But there are a number of other candidates vying for the First Congressional District seat being vacated by David Cicilline, including state Senator Sandra Cano of Pawtucket. Matos has steadily built her political profile since coming to Rhode Island from the Dominican Republic as a young woman. But does she deserve a promotion so soon after winning election as lieutenant governor last year? This week I’m going in-depth with Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos.
Transcript:
Ian Donnis: Welcome back to The Public’s Radio.
Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos: Hi, thank you, Ian. Thank you for having me here.
Ian Donnis: Lieutenant Governor Matos, it was less than six months ago, when you were elected to your office, the general presumption among voters was that you would serve a full four year term. So is this a violation of the promise that you made to voters that you’re now running in the first congressional district?
Lt. Gov. Matos: No, it’s not actually – right now, for me and any other elected official that is contemplating running it’s not a violation. I always when I look at myself and my political career, I consider myself to be a public servant. I have always looked for ways in which I can better serve the people of the state of Rhode Island. This is a new, this is new, we have no clue that Congressman Cicilline was going to be resigning. So right now, I just analyzed the situation and thought that this is a way in which I can continue to serve the state of Rhode Island.
Ian Donnis: You’ve been Lieutenant Governor since 2021. When Governor McKee selected you for that position elevating you from your former role as President of the Providence City Council. What would you say you’ve accomplished as lieutenant governor that would justify a promotion from the voters to Congress?
Lt. Gov. Matos: I have to say, early on, as you mentioned, I have been in public office for more than a decade, first at the local level. And then now as lieutenant governor, for the past two years, I have worked hard together with the governor, to ensure that we got vaccinations out, and to every municipality, every community. One of the things that I’m the proudest of has been my work and advocacy, around housing. And being a strong advocate to ensure that we were able to allocate a quarter of a billion dollars for housing in the state of Rhode Island. So those are some of the things that I can tell you about. But my office is very active and doing a lot of work with a long term care coordinator counsel, in always looking at the connection of the work that we do, and housing because everything comes back to housing.
Ian Donnis: There’s a big field of Democrats running in the first congressional district, you’re one of at least eight candidates. And there could be more, perhaps even by the time this interview airs. If we take out former Republican Alan Waters, there seems to be a lot of overlap on where the Democrats in the race stand on issues. Can you point to any significant differences between where you stand and where most of the other Democrats stand on key issues?
Lt. Gov. Matos: I think it’s good for the voters of the state of Rhode Island for CD-1, to be able to have so many good candidates to pick from. Again, I can tell you that my experience, my work in public service for more than a decade, working at the local level, working as a member of a legislative body in the Providence City Council being the president Province city council. My work in the past two years as lieutenant governor, going to every community in the state of Rhode Island and advocating for every community. I think that would be the difference probably the voters can can see to me and other candidates.
Ian Donnis: You recently met with the laborers international union in Washington DC what was their message for you?
Lt. Gov. Matos: I was in DC for the lieutenant governor’s conference. Labor’s have been a good friend of mine since early on. We have done a lot of good work together in the city of Providence first and now at the statewide, so I was good to go and see all friends.
Ian Donnis: We’re talking here with Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos, a candidate in Rhode Island’s first congressional district and I’d like to talk a little bit about the economy. There is a lot of uncertainty now nationally and in Rhode Island, it’s having a chilling effect on development projects like the planned soccer stadium in Pawtucket. Does the state have a any sort of backup plan or strategy for overcoming these economic headwinds?
Lt. Gov. Matos: So right now, they, there are things that are out of the control of the state or the local government, for so many of those projects that have been, we have been working on. As we know, the economy, in general, the interest rates going up is having an effect on the possibilities of some of those projects to take place. The situation that’s happened in in the in the banking industry, with some banks, has been getting into trouble. I think all of that creates an atmosphere that is challenging, and for some of these projects to move, but I feel confident that we’re gonna get through this and those projects are gonna come to fruition.
Ian Donnis: Former Providence Mayor Joe Paolino, is a big downtown Providence property owner, he’s calling for $25 million dollars in tax credits that were planned for the Fane tower project to be used for the Superman revitalization. Would you support that?
Lt. Gov. Matos: Well, I have been a supporter for the TSA, it’s in the city of Providence, but also, I have been a supporter of the reforms to ensure that the TSA is for those that don’t understand the terms and are not familiar with, which is the tax stabilization agreement, that those tax stabilization agreements are fair to the taxpayers, and to the the residents of the city of Providence.
Ian Donnis: Okay, but specifically, the question is whether you would support shifting $25 million in tax credits planned for Fane tower to the Superman project, do you support or oppose that?
