Representative Daniel Reilly has not listed contributions from his father on his campaign finance reports, contributions the US Department of Justice found while prosecuting his father for tax evasion in Florida.
Reilly, a Republican from District 72 serving portions of Middletown and Portsmouth, has reportedly received money for both his schooling and his political campaigns from his father’s “law firm and shell corporation” that the elder Reilly is alleged to have used to illegally evade paying taxes.
His father, William J. Reilly, pled guilty to tax evasion and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal prison and ordered to “pay more than $1.9 million in restitution.” Channel 12’s Tim White noted that William Reilly is “at the top of Rhode Island’s tax delinquent list.”
The US Department of Justice reports that from 2005 through 2010, William Reilly,
…used bank accounts for his law firm and the shell corporation to receive personal income, transfer funds into his personal accounts, and pay personal expenses directly, including his Visa credit card account, his children’s private school and college tuition, support his daughter’s equestrian business, make vehicle and mortgage payments, contribute to his son’s political campaign, and purchase more than $50,000 in tickets for sporting events and concerts.
You can read William Reilly’s plea agreement here.
The only contribution Daniel Reilly reported receiving from his father was a $500 in-kind contribution noted as “use of a recreational vehicle.” This was not a cash contribution. You can access all of Rep Reilly’s campaign contributions here.
Reilly responded in an email that, “My father never contributed any money to my campaigns and only rented an RV during my 2008 campaign for us to campaign in. I recorded that as an in-kind contribution for the amount that it was valued. I believe that was what was referred to in the press release. It was a ‘contribution’ in the sense that it is in-kind and was recorded as such, but not a cash contribution and I never received any from him.”
Daniel Reilly served two terms as District 72’s representative before being unseated by Linda Finn in 2012. He regained his seat in 2014 and Finn is challenging him again in 2016.
RI Future has reached out to House Spokesperson Larry Berman and Rep Daniel Reilly for comment. We will update.
Thank you to Paula McMahon at the Sun Sentinel for her reporting on this story.
The Rhode Island House Finance Committee met to discuss Representative Patricia Morgan’s bill to eliminate HealthSourceRI, and turn the operations of our health care exchange over to the federal government. All the sponsors of House Bill 5329 are Republicans, including Morgan, Dan Reilly, Antonio Giarusso, Justin Price, and Michael Chippendale.
Normally a bill like this wouldn’t attract much attention. It would be dismissed as a cynical statement against a successful social welfare program by right-wing ideologues. But Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, a nominal Democrat, has several times suggested that HealthSourceRI is too expensive and that turning the exchange over to the federal government, something that no state has ever done, might be an option.
As Rep. Morgan explained her bill and her reasoning for it, she alluded to the Speaker’s interest, suggesting that the elimination of HealthSource RI might free up money for Mattiello’s pet project of eliminating the state’s social security income tax. Morgan also mentioned that her bill might find the money required to pay for all day kindergarten, a pet project of Senate President Paiva-Weed, perhaps foreshadowing the compromise that will will see both pet projects come to fruition.
As I mentioned, no state with a functioning, successful state-run health care exchange has shut theirs down. So Rhode Island, in choosing such a path, would be charting unknown and uncertain waters. When Rep Deborah Ruggiero asked Morgan, “What is the cost to the state to return [the health exchange] back to the government?” Rep Morgan seemed uncertain, then replied, “Nothing.”
Ruggiero countered that in her discussion with HealthSourceRI director Anya Rader Wallack, the cost to the state to turn over the exchange is actually “somewhere around $10 million.” In addition, said Ruggiero, “we lose control, obviously, because we no longer have the healthcare exchange in our own state,” a point to which Morgan later replied, “Control is overrated.”
Morgan was also unsure of just how many Rhode Islanders benefit from the exchange, claiming that, “on the website it says that 25,000 are actually paying for their insurance through HealthSourceRI,” but when I looked, the number is actually over 30,000.
Right now, the United States Supreme Court is in the middle of deciding King v. Burwell. If the court decides for King, federal subsidies to those states that don’t have their own health insurance exchanges will vanish. According to US News and World Reports, “The likely scenario is a partial or total market “death spiral” like those, respectively, in New York and Kentucky in the 1990s.” Jumping to the federal exchange now seems pretty stupid in light of the uncertainty regarding the Supreme Court decision, but Morgan isn’t concerned.
“In addressing that, I can tell you that the Obama administration is very confident that they will prevail,” said Morgan, “They have four justices already, they only need one more, to win.” That’s pretty weak sauce, since the other side could say exactly the same thing.
Morgan then went the full Scalia when she said, “On the other hand, if King prevails, and the subsidies are only available to the states, I know from reading, and hearing, that the Republicans in Congress are already working on a fix so that people can continue to get health insurance.”
I have to say, when Morgan made this comment, I looked around the room, wondering if anyone else thought her statement was as darkly comic as I thought it was. No one seemed to.
Compare Morgan’s statement with this exchange in the Supreme Court when oral arguments were heard in :
Justice Scalia: What about – – what about Congress? You really think Congress is just going to sit there while – – while all of these disastrous consequences ensue. I mean, how often have we come out with a decision such as the – – you know, the bankruptcy court decision? Congress adjusts, enacts a statute that – – that takes care of the problem. It happens all the time. Why is that not going to happen here?
General Verrilli: Well, this Congress, Your Honor, I – – I – –
(Laughter.)
At least people had the decency to laugh out loud at Scalia’s naiveté. Morgan was actually taken seriously.
Meanwhile, House Finance Chair, Raymond Gallison, promises that there will be full hearings along with full fact finding inquiries conducted before any decision is made on the future of HealthSourceRI.