August 21, 2013

Fixing RI Part 2: Why go green

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Yesterday, I presented a suite of “big ideas” that Rhode Island leaders need to embrace in order to correct out state’s economic course. To recap: they must realize that Rhode Island is its own economic entity and gear policy accordingly. They must look outward and tap into international markets. And they must develop and steward a unique, exportable product.

This product? Sustainability.

Environmental non-profits like the Sierra Club have been championing this for years. Former Congressional candidate David Segal included this as a significant piece of his platform in 2010, and our current Congressional delegation – our junior Senator in particular – have pushed for environmentally-friendly carbon-reducing initiatives at the federal level. For some reason, though, Rhode Island has not taken to this idea (apparently the governor and the RIEDC have come up with some sort of sustainable development plan, but every link that came up in a Google search was broken and neither the RIEDC nor the governor’s websites make any mention of it). But it could work, and it will take myriad stakeholders working together cooperatively to make it a reality.

So why the green economy? And why now? Overwhelming scientific evidence suggests that climate change is real and will affect our quality of life in the near future. This new reality has resulted in the development of a worldwide market for technologies to address this situation, with a huge potential for economic growth for those who are able to seize on this opportunity. The US as a whole has been relatively slow to pursue this avenue – in fact, as we all know, there exists more than a handful of members of Congress who deny that climate change is real. National energy policy will remain focused on coal, oil, and natural gas with a token nod to the renewable energy sector. Therefore, it is up to us at the local level to invest in the future. Rhode Island can’t afford to wait to do so, either. Portland, Oregon has already decided to bill itself as the sustainable capital of the West, and its economic development and comprehensive plans both reflect this. By focusing heavily on innovation and collaboration in this sector, it is positioning itself to be a global leader in the “green” market. It is only a matter of time before some metro region on the East coast decides to do the same. There is no reason why Rhode Island cannot be the sustainable capital of the East. Stakeholders should be convened to discuss and develop a collaborative plan to harness the state’s vast idle resources and together create a new sustainable, outward-looking regional economy.

Tomorrow, I’ll explore what this kind of approach might look like, and why we need to act now.

August 21, 2013August 21, 2013

Boston pol says no thanks to Raimondo’s husband’s group

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A former charter school teacher running for mayor of Boston turned down a half million dollars from a so-called education reform group today.

“I did not request any contribution and I do not want any contribution,” said John Connelly according to the Boston Globe about a $500,000 independent expenditure from Stand for Children.

It turns out its bad form in Boston politics to take money from groups pushing that pro-corporate form of reform. Here’s how Boston Magazine described the spurned donor:

The group in question is called Stand For Children, and they are not stealthy. They may be wrong-headed, or perhaps even controlled by evil corporatists, but they’re pretty upfront about what they’re doing. They spend a whole lot of money on certain kinds of school-reform measures.

If the way Stand for Children is throwing money at local politics sounds a bit like the way the pro-pension cutting political group Engage RI did so here, well that isn’t the ed reform’s group only connection to pension politics. Gina Raimondo’s husband Andy Moffitt is also a member of its board of directors.

Here’s the write-up about him on Stand for Children’s website:

Andy Moffit is a Senior Practice Expert and member of core leadership team for McKinsey & Company’s Global Education Practice. Since co-founding the Global Education Practice in 2005, Andy has worked with multiple large urban districts, state education departments and charter management organizations to markedly improve system performance and close achievement gaps. He co-authored a recent book, Deliverology 101: A Field Guide for School System Leaders (Corwin Press, 2010), which describes key success factors and steps in driving results in global school system reforms. Before joining McKinsey, Andy was an elementary school teacher in an inner-city school in Houston, Texas as a corps member of Teach For America.

And here’s one of Stand for Children’s founders talking about how the group used pension politics in Illinois to help drive a wedge between labor and Democrats.

August 21, 2013August 21, 2013

Wheels are coming off the local tea party too

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The Republican Party “is acting as if the entire world is a GOP primary,” moderately conservative talking head Mike Murphy told Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post. “That is a very dangerous way to operate. We have massive image problems with the greater electorate, and the silly antics of the purist wing are making our dire problems even worse.”

Allen, in his piece titled “Republicans are their own worst political enemy,” then went on to list a number of examples from across the country in which what he called the “tea party wing” has become the biggest thorn in the side of the GOP “- more than anything Democrats have done,” he wrote.

Is a similar struggle going on here in the Ocean State in which the moderate wing of the GOP is being overshadowed by the conservative fringe? Let’s go through a partial list of ways in which the Rhode Island Republican Party has made news recently and ask yourself if to political outsiders the local GOP looks more like John Chafee or Barry Goldwater.

Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin says he joined the GOP. This comes after he led a very high-profile and divisive campaign against same sex marriage. At the announcement he was asked for his opinion on “abolishing the welfare state and encouraging private charity in its place. ‘I think Jesus would say that’s terrific,’ Tobin replied.”
North Kingstown Rep. Doreen Costa, one of the most fiscally and socially conservative legislators in the state, demands an apology after confusion over whom she asked the Bishop to punish at that same meeting. Cranston Rep. Art Handy chided Costa in a press release after WPRI reported that she and others asked Bishop Thomas Tobin if he could somehow “punish” legislators who supported same sex marriage. Costa insists she was talking about the congressional delegation’s support of Obamacare. “My conversation had nothing to do with the civil rights of the gay community as Mr. Handy said,” she said in a press release that did not address the larger issue that she was accused of asking the church to help meter out political punishment.
Tea partiers and other local hard-line fiscal conservatives led and promoted a protest over a toll on the Sakonnet River Bridge that had already been reduced from $2 to ten cents (that the state has said it won’t actively collect). When the tolls were set fire the day before the protest, both Matt Allen, of WPRO, and Justin Katz, editor of the Anchor Rising blog and employee of a anti-public sector think tank, both said the fire was a sign of how irate people were about the situation. Organizers distanced themselves from the arson but advocated for lawful forms of sabotage such as sending toll payments in checks to make collecting the fee onerous for the state.
Woonsocket group, RI Taxpayers organization sues the city of Woonsocket over a tax increase that was instituted by the state-appointed Budget Commission after two ALEC-aligned local legislators defied the mayor and City Council by defeating a similar proposal in 2012. At issue is that the city doesn’t have enough taxable revenue to pay school costs.
Right wing think tank RI Center for Freedom and Prosperity send out an email alert denying climate change. Yep, the same group that wants you to believe the doing away with all sales tax would be good for Rhode Island want to you to also know they think climate change is a myth.
GOP Chairman Mark Smiley and Anchor Rising blogger Patrick Laverty both accuse the General Assembly of focusing more on the so-called “calamari bill” than fixing the economy. It would be hard but not impossible to quantify but I’d be willing to bet the aforementioned conservatives in this post have talked about the so-called “calamari bill” more than the entire rest of the state combined, and well more than the General Assembly ever did. It’s certainly true that the talking point has more legs with the far right than the legislation ever did with the rest of Rhode Island.

August 21, 2013August 22, 2013

Activists to protest hotel’s $9 million tax break

Union activists and Providence residents plan to protest the Renaissance Hotel in Providence at 4:45 today because of a $9 million tax break they say the business gets from the city. The protesters plan to present hotel management with an over-sized gag check for $9 million they want them to sign over to city residents.

Here’s the press release from Andrew Tillett-Saks, an organizer with Unite Here Local 217 for a detailed account of why people are taking to the streets:

Dozens of Providence residents and area workers will hold a demonstration on Wednesday demanding that corporate welfare immediately end for the luxury Renaissance Hotel. Several organizations will participate in delivering an oversized ‘check’ to Renaissance Hotel Management to symbolize the nine millions dollar tax exemption the hotel receives from the City of Providence, as well as holding a demonstration outside of the hotel to protest the tax break for the controversial employer. The Hotel is scheduled to receive an additional tax savings of approximately eight to ten million dollars through an agreement with the City, extracting benefits that go far beyond its original purpose. The attendees believe that Providence will be better off without corporate handouts going to failed projects like 38 Studios or successful luxury hotels, and specifically decried the tax exemption for the wealthy Procaccianti Group which has recently come under scrutiny for its treatment of its workers at the hotel.

The Providence City Council introduced an ordinance to review the Renaissance Hotel’s tax break in the month of July. A tense standoff has ensued between The Procaccianti Group, who stand to lose millions if the tax exemption is repealed, and many Providence residents who feel the exemption is unfair and bad for the city.

Despite the December 2012 change in ownership to The Procaccianti Group, the corporate tax breaks have stayed in place. “Why is my employer, a multi-million dollar hotel company who’s paying lower taxes than a Providence small business, paying me such low wages?” questioned one Renaissance Hotel employee Santa Brito.

“This is the City’s version of the 38 Studios fiasco,” said Juan Goris, a Providence resident in attendance at the demonstration. “Hard-working tax-payers keep bearing the burden while the rich give nothing back.”

The tax breaks continue to be provided at a time when the RI unemployment rate is still one of the highest rates in the country. Meanwhile, many Providence residents who have found work, are still struggling to make ends meet. According to the RI Kids Count 2012, over 35% of the children in Providence are part of families living below the federal poverty line.

Meanwhile, Providence for several consecutive years has been struggling to balance its budget – threatening the quality of public education, and city services like parks and policing. Most recently, the City felt forced to raise homeowner taxes approximately 6% citywide. As a result, homeowners in some of Providence’s poorest neighborhoods will see their yearly property tax bill rise hundreds of dollars. Previously, the City successfully negotiated increased payments in leiu of taxes (PILOT) with several of the City’s tax exempt institutions, like Brown University and Providence College. It also renegotiated Agreements with City workers for further savings.

