Governor Gina Raimondo has had an eventful 2016 — from a string of recent job announcements to the troubled rollouts of the state’s new tourism campaign and the new IT system for administering human service benefits.
She sat down to talk about those and a range of other issues in a two-part year-end interview with Rhode Island Public Radio.Part I of our year-end interview with Governor Raimondo.
Part II of our year-end interview with Governor Raimondo.
A few highlights:
— Governor Raimondo said a series of job announcements this month show that Rhode Island has turned the corner on its long-running economic struggles. She said the state still has a long way to go, “but yeah, for the first time in a long time, we have some momentum and we just have to push it through.”
— The governor said she’s excited to work with the legislature on a way to cut the car tax, “but you have to do it in a way which is smart and fair …. I’d like to see this done in a way that encourages cities and towns to control their spending, and we also have to be careful not to cut services that are helping Rhode Islanders.”
— Raimondo said the state is “always trying to learn” from mistakes, including those with the rollout of the UHIP IT system and a new tourism campaign. “You have to be more vigilant, communicate better, [be] more coordinated,” she said, although she did not pinpoint new steps that will be taken to try to avoid pratfalls with other initiatives.
