A new General Assembly session is fast approaching in Rhode Island, along with a budget deficit that needs to be eliminated before lawmakers head for the hills in mid-2019. We’ll be following those stories from start to finish, so 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) Politicians love gambling since it’s a way of increasing revenue without raising taxes. So far, Rhode Island remains ahead of Connecticut and other nearby states in introducing sports betting. Twin River launched that new offering this past Monday, Twin River’s Tiverton location is set to do likewise on Monday, December 3, and Senate President Dominick Ruggerio has signaled his support for enabling mobile sports betting. The big question, however, is whether the state can maintain its share of gambling dollars – Rhode Island’s third-largest source – amid future changes in the regional landscape. “I just think we need to be careful about having our state balance its back on gambling,” House Minority Leader Blake Filippi (R-New Shoreham) said on Political Roundtable on The Public’s Radio this week. “I don’t think it’s a sustainable long-term form of economic development. I think we need to develop broad sectors of our economy and not rely on the sin tax to finance government operations.” That sounds good, but given Rhode Island’s long-running lack of stronger revenue, sin taxes remain alluring.
2) Meanwhile, two recreational marijuana shops have already hauled in a few million dollars in Massachusetts, and some advocates point to revenue as a reason why Rhode Island should legalize recreational marijuana. (Colorado’s top pot regulator offered an opposite view when he visited the Statehouse in 2016, saying the marijuana is not a budget panacea and that the issue should be decided through a broader cost-benefit analysis.) Barring a surprise, legislative leaders and Gov. Gina Raimondo appear unlikely to put their support behind legalizing marijuana in 2019.
3) Scott MacKay, poiltical analyst for The Public’s Radio, shares word that Donald Sweitzer, the soon-to-retire chairman of lottery giant IGT Global Solutions and a former political director and finance director for the Democratic National Committee, is signing on as treasurer with the Democratic Governors Association. Sweitzer will be the first Rhode Islander to serve as DGA treasurer since the late Mark Weiner, who served during the chairmanship of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. This comes amid Gov. Raimondo’s expected elevation this weekend as DGA chairwoman, a role that will help to elevate her national profile. Separately, the ProJo’s Katherine Gregg reports that Raimondo adviser Jon Romano is taking on a DGA role to offer staff support to the governor. Meanwhile, a visit to Rhode Island this week by former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg (to talk about efforts against opioids) points to her network of powerful political friends. Bloomberg is among the world’s richest men (he spent $102 million, almost $200 per vote, to narrowly win his third mayoral term in 2009), and he often gets mentioned as a possible presidential candidate.
4) Rhode Island lawmakers will face another mountain of red ink when they return to the Statehouse on New Year’s Day. During a budget update on Thursday, House Fiscal Adviser Sharon Reynolds Ferland estimated the deficit at about $160 million (that includes about $47 million in red ink from the current fiscal year). About 12 minutes into her almost hour-long presentation, Reynolds Ferland pointed to what she called an usual combination of unachieved savings and unexpected expenses, and the question of how they’ll affect things moving forward.
5) U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy of Massachusetts, following his call for Democrats to embrace “moral capitalism,” got a lot of attention in The Washington Post this week in a look at GM’s plan to layoff 14,000 workers: “One person who has grown alarmed that capitalism itself cannot survive without changes is Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.). The 38-year-old is political royalty. He’s the grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, the assassinated former attorney general. JK3, as he’s known around the Capitol, earned his undergraduate degree from Stanford and then went to Harvard Law School, where Elizabeth Warren was a favorite professor, after two years in the Dominican Republic for the Peace Corps, which his great-uncle JFK created by executive order. He worked briefly as a county prosecutor before winning an open House seat in 2012. After six years of keeping a relatively low profile in the minority, with the notable exception of delivering this year’s Democratic response to the State of the Union, the young Kennedy feels ready to take on a bigger leadership role in the next Congress. He has ruled out a run for president in 2020, but he’s closely allied himself with Nancy Pelosi …. He’s also better positioned than anyone else in Massachusetts to replace Warren in the Senate if she gives up her seat to become president.”
6) On a September day in 2002, David Cicilline stood near the Brook Street fire station, a polling place on Providence’s East Side. Polls showed him with a decent lead in the race to succeed Buddy Cianci as mayor of Providence, but Cicilline was anxious, due perhaps to the uncertainty that comes with elections and the related question of whether Providence voters would support an openly gay candidate. (Spoiler: they did, and Cicilline won two terms as mayor before winning the congressional seat formerly held by Patrick J. Kennedy in 2010. Now, with low approval ratings in 2012 fading in the rear view mirror, Cicilline has landed a new House leadership role as chairman of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. The Wall Street Journal calls Cicilline one of six people to watch in the new Democratic House majority. After emerging as a frequent guest on cable networks, he’ll remain on the frontlines of making the public case for House Democrats.
