Summer is approaching, although politics never takes a holiday. Thanks for stopping by. Your tips and comments are welcome. You can follow me through the week on the twitters. Here we go.
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1) More than a decade has passed since Rhode Island cut the state’s top marginal tax rate under then-Gov. Don Carcieri in 2010. Now, with more progressives in the General Assembly, there are growing calls to raise taxes on affluent residents. The Rhode Island Business Coalition fired back this week, arguing in part that higher taxes would hurt the state’s less-than-robust business climate. Progressives define the issue as a matter of fairness, pointing to how wealth is growing mostly at the upper income level. As if to drive that point home, ProPublica reported this week on how, for example, Jeff Bezos did not pay any federal taxes in 2007. But Gov. Dan McKee is temperamentally opposed to an income tax hike, and House Speaker Joe Shekarchi seems sensitive to the same issue, so a state income tax hike appears very unlikely this year, in part due to how state revenues are running ahead of earlier estimates. But progressives aren’t going away, and the dynamic could change in the future with more electoral gains. Reclaim RI has canvassed some legislative districts in support of its ‘tax the rich’ message, and the group plans to hold a news conference in Warwick – Speaker Shekarchi’s home community – on Tuesday. Of course, there’s always the option taken by lawmakers in Massachusetts, where voters will decide whether to impose higher taxes on the wealthy.
2) Violent crime traditionally increases in American cities in the summer. Considering that, it’s not surprising to hear Col. Hugh Clements, chief of the Providence Police Department, say that he and his counterparts elsewhere are bracing for the warmer months. “There’s a huge supply of firearms out in our community,” Clements said during an appearance on Political Roundtable at The Public’s Radio. He said things have been fairly good since about 60 shots were fired during a shootout on Carolina Avenue in the city’s Washington Park section last month. “We’re doing what we normally do, tightening up with our community partners,” Clements said. “We know with all of these major issues that we deal with, we can’t do it alone. We can’t arrest our way out of the situation. It’s important to make arrests, to hold people accountable, and we did on that [Carolina Avenue] occasion. We charged seven young men, and they’ll face some serious time as they go through the system. But I think it’s important for us to strategize and partner with our community partners, and in that I mean the Nonviolence Institute, all of our regular partners surrounding violence, as well [as] our law enforcement partners in targeting those young men who are prone to pick up a gun and more so to pull the trigger.” (Clements, who has spent 36 years as a member of the Providence Police Department, said he plans to retire in about 18 months. Listen to Roundtable for discussion on many more issues.)
3) My colleague Alex Nunes has a detailed report, rich in Rhode Island history, on how private interests blocked the public from one R.I. barrier beach, Quonochontaug in Westerly and Charlestown. As he reports, elected officials are not much interested in discussing or wading into the issue: “For now, state lawmakers for Westerly are shying away from this and other shoreline access debates, which public shoreline advocates say contributes to the problem. Neither state representative Brian Patrick Kennedy nor Sam Azzinaro agreed to be interviewed for this story. Westerly state Sen. Dennis Algiere has previously said taking on fire districts is not on his agenda.”
4) As he marked his 100th day in office this week, Gov. Dan McKee remains in the driver’s seat in the early stage of the 2022 gubernatorial race. The only announced major candidate so far, Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, continues to tout her job performance as SOS as the reason for why she should be governor. McKee, though, has a potent trifecta: incumbency, a waning pandemic, and improving economic conditions. The latter will likely continue for a while, meaning that challengers will face the hurdle of offering an effective rationale to oust the incumbent.
5) Rhode Island Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green has been on the job for a little longer than two years. The recent stretch has been particularly challenging, due to not just the pandemic, but strife over the future of Providence schools and the controversy involving a former administrator accused of assaulting a youth. Despite that, in keeping with a new state Education Department report – entitled “Studies in Resilience” — Infante-Green sounded resolute when we spoke after a financial literary news conference at Tolman High School in Pawtucket this week. “I look at the work,” she said. “I ground myself on the work we have done, and I have to tell you, I know very few districts in the nation that have done as much work as has happened in Providence. So this is not about one person. This is about the commitment we have made to the district and we’re going to keep moving forward.” Asked how that work is evident, Infante-Green said, “When I first came in, the Department of Justice came in and said that we did not have enough certified ESL teachers. So what did we do? We invested our money. We reframed the money so that we can give teachers scholarships to go get their certification. We did it with 125 teachers. We’re doing it again with another 125. We spent $4 million on a curriculum, K to 8, because the community in Providence is highly mobile, so that was really important. We found a million dollars savings in the district, we reframed what that means. We have gotten guidance counselors for every single elementary school in the district. So those are facts. Those are things that have happened – and those are just a few of the things that have happened. We started the school year with a shortage of just 20 teachers when we used to start with a [shortage of] 100-plus teachers every year. So there have been great strides made. We’re at the beginning stages, but we have laid a very strong foundation. I’m very proud of that work.”
