June 13, 2014 – RI Future

June 13, 2014June 13, 2014

Chafee supports statewide minimum wage

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What works for Seattle doesn’t necessarily work for Providence, said a Chafee spokeswoman when asked if the governor supports legislating a statewide minimum wage.

“Because of our uniqueness and size, sound economic policy for Rhode Island calls for a statewide minimum wage rather than a patchwork of wage thresholds,” said Faye Zuckerman, Governor Chafee’s communications director. “The Governor is cognizant of how different geographically we are from many other states such as Washington.”

Although the issue isn’t the same as in Seattle, which recently enacted a $15 city-wide minimum wage, the governor was responding to a municipal minimum wage issue. A group of hotel workers did an end-run around the traditional minimum wage debate by petitioning the Providence City Council to implement a $15 minimum wage for the hotel industry.

After considerable political jockeying, the City Council voted last night to put the issue on the November ballot. But that happened shortly after the state House of Representatives passed a budget item that prohibits cities and towns from setting a minimum wage higher than the state rate.

The state Senate is poised to act on the budget bill Monday. “I can say there is agreement on the budget,” said Senate spokesman Greg Pare.

Zuckerman offered no hints if the governor will sign the budget, saying he “is still reviewing and evaluating the budget. He will examine the budget as a whole and then make a decision.”

June 13, 2014June 13, 2014

Brett Smiley’s ad: I’m a nerd with a sense of humor

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Progressives have a tough choice when it comes to whom to support for mayor of Providence. Will liberals like Jorge Elorza, the Latino housing court judge who grew up in Providence. Will they break for Lorne Adrain, the former chairman of the former state education board who lives on the East Side? Will they go for the safe bet and support City Councilor Michael Solomon? Or maybe (for some strange reason) they’d even vote for Buddy Cianci.

With his first tv ad, Brett Smiley is hoping they’ll appreciate a technocrat with a sense of humor.

June 13, 2014

PVD City Councillor John Igliozzi: No tax breaks if you pay less than $15

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During his statements preceding the Providence City Council vote to put the measure granting $15 an hour to hotel workers on November’s ballot, Councillor John Igliozzi suggested an idea that should be given real consideration by all city and town councils in the state.

Igliozzi pointed out that if the Rhode Island General Assembly were to deny cities and towns in Rhode Island the right to set minimum wages within their municipalities, then property tax breaks, called “tax stabilization agreements” in Providence, should only be granted to those businesses that agree to pay their employees at least $15 an hour. Igliozzi pointed out that these agreements are contracts between city governments and the businesses, and that any legally enforceable clause can be included.

The General Assembly cannot interfere in such deals through their usual means of legislative end runs.

It’s a great idea and it should be implemented immediately. No further tax stabilization deals should even be considered in Providence without a legally binding guarantee of a $15 minimum wage for all workers, hired or contracted, at the business seeking the tax break. Further, companies with more than one business in Rhode Island, like The Procaccianti Group, which owns three hotels and pays its workers subpar wages, should be denied future tax breaks on future properties until all its businesses start paying a $15 wage.

June 13, 2014

PVD City Council puts $15 hotel worker wage on Nov. ballot

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Shortly after the Rhode Island House decided that working men and women should not have the right to petition their city government for fair wages and instead stripped all municipalities in the state of any power to do so, the Providence City Council in an unanimous decision, passed a measure to put the $15 minimum wage for hotel workers on the ballot for voters in the fall.

The efforts of the Providence City Council may be for naught. If the state Senate approves the budget as is, and if Governor Chafee signs the budget into law, then the citizens of Providence will not have the right to set minimum wages in their city, even if 100% of the city’s residents were to demand it.

This is called democracy, Mattiello style.

However, the measure is not dead yet, and some members of the Providence City Council seem intent on sending a signal to the General Assembly indicating that they are not going to sit back and have their ability to govern so cavalierly severed. Councillors Igliozzi and Aponte were especially vocal in pointing out that several businesses in Providence are requesting tax relief, and suggested that such relief should only be given if the businesses agree to pay their workers a living wage.

June 13, 2014June 13, 2014

RI House to hotel workers and PVD City Council: screw you

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Last night the Rhode Island House passed a measure in the budget that would eliminate the ability of cities and towns in Rhode Island to set their own minimum wage. Though the bill was targeted to stifle a proposal before the Providence City Council, Representative Ray Gallison, chairman of the House Finance Committee, inserted the new state mandate into the budget bill, which effectively cut off any debate or public comment.

In an effort to combat that proposal, Rep. Maria Cimini, a Providence progressive, introduced an amendment that would allow voters in the city to set the minimum wage by ballot initiatives. But in a curious turn of events withdrew her measure after Rep. Michael Chippendale, a Foster Republican, asked if the language as written would allow cities and towns to lower the minimum wage to $2 an hour.

In response, Cimini asked that Gallison’s bill be taken out of the budget and voted on separately. More debate followed, but the conservative, pro-business members of the General Assembly passed Gallison’s measure 57 to 17. This with no real debate and no public comment. Democracy in action.

Along the way jokes were made, several reps pretended to understand economic policy and an exciting night of politics was had by all.

Somehow though, it was forgotten that the entire reason for Gallison’s bill, the entire reason this was being discussed in the General Assembly at all, was because a small group of hotel workers, men and women working long hours for little pay and less respect, dared to believe that their democratically-elected government might work for them, instead of for the powerful forces of money and business.

One can imagine the panic on the faces of the new leadership in the House as they realized that people were rising up and demanding economic policies and laws that benefited the many over the few and the have-nots over the haves. One can further imagine the smug look of satisfaction that passed over their faces as they crafted a plan to take away the tiny amount of political power these working mothers and fathers had access to.

After all, how dare someone who has never had the money to donate to a political campaign believe that the system will work for anyone except the rich, the entitled and the well-connected. With a laugh and a smile and barely concealed contempt for everything these working men and women have attempted, Speaker Nicholas Mattiello and the Rhode Island House of Representatives stomped on the rights and the dreams of good people suffering crippling poverty as if it were the most common and expected thing in the world.

Because, sadly, it is.