April 14, 2016

Bill Clinton campaigns in Rhode Island

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“You’ve been good to us, Rhode Island,” said former President Bill Clinton campaigning for his spouse at CCRI today. “You don’t owe us anything.”

They may not get anything from Rhode Island either, as Hillary Clinton is embroiled in an unexpected upstart challenge from Bernie Sanders both here in the Ocean State – which has a rare opportunity to cast meaningful votes in a presidential primary because of Sanders’ surge – and in the remaining 20 some states to vote in the Democratic presidential primary election on April 26.

When Governor Gina Raimondo introduced Clinton, she said, “I was just talking with President Clinton and he said we have to crank it up here in Rhode Island.” Clinton and Sanders have split the only two polls done on their race with a tie breaker expected to come soon.

“I believe America would work a lot better if it worked liked a community college,” said Clinton, speaking from the cafeteria of the Community College of Rhode Island, because they are diverse, affordable and enlightening.

Later in his address, he said he doesn’t think America can afford to make public college free for all, a central plank of the Sanders campaign. Instead, he said student loans should be more affordable and flexible. “A college loan is the only loan that can’t be refinanced in America,” Clinton said.

It wasn’t the only time Clinton took a stab at Sanders’ platform.

Mostly Clinton offered pretty progressive-sounding policy tips. Being anti-immigrant, he said, is “morally wrong and economically dumb.” On the drug overdose epidemic, he said, “You can’t treat it like a crime problem, you have to treat it like a public health problem.”

He said he believes America is on the cusp of a big economic boom, and that his wife is the best candidate to usher in that boom. He even had an idea for how to put Americans back to work while solving another public health problem. “Just imagine how many jobs we could create that could never be exported if we tore out all the lead pipes.”

April 14, 2016

Making sure we all make it in Rhode Island

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Last year, the General Assembly and the governor took an important first step to help thousands of working families make ends meet by increasing the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) — a tax benefit for workers earning $50,000 or less — to 12.5 percent of the federal credit.

As the Ocean State strives to become a place where all families can enjoy our natural beauty while maintaining affordable housing, nutritious food, and a quality education, a further increase to the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit is a common-sense tax policy we should all rally behind. An increased state EITC means 83,000 Rhode Island taxpayers are rewarded for working hard to keep their families afloat.

That is why, for the second consecutive year, we have introduced legislation in the House and Senate to further increase the state EITC to 20 percent of the federal credit. With our legislation, a family qualifying for the maximum EITC will receive a tax credit worth up to $1,248—a significant amount for our struggling working families.

Massachusetts and Connecticut have adopted the refundable state EITC as smart policy to support working families, with refundable credits of 23 percent and 27.5 percent, respectively.

The paychecks of too many Rhode Island workers have fallen behind and our current tax structure does not provide adequate relief. Of the 50 occupations expected to produce the most job openings by 2022, nearly one in four jobs will pay less than $11 an hour, the amount the Economic Progress Institute (EPI) finds a single adult needs to earn to meet his or her most basic needs and less than half of what a single parent of two children requires.

We all benefit from living in a state where hard work is rewarded. An increased EITC helps our workforce but it also helps our local economies. More money in the pockets of working Rhode Islanders means more money in the cash registers of supermarkets, retailers, and other local businesses. The return on investment is large. The Economic Progress Institute estimates that increasing the EITC to 20 percent would not only put $12 million in pockets of working families, but add approximately $15 million to the economy through the multiplier effect. Raising the EITC to 15 percent, as proposed by the governor, would put $4 million in the pockets of working families, and add around $5 million to the economy through the multiplier effect.

With last year’s EITC increase, the General Assembly and the governor took an important step to reduce income inequality in the Ocean State and reward our workers who are doing their best to make it in Rhode Island.

We strongly believe that if you are working, you should not be poor. Raising the minimum wage and expanding EITC is helping those who work for lower wages to get ahead. The very least we can do is increase a common-sense tax credit that helps our hardest workers make ends meet. If we do not, it saps the belief that our state is a place where hard work and persistence can lead to a better life. A state EITC increased to 20 percent of the federal credit is the smartest investment we can make. We can all profit from living in a state where hard work is rewarded, taxes are fairer, and our local businesses thrive.