7) Will the nine-member GOP caucus in the new House session side with the 21 or so dissident Democrats seeking changes to legislative culture? Here’s the answer from House Minority Leader Blake Filippi, via Political Roundtable: “I don’t see politics as supporting individuals. I see it as supporting principles and changes, and if the changes that the dissident Democrats want are in the best interests of the state of Rhode Island, I think we would seriously consider them. We have always said we will sit down and work with anyone who wants to do what’s in the best interests of the state of Rhode Island.” At the same time, Filippi offered some kind words for House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello: “Speaker Mattiello is very intelligent about managing that room. I think he’s made some great reforms. Most of us know about his 10 p.m. rule [for generally ending debate] and I think that’s gone a long way toward restoring some faith in the way we operate in that building.” Separately, on Bonus Q&A on The Public’s Radio, Filippi questioned the dissidents’ view that Mattiello has grown more autocratic over the last two years. “I can only say from my experience in the four years I’ve been up there, Speaker Mattiello has had an open door policy,” he said. “And any time I’ve had a problem with a bill, he’s been all ears, attentive, and he’s always shot straight and told me the truth …. Even in my first year up there, when I was very low on the totem poll — I always had his ear, and I don’t feel that has changed.”
8) For all the talk about Rhode Island’s tax structure, the relative quality of public schools is arguably a far greater factor for attracting businesses and bolstering the economy. Yet despite wide agreement about the overarching importance of public schools, this week saw another dismal report about the test results of Rhode Island students. Via Linda Borg and Paul Edward Parker in the ProJo: “On average, Rhode Island students scored 17 percentage points lower than Massachusetts in English and 20 points lower in math. If Rhode Island were a single school district in Massachusetts, it would fall within the bottom 10 percent of Massachusetts districts.” Education Commissioner Ken Wagner told the Journal he considers this “our truth-telling moment. There’s no surprise we have tons of work to do. Massachusetts students aren’t smarter than ours. They’ve just been doing the work for the past 25 years. We’ve been doing pieces of it, but we haven’t stuck with it. We haven’t all been on the same page like Massachusetts has.”
9) Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza has vetoed the zoning change approved for the Fane Tower by the City Council. In a veto message, he said the developer was unwilling to give the city control over the ultimate design of the project. It remains unclear if the council will have enough votes to override the mayor’s veto.
10) Fourteen of 15 state reps-elect took part in a daylong orientation at the Statehouse on Thursday. (Laufton Ascencao of Bristol was on a pre-planned trip to Portugal.) Notwithstanding the division in the House ranks, the newbies heard upbeat messages from House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello and Majority Leader Joseph Shekarchi. Mattiello told them they’ll form lasting friendships during their tenure on Smith Hill. (He said he remains tight with former Central Falls Rep. Gus Silva, and that they likely would have never met were it not for the House of Representatives.) Shekarchi pointed to how it took three years to pass his tax credit bill as an example of how persistence can pay off in the legislature. Mattiello told the reps-elect to pay close attention to their constituents and to work collaboratively with their legislative colleagues. One third of the new reps – Ascencao, Rebecca Kislak of Providence, Justine Caldwell of East Greenwich, Terry Cortvriend of Portsmouth, and Liana Cassar of Barrington – are part of the dissident Democrats opposed to Mattiello’s leadership. The 10 other reps-elect are Mario Mendez of Providence; Chris Millea of Cranston; Thomas Noret of Coventry; James Jackson of West Warwick; George Nardone of Coventry; Jack Lyle of Lincoln; David Place of Burrillville; Bernard Hawkins of Smithfield; Karen Alzate of Pawtucket; and Jose Serodio of East Providence.
11) House GOP Leader Blake Filippi on whether Rhode Island should legalize marijuana: “I think it should be legal, but if you sell to kids, you go to jail. For the issue of the workforce, I think that’s up to the private industry to manage its own workers.”
12) Former VP Joe Biden is returning to RI: he’s coming to Brown on December 10. Details TBA.
13) Sinclair Broadcast Group (the owner of WJAR-TV, Channel 10) is trying to distance itself from a commentary piece recently aired on its stations. Via the NYT: “In the segment, Boris Epshteyn, the broadcaster’s chief political analyst and a former Trump White House official, argued that American authorities ‘had to use tear gas’ on hundreds of migrants at a border crossing near San Diego on Sunday to guard against an “attempted invasion” of the United States.”
14) Via NPR’s Philip Ewing, here’s a rundown on the developments this week in the Mueller investigation of Russia.
15) Gov. Raimondo and the state’s general officers will get inaugurated on New Year’s Day – the same day (the first Tuesday in January) that state law calls for the start of the General Assembly session.
16) Sen. Elaine Morgan (R-Hopkinton) had a problem with T-shirt being sold by a Westerly restaurant calling for an “86” on President Trump. In the annals of unlikely events, Axl Rose of Guns n Roses fame responded via Twitter, describing how he a problem with Morgan’s message.
17) How a small paper is thriving with a local focus in Oregon.
18) Some guy in Massachusetts has enough time to rank the Bay State’s mayors based on their Twitter activity. Actually, this is kind of cool. (h/t Boston Globe)
19) Looking for a holiday gift? Consider NPR’s guide to the best books of 2018.
20) Rest in Peace, ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ creator Stephen Hillenburg, who imagined a vibrant underwater world that appealed to kids and adults alike.
