once again the status quo fails on the 2015 RI Report Card on Competitiveness. When will the political class learn that their way is simply not working to reach their stated goals? If Rhode Island is to reform its way of conducting business, our elected officials must learn to place less trust in government-centric programs for every problem. We will never improve our state’s employment situation unless we adopted the need reforms that will allow Rhode Islanders to empower themselves to achieve their hopes and dreams. The 2015 report card decisively demonstrates the wreckage that decades of liberal policies have wrought upon our state.

The 2015 RI Report Card shows how Rhode Island’s political class continues to cater to special insiders, while depriving other Rhode Islanders of the opportunity for upward mobility, educational opportunity, and personal prosperity. In the major categories, Rhode Island was graded with two F’s, seven D’s, and one C. The two categories with F grades are Infrastructure and Health Care; the seven D’s are Business Climate, Tax Burden, Spending & Debt, Employment & Income, Energy, Public Sector labor, and Living & Retirement in Rhode Island; while Education received a C-. Among the 52 sub-categories evaluated, Rhode Island received 19 F’s, 24 D’s, 5 Cs, 3 Bs, and just one lone A.

These unacceptable grades should be a wake-up call to lawmakers that a government-centric approach is not producing the social justice and self-sufficiency that Rhode Islanders crave. By burdening the public with policies that discourage work and a productive lifestyle, the status quo is failing the people of our state. On the 2015 RI Report Card on Competitiveness, the Ocean State received “Ds” in the major categories of Jobs and Employment, and in Tax Burden. We must learn to trust in our people and remove the tax and regulatory boot of government off of their backs by advancing policies that empower the average family with choices, that reward work, and that grow the economy.

Only free market policy will transform the Ocean State by advancing policies that empower the average family with choices, that reward work, and that grow the economy. We can no longer tolerate Rhode Island falling further behind. The Center will continue to work tirelessly to promote policies like sales tax reform and school choice in order to help our fellow Rhode Islanders by unleashing their potential. We encourage you to help spread the word about the failing grades the status quo in Rhode Island received this year. You have power to change the Ocean State into a place where everyone can prosper. Thank you.

An Unpopular Governor and Phony Employment Gains

November 21, 2015/by Justin Katz

A national poll gauging Americans’ approval of their governors finds Rhode Island’s Democrat Governor Gina Raimondo with 46% approval and 39% disapproval. That puts her at 40th on the list. (Massachusetts’s Republican Governor Charlie Baker is at the top, with 74% approval and 14% disapproval.)

The response that Raimondo’s spokeswoman, Marie Aberger, provided to Ian Donnis for his Friday column is worth a look, too. To substantiate the claim that “the numbers make it clear that we’re moving in the right direction,” Aberger mainly cites government initiatives, like additional subsidies for college and an energy tax break for businesses. Whether good or bad, whether those policies will have positive effects (or sufficient effects to make a difference) remains to be seen. The only number that could be called evidence of improvement is that “Rhode Island has driven its unemployment rate down 25.3 percent from this time a year ago,” which is a questionable thing to highlight.

I’ll be putting up my monthly employment posts on Monday (here’s the last one), but one quick takeaway is that the amount of employment dropped again, in October, yet the unemployment rate continued to decrease because even more people stopped looking for work. If I’m correct that we can expect much of the employment gains of the first half of the year to be revised down substantially in January, then employment is not even arguably a strong point for the state, especially considering that job creation in Rhode Island appears to have slowed to a crawl, this year.

That this one (arguably phony) statistic is all that Rhode Island politicians can raise in their defense shows how badly they’ve botched things, around here, and why Raimondo’s approval is where it is.

UPDATED: Hiring More Government Union Members to Save Money at RIDOT

November 18, 2015/by Justin Katz

RIDOT is claiming that bringing road-painting services in-house will save a whopping 37% from private contracts, which suggests the agency is either missing something or that a criminal investigation might be justified.