April 14, 2016April 14, 2016

Lover come back: Will Pawsox, fans kiss and make up

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In the iconic movie about minor league baseball, Bull Durham, the hotcha Susan Sarandon plays Annie Savoy, a diehard fan who worships at the “Church of Baseball,” the home park of a low minors team, the Durham Bulls. She is in essence a sophisticated baseball groupie.

Every year Annie welcomes the new roster of the Bulls. And through the course of the season gives the ballplayers her full-hearted devotion, affection, the finer points of the game and, in some cases, her body. Sarandon immortalized the nickname for her place in the pantheon, “Baseball Annie,” in a wonderful way. All Annie asked from the Bull players in return every year was respect and loving kindness. At the end of the year, it was all good-bye hugs and kisses, and no regrets to the boys of summer, with a new group due in for the same warm embrace in the spring.

At McCoy Stadium, it has never really been about the constantly changing players on the field, but the warmth, family atmosphere and affordable prices that allow folks to get more than their money’s worth. And if that is the future Jim Rice or Fred Lynn or Wade Boggs out there, it is a bonus that will be realized down the road with a boastful, “I saw him when he was at Pawtucket!”

Pawtucket Red Sox fans have become our own version of Baseball Annie, currently at a rift between the adoration of the PawSox in our hearts, and their ill-considered moment of straying from the emotional commitment of their loyal lovers. This was the much-vilified attempt by the new owners of the PawSox to abandon their age-old home of McCoy Stadium in the heart of The Bucket to more glamorous riverside digs in Providence. It left all the Little Rhody Baseball Annies stunned, hurt and more than a little pissed off.

Fortunately, that pie-in-the-sky attempt to drop Baseball Annie in favor of a more upscale relationship in the Capital City blew up in the team’s face. For a number of appallingly obvious reasons, the plan to relocate went down faster than Jeb Bush’s presidential hopes.

Time to make nice

Fortunately, the two new members of the front office management team, President Dr. Charles Steinberg and Sr. V.P./General Manager Dan Rea, seem to understand the Baseball Annie love affair the public has with their franchise. They inherited the mess from last year’s aborted move, which cost the club a big hit in attendance, and after a worthwhile chat with them, seem to fully understand the unspoken dynamic between team and fans.

Even more pleasingly, Vice Chairman Mike Tamburro, he of the perpetual smile and good humor, is still on hand from the legendary troika of he, late owner Ben Mondor, and top executive Lou Schwechheimer, who turned a moribund franchise into one that such New England lifestyle mags as Yankee magazine would recommend as a must-see Biggest Little attraction. And Dr. Steinberg so strongly relies upon Tamburro’s intimate knowledge of the needs and desires to succeed that he adamantly makes the point that he has moved himself into Tamburro’s office to make sure the acquired wisdom can rub off. Even to the point of pledging that he and Rea will be with Tamburro out in the parking lot greeting fans arriving for the game, even if they draw the slightly shocked and bemused reaction Tamburro is used to; most fans not realizing they have been given a personal thank you and warm welcome from the team’s top dog, who is more comfortable on the macadam than in a luxury box.

Steinberg and Rea both emphasize that the PawSox are here to stay in McCoy on a multi-year lease. This is almost a necessity if they want to woo their Annies back, and not seen to be looking over their devoted’s shoulder for yet another field of greener grass. They are making the critical financial commitment to the franchise with subtle improvements all around the 74-year old ballpark, the exception being the large banner atop a building outside the center field fence that shouts outs “Welcome to Pawtucket.” For residents of the city and essentially all Rhode Islanders, that is as good as sending two dozen red roses to their affronted lovers.

Unless my bullshit detector is badly damaged, I believe Steinberg, with Rea nodding in assent, when he says that the word for what they are trying to accomplish to bring their sweethearts back is simply, “Class. Doing things right and treating people well. It’s a two-way street.” And it is a road he, Rea and Tamburro are planning to take to win back the Baseball Annies.

