Poli-ticks

Violet: Yakety yak! Will you just get on with it?

By Arlene Violet
Posted 5/26/16

What is apparent to everyone except certain members of the legislature are the following matters: General Assembly grants have to go the way of the dodo bird. Without question they are used to keep …

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Poli-ticks

Violet: Yakety yak! Will you just get on with it?

Posted

What is apparent to everyone except certain members of the legislature are the following matters:

General Assembly grants have to go the way of the dodo bird. Without question they are used to keep legislators in line with leadership. They also are indirect campaign contributions from taxpayers to favored legislators who use the "grant" to curry favor for a reelection bid. After the revelations of House Finance Chairman Raymond Gallison’s self-dealing (and apparently the Providence version of same with Councilman Kevin Jackson), 15 legislators have links to funded groups. This astounding figure is based on a little more than half of the legislators responding to a Providence Journal survey earlier this month. As Kevin O’Leary of Shark Tank would say, “Stop the madness”! If they are not eliminated, Governor Gina Raimondo owes it to the taxpayers to ask the R.I. Supreme Court for an advisory opinion as to the program’s constitutionality.

Similarly, the line item veto is long overdue. Forty-four states allow this tool to be used by their governors. While Governor Gina Raimondo has verbally supported its passage, her failure to appear personally at the legislative hearing to advocate for its passage sent a different message. I was reminded of former Governor Edward DiPrete who verbally “supported” the move from RISDIC insured credit unions to federal insurance but was a no-show at the hearing. It is well known on Smith Hill that a governor’s failure to address legislators on such momentous issues signals lukewarm or no support. Without the line item veto a governor has a convenient way of blaming failures on others since the chief executive argues that she/he had no real control.

Another ridiculous expenditure of money is the State of Rhode Island through the Governor and RI Commerce Commission picking economic winners or losers in the state. Take the example of the recent $1.9 million in tax credits to AT Cross. This company in Lincoln provided stable manufacturing jobs to that area’s residents and now is moving to Providence. There really is no net gain by this cannibalization of one area by another. These are not “new jobs,” just transferred ones, including the alleged “new” 35 jobs which just as easily could have been developed in locus.

Now, the Commerce Corporation brain trust is poised to give some taxpayers’ money to the developers of the Superman building. The deal is farcical. At a minimum not one cent should pass hands until the developers assure the state that 80 percent occupancy has been achieved through bulletproof rental agreements. Otherwise, any monies are fairy dust on a project.

Yet, the leaders in this state seem more intent on symbolic rather than real success just as long as they aren’t putting their own money into the deal. 38 studios would NEVER have seen the light of day if the coterie of decision makers were risking their capital. The governor, the legislative poohbahs, and the Commerce honchos should be asked how much of their own money would they risk on the superman building without an established 80 percent occupancy.

So, while just about everybody else in the state sees the issues, the lifting of the fog over the State House remains to be seen.

Arlene Violet is an attorney and former Rhode Island Attorney General.

Arlene Violet

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