The ice box of winter is here, and the holidays aren’t far behind. 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 hits keep coming on the economic development front for Governor Gina Raimodo. New Jersey-based pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson will be the focus of an announcement 10 am Monday at the Providence Public Library. Raimondo tells me the details are still being worked out over the weekend. Word is that the announcement will feature IT jobs.
2. The final month of 2016 could be remembered as one of the most pivotal time frames in Governor Raimondo‘s time as governor. There’s finally forward motion on Wexford Science & Technology’s project in the I-195 District — the first significant development in that area — and Virgin Pulse announced plans to add almost 300 jobs over the next five years in Providence. For a long time, unflattering stories (Cooler & Warmer and the troubled UHIP rollout) dominated Raimondo’s narrative for 2016. It was also fair to wonder about the lack of palpable progress in the I-195 District. Now, the governor can point to a critical mass of positive economic development news, and she called Wexford’s development a “game-changer.” To skeptics — who see this as more of a real estate deal — that might sound overly optimistic. Yet Brown University, one of the tenants for Wexford’s project, has been a latecomer in pursuing tech transfer — the commercialization of academic research. What’s more, college towns are seen as engines of economic growth, so Brown’s central place in the I-195 District is unsurprising. Critics also hit the use of millions of subsidies to spark development. Yet this approach is hardly limited to Rhode Island, and the previous status quo wasn’t showing signs of bearing fruit. Now, since success has many parents, the General Assembly (which approved the incentives wielded by the Raimondo administration) and Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor (dogged by doubters during Cooler & Warmer) can claim some of the pride of authorship. Still, it’s worth remembering how Raimondo’s tenacity has been cited as a factor in initiatives this year ranging from GE Digital to Wexford and Virgin Pulse. In one example Virgin Pulse’s chief medical officer, Dr. Rajiv Kumar credited Raimondo and Pryor with creating what he called “a very highly personalized, customized pitch …. for why Rhode Island is a great place for high-growth technology companies like ours.” That followed an earlier expectation that Virgin Pulse would take jobs out of Rhode Island, after acquiring ShapeUp in early 2016. Instead, Kumar said, Governor Raimondo “actually picked up the phone, she proactively reached out. And she said to our executive team, ‘what will it take not only to keep these high-paying jobs here, but to grow your footprint in the great state of Rhode Island?’ ” A political side benefit for Raimondo in all this is how construction in the I-195 District is expected to start in mid-2017 — a tangible sign of progress in the run-up to the 2018 race for governor.) Yet the the cluster of recent positive economic news about a state long known as an economic laggard could also come in handy when the governor is pitching out-of-town execs.
3. With state Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed tossing some cold water on the concept, House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello‘s pledge to begin phasing out the car tax remains one of the key issues to watch in the General Assembly’s 2017 session. During a year-end interview (set to air later this month on RI Public Radio), Paiva Weed said, “I believe that any repeal of the car tax can not be done in a vacuum. It must ensure accountability by the cities and towns. Those cities and towns who have raised taxes and not reduced expenditures or run efficiently should not be rewarded at the expense of investments in education that benefit all of our cities and towns.” In his interview, Mattiello said he remains intent on forging ahead with his pledge to begin phasing out the car tax. “By reducing with the ultimate goal in five years of eliminating the car tax, you are helping our citizens, which is of vital importance …. you’re also improving our national rankings, which will be good for us nationally, help our economy, help make us more competitive.” With cities and towns collectively charging about $215 million in the car tax each year, Mattiello said he plans to cut that amount — and raise aid to municipalities — by roughly $40 million a year until the tax is wiped out. For her part, Governor Raimondo said she plans to work with the General Assembly to try to cut the car tax. “I’d like to see this done in a way that encourages cities and towns to control their spending, and we also have to be careful not to cut services that are helping Rhode Islanders.”
4. The governor declined to get into detail during a year-end interview on whether her next budget will replenish the economic incentives that have become a hallmark of her administration. “What I will say is, clearly they’re working,” Raimondo said. “The incentives have contributed to the creation of thousands of jobs.”
5. State Rep. Aaron Regunberg (D-Providence), an outspoken critic of the Trump administration, maintains there’s much that Rhode Islanders can do to challenge the incoming White House administration. “We can use state policy to give a fair shot to working families,” Regunberg said on this week’s RI Public Radio Political Roundtable, “with paid sick days, affordable college. We can take climate action at the state level, we can protect reproductive rights at the state level, we can stand up for immigrants at the state level. We can defend healthcare access at the state level. We can do those things, but it’s going to take our state Democrats getting more bold — and I include myself in that — it’s not going to be easy. But people are expecting and demanding more of us.”
6. Will the Trump administration present a roadblock for the truck tolls in RhodeWorks? The trucking industry is generally bullish on the selection of Elaine Chao, the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, as President-elect Trump’s transportation secretary. According to one industry publication, Chao “has a track record of rolling back regulation and a pro-business bent that has run afoul of labor unions.” Asked for comment, Chris Maxwell of the Rhode Island Trucking Association said, “ATA Federation partners are very pleased with the nomination of Elaine Chou to be DOT Secretary and look forward to working with her to address a plethora of issues, including discriminatory truck-only tolling schemes.” Governor Raimondo said she isn’t concerned that Chao or the Trump administration may slow down the truck tolls in RhodeWorks: “We believe we have a legally sound system. We know we’ll be sued. We’re ready to defend it, and I think we’ll prevail.”
