January 28, 2016

5 minute house debate: Remembering Buddy

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Not really a debate, the House engaged in eulogizing controversial former Providence Mayor Vincent ‘Buddy’ Cianci who had died earlier that day at age 74. Rep. John J. DeSimone and Rep. Nicholas A. Mattiello shared what I would think of as ordinary remembrances and didn’t make the cut.

But Rep. Charlene Lima and Rep. Raymond A. Hull‘s remembrances have to be seen and heard to be believed.

Featuring amazing mental images such as: five priests drinking in a secret bar at City Hall, Ray Hull tucking Cianci into bed at night and a big, bad, handsome “psychopath” biting a man’s ear off, this was not a typical day at the State House.

The ProJo reports that John Gary Robichaud “had disguised himself as a priest to steal a $66,000 payroll from an armored-car at the state Department of Employment Security.” Robichaud “was convicted, and escaped from the state prison a few months later. Cianci, who feared that the robber might come after him, slept with a gun by his bed for a few weeks — until Robichaud’s bullet-riddled body turned up in Massachusetts.”

January 28, 2016January 28, 2016

Truck Tolls, Take 2: Revised plan presented

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State leaders presented their revised truck toll plan at the State House today, with legislation being introduced in both the House and the Senate this afternoon.

“This proposal fixes our roads and bridges and is good for our economy,” said Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello, “We are not going to be last any more.”

“New plan expressly prohibits tolling passenger vehicles because this was “important to Rhode Islanders,” said Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed.

RIDOT director Peter Alviti, Jr. said 150 structurally deficient bridges and 50 not quite deficient bridges will be repaired over the next ten years in this plan. 14 gantry locations have been identified “right now.”

By 2025 we will have the bridges in this state only 10% structurally deficient, said Alviti.

We have requests for an additionally $600 million in repair requests from local cities and towns, said Alviti.

RhodeWorks is the same program, funding is different, said Alviti.

This will rely on Garvey bond/financing, with some savings through refinancing, said Raimondo, Mattiello and Paiva Weed. It leverages federal money.

It’s the way these things are always done in Rhode Island, said Raimondo.

Connecticut will be tolling cars and trucks next year, said Mattiello. “We can’t have a robust economy with the worst infrastructure in the country.”

“It’s the best approach for Rhode Islanders,” said Mattiello. “Don’t listen to the rhetoric of trucks today, cars tomorrow.”

The RI Constitution is a “sacred document and you don’t change it over de minimus issues,” said Mattiello.

“The avoidance and diversion issue is not as real an issue as some people suggest,” said Mattiello, in essence denying that trucks will drive too far out of their way to avoid tolls.

Here’s the press release:

Governor Gina M. Raimondo, House Speaker Nicholas A. Mattiello, and Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed this afternoon announced revised RhodeWorks legislation that takes into account new federal funding. The legislation puts people back to work repairing our crumbling infrastructure and provides the reliable, sustainable source of revenue necessary to rebuild our bridges, which are ranked the worst in the country.

With the addition of the new federal funding, the revised legislation cuts the amount of bonding in half (from $600 million to $300 million) and reduces interest costs by more than 65%. The legislation also strengthens the prohibition on tolling passenger vehicles by adding a condition that a vote of the people be required for any legislative changes to toll cars.

See the comparison here: http://www.dot.ri.gov/documents/news/RhodeWorks_Bill_Comparison.pdf
And a fact sheet on the updates here: http://www.dot.ri.gov/documents/news/RhodeWorks_Fact_Sheet.pdf

The legislation will be introduced this afternoon in the House by Majority Leader John DeSimone and in the Senate by Majority Leader Dominick Ruggerio.

The Governor, Speaker, and Senate President issued the following statements today:

Governor Gina M. Raimondo

“I am grateful for the partnership of the Speaker and Senate President to take action and get this done. Rhode Island has the worst bridges in the country: we’re ranked 50th out of 50 states. We can no longer afford the politics of procrastination; we need to invest more. This proposal will allow us to move quickly to repair our roads and bridges, and put Rhode Islanders back to work, without raising taxes on Rhode Island families and small businesses.

“Because of new federal funding, we were able to strengthen the proposal: we’ve lowered the maximum truck toll amount, decreased the number of gantries, and significantly reduced the state’s interest payments. I look forward to continuing to work with the House and Senate to pass this legislation and grow our economy.”

