Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and best wishes to all for the holidays. Thanks for stopping by for my weekly column. As usual, your tips and comments are welcome and you can follow me through the week on the twitters. Here we go.
1. With Governor Gina Raimondo handing out millions in tax credits and incentives to spark job growth, small business people (who provide most of the jobs in Rhode Island) might wonder, where’s my subsidy? I put that question to the governor during a wide-ranging year-end interview. Raimondo started by acknowledging that incentives and tax credits “are not the solution. As I’ve said for a long time, what you really want to have is low taxes for everybody, easy to do business [climate] for everybody.” She cited the elimination of the sales tax on energy, and cuts to the corporate minimum tax and the unemployment insurance tax, as measures that help every single business in the state. “However,” Raimondo said, “there are some catalytic deals, like a Wexford, like a Virgin Pulse, like a General Electric” that justify the use of incentives. While attracting brand-name companies to Rhode Island (including Johnson & Johnson) is certainly a short-term win, evaluating the effectiveness of Raimondo’s incentive-based strategy will take time. With 2018 around the corner, and with 38 Studios still present in the state’s psyche, it’s not hard to imagine a GOP challenger using a “corporate welfare” argument to criticize the use of millions of dollars in subsidies. That strategy isn’t without risk. Construction is expected to mark a tangible sign of progress in the I-195 District in 2017 (and it’s not like Rhode Island’s leaders, Democrats or Republicans, have mustered much of a better economic strategy over recent decades). Still, Raimondo seems sensitive to the need to appear more attuned to Main Street than Wall Street. Asked what she learned about being governor in 2016 that she didn’t know before, she said, “How important it is to get out of the State House and be in the community. In this past year, I’ve spent more and more time just in coffee shops, on Main streets, out in the community, talking to people, listening to people. And I’m going to continue to do even more [of] that, because I think it’s important. I think people expect it and deserve it from their governor, and it’s the only way to really know what’s going on and what people need, and how we can make Rhode Island better.”
2. Sixteen striking findings for 2016, via the Pew Research Center.
3. While the twists and turns of The Providence Journal tend to get local coverage (most recently in Phil Eil’s lengthy Rhode Island Monthly feature), another important RI media story is flying under the radar: the fate of WPRI-TV, Channel 12, and WPRI.com. For now, any changes remain on hold since the FCC has yet to approve Nexstar Broadcasting Group’s $4.6 billion purchase of WPRI owner Media General. It’s not precisely clear what the merger would mean for Rhode Island if it moves forward. Still, it tells us something about the view within the industry that the gossipy site FTVLive calls Nexstar “the worst TV station group to work for.” While WJAR-TV, Channel 10, remains a ratings powerhouse, WPRI has upped its game for a long time, both in broadcast and online, and it has one of the state’s largest newsrooms after the ProJo. Other clear attributes include Tim White‘s investigative reporting and the combination of scoops and in-depth web reports cranked out by Ted Nesi and Dan McGowan. This trio has helped offset the collective loss from the time when a better-staffed ProJo enjoyed a national reputation as one of the best smaller newspapers in the nation. Yet with Nexstar waiting in the wings, one has to wonder if Rhode Island’s fragile media ecosystem will take a hit, in terms of overall staffing, digital, investigative or some other element of what constitutes WPRI.
4. With Providence facing $1.9 billion in unfunded long-term obligations for pensions and retiree healthcare, Providence City Council President Luis Aponte wants to look to nonprofit institutions as part of the solution. Pointing to Ken Block and Alan Hassenfeld‘s recent suggestion that Providence pursue bankruptcy, Aponte said it’s wrong to put the onus just on unionized city workers. “I imagine that their intent in this is to break contracts, find a way for a lot of the city to get out of paying and satisfying its agreements and debts,” Aponte said this week on RI Public Radio’s Bonus Q&A. “I think that if Providence is to realize its fullest potential, the large tax-exempts — especially the ones in education — have to lead that way, and they have to understand their impact, both directly and indirectly, and the impact of their expansion on our city.” Aponte makes the same argument in describing how to encourage private development in Providence; with 46 percent of Providence’s tax base paying zero taxes, he said, increased nonprofit contributions would help the city to lower its commercial taxes.
