Question of the Week: What will happen with the proposed IGT extension, and when will it happen? That’s my top item this week, so read on. 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 RI House and Senate Finance committees have each held one hearing so far on the proposed $1 billion 20-year extension for IGT Global Solutions, but the resolution of this issue remains far from certain. ”Our goal is to listen to the testimony, review documents and get to facts,” Senate Finance Chairman William Conley (D-East Providence) said on Political Roundtable this week. Conley kept his powder dry on various questions — will Twin River/Camelot will get a bigger piece of the gambling action in RI, a scenario seen by some as a potential compromise? Does he agree with Governor Gina Raimondo’s view that Twin River/Camelot are not credible competitors for the work done by IGT in running the RI Lottery? But Conley freely admits that there’s a lot about this issue that keeps him up at night: “I do worry about that jobs commitment. I do worry about the reality of the economic development component of it. I do worry about the integrity of it and those safeguards and guardrails that we need to put into the agreement. It’s hard to identify any one thing, but it is just so important, because it means so much to our budget in terms of the revenue,” Rhode Island’s third-biggest source, “that it’s really the structure around it and all those issues that do keep me up at night.”
2) Kevin Gallagher, the governor’s deputy chief of staff, brought a smooth, unified presentation to House Finance on Tuesday, following up on Raimondo’s testimony in support of the IGT extension. He didn’t know if it was a joke, Gallagher said, but he’s often heard that IGT’s Italian CEO “couldn’t find Rhode Island on a map.” That went to the administration’s stance that the state faces an elevated risk of losing the 1,000 or so IGT jobs without an extension. So do legislative leaders buy into that view, perhaps after making some slight alterations to the proposal? Another key question is the timing of a possible vote. The seemingly worst-case scenario for rank-and-file lawmakers would be letting this hang out until next June, in an election year, with Republicans like Steve Frias hammering their opposition to a no-bid $1 billion deal. So if there’s a vote, will it be early in the next legislative session, or even sooner? (For now, the process will unfold with additional hearings in Senate Finance on October 1, 22, 24 and 29, and in House Finance on October 3.)
3) With their meager numbers in the legislature, Republicans are often marginalized in the General Assembly. Yet House Republican Leader Blake Filippi asked the most incisive questions during Tuesday’s Finance hearing, pressing Gallagher on what IGT would be getting out of pledging to keep 1,100 jobs in Rhode Island. “There would have to be some premium on services that the state is paying in order for IGT to say, ‘you know, we’re going to keep these 1,100 jobs here.’ It’s just basic business,” Filippi said. Gallagher responded by insisting that Rhode Island would pay rates comparable to other states for the company’s services. (Asked on Roundtable how he would answer Filippi’s question, Senate Fiance Chair William Conley said his committee is still analyzing data.”)
4) As the week began, New York Times columnist David Leonhardt presented a “just the facts” take on why, in his view, President Trump has been bad for the U.S. A day later, Politico’s sage media critic, Jack Shafer, linked to Leonhardt’s column and predicted the Ukraine controversy would blow over: “Stop thinking you can thwart Trump. You can’t shame a man who won’t be shamed. You can only vote him out.” Yet the storm has intensified, and no one can say where it will lead. Still, it can be instructive to look back at how public opinion shifted during the Watergate scandal that brought down Richard Nixon.
5) Matt Brown was front and center Wednesday in unveiling the Rhode Island Political Cooperative, a new effort to shift the balance of the General Assembly in a more progressive direction. Brown tried catching lightning in a bottle by staging an impromptu Democratic challenge to Gov. Raimondo last year, but wound up with only about a third of the primary vote. The former secretary of state is keeping his options open for 2022, so some the Co-Op as a way for Brown to remain visible. The Co-Op’s initial slate features 15 Democratic candidates, 10 of them for the RI Senate. The hopefuls say legislative incumbents are out of touch on issues like climate change, wage equity and gun control. They aim to displace influential lawmakers like Senate Judiciary Chairwoman Erin Lynch Prata, who played a significant role in moving forward the state’s new abortion law. RI Democratic adviser William Lynch responded with a sharp statement criticizing Brown for “Matt’s attempt to unseat well-established women and people of color in the General Assembly.” Co-op members say their unified approach will provide more strength: “One person can and may lose, but a movement is much harder to shut out,” said one one candidate, Central Falls City Councilor Jonathan Acosta, who is challenging Sen. Elizabeth Crowley. While progressives have made legislative gains in recent election cycles, voters will have their say next September.
6) One-time ProJo reporter A.G. Sulzberger returned to Rhode Island this week to talk about the threat to journalism around the world. (“President Trump is no longer content to delegitimize accurate reporting as ‘fake news.’ Now, he has taken to demonizing reporters themselves, calling them ‘the true enemy of the people,’ and even accusing them of treason. With these phrases, he has not just inspired autocratic rulers around the world, he has borrowed from them.”) He also stopped in at our studio to talk with Scott MacKay. Sulzberger has come a long way since I profiled him in the bygone Providence Phoenix back in 2006.