You are lying – or extremely blessed – if you claim that you have never been in a serious relationship with a partner who hasn’t scared or hurt you by wandering for a bit, be it heavy flirting or thinking they can get a better deal dancing cheek-to-cheek with someone else. And chances are, if you knew you had the real thing happening, you sucked it up when apologies were sincerely offered with promises to never do it again. The PawSox have been too good, too faithful and too sincere for Baseball Annies like you and me to cut off our noses to spite our face.

Lover come back, all is forgiven. But don’t you ever, ever do that again. (Please.)

On The Ball And Off The Wall is an occasional sports column by Chip Young, a Rhode Island journalist who was a sportswriter and broadcaster for 25 years. Best known as Phillipe, of Phillipe and Jorge’s Cool, Cool World, Young was also an All-America soccer player in college, and he is in the Brown Athletic Hall of Fame. He has attended PawSox games since before the Mondor rehabilitation of the franchise, and once threw out the first pitch. He still has that ceremonial ball.

April 14, 2016May 3, 2016

Burrillville Town Council secretly negotiating tax deals with Invenergy

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In a stunning revelation, Burrillville Town Council legal counsel Oleg Nikolyszyn confirmed under questioning from Burrillville resident Jeremy Bailey that the council has been secretly negotiating a tax agreement with Invenergy for the proposed gas and oil burning power plant. Before this revelation, the existence of such negotiations may have been suspected, but were not confirmed. Shortly after Nikolyszyn’s revelation, Councillor Kimberly Brissette Brown questioned whether the item was properly before the Council. Council President John Pacheco III said that the item was not properly before the council, and said that if Bailey wanted to discuss the issue of the Council’s tax agreement deliberations with Invenergy, he would have to put that item on the agenda.

How Bailey would know to put previously unknown secret meetings with Invenergy on the agenda was not discussed.

Nikolyszyn’s admission capped a stressful and difficult Burrillville Town Council meeting, in which council members, aided by legal counsel Nikolyszyn, once again said that they have no power to stand against Invenergy. President Pacheco said that if the Town Council doesn’t remain absolutely neutral about the plant, it may seem that they are unfairly influencing various boards, the members of which the Town Council has nominated. Why this level of neutrality is necessary from the Burrillville Town Council in relation to boards they nominate but such neutrality is not necessary for Governor Gina Raimondo, who nominates the members of the Energy Facilities Siting Board and has taken a position in strong support of the power plant, is unknown.

Burrillville resident Jonathan Dyson later followed up with the Town Council about the tax negotiations with Invenergy, asking if there was any board, regulation or law that forced the tax agreement meetings. Despite saying earlier that the item wasn’t properly before the board, Pacheco answered Dyson and maintained that entering into such discussions was a fiduciary duty of the Town Council. Then Pachco added that these negotiations also include the “potential abutters to the power plant,” that is, people who own property next to Invenergy’s land.

Pacheco didn’t explain exactly what this means, but it seems to indicate that Invenergy is actively negotiating what payments, if any, abutters to the project might receive in the event that the power plant is built.

When Dyson then asked the Town Council “under what conditions would the Town Council say no to Invenergy,” Town manager Michael Wood angrily said, “That is not an agenda item.” But in fact, it was an agenda item 16-106 (b). Wood then said that the item was too vague and would not be discussed, never mind that earlier, Council President Pacheco had complimented Gary Patterson, who requested that item be placed on the the agenda, saying, “Your item on the agenda was properly phrased. I appreciate that.”

Throughout the meeting the Town Council took great pains to tell the people attending that the fix wasn’t in and this wasn’t a done deal. However, to the consternation of most of those present, the Town Council has admitted to secretly negotiating tax agreements and issues of abutment with Invenergy. Worse, theses discussion have been going on for some time, as the earliest discussions seem to precede Oleg Nikolyszyn becoming town solicitor.

By the end of the meeting the public was more angry and distrustful of the Town Council than when the meeting began.

I’ll be writing much more about this meeting in a future piece, but right now, questions remain: How long has the Town Council been in negotiation with Invenergy? Who has been party to these negotiations? The Town Council says that this isn’t a done deal, that the “fix isn’t in” but what other unknown meetings and negotiations are happening without the public’s knowledge?