5. House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello and members of his leadership team were conspicuously absent from Governor Raimondo‘s string of recent job announcements. While the speaker’s office cites Mattiello’s legal practice as the explanation, the lack of quotes from the speaker in the accompanying news releases suggests some chilliness in the Mattiello-Raimondo relationship. The key question for now: how does this impact the speaker’s priority of beginning a car tax phaseout in 2017? In contrast to Mattiello, Raimondo and Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed sound like they’re speaking from the same playbook on the issue, pointing to a need to use a car tax cut to encourage municipal budget discipline. (In a year-end interview, Paiva Weed said the Senate is also keen on resurrecting the Community Justice Reinvestment package that failed to win House approval on the chaotic final day of session last June.) All this promises to make for a lively General Assembly session, coming your way in just over a week.
6. State Republican Chairman Brandon Bell plans to seek another term in March as head of the Rhode Island GOP. “I’m going with the Ed Achorn endorsement,” quipped Bell, referring to a ProJo editorial that sharply criticized his oversight of the party. In all seriousness, Bell said, he wants to continue efforts to build the GOP, and he said many people — from different political persuasions — encouraged him to pursue another term as chairman. To be sure, Republicans failed to gain ground in recent legislative elections. But Bell helped push the residency case that led state Rep. John Carnevale to decide not to seek re-election, and Steven Frias‘ run against House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello promises to have a lasting impact, even if fell short of victory. Bell isn’t ruling out a possible run for statewide office in 2018. In the short term, though, he expects having a line of communication with incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, currently RNC chairman, and incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer, a Barrington native, to help attempts to grow the RI Republican Party. And perhaps Bell has reason to want to hang on: RI ranked fifth nationally for the biggest move toward a Republican in 2016, compared to the 2012 presidential race.
7. Speaking of the GOP, more than a few Rhode Island Republicans are privately mortified by House Minority Leader Patricia Morgan‘s plan to introduce a bill “giving the legal freedom to Rhode Island teachers to say, ‘Merry Christmas’ to students during school time.” In a news release, the House GOP caucus contends the measure is necessary: “Representative Morgan’s law is modeled after a similar state law in Texas. The Merry Christmas Law passed the Texas Legislature and was signed into law in 2013. Texas’ law guarantees the freedom of the state’s children, teachers, parents, and school administrators to acknowledge Christmas on school grounds without fear of censorship, prosecution or litigation. Recently, a Texas school principal forced a staffer to take Charlie Brown Christmas decorations off a school door because it included a quote from Linus which had the word ‘Christ’ in it. The principal reportedly said it was ‘an issue of separation of church and state.’ The Texas Attorney General called the action ‘an attack on religious liberty and a violation of the First Amendment and state law.’ Thanks to Texas’ new law, the teacher was free from prosecution.” Yet there’s no evidence for a supposed “war on Christmas” in Rhode Island, according to the ACLU’s Steve Brown: “It’s a complete non-issue; there is no basis for it [Morgan’s bill] other than to make a splash.” Quite a few Republicans agree, (even if they don’t want to be identified), contending that the proposal will distract attention from more worthy issues.
8. Speculation continues about whether Brendan Doherty, the former colonel of the State Police, will make another run for office in 2018. Doherty isn’t ruling anything out, although he said, “It’s too early to even look at that …. I really haven’t given it any thought.” Doherty, who continues to work as the head of special investigations for Blue Cross & Blue Shield of RI, attracted just under 41 percent of the vote while running as a Republican against US Representative David Cicilline in 2012. More recently, Doherty became a Democrat, backing Gina Raimondo for governor in 2014 and endorsing House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello in 2016.
9. The Partnership for Rhode Island has organized with a stated goal of bolstering economic growth in RI. This grew out of a Brookings Recommendation last January to raise the state’s capacity for business-led civic engagement.
