Welcome to my last TGIF column of 2018. I’ll be off most of next week – so no column next Friday — but I’ll be back at work New Year’s Day to bring you the Rhode Island inaugural and the opening of the 2019 General Assembly session. Thanks for following my reporting and best wishes for a happy holiday. As usual, your tips and comments are welcome, and you can follow me through the week on the twitters. Here we go.
A combined current and next fiscal year deficit of about $200 million will raise the focus on the budget once Rhode Island lawmakers start their new session on January 1. The economy appears to be cooling, and an expected recession could cut into state revenue. Despite that, top state officials remain generally upbeat in their economic outlook. During a year-end interview with The Public’s Radio, House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello expressed optimism about the short-term outlook while citing a need to further improve the business climate: “We’re going to look at other measures – taxes that are disincentives to Rhode Islanders to stay in the state. The estate tax is one of them.” In his interview, Senate President Dominick Ruggerio said, “I think things are going pretty well. Our revenues have been up.” Asked whether the $3.5 billion increase in RI’s budget over the last 10 years is sustainable, Ruggerio said, “I think it’s sustainable at this point in time. I don’t know how much we can increase our expenses.” Gov. Gina Raimondo acknowledged some concerns, although she contended that changes during her first term have made the state more economically resilient. “More people are working, people are making more money,” Raimondo said. “The smart investments we’re making in public infrastructure, I’m confident, will help buoy us through the next recession.” The general expectation is that the next recession won’t be nearly as bad as the Great Recession. But no one has a crystal ball when it comes to the future.
2. Think again if you thought Gov. Raimondo might take up the cause of improving public education with the same laser-focus that she used on pension reform as state treasurer. Raimondo tells me she will raise her focus on the ed issue, but that a lot of other stuff is competing for her attention: “The answer is ‘yes,’ it’s something that I’m going to focus on increasingly. But I also have to keep my eye on economic development, job creation, infrastructure, healthcare, et cetera.” The governor said mayors and school committees need to play a larger role in trying to improve public schools. Elsewhere, Senate President Ruggerio said the state Department of Education needs to raise its game. And Central Falls Schools Superintendent Victor Capellan, as the ProJo reported, exhibited some fresh urgency in responding to the schools issue.
3. Attorney General-elect Peter Neronha tells me he plans to take a fresh look at the 38 Studios investigation, after it failed to produce criminal charges in 2016. “I need to sit back, take a look at it, meaning review what’s been done, and just be comfortable that the conclusion reached was the right one,” Neronha said on Bonus Q&A on The Public’s Radio this week. “And so I expect to do that very quickly once I get there, sit down with the people who investigated it from the office, you know, career people had that case, people who I respect.” Neronha said he will report back to the public once this review is completed. Neronha left the door open, without committing, to supporting a look-back report, like the postmortem on the state credit union crisis led by Vartan Gregorian, on how 38 Studios happened. In the short term, his office is drafting legislation that could allow for the grand jury report in a limited number of cases (like 38 Studios) to be made public in instances that do not produce an indictment.
4. Chatter around Cranston suggests that GOP activist Barbara Ann Fenton, the wife of Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, could be among the candidates looking to succeed Fung in Cranston’s 2020 mayoral race. (Fenton, who played an influential role in her husband’s 2018 gubernatorial campaign, did not respond to multiple telephone messages and texts over the last week; Fung did not respond to a phone message.) Council President Michael Farina, a former Democrat who became a Republican in 2016, and who is widely expected to run for mayor, said rumors are circulating about a potential campaign by Fenton. Term limits will prevent Fung from seeking re-election in 2020, so a lot of people are expected to kick the tires on a run. But as Farina notes, only a subset of that group will have the money and organization to drive a campaign.