RI Report Card: Rhode Island Government Still Failing Its People

November 17, 2015/by Justin Katz

The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity’s Competitiveness Report Card for Rhode Island is less of an indication of how Rhode Islanders are doing than what insiders are doing to us.

The Real Way to End Corruption in Rhode Island

November 12, 2015/by Justin Katz

Edward Fitzpatrick highlights an interesting flash of truth from former Governor Lincoln Chafee, who candidly stated something that everybody who pays attention already knows:

… Stanton zeroed in on the question of whether Rhode Island’s process for selecting state judges is transparent and accountable. And attention turned to Chafee’s appointment of former Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano as a Superior Court judge in 2013.

Chafee told Stanton he’d received heavy pressure from Senate leaders, who held up several of his initiatives after he bypassed Montalbano for previous judicial vacancies.

It’s a favor factory, over on that hill in Providence. Governing the state on behalf of the people of Rhode Island comes a distant second to shuffling favors around for the benefit of insiders. But if you want reason to believe that nothing will ever change, here, turn to the suggestion that Fitzpatrick and Common Cause RI Director John Marion offer:

So what can be done? Marion said it’s going to take public pressure on Governor Raimondo “to exercise her full authority to pick judges without the interference of Assembly leaders. With former Rep. Tim Williamson a finalist for a District Court vacancy, the governor has a choice — stand up for her power to make those appointments, or give in to the pressure to placate legislative leaders.”

If a great deal of targeted pressure is brought to bear, maybe the governor will make the tune skip the Williamson verse, but that doesn’t fix anything. Frankly, it almost makes good-government activism another favor to shuffle. If the governor doesn’t bow to the pressure, then folks like Fitzpatrick and Marion will, in effect, be promising to hold up other initiatives she might need their support to achieve. To be clear: I am not saying that advocates for good government will therefore be just like corrupt legislators. I’m saying that they will be working the system without changing its structure, and Rhode Island’s problems are systemic.

To fix this specific problem — and many more — what’s needed is a balanced political system in which competing interests have incentive not just to slip their own priorities into the mix, but to expose the corruption of others and to hold them accountable. That means elections actually have to be contested. It means it actually has to be possible for power to change hands in significant ways. It means people in power have to fear the consequences if their corruption gives their opponents an edge in the fight for the reins.

Much must be done to achieve that end, but for starters, Fitzpatrick’s paper could get some ideological diversity in its news department and (therefore) reporting, and Marion’s organization could stop supporting campaign reforms that serve to regulate outsiders off the playing field.

What’s Recourse for the Phony Quasi- and Non-Publics?

November 10, 2015/by Justin Katz

With the Commerce Corporation supervising government agencies and the RI Foundation seeking to claim power outside of government, the question is: When will it be too late to insist on representative democracy?

Pay Seventeen Tolls, and What Do You Get?

November 9, 2015/by Justin Katz

Tennessee Ernie Ford sold his soul to the company store, but Rhode Islanders are being asked to pay seventeen tolls in order to get a phony quasi-public half-a-billion in debt.

UPDATED: Out-of-State-Trucker Revenue and the Effect of Tolls

October 29, 2015/by Justin Katz

Out-of-state truckers already pay taxes and fees on a per-mile basis, in Rhode Island, and new tolls could have a detrimental effect on revenue and the economy.

Dreaming of a Healthy Civic Society Over Breakfast

October 28, 2015/by Justin Katz

The morning of the middle day of the workweek is as good a time as any for unrealistic dreams about how our system of government could work. Yesterday afternoon, RIPR’s Ian Donnis tweeted:

Spox says Speaker Mattiello + @GinaRaimondo set to chat over dinner tonight. Truck toll plan is part of the menu

Wouldn’t it be amazing if we had a system in which the speaker would be forthright in public about his specific concerns, and then the issue would be discussed thoroughly through open meetings of the legislature, before insiders had ensured a predetermined outcome? Each elected official could make a public statement about priorities and principles, and others could respond to those statements.