7. Will Providence make any progress in 2017 in reducing its crushing $1.9 billion in long-term obligations for pensions and healthcare? Ken Block and Alan Hassenfeld used a ProJo op-ed to argue this week that a managed bankruptcy is the way to go. “Bankruptcy is not an option,” Mayor Jorge Elorza tells WPRI.com’s Dan McGowan, “and the reason for that is bankruptcy is not a solution.” For his part, Rep. Regunberg also opposes the B-word approach. “In situations of bankruptcy, what we’ve seen wherever they’ve happened is, it’s the most vulnerable people who get hurt the hardest,” Regunberg said on RIPR’s Bonus Q&A. “We’re talking about taking away democratic accountability and participation, putting it in the hands of people who are not necessarily looking out for the most vulnerable.” Meanwhile, as this debate plays out, the very tough work of forging consensus on cutting long-term obligations remains off in the future.
8. On a related note, Daniel Beardsley has some optimism about the ability of local cities and towns to face their long-term financial obligations, but he’s less sanguine about the outlook for reducing Rhode Island’s reliance on the property tax. Those are among the takeaways from my interview, set to air Monday morning during All Things Considered on RI Public Radio, with the departing executive director of the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns. Beardsley, who has led the league for close to 30 years, rates Don Carcieri as his own least favorite governor on issues affecting Ocean State municipalities. “One thing Don Caricieri was famous for was pointing the finger at cities and towns, and telling them that they weren’t pointing their belts tight enough,” Beardsley said. “But what did the state do? The state, instead of tightening its belt, took money away from cities and towns that, ironically, had been established to offset the onerous burden of the property tax. These were property tax relief programs enacted in the early ’70s, the late ’70s, and the early ’80s, and those no longer exist. The reason they no longer exist is, the state couldn’t make the difficult decisions it was accusing cities and towns they weren’t capable of making.” Beardsley, who has discovered a love for downhill skiing, is slated to retire at the end of this month; Brian Daniels, the well-respected deputy state budget officer, will succeed him.
9. Movie production incentives — do they create jobs? This overview finds mixed results.
10. Saturation and diminishing returns from gambling revenue may just be a matter of time. Yet for now, gambling remains the goose laying a steady steam of golden eggs in our corner of southern New England. Twin River’s John E. Taylor Jr. has described how revenue is holding up better than expected, with growing competition from Masssachusetts. Meanwhile, Plainridge Park — which faced initial reports of underperforming — is now seen in a better light, as The Boston Globe’s Sean Murphy reported this week: “As it turns out, the modest Plainville casino may have been the victim of unrealistic expectations. At a recent meeting of the state’s Gaming Commission, the casino’s manager, Lance George, reported that on a per-machine basis, daily revenue this summer was $346, the highest total among the two dozen casinos run by Plainridge’s parent company, Penn National. “That’s very robust,” George said. A subsequent Globe review, which analyzed revenue at more than 50 casinos in a dozen states, found that Plainridge is outperforming all but a handful when capacity is considered, a sharp rebuttal to its struggling image and a promising indicator for the two resort casinos now under construction in Springfield and Everett.”
11. Clay Pell is among the Democratic electors in the Electoral College who have requested intelligence briefings. Rhode Island’s vote set for Monday in the House chamber. Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea offers these details: “The historic ceremony will begin at noon when a military honor guard will escort Secretary Gorbea, Governor Raimondo, the Honorable William E. Smith, the state’s Congressional delegation, Postmaster Ronald Pauline, Rhode Island’s Presidential Electors – Representative Grace Diaz, Frank J. Montanaro, Herbert Claiborne Pell, L. Susan Weiner – and other dignitaries from the State House Library to the House Chamber, where the event will take place. This year, middle and high school students who participated in mock presidential elections will also be in attendance. ‘This is a great opportunity for students who voted in their school’s mock presidential election to follow the process through to the convening of the state’s Electoral College,’ Secretary Gorbea said. ‘I want our young people to fully understand these procedures so that they see the importance of being civically engaged.’ “
12. On a related note, Senator Jack Reed said he learned of reports of Russian hacking of the US election through media reports. While you’re at it, give a listen to President Obama‘s exclusive interview on the subject with NPR’s Steve Inskeep.
13. Speaker Mattiello is taking a wait-and-see attitude on President-elect Trump: “I root for the country and hope for the best, and I’m not going to speculate at any potential positive or negative outcomes … I know that some folk are speculating, but I don’t think that’s appropriate. I think that you have to see what the policies are before making any determination.” By contrast, Senate President Paiva Weed said she has significant concerns about the Trump administration’s impact on federal block grants for vulnerable Rhode Islanders and Medicare. Governor Raimondo‘s top budgetary concern is Obamacare, which she characterizes as a success. Changing the Affordable Care Act in a way that pushes more costs to the state, the governor said, would have a devastating impact. “We’re thinking about it now,” she said. “It’s hard to plan for, because we don’t know. No details have been forthcoming. We’d have to find a plan. We’d have to look at it, and we’d have to find the money.”