House Speaker Nicholas A. Mattiello:

“I commend the Governor for taking into account the additional federal highway funding heading to our state and proposing a vastly improved plan to the legislature that will create jobs, increase our state’s wealth, and most importantly, repair our badly deficient roads, bridges and overpasses. A sound infrastructure is essential to a thriving economy, and this is a step we must take to be more competitive with other states. The new federal money also allows our state to borrow much less with greatly reduced interest costs and risk.

“Despite the scare tactics of opponents of this proposal who only want to hold our economy back, the toll plan only includes large commercial trucks. There are now safeguards in the legislation to assure our citizens that tolls will never be extended to cars without voter approval.”

Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed:

“The passage of federal highway funding in December has enabled the development of a new RhodeWorks plan that dramatically reduces borrowing. Most Rhode Islanders agree we need to invest in our roads and bridges. The Governor’s RhodeWorks plan remains the best proposal to address this challenge. It provides the surge in funding which is necessary to accomplish projects quickly, and save taxpayers from more costly repairs in the long run. It would toll only large tractor trailer trucks, the ones causing most of the vehicle-caused damage to our roads and bridges, while expressly prohibiting extension of tolls to passenger vehicles.”

[From a press release]

January 28, 2016January 28, 2016

5 minute house debate: Charter Schools

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In a mildly contentious House debate, Reps passed 2016-H 7051, legislation that would require the approval of a city or town council to establish or expand a charter school.

Featuring Rep. Antonio Giarrusso, Rep. Michael J. Marcello, Rep. Gregg Amore, Rep. John J. DeSimone, Rep. David A. Coughlin, Jr., Rep. Patricia A. Serpa (who introduced the legislation) and Rep. Patricia L. Morgan.

The bill passed the House, 60 to 11 and now heads to the Senate, where a companion bill, 2015-S 2019 is being considered in the Senate Education Committee.

January 28, 2016January 27, 2016

Minority and low-income communities are targeted for hazardous waste sites, research confirms

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Decades of research show a clear pattern of racial and socioeconomic discrimination when it comes to siting facilities for hazardous waste disposal, polluting industrial plants and other land uses that are disproportionately located in minority and low-income communities.

But what’s been less clear is whether the placement of these facilities was deliberate on the part of the facilities’ owners and public policymakers, or if the noxious facilities came first, leading to disproportionately higher concentrations of low-income residents and minorities moving into the surrounding community.

In order to test both theories, Paul Mohai of the University of Michigan and Robin Saha of the University of Montana analyzed 30 years of demographic data about the placement of 319 commercial hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facilities.

By looking at the demographic composition of neighborhoods at the time each hazardous waste facility was built and comparing that with the demographic changes that occurred after the facility began operation, they determined that existing minority and low-income communities were, without doubt, targeted.

The full results of Mohai and Saha’s studies were summarized in a pair of papers published by the journal Environmental Research Letters late last year, one in November, the other in December.

“We conclude that racial discrimination and sociopolitical explanations (i.e., the proposition that siting decisions follow the ‘path of least resistance’) best explain present-day inequities,” they wrote in the November paper.

The researchers say that NIMBYism (“Not In My Backyard”) in more affluent, white communities causes industry to target communities with fewer resources and political clout.

Some demographic changes did occur near hazardous waste facilities after they were built, but Mohai and Saha say they were surprised to find that these changes were mostly a continuation of pre-existing population trends.

That is, the two researchers found that hazardous waste sites were frequently built in transitional neighborhoods, where wealthier, white residents had already begun moving out and poor, minority residents had already been moving in for a decade or more prior to the facility’s construction.

Being in states of transition only further erodes the resources and political clout of the impacted communities, according to Mohai and Saha, making them, so to speak, easy targets.

“Areas with large numbers of people of color with limited resources and political clout have limited ability to fend off new unwanted facility siting,” they wrote.

“Furthermore, areas undergoing demographic changes are also areas vulnerable to declining social capital, resources, and political clout, as demographic change may represent the weakening of social ties, the loss of community leaders, and weakening of civic organizations.”

These studies could finally lay to rest the idea that the siting of polluting industrial facilities in low-income and minority communities is somehow anything but the result of structural discrimination.

“Contrary to earlier beliefs about post-siting demographic change, neighborhood transition may serve to attract noxious facilities, rather than the facilities themselves attracting people of color and low-income populations,” Mohai said in a statement.

[Reprinted from DeSmog Blog with permission]