Can RI gets its econ-development act together?

Published May 22 2008, 02:05 PM by Ian Donnis

I take a long view at this question with my cover story in this week's Phoenix:

Once upon a time, there was a very smart man, Ira Magaziner, who devised a 1000-page plan — dubbed the Greenhouse Compact — to reinvent Rhode Island’s flagging economy by using $750 million in public investment to seed the high-tech businesses and high-wage jobs of the future. Yet despite broad support across business and labor, voters resoundingly rejected the plan because of concerns about prototypical Ocean State insider dealing.

That was in 1984.

Magaziner went on to work in the Clinton White House and to become a prosperous consultant. Yet 24 years later, the need to reinvent Rhode Island’s economic infrastructure — which remains anemic compared with most of its neighbors in New England — is more urgent than ever.

With a crushing $434 million deficit looming for the next fiscal year, the situation is exacerbated by how Rhode Island is just one of nine US states in a recession.

To name a few key indicators, the state is shedding jobs and residents; infrastructure is crumbling (weight restrictions have been placed on a few bridges, including one on Interstate 95 in Pawtucket); and corruption remains a concern (as seen by the ongoing trial in US District Court of two former officials with drug-store giant CVS, one of the few large corporations headquartered here). ....

Where are we headed?

It’s enough to make one wonder, as Jimmy Breslin titled his book about the 1962 New York Mets — one of the worst teams in baseball history — “Can’t anybody here play this game?” (Even by this historic standard of incompetence, Rhode Island compares poorly; the Mets unexpectedly became world champions seven years later, in 1969 — in less than a third of the time that has elapsed since voters rejected the Greenhouse Compact.)

So, will the state continue on its current path, taking the proverbial two steps forward and three steps back?

It depends. Although the impending deficit means that things will get worse before they get better, the view of the future divides into two camps.

The optimists think the state’s short-term woes obscure positive changes that are setting the stage for a brighter future. Like the Greenhouse Compact before it, the EDC’s Economic Growth Plan 2008 targets the creation of more high-wage jobs and a strategic repositioning of the local economy.

Skeptics, however, think the state continues to nibble around the edges of real change, and that Rhode Island’s longtime status as the economic sick man of New England will persist without more dramatic action.

Filed Under: Carcieri, Budget, General Assembly, Jobs/economic development

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5 Comments

John Torgan said:

Oh, come on, Ian! I can't believe that you think the Quonset container port was a needed infrastructure improvement killed by NIMBYism. The truth is that it was a speculative venture that proved to have no backing from private industry once people started asking questions. It would have wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, messed up the Bay, and for whose benefit? I've learned to live with that kind of revisionist history from some of your competitors, but I expect better from you. JT

May 22, 2008 7:26 PM
Ian said:

John, Yes, I oversimplified the port issue in handling it with a brief mention, but the larger point remains true -- that NIMBYism does stand in the way of a variety of economic improvements.

May 22, 2008 7:51 PM
Joe Bernstein said:

Ira Magaziner was the key player in Hillary Clinton's Star Chamber group that was going to re-do the health care system in the US.I moved to RI in 1984 and didn't vote that year so I had no voice on the Greenhouse Compact.Magaziner makes me distrustful because I think he is somewhat of an elitist who knows "what's best' for us "little people".Health care is not a national security issue where secrecy can be justified-it is an issue that IS the business of each and every one of us.Health care is the great common issue-most of us will get sick and all of us will die,mostly from illness.

May 22, 2008 11:55 PM
John Torgan said:

Thanks for the clarification, Ian. I don't disagree. What frustrates me is that the conservative pundits seem to think that the only real economic development comes from industrial mega-projects. What they miss is that our best economic and cultural assets are the Bay and the southern coast. We haven't found a way to really measure that value accurately. Industrial development is important, but it would be foolish to pursue it at the expense of the environment and the character of our coastal communities. Let me know if you want to take another boat ride to discuss this! Best regards, John

May 23, 2008 1:05 PM
Ian said:

It'd be great to go out on the boat again! I agree with your point, and hopefully the effort to promote "green jobs," which I've written about previously in the Phoenix, will also yield dividends.

May 23, 2008 3:23 PM

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Can RI gets its econ-development act together?

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