Then the news media could cover the debate, and Rhode Islanders could consider it. Those with strong feelings could let their representatives know whether they think they’re on the right track, giving them a sense of what electoral consequences might result from a particular decision.

On the day of the vote, the speaker of the House would join with all of Rhode Island watching the red and green lights on the vote tally board with no certainty about which way the vote would go. At that point, the news media would report the results and everybody would plan their future actions accordingly.

Instead, we get this “chat over dinner,” with the speaker acting as the chief executive and decision-maker for his chamber of “representatives.” He’ll arrive prepared with some trades that would sweeten the deal for him and maybe protect or benefit some special interests that are important to him. The governor and speaker will devise a plan, which they’ll then run by the Senate president. If necessary, they’ll each turn to their respective special interests for feedback and negotiate a final deal.

Most legislators will simply assent to the plan because they’re content with the perks they already receive. A few who are particularly daring, who have an unusual amount of leverage, or who really, really care about some separate issue will make a play to be bought off. A small group won’t be brought into the loop and will play the role of opposition right up until the end, but their numbers will by no means be large enough to affect the outcome and necessitate real compromise.

There’ll be a show debate on the floor of the House. Good (if ineffective) points will be made. Things that are patently false will be said. Promises that amount to lies will be made (perhaps to be revealed with no consequences years later). The news media won’t focus on the falsehoods or promises and might not even bother reporting the final vote. Mainly, the articles and news segments will consist of prepared talking points issued through communications offices, perhaps with quotes from a regular corral of dissenting voices.

Instead of sparking electoral revolt, the forthcoming tolls, debt, and inevitable scandal will lead another wave of productive, motivated Rhode Islanders quietly to make plans to leave the state.

Administration Saying Anything to Get Tolls

October 27, 2015/by Justin Katz

The Raimondo administration’s rhetoric on revenue bonds is unbelievable and suggestive of political motives.

Funding Formulas and Political Rhetoric

October 23, 2015/by Justin Katz

As I’ve written before, public school districts have a point when they complain that charter schools drain their resources to build a parallel second school system. As for Rhode Island’s education funding formula, it obviously makes some assumptions and throws some numbers at the wall, but at least it’s a formula, not an arbitrary annual decision.

But I do wish we could have more-straightforward, factual discussions of such topics in this state. Here’s Governor Gina Raimondo in the Providence Journal:

Rhode Island’s existing formula allocates aid to public schools based on student enrollment, the level of student poverty and the wealth of the community.

“It is an excellent funding formula,” Raimondo said. “But it’s been around for five years. It needs to be tweaked.”

Rhode Island, Raimondo said, spends a billion dollars a year on public education.

But, she asked, “Are we getting the most out of our money? Rhode Island is seventh in the nation in terms of per pupil spending, but we’re seeing average [academic] results. What troubles me is we have the greatest achievement gap [between low-income and higher-income students] in the country.”

Shouldn’t it at least be acknowledged that the state is five years into a 10-year phase-in of the formula? The details of the funding formula have been around for five years, but it’s still five years away from actually being fully implemented. (And honestly, what person over 35 years old still believes that five years is a long time in public policy?)

Let’s not pretend that we need some shiny new fixes to an antiquated formula; that’s merely an invitation to mischief. The charter school piece — or, ahem, school choice education savings accounts — is more of an add-on than a core component of the formula, of itself.

Most important, though, is the plain and simple fact that we can “tweak” the funding formula all we want and it won’t have an effect on academic results or the gap between the haves and have nots. Money is not the issue in Rhode Island’s education system, and it serves Rhode Island’s vulnerable communities poorly, indeed, not even to be raise that fact as a possibility.

As you can see by playing with the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity’s interactive tool for comparing results on the national standardized NAEP tests, Rhode Island had actually closed the gap with national results when it comes to lower-income students … until after the 2011 tests. Those reversed trends align conspicuously with the brakes that Governor Lincoln Chafee and the General Assembly applied to the reforms initiated by former Commissioner Deborah Gist under former Governor Donald Carcieri and may indicate that there’s a political ceiling on education reform that tries to work within the system, rather than shake it up.