10. Mindy Myers, who went to work for Elizabeth Warren after serving as Sheldon Whitehouse‘s chief of staff, has been named as the first female executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
11. Speaker Mattiello plans to make a stronger push in 2017 to bring Rhode Island into line the federal law barring gun possession by anyone convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor, or while a restraining order is active. Efforts to broker a compromise in 2016 between gun advocates and domestic violence advocates came up short. But as Mattiello told me, “We’re going to put them both in a room again and this time, I’m going to get a little more personally involved and see if I can nudge both sides toward consensus.”
12. The Boston Globe reports that CSNE.com is letting go Sean McAdam, one of the best guys covering the Red Sox beat. McAdam previously worked at the Boston Herald and the ProJo, which he reportedly left in frustration in 2008 after being prohibited from appearing on WEEI and ESPN.com.
13. Thomas Callahan, deputy secretary at Commerce RI, is leaving after only about six months on the job, Ted Nesi reports.
14. A budget preview from Governor Raimondo: “The priorities will be to cut where we need to, cut in a way that’s humane, invest in education, invest in skill development, invest in economic development, and invest in industries, like advanced manufacturing, that we’re good at and where companies create jobs at every level — from welders to custodians to administrative assistants to IT techs to PhD scientists … I’m looking to create a budget that will enable that.”
15. Scott MacKay makes the case for eliminating the Electoral College. Excerpt: “The current system has turned the presidential campaign into battle for the votes of about 10 or so swing or battleground states. After the primaries are over, candidates rarely travel to try to appeal to issues in states outside the swing scrum. There is a danger for the future of our democracy in choosing presidents who don’t have support of a majority. The cynicism that infects our politics can only get worse when people in urban areas feel there is scant reason to vote because the presidential system is rigged in favor of small flyover states. This system isn’t a Norman Rockwell Town Meeting illustration that protects yeoman farmers and average citizens. It is a relic of our nation’s original sin. The Electoral College was a compromise that gave southern slave-holders the right to count slaves as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of apportioning U.S. House seats and the college.”
16. While RI’s three top elected officials remain non-committal about the outlook for legalizing marijuana in 2017, the adoption of new regulations points to how the state could be getting ready to move quickly. Meanwhile, with marijuana now legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut is pushing ahead.
17. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee) used a New York Times op-ed this week to argue that nuclear power has an important role to play in slowing global warming. Excerpt: “In roughly two decades, the United States could lose about half its reactors. That’s because, by 2038, 50 reactors will be at least 60 years old, and will face having to close, representing nearly half of the nuclear generating capacity in the United States. Without them, or enough new reactors to replace them, it will be much harder to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. Unfortunately, some of our federal policies to encourage clean energy, such as the Clean Energy Incentive Program within President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, do not explicitly include or incentivize nuclear power. Likewise, some states have chosen to adopt policies, such as renewable portfolio standards, that do not include or incentivize nuclear power.”
18. It seems worth noting that the two big economic initiatives of Don Carcieri‘s time as governor — 38 Studios and Deepwater Wind — came in the second half of his second term in office. Governor Raimondo, meanwhile, landed GE Digital 17 months into her administration, followed, less than two years in, by Virgin Pulse, Johnson & Johnson and progress on Wexford Science & Technology.
19. Environmental crimes are the most common federal offense by committed by “organizational offenders” — corporations, unions, pension funds, and the like, according to a report by the US Sentencing Commission.
20. Good reporting here by RIPR’s Kristin Gourlay. While the 50-cent fare being imposed by RIPTA on the disabled and low-income seniors may seem negligible to some, it’s a tough cost to bear for those squeaking by on modest means.
21. Best wishes to East Greenwich native Mark Thompson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning national security reporter, who’s signing off after a long run at Time magazine.
22. Isle Brewers Guild, backed by some new hires, is poised to open its 100-barrel brewery in Pawtucket in early 2017.