Lt. Gov. Matos: As long as those TSAs have the support and the community benefits in there, and make sure that they’re following all of the rules that we have established on the TSA s to ensure that they taxpayers are protected.
Ian Donnis: Governor McKee this week, called on the Federal Reserve to stop raising interest rates for some of the reasons we discussed. Do you think that makes Do you agree with the governor that the Fed should stop raising interest rates?
Lt. Gov. Matos: Again, the economy right now is in in its is in a tough situation, especially with the banking industry, having so many challenges? I believe that, as of right now, the Fed should be stopped in increasing the interest rate. I think it’s about time for us to be getting people more comfortable with spending money. And I can tell you, right now, this many, many people here in Rhode Island, they’re not even trying to put their house on the market because they don’t want to put the house on the market because they’re not going to be able to find another one to buy. Or they’ll have a little bit of concerns about the interest rate. So I think it’s about time to stop the increase in the interest rate.
Ian Donnis: Fed Chairman Jay Powell says the rates are being increased to try and curb inflation. So would it be irresponsible to stop raising interest rates because it’s causing some stress for development projects if the if the net effect would be to continue inflation?
Lt. Gov. Matos: The Fed, yes, the idea is to curb the inflation, the inflation but if we are going to continue to increase the interest rate, and then we’re going to froze the economy and no one wants to move and no one wants to do anything, then that’s going to create the same problem that we’re trying to solve.
Ian Donnis: Rhode Island has a longtime dubious distinction as a fellow state first in last out when there is an economic downturn. Do you think the state is still in that kind of situation where we’re particularly vulnerable to an economic downturn?
Lt. Gov. Matos: I believe that the state of Rhode Island has been changing that perception. Our economy has been doing well. We have so many good projects planned. Again, the challenge is right now, what is happening nationally, but I don’t I don’t see the state of Rhode Island being the first one going into recession.
Ian Donnis: The McKee/Matos administration will mark its 100 days since being inaugurated in about two weeks. There’s still a large number of state departments with temporary directors. Why is it that your administration has had so much difficulty finding permanent directors for about 10 state agencies?
Lt. Gov. Matos: The administration has been actively searching for directors for the different agencies. Those agencies have a direct impact on the life of the people of Rhode Island. And that’s our decision that shouldn’t be rushed. And we should not be just putting in someone just to say that it has, we have someone in there. So I trust the process that the governor is going through with his staff to make sure that we get the right directors for the agencies.
Ian Donnis: Governor McKee has an ambitious goal of having Rhode Island students match the academic performance of their counterparts in Massachusetts by 2030. The state has struggled for many years, as you know, to make improvements on public education is that goal realistic, given the meager progress so far on improving public education,
Lt. Gov. Matos: I believe it is realistic in the way how the governor is planning on doing this and making sure that we support the students and from any time during the school hours, but also times outside of the school work, by making sure that we have programs that support them, just it could be in catching up with their, with their math and science programs, though, that we don’t want to call it after school, when we call it is learning all the time. We have to create a culture in which we’re always thinking about how to improve how to learn, that is not thinking about just the dates of the school year. So we’re thinking about what happens after school. But what happens during the summer? How can we continue to have that learning culture to be a constant thing in our state?
Ian Donnis: Rhode Island is a very blue state as we know, despite that, Democrats have had some difficulty getting elected even in a community like Johnston. Last November, the Republicans won four of five state general offices in voting, Just in Johnston, from your perspective as a longtime Democratic elected official, what do Democrats need to do differently to win back voters in a community like Johnston?
Lt. Gov. Matos: So I don’t like to describe the community as being all one way like the we’re very Democratic, we’re very blue. I think that every community is different. I think what we have to do is understand what is affecting every municipality, what are these challenges that they’re facing with, and not try to present one message that is going to be the one thing that everybody’s going to resonate and respond to. A community like Johnston, we have to take our time to listen to listen to what are the needs that they have, what are the challenges that they have, and we have to respond to those.
Ian Donnis: We’ve got to leave it there. Thank you so much for joining us Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos, a candidate in Rhode Island’s first Congressional District.
Lt. Gov. Matos: Thank you so much Ian.
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Rhode Island does not typically get a lot of raves for its tax and business climate. But after shedding its former nickname of Taxachusetts, Massachusetts is gaining unwelcome attention for an additional tax on upper income residents. A new report by an accounting group finds that more people are leaving the Bay State due to its tax climate. Can Rhode Island benefit by comparison? For more insights on Rhode Island politics, check out my Friday TGIF column posting around 4 today on my twitter at IanDon or at ThePublicsRadio.org/tgif
That’s our show for this week. Our producer is James Baumgartner.
I’m Ian Donnis and I’ll see you on the radio.