Education is too important to add to the pile of things that Rhode Island is getting absolutely wrong during the Chafee-Fox and Raimondo-Mattiello years.

A Future with Tolls, in Rhode Island

October 22, 2015/by Justin Katz

The now-probable imposition of tolls across Rhode Island may be the linchpin of calamity for the state.

Speaker Mattiello, Why Give Gina Raimondo’s Political Career An Enormous Boost Via Tolls?

October 21, 2015/by Monique Chartier

Dear Speaker Mattiello: I listened with interest to your interview yesterday morning on WPRO with Gene Valicenti in which you said that you support “a” toll plan. We won’t linger on the reasons why a toll, of any amount, on any vehicle, would be a really bad idea economically and politically for everyone in the […]

Gordon Proctor Report Contradictory Pretense to Bolster Laborers’ Union at RIDOT

October 16, 2015/by Justin Katz

Governor Raimondo appears to have used an outside report on the project development and management practices of the state Dept. of Transportation as a pretense for shifting intended hires in that area to different purposes that increase membership in her new director’s labor union.

Drivers Licenses for Illegals in Brown Daily Herald

October 14, 2015/by Justin Katz

Writing for the Brown Daily Herald, Shawn Young notes that Governor Raimondo’s plan appears to have stalled, and I get to be the opposition voice:

“There should be a clear legislative channel for the state to discuss” the issue of driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants, said Justin Katz, a writer for the Ocean State Current. The government should follow a predictable path so that Rhode Islanders are able to keep track of and control it, Katz said. Right now, there is no state law that “prevents the interpretation that driver’s licenses can go to non-citizens,” Katz said.

Even though it would not be illegal for Raimondo to issue an executive order, Katz does not think she will take this route because there is not enough support for the issue.

One important area of our conversation that Young didn’t include is the “and so.” In order to ensure that a legislative approach is followed, the General Assembly should immediately (or as soon as possible) pass legislation that either (A) reinforces the status quo of no licenses for illegal immigrants explicitly within state law or (B) forbids the use of executive action to make the change.

Neither is likely, though, because politicians like to ensure that all disputes are political, not legal. If that’s the game they want to play, then those opposing the driver’s licenses should begin campaigning on the issue, now, so politicians who are ambivalent don’t let the rope slip, either accidentally or greased with the deals and special favors that characterize Rhode Island government.

A Job Is a Powerful Incentive

October 8, 2015/by Justin Katz

Steven Frias takes another instructive look at Rhode Island’s political history:

The scramble for patronage began. Under Green, about one-third of legislators were given state jobs while they served in the General Assembly. The trading of votes for jobs became apparent. One Republican senator was given a state job after he voted to confirm Green’s department directors. House Republican Leader Walter Curry was given a Superior Court judgeship after he assisted Green in getting most of his legislative agenda through the House of Representatives. The three senators on the recount committee were rewarded with state jobs, one of them a District Court judgeship.

The most important political event in 20th century Rhode Island history, the Coup of 1935 may have been furthered by the promise of state jobs for state legislators.

Read the whole thing. One can only hope that, as the picture of Rhode Island corruption becomes clearer and clearer the opportunity for change will get better and better, but it’s going to take concerted effort and a news media that is more disgusted by the corruption than by the Republican brand. (That’s not to say that the party or, especially, particular Republicans are the answer, but the news media tends to lump everybody who isn’t an insider with the GOP for the purposes of bashing them.)

The problem isn’t just job trading, though. It’s contract trading, welfare trading, policy trading, access trading, and any other kind of trading that politicians can turn into a buck. And if that sort of corruption isn’t inevitable with a liberal/progressive style of governance (which I think it is), then it’s at least inextricably interwoven in Rhode Island.

RI 38-Studios-Style Operation Is Inevitable with Big Government

October 5, 2015/by Justin Katz

The rule proven in revelations from the 38 Studios document dump points to an inevitable condition of big government, and it’s one the governor is currently looking to expand.