14. When Mr. Coffee was considered the must-have holiday gift for java snobs.
15. Deepwater Wind’s Block Island wind farm continues to get a lot of out of town attention for Rhode Island. Here’s an example of the coverage, via The New York Times: “Despite its modest size, the wind farm, which cost about $300 million to build, still represents a significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions — about 40,000 tons per year. Deepwater Wind will receive a federal tax credit for the project, and first-year rates for Rhode Island customers of National Grid, the utility company laying one of the cables to the wind farm, may be higher than what customers currently pay. Environmentalists, members of the Obama administration and government officials in several states see significant potential for offshore wind energy, given that winds over the ocean usually blow stronger and more steadily than those on land.” One of the big related questions is the cost of the electricity produced by Deepwater, and a possible hit for consumers of more than $500 million. When I spoke with him earlier this year, CEO Jeff Grybowski maintained that the evolving nature of the wind industry makes higher projected costs “simply speculation at this point.”
16. Rest in Peace, Tom LaFauci. As Scott MacKay recounts, LaFauci, 66, served as a staffer and speechwriter for a series of pols: “Said U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, a longtime LaFauci friend, ‘Tom was one of the great unsung heroes of politics here in Rhode Island and an important voice on the national stage. He was a trusted adviser to Joe Biden, John Kerry and many others. They all benefited from his talents as a wordsmith who could cut through policy and really connect with an audience.”
17. Barrington native Sean Spicer, the longtime spokesman for the Republican National Committee, is considered the top candidate to become President-elect Donald Trump’s White House press secretary.
18. Three on “sextortion:” 1) WPRI-TV’s Tim White had the story this week of a Seekonk man charged in a sextortion” case; 2) Attorney General Peter Kilmartin said he plans to re-file legislation to prohibit revenge born and sextortion. In an apparent nod to how Governor Raimondo vetoed a similar measure this year, calling it overly broad, Kilmartin said via news release, “The legislation explicitly exempts material that relates to a matter of public concern; it also explicitly exempts when dissemination of such serves a lawful purposes; when the dissemination is made in the course of a lawful public proceeding; when the dissemination involves voluntary nudity or sexual conduct in public or commercial settings or in a place where a person does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy; and when the dissemination is made in the public interest, including the reporting of unlawful conduct, or lawful and common practice of law enforcement, criminal reporting, corrections, legal proceedings, medical activities, scientific activities, or educational activities.” 3) The New Yorker offers a compelling portrait of Brooklyn lawyer, Carrie Goldberg, who has emerged as a national leaders in the fight against revenge porn and sextortion. Excerpt: “Goldberg, a graduate of Brooklyn Law School, is a surprisingly glamorous presence, especially for the places her work tends to take her: drab courtrooms, grubby police precincts. Her hair is long and wavy; her nails are always painted; she wears oversized designer glasses, five-inch heels, color-block minidresses, and sharply cut trenchcoats. Rebecca Symes, a lawyer who once worked with Goldberg at Housing Conservation Coordinators, which represents Manhattan tenants facing eviction, told me, ‘Housing court is predominantly male—the attorneys, the landlords. And, how shall I put this? They tend to be schlumpy. Carrie stood out. She was a total badass. She was aggressive—you had to be—and you had to believe in your clients when everyone else was calling them deadbeats. A lot of the people called to legal-services work are do-gooders, and they are a little passive and meek. They don’t have that fierceness that Carrie has.’ ”
19. Via NPR, Facebook details its plans for responding to fake news: “In a news release outlining how Facebook’s new reporting and flagging process will work, [Facebook’s VP for its news feed, Adam] Mosseri said the company will rely on its users to report a story as potentially bogus, “along with other signals.” The story would then be sent to fact-checkers. ‘If the fact-checking organizations identify a story as fake,’ Mosseri said, ‘it will get flagged as disputed and there will be a link to the corresponding article explaining why. Stories that have been disputed may also appear lower in News Feed.’ Mosseri added, ‘It will still be possible to share these stories, but you will see a warning that the story has been disputed as you share.’ The flagged story will also be rejected if anyone tries to turn it into a promoted ad, Facebook says.”
20. Saveur highlights Bishop’s 4th Street Diner in Newport for its “all-star lineup of Rhody specialties: chourico, johnnycakes, “stuffies” (stuffed clams), Portuguese toast, coffee milk …. [I]t’s all excellent, the kind of under-the-radar roadside food find that people like me dream about.”
21. Good stuff here: 2008 voters talk about the 2016 presidential race.
22. There’s good news on the local barbecue front — at long last — as Rhode Island races toward 2017. Preppy Pig BBQ plans to open in a different location after closing its venues in Warren and Jamestown. Steve Durkee‘s Durk’s BBQ — which we told you about last summer — is close to launching. And GottaQ BBQ has added a second location in Cumberland.