Originally, the Tax Stabilization Agreement was approved in 2003 as a way to redevelop a blighted area in the heart of the capital city, an unfinished, size adjective, Masonic Temple that had been abandoned since 1929. At the time, the project was praised by Mayor Cicilline and City Council members. During the original passage, one council member explained the purpose of the Agreement: “This is about providing good jobs for our residents as we continue to spur new economic development activity in Providence.”

Rhode Island Jobs with Justice, a coalition of labor unions and community groups, will be sponsoring the demonstration.

The Cranston City Council recently stopped The Procaccianti Group’s proposed Phenix Lodge luxury apartment complex. One of the Council’s concerns was whether or not the project would actually generate revenue for the City assured by The Procaccianti Group.

August 21, 2013August 22, 2013

Progressive Dems deliver letters to RI senators

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Each month, members of the Progressive Democrats of America across the country drop letters at the offices of our national representatives. Here is the letter we are delivering to our Senators this month. (This is the Whitehouse letter. The Reed letter is nearly identical.)

In the Spirit of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., we call on you to mark the 50th Anniversary of the historic March on Washington by cosponsoring, speaking out, and supporting Senate 123: The Voter Empowerment Act of 2013. Right-wing state legislators in states like North Carolina, Texas, and Rhode Island are launching an unprecedented assault on the right to vote. It is time to take a stand and protect the most fundamental right of our democracy.

We are also writing to encourage you to introduce a Senate version of Representative Keith Ellison’s Inclusive Prosperity Act (H.R. 1579). Also known as the Robin Hood Tax, this financial speculation tax would generate hundreds of billions of dollars to fund job creation, help the economy, and protect the social safety net. Ultimately, the goal of the Inclusive Prosperity Act is to strengthen the Harkin-DeFazio compromise bill you have cosponsored.* Without a large number of Democrats endorsing a fully robust financial speculation tax, the compromise effort runs the risk of being watered down even further.

We would like to thank you for your work to prevent a hike in student loan interest rates. We do believe it would have been wiser to make a stronger bill like Elizabeth Warren’s the initial Democratic offer, allowing for Senator Reed’s bill as the final compromise. However, we view it as an extremely positive development that a group of anti-debt Senators got organized to fight this battle. The wing of the party with sensible views on economic issues has been far too silent for far too long. We hope that our Senators will continue to work with Elizabeth Warren, Mazie Hirono, Barbara Boxer, Richard Blumenthal, and other pro-growth Senators to fight for common sense policies designed to help restore growth to our lagging economy.

Progressives find it frustrating that, even though there is widespread agreement among economists (including fairly conservative ones) that monetary stimulus programs should be expanded, liberals in Congress do not push for more easing. Instead, liberals, if they do weigh in on monetary policy, tend to defend Bernanke (who was, let us not forget, a Bush nominee) against the extremist Ron Paul/Ayn Rand stance of the modern Republicans. Even some of the most moderate of today’s Republicans would like to see an actively deflationary monetary policy of the sort that caused the Long Depression in the late Nineteenth Century.

As a result, monetary policy winds up falling somewhere between where Bush’s Fed would like it and where Paul Ryan would like it. What this means is that monetary policy has been so tight that the Fed has actually allowed the inflation rate to fall below its target (a target that liberals would argue is far too low). This is such a violation of old-school conservative monetary policy that we recently had the spectacle of the notedly hawkish conservative James Bullard voting against Bernanke’s monetary policy because it was so tight!

If Democrats in Congress were willing to push for more expansionary monetary policy, we would probably wind up with roughly centrist policy, which would probably entail pushing unemployment down to around 5-6%, allowing inflation to rise to around 4-5%. This would make Obama very popular and ensure that we keep the Senate in 2014 and the Presidency in 2016. We fear that a status quo candidate like Yellen, while better than Summers, might actually continue with Bernanke’s plan to “taper” monetary stimulus programs in 2014, weakening the economy right before the 2014 elections and handing the Senate to the Republicans. But if even a small handful of Senators push for an expansion of monetary stimulus, we will likely prevent the looming monetary austerity package.

We strongly encourage our Senators to push for an expansion of easing programs to fight low inflation and high unemployment. So while we are happy that you signed onto the letter because its implicit goal was to oppose Summers, we still do have considerable concerns about Yellen and would prefer a more pro-growth Fed Chairwoman, with Christina Romer probably being the most realistic acceptable choice.

Finally, we join with the George Wiley Center to thank you for fighting to maintain the SNAP program, and we ask that you provide us with the names and contact information for your staffers responsible for all of these issues.

*Senator Reed has not cosponsored Harkin-DeFazio.