5. The Foxy Lady drama has it all: sex, government power, an iconic Rhode Island business, and about 200 workers being put on the street ahead of Christmas. For now, a lone justice of the state Supreme Court has declined to stay the revocation of the strip bar’s business licenses while it pursues an appeal. Of course, this isn’t the first time that city fathers have attempted to close an adult entertainment business in Providence. In 1998, Buddy Cianci tried to use eminent domain to close the Columbus Theater, although the screening of adult films gave the Columbus a First Amendment defense. And while strip bars may be a highly visible emblem of adult entertainment, it’s worth remembering, as The New York Times reported back in 2000, changing technology led Wall Street to make some big bets on porn.
6. A Foxy Lady anecdote, via Scott MacKay: “It was after a long, long evening at the House Finance Committee in 1991, with Thursday evening spilling into Friday morning. The committee approved the budget just as the sun was rising. I was the lone reporter left, gathering notes for a Sunday story about the taxing and spending package approved by the Finance panel. After it was over, committee members retreated upstairs to the third floor leaders’ room, where the reps shared a beer or two. Then the members that were left — all men — decided to go get some breakfast at the Foxy Lady’s legs and eggs. I was invited to tag along, but quickly realized this was problematic and a pretty obvious violation of journalistic ethics. So I informed the late Rep. Dave Dumas, (R-East Greenwich), that if I went, it would “make a great Political Scene story.” Dumas thought about it for a minute and decided that wouldn’t be so great. So I was quickly dis-invited. Rep. Peter Kilmartin of Pawtucket, who was then a police officer and would later become attorney general, was also conflicted. (After the Foxy had been busted for running a sports book out of the kitchen, police officers were told they could not patronize the strip bar). So Kilmartin and yours truly stayed behind and quaffed another beer (or maybe two). I walked home to my condo on Benefit Street and Kilmartin called a cop friend for a ride home.” (This calls to mind the great Abe Rosenthal quote, “You can cover the circus, but if you do so, you can’t (expletive) the elephants.”
7. State Sen. Gayle Goldin (D-Providence) and Rep. Edith Ajello (D-Providence) have pre-filed their bill to codify abortion rights in RI law. This promises to be among the most contentious issues of the 2019 General Assembly session. During a recent interview at The Public’s Radio, House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello acknowledged that a majority of Rhode Islanders support abortion rights. Yet even with an uptick in female and progressive lawmakers, many legislators still oppose expanded abortion rights. For now, it remains unclear whether the Goldin-Ajello bill will emerge first in the House or the Senate, where it will go from there, and whether opponents will try to insert language that would make the legislation a non-starter for supporters.
8. Gov. Raimondo on Hasbro: “At this point, I am optimistic [that Hasbro will stay in Rhode Island]. I’m in pretty regular contact with the folks over as Hasbro, as I have been for four years, just like I am with any major company. That’s something I’ve prioritized as governor, staying [in] constant contact with businesses. I’ve also said, you know, ‘over my dead body are you leaving Rhode Island.’ You were founded here, you belong here, and we’re going to do what we need to do to make sure you stay here and hire Rhode Islanders.”
9. AG-elect Peter Neronha says he plans to make a “pivot” to encourage the release more public records to reporters and media organizations: “My view is, ‘when in doubt, turn it over,’ Neronha said on Bonus Q&A this week. “I think that should be our position. And one thing I’ve really asked as we build out the civil division …. I really want to sit with our open records people, our Access to Public Records and our Open Meetings people – what philosophy are you bringing to the table? How are you training cities and towns? And I want to be more open, maybe, than we’ve been.” Neronha declined to comment on the specifics of how the Cranston Police stymied the Providence Journal for months on a public arrest record. Asked if he would file a complaint against departments that deny public records, he said, “I wouldn’t hesitate to do it if I thought it was the right thing to do.”
10. The impact of Matt Brown’s Democratic primary campaign was a cause for concern for Gov. Raimondo’s campaign earlier this year. In the end, Raimondo scored a larger than expected win over Brown, and she arguably owes him a big thank-you, for lighting a fire under her campaign. Earlier, there were a series of reports about Raimondo’s supposed vulnerability, even amid a economic recovery. To hear the governor tell it, she was never concerned. Asked about her moment of greatest anxiety during the 2018 campaign, Raimondo tells me she saw it as a choice between her economic-development approach and those of her rivals: “It was just letting the voters pick – do you like the new way of doing things, or do you want to go back to the old way? And we had a landslide victory, so I think the voters said, let’s do it the new way and keep going.”
