Happy weekend! 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. The UHIP news conference staged by Governor Gina Raimondo at the state Department of Administration on Wednesday is an important milestone: it may signal the beginning of the end of UHIP’s emergence as the signal failure of the governor’s administration. But there’s a long way to go, even if problems can be resolved with the $364 million Unified Health Infrastructure Project; Raimondo herself cautioned that getting UHIP to where the state wants it to be will take more than a year. She apologized — and put most of the blame on private vendor Deloitte. The contrite statement issued by the company didn’t dispute or challenge the governor’s criticism. (Meanwhile, Deloitte’s RI lobbying team includes former House Speaker William J. Murphy, to the tune of $4,000 a month.) Then again, it took the state about five months to get a handle on the depth and extent of problems with UHIP — a system that affects almost one in three Rhode Islanders, on issues ranging from health insurance to emergency food supplies. That was after the September launch of UHIP sparked a series of problems, and after a variety of concerns were expressed pre-launch. Raimondo’s brand is supposed to be about competence in government, so the UHIP mess stands as a leading counter-example. That contributes to the cynicism expressed by many Rhode Islanders, adding to a belief in the state’s seeming inability to get important things done. On a related note, Republicans are probably relishing the opportunity to incorporate some UHIP-centered themes into gubernatorial campaign commercials in 2018. But Raimondo is vowing that the state will get UHIP right through a series of steady, incremental improvements. If that can be done — a big if right now — the governor will be able to claim a narrative of taking a big mess and making it work for the people of Rhode Island.
2. Read the UHIP report prepared by Eric Beane, the Raimondo lieutenant deputized to get a handle on the situation.
3. The resignation of Health and Human Services Secretary Elizabeth Roberts this week reflects the depth and severity of the UHIP crisis. Back in January, when chief digital officer Thom Guertin and Department of Human Services head Melba Depena, lost their jobs, few thought Roberts would take a fall. The well-liked former lieutenant governor was an early Raimondo supporter, and she has a strong liberal constituency from her former state Senate base in Edgewood. But by the time Beane carried out his assessment, Roberts was no longer tenable as the person overseeing the state’s sprawling HHS bureaucracy. She was part of the committee that approved the September launch of UHIP — a situation with “no single point of accountability,” as Beane testified this week before the House Oversight Committee. Back in 2005, when Roberts was first gearing up to run for lieutenant governor, her ethos seemed to stem from FDR’s New Deal liberalism. “[People] pay taxes to help solve problems,” she told me at the time. Asked what motivates her, Roberts said, “I guess what motivates me is solving problems that people feel don’t have a solution. I enjoy that. I enjoy the challenge.” In light of UHIP, these words offer some unintended irony. Still, with the benefit of hindsight, it’s now clear the state lacked the technological capacity to respond to the UHIP challenge. As a result, Raimondo said, the state will now re-think how it pursues tech rollouts.
4. With UHIP dominating the news on Wednesday, a two-hour debate played out in the House of Representatives over the chamber’s rules for 2017-2018. State Rep. Jared Nunes (D-Coventry) was joined in offering a series of amendments by Reps. John Lombardi (D-Providence), Anthony Giarrusso (R-East Greenwich), Blake Filippi (R-New Shoreham), Sherry Roberts (R-West Greenwich) and Justin Price (R-Richmond). Nunes made a handful of the proposals — an unusual move for a Democrat — trying to move forward his ideas from an earlier bill sidelined in committee. His concepts include making it easier to search for votes on the legislative web site; prohibiting the use of “held for study” as final action on a bill without consent of the sponsor; setting an 11:59 pm curfew for legislative debate, aka the Cinderella Rule; and requiring 72 hours to pass before the Finance Committee can vote on a posted budget bill. Members of the Democratic majority responded with a variety of objections. They said improving the legislative web site could be too costly, that setting a curfew could extend the legislative session into July, that putting new limits on “held for further study” could have unintended consequences. In an interview, Nunes said he lumped his proposed rules changes into two categories: open government and distributing legislative power more evenly. “I’ve had a lot of constituents contact me in reference to the first category of changes that I put out there relating to how difficult it is to track the votes of their legislators,” he said. “People are generally upset with the end of session rush [to pass bills] … You know, people don’t want their government to operate like that. I think whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, no matter where you fall in the spectrum of those political philosophies, that’s something that everybody should be able to agree with — that the government should be accessible and open to the public.” Nunes said his proposal to allow rank and file committee members to request a committee vote did not strike him as a huge change. In the end, though, the Conventry Democrat’s proposals and those from other lawmakers were rejected, with only 12 to 18 votes of support in the 75-member chamber. Nunes said he remains flabbergasted, but not surprised: “If you look back at the debate, there was not a single Democrat that got up and spoke in favor of any of my proposals, not one, and it was disheartening. I mean, I don’t know why – honestly, I don’t know what to say about it.”
