Did I miss something?

After reading Scott MacKay’s recent commentary, “Don't Expect RI Ethics Rules Will Change Anything on Smith Hill,” I can’t tell if MacKay has given up on improving the state, or if he really believes that our legislators, left to monitor themselves, will dissuade corruption as well as independent oversight.
The discussion centers on an effort to restore legislative oversight authority of the Rhode Island Ethics Commission. 

If you don’t know the history, in a nutshell, the people of Rhode Island created the Ethics Commissions during the 1986 Constitutional Convention, and it worked quite well providing advice to avoid conflicts of interest, and investigating and prosecuting ethics violations when they occurred.

But when the Commission had a series of successful investigations, resulting in two legislators paying 6-figure fines and spending time in jail, a related case against then-Senate President Irons resulted in a court case which ultimately stripped the commission of its powers due to what some would call a technicality.
So for the last seven years, good government groups and the legislature have been working to resolve those issues. 

But Mr. MacKay suggests that an independent oversight of the general assembly is a worthless pursuit saying, “history shows that many of these measures don’t mean much,” even citing the Separation of Powers Constitutional Amendment as his “prime example.”

His argument is almost laughable, if it weren’t so dangerous.

Rhode Island has a history of corruption, and expecting the fox to watch the hen house is a recipe for disaster.  Don’t we have one Fox in jail already?

​As Chairman of the Rhode Island Libertarian Party, we strongly support restoring ethics commission oversight. We are part of the CLEAN RI coalition, the Coalition for Legislative Ethics and Accountability Now in Rhode Island (www.CleanRI.org).  We sit at the table with groups like the RI Progressive Democrats, WatchDog RI, & Rhode Island Taxpayers. Occupy Providence & Ocean State Tea Party In Action. Community Leaders Allan Hassenfeld, Phil West, & Karl Wadensten. Indy Media Outfits RIFuture.org, and of course The Coalition Talk Radio.

At a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, both legislators and advocates spoke of an agreement to reinstate those oversight powers, they just need to resolve the procedural questions. 

Scott MacKay seems to be the only one who thinks it’s a waste of time.  House Speaker Mattiello is the only other person I’ve heard express this negative opinion.  I’ll let you decide what that means. 

                                       Listen To Our Interview With Bill Felkner - CleanRI ​
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On this past week's Coalition Radio Show, Show Host Pat Ford expressed concern regarding Grow Smart RI's overt support of RIPTA fare hikes, which, in the opinion of many, (The Show's Host Included) unfairly target the poor & physically challenged by disproportionately raising fares on the same. (RIPTA, in referring to rate discounts, as "Unfunded Mandates" has lost sight of a mission created in its original charter.) The Show Host expressed continued surprise that an organization dedicated to defeating suburban sprawl would ever countenance, never mind promote said enabling legislation. In fact, GrowSmartRI, by appearing at RIPTA Board Meetings to testify in favor of said fare hikes, seemed to go out of its way, to encourage this support.

RIPTA Board Meeting Minutes June 2015 GrowSmart RI In Attendance  .

Coalition Radio Show - RIPTA Riders Alliance - Show Podcast

Mr. John Flaherty, Deputy Director - Grow Smart RI, responded to our concerns in the following letter ...

Pat,

​Good talking with you briefly just now.  
Here's some background on Grow Smart's position regard to the proposed changes to RIPTA fares for senior and disabled passengers.

Grow Smart evaluated H-6108 which proposed amending the state-mandated RIPTA fare structure providing for free travel to seniors and disabled passengers, allowing RIPTA management to charge ½ fare during peak travel periods.  This was being pursued in part to help address an estimated operating deficit of approximately $5M and to align RIPTA’s fare structure with the majority of other transit agencies across the country.  

Grow Smart reluctantly supported the measure – reluctantly because we realize the hardship it would create for those least able to afford it, but we concluded that the potential for loss of service may pose a greater hardship for those who rely on RIPTA to get to/from work, doctors office, grocery stores, etc.  

The proposal was eventually folded into the State Budget as Article 22 Sub A and expanded to allow RIPTA management to completely eliminate free fares during peak and off-peak travel periods.  This measure passed as part of the State Budget.  

Grow Smart testified at the Board of Directors meeting of RIPTA on June 22, urging the board to not eliminate free fares for elderly or disabled passengers who meet the income means test and who travel during off-peak periods.  The decision now rests with the RIPTA Board of Directors but must first be subject to a public hearing process.  