A Quick Thought on Controlling Healthcare Costs

October 1, 2015/by Justin Katz

Rhode Island Hospital is apparently “eliminating nearly 200 positions and shutting down an early intervention program for developmentally disabled children” due to budget constraints. My first hypothesis would be to blame this on ObamaCare and Rhode Island’s embrace of both the health benefits exchange and the Medicaid expansion, but I don’t have the time to become as intimately familiar with the specifics of this decision to prove it.

However, I would suggest that anybody who thinks the loss of these jobs and services is a terrible development should remember that Governor Raimondo’s strategy for bringing down costs is to impose a cap on healthcare spending within the whole state.

People who prefer top-down planning by the government tend to believe that the plans will always include the things they treasure or prioritize, and of course the central planners are happy to let people believe that… until it stops being true.

So Much Study of a Top-Down Economic Program Already Under Way

September 30, 2015/by Justin Katz

There sure are a lot of folks who want to offer Rhode Islanders helpful advice on how they should give government, non-profit, and business leaders expanded resources and authority to make decisions for all of us. First came a group of wealthy Gina Raimondo backers and their hired think-tankers at Brookings, and now, according to Kate Bramson in the Providence Journal, the Fed wants to get in on the action:

The Boston Fed’s team will collaborate with an unspecified number of Rhode Island cities and towns to use national research it conducted to help struggling communities recover economically, said Tamar Kotelchuck, director of the Boston Fed’s Working Cities Initiatives. The program in Massachusetts has tackled workforce development, community development and education initiatives in six cities, but it’s too soon to say exactly what the focus might be in Rhode Island. Kotelchuck said it’s likely that workforce development will be one area of focus here, but others may emerge after more study.

Funny how everybody’s got the same basic blueprint:

Working Cities research has shown several factors help cities maintain or recover their economic stability — including collaborative leadership, the role of anchor institutions, investment in infrastructure and the extension of benefits to the entire community. But “collaborative leadership” — the ability to work together across sectors over a sustained period of time with a comprehensive vision — was found to be most crucial.

That passive voice — “was found to be” — is instructive. “Found to be” by whom? A quick look through some of the materials on the Boston Fed’s Web site for this initiative reveals that “collaborative leadership” is actually one of the goals of the project. It isn’t surprising, therefore, that the organization would find it to be crucial. This report, in particular, brings around some familiar verbiage:

Most importantly, [in the comparatively few places that have succeeded in making the transition from distressed to revitalized,] public officials, private sector employers, and nonprofit institutions need to coalesce around a long-term vision and collaborate for a sustained period of time in implementing broad-based revitalization strategies.

Translation: Insiders agree on a vision for the whole community and use the levers of government, non-profits, and business to make sure the people don’t disrupt the plan. This is precisely the vision that Brookings has articulated, and the mechanisms that the Fed suggests read like the menu of the programs that Governor Raimondo and the General Assembly have empowered the state’s new Commerce Secretary to implement, using $80 million of our money claimed through a fancy refinancing deal.

In addition to the similarity of all of these plans note something else: Raimondo began implementing it before the all this high-profile studying had begun. Anybody who thinks this initiative begins with the actual people of Rhode Island, our needs, and our hopes and dreams is being profoundly misled.

Another Week, Another Rejected Public Records Request by the Raimondo Administration (On UHIP)

September 29, 2015/by Justin Katz

Another issue on which the Raimondo administration prefers total secrecy is the Unified Health Infrastructure Project (UHIP), which is designed to rope Rhode Islanders into government benefits and which has gone way over its initial budget with no public debate and little public awareness.

Today’s Bias Technique by the Tommy FlanAAAgan of Journalism, PolitiFactRI: Choose Carefully the Statement to be Rated

September 28, 2015/by Monique Chartier

PolitiFactRI is so obviously biased and has made so many blatantly wrong ratings that flew in the face of plain truth that, for me, it has achieved the status of a pathological liar. So I wonder sometimes whether it is even worth calling them out. You don’t bother to call out a pathological liar, you simply ignore everything he says because he has no credibility.