6) The IGT-Bally’s deal is signed, sealed, delivered.
Gov. McKee (via statement) “This agreement has been dramatically improved since first being introduced in 2019. This deal secures additional economic development benefits for Rhode Island, better wages for Rhode Island workers, and enhances our gaming competitiveness …. This is not only an important source of revenue for our state but employs thousands of Rhode Islanders and provides a great reason to visit Rhode Island.”
House GOP (via statement) “Democrats trumpet this as a ‘jobs saving bill,’ which is not entirely accurate. The new legislation amends the state’s relationship with IGT to now count all sorts of non-employee independent contractors and outsourced staff towards its 1100 jobs mandate — such as its army of lobbyists. Worse, the penalty for IGT’s failure to meet the jobs mandate is merely $7,500 per job — although IGT/Twin River claimed during hearings that each job would benefit the State to the tune of $23,750. Why would the state agree to a penalty that is less than the benefit of its bargain?
7) A bill to move West Warwick’s severely under-funded pension into the state system has been introduced at the request of General Treasurer Seth Magaziner. The expected 2022 gubernatorial candidate was among those testifying in House Finance this week against Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza’s latest pension plan. While Elorza warns against the risk of inaction, as I recently reported, his pension obligation bond concept is drawing fire from across the partisan spectrum. RI National GOP Committeeman Steve Frias multi-tasked by using his Cranston Herald column as testimony in House Finance.
8) To paraphrase Mark Twain, has the demise of the Transportation Climate Initiative been greatly exaggerated? Reports earlier this week suggested that the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emission in the Northeast was down to three active members, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C., with Connecticut walking away. As the week went on, though, CT Gov. Ned Lamont indicated he will press lawmakers to include TCI as part of a limited special session. Via CT News Junkie: “The governor signed onto the plan late last year, but implementation required approval from the legislature. He didn’t get it. Republicans and fuel suppliers launched an aggressive opposition campaign, arguing the program amounted to a gas tax. During budget negotiations, Democratic leaders of both chambers told Lamont they did not have the votes to pass it this year.”
9) Related: With time running short in the General Assembly session, the Environmental Council of RI has unveiled its top three priorities for the remainder of the session: “[1] Power RI with 100% Renewable Electricity by 2030 (S0629/H5762) Sponsored by President Ruggerio and Rep. Ruggiero, would update the existing Renewable Energy Standard to reach 100% renewable electricity by 2030. Passed the Senate on June 1. [2] Protect bill-saving energy efficiency programs – Least Cost Procurement (S0634/H6144) RI’s nation-leading energy efficiency programs are slated to expire in 2023 unless they are extended by statute. Sponsored by Sen. Sosnowski and Rep. Ruggiero. Passed the Senate on June 1. [3] Regulate toxic PFAS in water (S107/H5523) and packaging (S110/H5356) PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ are toxic to ecosystems and humans, but these chemicals are found everywhere in RI’s water and food packaging. Once in the environment, they never break down. These bills (Felag/Speakman and Seveney/Cortvriend) would regulate PFAS levels in water and ban PFAS in packaging,”
10) A trend worth noting, via NPR’s Mara Liasson: “Right now, the [U.S.] Senate is split evenly in half, but the 50 Democratic senators represent 41.5 million more people than the 50 Republican senators. By 2040, if population trends continue, 70% of Americans will be represented by just 30 senators, and 30% of Americans by 70 senators. That has lots of implications, such as for the Senate filibuster, where a party that represents a shrinking minority of voters can block almost all major legislation.”
11) Oscar Vargas, an aide in the Rhode Island Senate, won a special election this week for the Ward 15 Providence City Council seat vacated by Sabina Matos when she became lieutenant governor. Matos’ candidate, Doris De Los Santos, placed second, sparking questions about Matos’ influence in the ward she represented for more than a decade. Yet Vargas won on a strength of an effective focus on mail ballots. And Matos, who routinely accompanies Gov. McKee during public events, continues to build her statewide profile.
12) Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of former U.S. AG Robert “Bobby” Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, is a prominent member of the anti-vaccine movement. As NPR reports, Kennedy, the founder of Children’s Health Defense, is promoting a documentary marked by disproven claims that is aimed at Black Americans.
13) Big congrats to Laura Crimaldi, an alum of the Providence AP bureau, who is part of a team at The Boston Globe that won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, on how Massachusetts was failing to keep dangerous drivers off the road.
14) You ever hear of Spider Tack before this week? Me neither, and while baseball players have a long and rich history of doctoring the baseball, this latest controversy went from a whisper to a media fixation with lightning speed.
Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis@ripr.org
