legislative grants – RI Future

Compare the following two statements made by RI House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello near the beginning and end of Monday’s overlong press conference dealing with reforms to the legislative grants process. Mattiello early on suggests that these grants help fulfill the needs of Rhode Islanders in a way that delivers services cheaper, because we can avoid the cost of hiring state employees and giving these new employees benefits such as health care and retirement.

“There are vital citizenry needs that are being performed by community agencies that are not well performed by any other state department or state agencies,” says Mattiello, “And we’re able to address those citizens’ needs without having to hire additional state employees with all the benefits that that entails.”

About 30 minutes in, however, Mattiello bemoans the fact that there is no real way to know how effective these grants are because the legislature doesn’t have “direct control” over the entities receiving the money.

“It’s difficult… to give money to an agency that you don’t have direct control over. You don’t have the same safe guards and systems in place that you do with direct state departments. It’s easier to watch state dollars being administered by state departments so that was an inherent problem and it’s one that we were mindful of when we made the determination of eliminating the entire process.”

Mattiello’s take on legislative grants is incoherent. Since there is no oversight concerning the way much of this money is spent, it’s impossible to tell how effective these grants are. Our state may literally be throwing money away. However, if we demand a system of accountability we would have to fund and staff state employees to do this work, which means paying these employees, which we can’t afford to do, despite the “vital” needs of Rhode Islanders.

Mattiello’s contradictory statements confirm what many Rhode Islanders suspect: Either these grants don’t serve the needs of Rhode Islanders or Rhode Island’s needs are not truly being met by these grants. Worse, it seems that on some level, Mattiello is aware of this contradiction.

General Assembly leaders say they are eliminating the controversial community service grants that former Rep. Ray Gallison used to fund an organization he worked for, but they are leaving in place the equally-controversial though often smaller legislative grants that lawmakers give to local groups.

House Speaker Nick Mattiello and Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed said they are pleased to add new layers of transparency to the community service grants and are satisfied with the existing layers of transparency with the legislative grants.

Paiva Weed said one reason not to address the smaller legislative grants is they were overhauled under the direction of former state Senator Michael Lenihan. Mattiello said another reason is legislative grants are often smaller.

But not always.

The speaker gave two legislative grants to the Cranston Police Department for $46,000 and another $25,000 grant to “Justice Assistance” in Cranston, according to this list of legislative grants. Mattiello said Cranston didn’t receive the additional funding because it is in any greater need than any other police department in the state, but rather because it was the only department to ask for a grant.

“I have never rejected an application” for a legislative grant, Mattiello said. “Everyone says the speaker utilizes them to give out and curry favor. It’s not what we use them, it’s not my practice.”

Other than the legislative grant to the Cranston police, most of these grants are much smaller. There are some $2 million worth of legislative grants given out each year. There were $11 million worth in community service grants and legislative leaders said that total will be cut by several million. The remaining grant money, they said, will be given to state departments to award in a competitive bidding process to organizations that will be subject to state audit.

Critics of the grant programs say legislators use them to curry favor in their districts. The grant programs became more politically toxic when former Rep. Ray Gallison, who recently resigned amid a a state and federal investigation of him, was found to ask for a community service grant for an organization, whose work is unclear, that employs him.

Tag: legislative grants

Incoherent reasoning behind legislative grants

Legislative leaders nix community grants, keep legislative grants