• RIPTA, the public transit system, has a debilitating money crunch when its services are needed more than ever;
• The Rhode Island GOP has proven incapable in recent history of functioning as a meaningful alternative party in the General Assembly;
• Operation Dollar Bill, the federal probe of legislative-influence peddling, has seemingly run out of steam;
• And the Providence Journal, which has long played an important watchdog role in Rhode Island, continues to shrink, preparing to implement what are believed to be the first economic layoffs in its long history (see “Journal job cuts: Practical or self-destructive?,” This just in).
Raising the focus on RI’s strengths
More than anything else, the magnitude of the budget problems facing the state fostered heightened agreement between the legislature and Governor Donald L. Carcieri in the last session. Since the same issues remain, something similar can be expected to happen this time around, at least in facing the most imminent needs.
The specter of gridlock hovers near the surface, though, with conservatives taking legislative Democrats to task for a lack of long-term budgetary acumen, and with liberals faulting Carcieri’s emphasis on illegal immigration as a distraction from the state’s most serious issues.
This happens at a time when the state desperately needs leadership and a measure of consensus on a plan to restore a better economic footing for the future.
As it stands, says Leonard Lardaro, an economics professor at the University of Rhode Island, “A lot of this is what goes for democracy in Rhode Island. People are getting from our state’s economy exactly what we have demanded from our leaders, which is nothing.”
For his part, Lardaro, who has anticipated some of the state’s economic woes, has come to believe that Rhode Island “must have a full-time legislature, dramatically downsized from its current size, with four-year terms and a limit of two terms.” Cost savings would enable the creation of research staff to allow due diligence, and he favors a line-item veto for the governor.
With a ProJo op-ed on September 28, Ramon Martinez, the president and CEO of Progreso Latino, and a former US Air Force lieutenant colonel, added his voice to the debate. He called for Rhode Island to take up two-year budgets, as well as a two-step authorization-appropriation process that, he says, would enhance transparency and accountability in government.
While these ideas may have merit, whether they will be embraced by the General Assembly is questionable. And Massachusetts has a full-time legislature, which has its own problems.
A more feasible, more centrist alternative may exist in “A blueprint for Sustainable Prosperity and Enhanced Quality of Place,” a just-released candidate briefing book prepared by Grow Smart Rhode Island (growsmartri.org), which promotes sustainable development in the state.
Scott Wolf, Grow Smart’s executive director, believes that far more focus needs to be placed on Rhode Island’s strengths and enhancing the state’s economic viability through its traditional character. As he notes, a balanced budget is no cause for celebration if it is joined by high unemployment and other negative economic indicators.
“I think we are still a state with tremendous untapped potential,” says Wolf, who published a ProJo op-ed, headlined, “Why RI should eschew doom and gloom,” in December 2007. “What concerns me is that if we continue focusing on our weaknesses” — and such diversions as illegal immigration — “we may never get to tapping our assets.”
