Citing a recent national study that concluded that Rhode Islanders are in the bottom half in the country for happiness, GoLocalProv polled various luminaries around the state to explain the standing. Here are some reasons why I think the ranking might be true.

The PawSox Deal
According to an independent poll commissioned by GoLocalProv, 67 percent of our citizens oppose the PawSox deal for the billionaire owners. The figure would be much higher if the truth was being told. In effect, the billionaire owners have virtually nothing at risk other than $1 million each. The gate from attendance is actually what they’d have to pay anyway as a lease payment and all the risk is on the taxpayers to meet bond payments if attendance lags — as it has done in the last 5 years. (Attendance fell to 407,097 for 2016, the lowest since 1992). The billionaire boys club won’t personally guarantee the bonds which are supposedly their responsibility. In fact, the state has to backstop the payments with your tax monies. The General Treasurer pointed out that the total cash raised by the bonds were not only more costly as the deal is structured now but also doesn’t account for the millions of extra dollars taxpayers would have to dish out initially, since there would be a 3 to 4 year hiatus before the ballpark and the supposed development around the park was constructed.

My brother, Bud Violet, with a background of over thirty years of economic development financing, went to discuss aspects of the project during the hearing at Roger Williams University. Like most sessions, Chairman Bill Conley called upon a proponent, this time selected developer Colin Kane, to extoll the project for close to an hour about "possible" contiguous development. In the immortal words of Libertarian Party Leader, Pat Ford, "…working Rhode Islanders are forced to endure a parade of coat hangers, third-string politicos, apparatchiks and hacks-potentates from a feudal state where privilege is granted based on political connections." Had my brother been able to speak if time constraints permitted, he would have asked for the acquisition cost to purchase the land, still unknown, and access to any buy and sell agreement. He was particularly interested to see the cost of construction in a format that would outline the use of the proceeds of the project, since no formalized contract is in place. He would have advocated for an independent appraisal commissioned to reflect the fair market value of the ball park upon completion along with an independent business valuation of the newly acquired PawSox franchise. Finally, are there provisions in the bond documents to prevent the owners from flipping their interest for a profit in the stadium and to get out without City/State approval? One surefire way to require the true contribution by the owners is to require them to pledge the PawSox franchise as collateral until their full contribution is met.

Other aspects of this state make people unhappy, whether it is the senseless underfunding of DCYF which results in losing children, the UHIP fiasco, the Warwick teachers’ blatant abuse of children through their fabricated “sick-out” (with the attendant lesson to children to fib), the foolish parents siding with a job action that hurts their children, or the crumbling infrastructure of school buildings, and so the list goes on.

It’s enough to make a taxpayer weep!

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