7) With the Rhode Island Ethics Commission voting this week to dismiss a GOP ethics complaint against state Sen. Val Lawson (D-East Providence), a teacher and paid vice president of the National Education Association Rhode Island, education observer Erika Sanzi was among those questioning the decision: “When she [Lawson] voted on the evergreen contract legislation back in May, many believed it to be an ethics violation because the legislation would lock in the financial terms of expired teacher and municipal employee contracts until a new contract agreement could be reached.” Asked about the dismissal on Bonus Q&A, fellow East Providence Sen. William Conley called RI’s ethics code among the strongest in the nation, and he said the commission was right to rule that Lawson did not benefit financially from the vote, since, he said, she would not get a unique benefit. Meanwhile, the ProJo’s Kathy Gregg reports on how the Ethics Commission is considering relaxing some of its regulations.
8) Senate Finance Chairman William Conley was the sponsor of a $42 million tax incentive program that recently came in for some sharp criticism from Gov. Raimondo (and some adjustments by Commerce, with a stated goal of building in more accountability). Yet Conley was diplomatic when asked on Bonus Q&A if Raimondo was right to tighten up the regs. “The governor and I share a goal of investing in small businesses that can create jobs for working families in Rhode Island. That’s what the legislation is about and that’s what the legislation is designed to do. Regulations that enhance that goal and improve the application are welcome.” Yet Republican National Committeeman Steve Frias takes a dimmer view in writing about the history of such incentives. Excerpt: “Rhode Island did not always pursue a economic policy of just spending taxpayer money to help a few favored businesses. At the beginning of the 20th century, Rhode Island’s taxes were low, and its regulations were few. Without the need of costly taxpayer funded economic development programs, Rhode Island entrepreneurs thrived and out-of-state businesses moved here. As a result, Rhode Island was one of the wealthiest and most prosperous communities on earth.”
9) Media Notes: Associated Press reporter David Klepper, covered the Statehouse before shipping out to cover industrial-grade corruption in Albany, is returning to Rhode Island, to report for wire service on election misinformation in the 2020 elections. David is a great guy, so we’re happy to see him returning to the Biggest Little …. Congrats to Mike Mello and Bill Hamilton on taking over the top two editorial positions at PBN … and to SteveAhlquist for getting a write-up in Columbia Journalism Review … The cuts keep coming at southern New England’s biggest newspaper chain.
10) With Care New England being unwilling to release documents that might shed light on the failure of efforts to create a combined effort between CNE, Lifespan and Brown University, what’s the next step?
11) U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, General Treasurer Seth Magaziner, RI Now President Hilary Levey Friedman and her husband, Brown professor John Friedman, are among those on the host committee for an October 18 fundraiser at the Friedmans’ Providence home for Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon – who is running against Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins. Collins once had a secure hold on her Senate seat, but changed with her support for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. As Rhode Island native Jennifer Duffy told The Daily Beast, “Obviously, the Kavanaugh vote was a very big deal. Some people will never forgive her for that vote, mostly women—but also moderate Republicans and moderate Democrats who crossed the line and voted for her.”
12) How politics is affecting the mental health of Americans: “Nearly 40% of respondents said that politics was a cause of stress in their lives. About 20% reported losing sleep, feeling fatigued or being depressed owing to politics. Between 10% and 30% of the respondents said that politics took an emotional toll on them, by causing anger, frustration, hate or guilt, or caused them to make comments they later regretted. About 20% reported that politics had damaged their friendships.”
13) With Jason Fane’s envisoned Providence tower clearing a vote this week, will it ever get built? The view from Robert Cusack: “Financing, not approval, is the biggest uncertainty here.”
14) Does the Kennedy name still hold mystique, in a current battle? Good anecdote from Scott MacKay: “[Ted] Kennedy –whose full name was Edward Moore Kennedy — was taunted by McCormack in a televised debate. ‘If your name was Eddie Moore, your candidacy would be a joke,’ McCormack said. Kennedy won the primary with 69 percent of the vote.”
15) Brown University’s endowment has topped $4 billion. Via news release: “At the close of the fiscal year on June 30, 2019, the endowment’s value stood at $4.2 billion, an all-time high. The University’s 12.4% return surpassed both the preliminary return of its benchmark portfolio (5.8%) and Cambridge Associates’ preliminary mean and median returns for colleges and universities (5% and 4.9%, respectively). Over the last decade, the endowment has produced $2.9 billion in investment gains and provided $1.6 billion to support Brown’s educational mission. Jane Dietze, the University’s vice president and chief investment officer, said the investment returns reflect the strong partnerships Brown has forged with its investment managers and cited the portfolio’s emphasis on downside risk management, which proved to be valuable in a volatile year for U.S. stock markets. The outperformance against the S&P 500 index occurred primarily when the market was declining last fall, she said.”
16) As some Rhode Islanders pine for a high-speed train to Boston, Fotress Investment Group – which has an affiliate that has managed the parent company of the owner of the ProJo – is backing an effort to build fast rail between Las Vegas and southern California. According to one report, “Trains would be able to carry up to 600 passengers and reach speeds of up to 150 miles per hour — covering the 180-mile distance in 90 minutes. Virgin Trains USA said the rail line would infuse about $50 million dollars per year into the San Bernardino economy.”