But then I remember that they have as a platform the state’s largest newspaper, the Providence Journal, which inexplicably continues to damage its own reputation for accuracy, perpetuate serious misinformation, promote bad government policies and squander valuable journalistic resources by hosting a mini-Pravda.

With that reminder, then, let’s take a look at today’s rating and the bias therein.

Rare Fall Legislative Session Unlikely in Rhode Island… Now That It Might Do Some Good

September 24, 2015/by Justin Katz

Any Rhode Islander who spent the summer worrying about looming mischief during the rare fall legislative session proposed for the General Assembly back in June can probably breathe more easily now that the season has arrived. On the first day of autumn, the Speaker of the House, Democrat Nicholas Mattiello, told the Providence Journal that his chamber’s reconvening before the start of the 2016 session is “becoming less and less likely because we don’t have the information ready to move on it at this point in time.”

Of the many bills left on the table from the regular session, the most controversial ones custom-made to serve the local construction industry–particularly construction labor unions, whose members would be flush with government-funded work—failed to regain momentum.

Continue reading on Watchdog.org.

Raimondo Administration: Public Has No Right to Info on Lally Hiring

September 21, 2015/by Justin Katz

With the controversial hiring by Democrat Governor Gina Raimondo’s administration of former Democrat State Representative Donald Lally, the Ocean State Current requested any related documents. Here is the administration’s response:

This letter is in response to your Access to Public Records Act request received by the Office of the Governor on September 14, 2015. You requested:

“Under APRA (if necessary), may I have all documents related to Donald Lally hiring, please? Including but not limited to:
* Any contracts or agreements related to his employment.
* Correspondence and summaries of meetings or phone conversations prior to his hiring.
* Correspondence and summaries of meetings or phone conversations related to his official activities.”

This letter serves as a response to your request.

Our office has completed a thorough review of the requested materials. There are materials that are responsive to your request but are being withheld, as they are not deemed “public.” R.I. Gen. Laws § 38-2-2(4). Those records not deemed public include “[a]ll records relating to a client/attorney relationship…” and “[p]reliminary drafts, notes, impressions, memoranda, working papers, and work products; provided, however, any documents submitted at a public meeting of a public body shall be deemed public.” R.I. Gen. Laws §38-2-2(4)(A)(I)(a),(K).

Since its passage, the updated Access to Public Records Act has mainly become a means of limiting information available to the public. First, it filters all information requests through a single, legalistic choke point for each public entity. Second, it insinuates that anything that is not explicitly listed as “public” should not be made available.

Governor Raimondo is not barred from releasing the information that she has; she is just choosing not to release it, with the claim that not a single document related to the ethics-skirting hiring of Lally (on the recommendation of Democrat Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello) falls outside of the extremely broad exceptions of the law. To press the issue, an organization like The Current would have to spend time and resources appealing first to Raimondo’s appointed chief of staff and then to Democrat Attorney General Peter Kilmartin.

Terry Gorman: Number of Anchor Babies Born in Rhode Island Almost Doubled From 2012 to 2013

September 21, 2015/by Engaged Citizen

RIILE’s Terry Gorman has uncovered information that is especially disturbing in light of the revelation this week that that Governor Gina Raimondo would like to find a path to drivers licenses/permits for illegal aliens.

F.A.I.R.? Illegal Immigration Costs Rhode Island $278 Million Annually As of Data from 2009

September 20, 2015/by Monique Chartier

As you know, Rhode Island was recently classified as one of only two sanctuary states in the country, a disturbing revelation and a costly situation. The figure of just how costly it is to state and local taxpayers popped up yesterday in the course of some related research. F.A.I.R., the Federation for American Immigration Reform, places the cost to Rhode Island of illegal immigration at $278 million per year in 2009.

Think of that. Because state officials have so far declined to implement some very reasonable, simple measures to discourage illegal immigration into the state but have implemented policies that actually encourage it, Rhode Island is needlessly spending an estimated $278 million per year.