​Best regards,

John
​John Flaherty
Deputy Director
Grow Smart Rhode Island
235 Promenade Street, Suite 550
Providence, RI  02908
401.273.5711, Ext. 5
401.309.8707 (mobile)​

So folks ... it's silly season again ... No, not election time ... but those magic moments when politicians raise their heads up from whatever "Happy Place" they've been hidden ...sensing that their "publicity whore" moment is upon them, to voice Outrage! Outrage! I say! to the legislative swill that is bubbling up from the very bowels of "Halitosis Hall" they can usually be found in ....

Last year? The sum of their moral courage was aimed at a local activists, who dared breach the walls of I-95 to vent their collective outrage at the state sanctioned terrorism aimed squarely at their communities ... ie Stop & Frisk ... The heavens were called down upon these folks, and the usual pablum that passes for legislation in Lil Rhody was written than none other than today's special guest: Senator Lou Raptakis (BTW, the collective outrage dissipated somewhat when this wannabee-Reporter pointed out that the last time someone pulled that stunt, they were white, middle class RISDICked citizens who were egged on by the very same media outlets now prone to a collective nervous breakdown ..)

So, Senator Lou .. the "Man of the People" ... who supported none other than Rhode Island's own Dick Cheney, Richard Licht, (After a lifetime of legal scholarship ... not.)  for a well earned Judgeship, deemed it time to get his fair share of camera and radio time by calling for "Felony" level punishment for what most would deem ordinary civil disobience .... And after the Sturm & Drang died down .... and the magic red light of the camera was turned off ... Senator Lou went back to what he does best ... Pizza and Pandering ...

Now, it would appear, that the Good Senator has sensed (Do we call this a political spidey sense?) an opportunity, again, to appear like a man of da people ... Stop The Tolls! Government Transparency! The People Must Be Heard!

Witness his Op Ed piece in today's GoLocalProv ... As always, it's worth a complete read .. but this passage struck me as, well, rather odd ...

"This time, we’re not being asked to blindly approve a deal to throw millions at a company run by a business newcomer in an industry with a high failure rate. Instead, we’re being asked to trust a Governor who already isn’t being forthcoming on releasing public records. Instead, we’re being asked to approve $600 million in revenue bonds—sight unseen—and then hope that the administration will put together a plan to start tolling trucks in a manner that will generate enough revenue to support the bonds. We don’t basic details on the amount of the tolls or where the tolling gantries will be located before approving the bonds. 
While the Governor is selling this “truck toll two step” as a reasonable effort to pass some simple enabling legislation (handing over the money) and then work out the details in what she calls a “separate public process” down the line, there’s another way to look at this. She’s giving the legislature plausible deniability, setting it up so they can take an easy vote to approve the $600 million in bonds without having to take responsibility for the details of the final program. It is an attack on good government, essentially turning the General Assembly into an accountability-free zone, when it should be the place where tough questions are asked and all the details are provided before new bond obligations are created."

Except ... there's one leetle problem ... You see, before Senator Raptakis was against the bill, he actually voted for the bill! Transparency? We knew less then, then we do now!

So Lou, take your false populism ... your media savvy ... your cynical misuse of the public trust ...... and ...

​The Voting Record ....

WPRI Channel 12 Reporting

For the record, Senator Raptakis has been invited on the Coalition to discuss his voting history. He has declined our requests.

Gene weighs in on our interview with Nightclub Impresario Jim Vickers - Manchester 65

"The dream of a state-of-the-art baseball stadium on the old Route 195 land, a visible symbol of a new beginning for an old city, one that was going to be an economic engine to perk up a tired old downtown. Complete with new people streaming into the city on warm summer nights, new jobs, new restaurants, new buzz, new everything. A symbol of a new chapter in the city's long rich history."

Perhaps this is the elites, the connected, the "Guyz who know a Guyz" dream ... Our dreams involve schools that educate, safe neighborhoods, working roads & infrastructure ... Mass transportation that serves the needs of the many ... beaches that are clean, & affordable. You speak glowingly of James Skeffington, as if he were some sort of visionary .. when in fact his "visions" have become financial nightmares for those left behind ... as we lie mired in generational debt as a result of his "visionary" moral obligation bonds ... inflicted upon us for the construction of useless, empty edifices .. for his own personal profit ...