5. In 2014, The New York Times Magazine offered a window on fallout from the Great Recession, with a story headlined, “Why Only One Top Banker Went to Jail For The Financial Crisis.” So I asked General Treasurer Seth Magaziner if the finance industry is too powerful, and if so, what should be done about it. “Well, I think it has to be met with adequate, smart regulation and oversight, whether it’s through the CFPB [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau], whether it’s through Dodd-Frank provisions like the Volcker Rule and higher capital requirements,” Magaziner said on RI Public Radio’s Bonus Q&A this week. “You need to have smart regulation, you need to have watchdogs. Look, we want to have banks and credit card companies and insurance companies that can serve their customers well, and succeed and thrive but the only way that you’re going to have a sustainable system is if there is an adequate regulatory environment to help keep the abuses and the excesses in check.” President Donald Trump has signaled support for undoing some of the provisions enacted in response o the Great Recession.
6. Last week, we noted (#4) how Clay Pell has talked with the NEARI’s Robert Walsh about possibly running for lieutenant governor in 2018. But some local observers think Pell is more likely to pursue a run for attorney general, where term limits prevent Peter Kilmartin from seeking re-election. Pell has served as a JAG, he has ample financial resources, and he could potentially benefit from a big Democratic primary field. US Attorney Peter Neronha is widely expected to run, although he has declined comment on the subject. State Rep. Robert Craven (D-North Kingstown) has the support of House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello. Other possible candidates include state Sens. Stephen Archambault (D-Smithfield) and Paul Jabour (D-Providence).
7. Remember when it was easy to follow the ownership ladder of the ProJo, even after local owners sold the company to Texas-based Belo in the 1990s? Now, Rhode Island’s paper of record is owned by GateHouse Media’s parent, New Media Investment Group, which is managed by an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group, which is being bought for $3.3 billion by Japan’s SoftBank Group. Got it? Bloomberg offers this explanation for the deal: “The deal has two primary goals for SoftBank, according to a person familiar with the matter: [Masayoshi] Son sees the private-equity business promising in and of itself, with the potential for strong returns on the $3.3 billion price tag. In addition, Son thinks that Fortress, led by principals Pete Briger, Wes Edens and Nardone, can become a sort of brain trust for SoftBank, helping to track down and analyze investment opportunities around the world. The deal is for both ‘human capital’ and ‘investment potential,’ the person said, asking not to be identified because the strategic details aren’t public.”
8. The state Republicans Party has filed a Board of Elections complaint, charging that House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello‘s leadership PAC exceeded limits on campaign contributions last year. Patti Doyle, who served as Mattiello’s campaign spokeswoman last year, offers this response: “Speaker Mattiello is currently reviewing the complaint. If mistakes were made, they were unintentional in nature. Everything has been reported openly and transparently and, if errors were made, we will work with the Board of Elections to address and correct them.”
9. Gary Sasse makes the case that Rhode Island and Connecticut could elect GOP governors in 2018, extending GOP executive leadership throughout New England. Excerpt: “While nobody can predict the future, all signs suggest that the 2018 gubernatorial races in both Connecticut and Rhode Island are eminently winnable. The ascendency of New England’s Republican governors has not gone unnoticed. A recent article in the Washington Post was headlined, ‘Governors lead a Republican renaissance in New England.’ The question facing Republicans in the region is whether GOP victories at the gubernatorial level can usher in a new political order at other levels of government, as well. Political success will require many things. Rather than talking about the economy in broad terms, for example, GOP governors must be ready to focus on specifics that place state government on the side of both working families and small business. Rather than being critical of social programs, Republican governors must lead and promote those that foster work, opportunity and self-sufficiency. Rather than imposing state mandates, Republican governors must deliver services based on the principles of choice and devolving responsibilities to communities.”
10. Speaking of Republicans: the New Hampshire House, despite a GOP majority, killed a right to work bill this week due to splits within the party. As NH Public Radio reported, “Rep. Phil Bean, a Republican from Hampton, told House colleagues letting government get in the middle of employer-employee negotiations would lead the state in a dark direction. ‘This is frightening language. It’s intrusive. It’s not American. It’s Kremlin-esque. It’s Orwellian, and it shouldn’t pass,’ says Bean ….. Yet Boeing workers rejected unionization in South Carolina, a state traditionally hostile to union rights.
11. Former Boston Globe editor Marty Baron has been guiding the renaissance of the Washington Post, so one of his recent interviews is well worth watching. Bonus: one of the interviewers, Walt Mossberg, is a Rhode Island native.