If Raimondo’s Rhode Island is the answer, what was the question?

September 18, 2015/by Justin Katz

Rhode Islanders have gotten used to national accolades for Democrat Gina Raimondo since the supposedly groundbreaking pension reform that she championed as general treasurer in 2011. Most recently, Fortune magazine’s senior editor Dan Primack has proclaimed Raimondo to be “worth keeping tabs on,” with the provocative lede: “How tiny Rhode Island suddenly became a case study in good government.”

A more-true statement would be that the Ocean State is a case study in the perils of superficial political analysis from people outside of the state.

Primack notes that the state’s government labor unions sued to stop the pension reform, but he presents Raimondo’s ascent to governor as a reward from satisfied voters. In reality, the 2014 gubernatorial race proved (once again) the dysfunction of Rhode Island politics. Raimondo won with just 40.7 percent of the vote, thanks to the last-minute entry into the race of a perennial novelty candidate.

Continue reading on Watchdog.org.

Rhode Island Is Making Its People Miserable

September 18, 2015/by Justin Katz

I’m pretty sure I’d seen Gallup’s well-being ranking of the states before, but I hadn’t taken a close look. Coming across it, yesterday, I did so, and it’s kind of depressing.

Rhode Island is 37th, overall, which looks good because we’re so used to being in the bottom 10, but that result is due to the fact that we tend to feel that we’re in good physical health (14th) and have a middle-of-the-pack sense of financial security (27th). However, where we do poorly is telling:

The finding that we’re 45th for “liking where you live, feeling safe and having pride in your community” certainly jibes with constant commentary in letters, comment sections, and social media that many Rhode Islanders are either looking for a way out of the state or feel like they should be.
Being 49th in our sense of purpose — liking what you do each day and being motivated to achieve your goals — could have a lot to do with how difficult state and local governments make it to accomplish anything.
And our dead-last 50th ranking for “having supportive relationships and love in your life” could be a combination of having lost so many fleeing friends, family, and neighbors and feeling as if the entire state is working against us.

Honing in on the state government and its orbiting establishment isn’t just a peculiar bias, given my political occupation and interests. Via her Twitter feed, WPRO reporter Kim Kalunian recently directed attention to a WalletHub analysis that places Rhode Island as the 41st most happy state — that is, the 10th most unhappy. In keeping with the Gallup results, Rhode Island was a bit better (37th) for both “emotional & physical well-being” and “work environment,” but suffers (45th) under “community, environment & recreational activities.”

In short, Rhode Islanders’ misery isn’t something growing from our wealth, health, or psychological tendencies. It’s something that somebody else is doing to us (or, rather, in the case of government, something that we’re doing to ourselves by means of the people we allow to walk all over us).

My saying this will surprise no one, but crony jobs in business regulation, new tolls and taxes to hide borrowing, government subsidies to struggling sports franchises, and fancy refinancing schemes to support an economic development slush fund are not going to fix the problem. Governor Raimondo’s plans to use Brookings Institution findings to push Rhode Islanders into conformance with a government-driven economic plan is only going to make matters worse. What we need is for legislators to stop doing so horribly on the Freedom Index.

Get out of our way. Let us live our lives. Ultimately, that’s what the pursuit of happiness is all about.

Branding the Rhode Island Herd

September 10, 2015/by Justin Katz

In March, Rhode Island’s new governor, Democrat Gina Raimondo, announced herWAVE initiative to turn the state’s economy around through Workforce development,Advanced industries and innovation, Visitor attraction, and Enterprise expansion and recruitment. Generally the marketing piece might appear to be the most mundane, in a “well, whatever” kind of way, but it might provide a lesson to help residents understand what their government is actually doing.

Lesson one is that emphasis on marketing can be evidence that leaders cannot or will not fix problems within their organization or with its activities. Lesson 2 is that an organization can only have one “compelling,” unified brand, making it fundamentally incompatible with freedom as Americans have historically understood it.

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