This is a tale of two cities, bunky, and the reality show that is the tale of the real La Prov is about to crush all of us ... The cliche' shots at talk radio (the peoples forum) aside, regular folks have had enough of supporting someone else's lifestyle, while their dreams are crushed. We no longer believe the tales spun by the media, the solons, the "Civic Leaders" who in total represent a mutual admiration society that the rest of us can no longer afford ...

So you are right ... It ends right here, right now. Time for y'all to pay your own way. Your delusions of grandeur are officially your own .. Effective Immediately.

www.CoalitionRadio.us

http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20150921/SPORTS/150929820/?#loadComment

Author's Note: Mark Patinkin is actually my inspiration, if you will, for blogging ... A few years back, I called him to complain to him about his descent from award winning writer to a purveyor of Seinfeld-esque observational humour. After a thoughtful back and forth, he suggested that I blog. Well, here I am.

Mark,

Every independent economist presents incontrovertible proof of one simple truth: Sports franchises are simply a reallocation of local disposable income already slated for entertainment of one form or another. The entertainment dollar not spent on a local baseball franchise, will, in fact be spent elsewhere, locally: a restaurant, a play, a movie theater.

The Principles opposing this "investment" are strikingly straightforward:

A. State Government Has No Place Subsidizing Private Enterprise

B. Rhode Island Must Cease Being The ATM For The Wealthy/Powerful

C. I-195 Space Was Freed For Open Space & Economic Opportunity

It is not the role of government to subsidize/eliminate investment risk for private enterprise. Government should not pick winners or losers in what passes for the free market. Corporate Insiders have made their life's work connecting the dots between cronies in Rhode Island government & the marketplace. It is clearly their mission to socialize risk and privatize success. Because of their efforts, Rhode Island is a poorer place, on an economic, as well as a philosophical level. Clearly, this current "investment", and I use the term loosely, will not be supported by the private equity market. The owners are unwilling to invest their own capital, without some sort of long term guarantee underwritten by the government, and, as a result, the taxpayer. It is time for Rhode Island to stop being held hostage, in the literal sense, by the Crony Corporatists of the world.

The taxpayer dollars diverted to this folly instead should be spent on our crumbling infrastructure, providing tax relief to a nearly obliterated middle class, broadening the academic scope of our state's universities, or any of a host of pressing issues that will impact the lives of everyday Rhode Islanders.

As a member of the elite, you speak of the Providence PawSox experience in the same glowing terms that your brethren speak of a dinner on Federal Hill, an afternoon at Bonnet Shores, or a jazz brunch in Newport.

For many of us, those are a dream. Debilitating health care costs, private/parochial tuitions to pay for an education that we are already taxed to death for, long term under or - worse  yet - unemployment are our day to day realities.

If, hypothetically, you are a columnist for a fading urban newspaper, who might see the advertising binge of a casino, or a newly relocated professional baseball team as a potential savior, you might feel differently.

Real leadership? Addressing the realities of the "Rhode Island Condition", not dismissing them as the whinings of a citizenry for whom "The Lively Experiment" has been a crushing failure. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity, on The Coalition Talk Radio, to ask a simple question. "What do you say to politician who say our negativity is to blame, and not the incompetence that preceded that negativity?

My own answer, the same which, sadly, I must direct to you is this soubriquet: "How Can We Miss You If You Won't Go Away?"

The crack news team at 630WPRO reported today, "...With a flick of her pen, Governor Gina Raimondo signed an executive to cut costs in municipalities and save their tax payers money."

The order tasks Lieutenant Governor Dan McKee to meet with mayors and local leaders to best decide on how to share services and pass savings onto citizens.

“Cities and towns right now are doing their best, but they’re struggling,” says Raimondo, "Families in Rhode Island and businesses in Rhode Island are struggling because property taxes are high and rising; and the way we are going to fix that is by coming together and coming up with creative solutions to keep costs down.”

A thought, if you will ....

Why do they need the Lt Governor, to be ... errr "empowered?" Can't they just empower themselves to find best practices? Does this mean they haven't been trying to find best practices? 

This "Executive Order" doesn't really cut costs, it just says we should think about it. Why is this "News"? Why does the stories lede infer she is actually engaging in cost cutting? Why does the Governor treat every pronouncement (see earlier blog re: Saving For College) as some earth shattering accomplishment, when all she is doing is manipulating the citizenry? Some help out there, please?

Any insight would be appreciated. I'm really at a loss here.

http://www.630wpro.com/2015/02/13/raimondo-sign-executive-order-to-help-municipalities-save-money/