12. In an interview with the state-run Russian media outlet, Lincoln Chafee said President Trump is correct to pursue closer relations with Russia: “We’ll we’re such an economic and military and cultural goliath, the United States of America, so I do think it’s incumbent on us to be a leader in seeking areas of common ground with what might be perceived as our adversaries, whether it’s Russia, Venezuela, or Iran.” Chafee, the only Senate Republican to vote against the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, goes on to liken “the belittling of President Trump” to the drumbeat that led to the Iraq invasion.
13. Treasurer Magaziner, whose family has strong ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton, said it’s too early to identify the kind of Democrats who could lead the party forward on a national level. He also likens the setback for Democrats in November to the sophomore slump facing many once-promising bands. “We as a party need to go back to the garage and we need to reconnect with the working class voters on which our party was founded,” he said …. Meanwhile, Greg Maynard, who worked on Brett Smiley‘s 2014 Providence mayoral campaign, has a piece out rejecting the view that Hillary Clinton would have fared better with Elizabeth Warren-style economic populism.
14. Local 121, the fine bar and restaurant on Washington Street in downtown Providence, is closing. In a statement, state Sen. Josh Miller (D-Cranston) and his wife, Nancy, offered this explanation: “As owners of Local 121, we have decided after ten years to close our restaurant. Our last day of business will be on Saturday, March 11th, 2017. Our lease with AS220 expires in April, and pursuing another ten year option would have us as restaurant owners and operators into our 70s. We are not interested in doing that through this stage of our lives. We are committed to marketing this beautiful restaurant for sale as a turnkey operation, with the full cooperation and participation of AS220. We want to thank our staff and many patrons. We especially want to thank the many local farmers, fisherman, and other local purveyors for helping us to pioneer the farm-to-table concept in Rhode Island.”
15. U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is set to kickoff his 2018 campaign at the Providence Biltmore on February 26, from 5-7 p.m. The lengthy host committee includes the state’s general officers and the other members of Rhode Island’s congressional delegation. Few names have surfaced as potential GOP challengers, other than state Rep. Robert Nardolillo (R-Coventry).
16. Our friends at On Point, produced at WBUR in Boston, this week featured a segment on the growth of wind power. Here’s part of the commentary that includes Deepwater Wind’s Jeff Grybowski: “Grybowski could imagine several hundred turbines to be spinning for his company by the year 2030. His company’s pending Montauk facility was, by his standards, the ‘most cost-competitive new source of generation’ for the coastal community on Long Island — and while the new administration in Washington hasn’t quite clarified its position on wind energy yet, Grybowski remains optimistic. ‘There are 100,000 individuals working in the wind industry right now in the United States,’ Grybowski said. ‘The fastest growing job in the United States is wind turbine technician …. they will embrace it.’ “
17. Two takes on President Trump: Chris Cillizza writes that Trump was having fun during the Thursday news conference that some perceived as a train wreck …. We’re a little late getting to this, but Nate Silver lays out 14 possible paths for Trump’s presidency.
18. When Frank Caprio was state treasurer in 2007, the state pension fund invested $5 million in a fund associated with Point Judith Capital, the venture capital firm that Governor Raimondo helped launch in her pre-government days. Here’s Treasurer Magaziner‘s response on Bonus Q&A to my question of how much that investment would be worth if it was sold today: “It would be worth significantly less than the book value that we have now. This is a fund that hasn’t performed very well yet. We hope that they turn it around; they haven’t thus far. It is very hard to sell your stake in a private equity fund that is underperforming. We would have to take a haircut, probably as much as 20, 30, 40 percent, and so, we would actually most likely lose more money on that investment if we were to make an early sell, rather than just riding it out to the end, which is just a couple more years.”
19. Transportation activist James Kennedy thinks cutting the car tax is a bad idea. Here’s part of his thinking, as expressed in a recent ProJo op-ed: “The car tax repeal excludes many low-income families. In Providence, one quarter of households have no car, and so would receive no tax cut. In distressed neighborhoods like Olneyville, that number rises to nearly 50 percent of households without a car. Because Speaker Mattiello vows to prevent undocumented immigrants from obtaining driver’s licenses, the tax cut also excludes many families here without going through the legal immigration process. Yet for $190 million, Rhode Island could double its commitment to the earned income tax credit — either expanding the number of recipients, or the amount each recipient receives — and have a much more targeted impact on low- and lower-middle-income families.”
20. “Why Falling Home Prices Could Be a Good Thing“
21. “Why Killer Viruses Are On the Rise“
22. Want to catch up on RIPR’s latest One Square Mile in-depth look at a local community. Tune in at 11 am this Sunday for an hour-long special sewing together our stories, including my look at how traditionally Democratic Johnston voted for Donald Trump last November.