11. Composer and performer Lin-Manuel Miranda of “Hamilton” fame and his family this week unveiled a scholarship for performing arts students at Rhode Island College. Via RIC: “The scholarship identifies rising juniors or seniors from underrepresented populations who are interested in pursuing a career in music, theater or dance and who have demonstrated strong talent. Each recipient will have the chance to earn up to a two-year scholarship worth $3,000-$5,000 per year to complete their degree. ‘It’s challenging to find a pathway to a career in the performing arts when you don’t see yourself represented on that stage,’ says Miranda. ‘That’s why it’s so important to create opportunities for students who are typically underrepresented in the arts. Rhode Island College is the right place to do this because of its track record of promoting top artistic talent in its music, theater and dance programs while making quality arts education attainable for students from all backgrounds.’ ”
12. Podcast: U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse talks with Crooked Media about whether Democrats “can beat the right without sacrificing our values.”
13. Meanwhile, Sen. Whitehouse was at the White House Friday for the signing of two bills that he says will improve the federal criminal justice and juvenile justice systems. The senator’s office said the bills establish recidivism reduction programs and narrow the focus on minimum mandatory sentences to focus on the most serious crimes. According to Whitehouse’s office, the juvenile justice measure “improves the existing law by improving treatment for juvenile offenders with mental illness and substance abuse issues, encouraging states to make efforts to reduce racial and ethnic disparities for youth who enter the juvenile justice system, supporting alternatives to incarceration, and holding states accountable for failing to meet core grant requirements to protect the safety of minors in the justice system.”
14. A growing number of people have had enough of Facebook. Kasie Hunt of NBC News calls it “bad for your brain,” adding, “[it] divides you from your neighbors, and it’s worse for democracy.” On the other hand, WPRI.com’s Dan McGowan, who shows the upside of FB with his excellent Providence news and discussion forum, makes this point: “I still think reporters need to meet people where they are. And they are still on Facebook.” Meanwhile, author Anand Giridharadas believes that individual decisions to sign off from FB won’t fix what’s wrong with the platform: “There are two major areas of change when you look at Facebook. One – we need a privacy law that actually deals with the reality of what these companies have now been doing time and again. You know, Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg and their squad have revealed themselves to be, you know, stewards of our privacy that we don’t need. And so there needs to be just privacy protection. The second is the revival of antitrust in American life. This is a predatory monopoly. You don’t – if you want to go online and, you know, look for, you know, high school sweethearts to feel nostalgic about, there is no other option besides Facebook and all the other things we do on Facebook.”
15. Blake Collins is signing on as a deputy to work with communications director Kristy dosReis for AG-elect Peter Neronha.
16. Marijuana Moment rounded up what Gov. Raimondo, Speaker Mattiello, and President Ruggerio told me about marijuana legalization. In short, with Connecticut moving toward legalization, that process looks increasingly inevitable in Rhode Island, although Peter Neronha points to the Massachusetts experience in arguing that the Ocean State needs more time to prepare for retail sales of recreational pot.
17. Kudos & Congrats to Will Richmond, who is leaving as digital city editor of the Herald News in Fall River to become editor of The Newport Daily News.
18. Read up on how much it costs to raise a family in Rhode Island.
19. Some local picks for good reads.
20. Via the NYT: Jimmy Bradley, part of the team behind a classic NYC restaurant, is “heading home to Rhode Island, and from there to parts unknown.” That brings to mind a few other RI-NYC culinary connections. Times food critic Pete Wells grew up in the Biggest Little. And then there’s Wylie Dufresne, “a leading American proponent of molecular gastronomy,” the son of Dewey Dufresne, of Geoff’s Sandwiches fame.
