Was Labor ‘At The Table’ For Pension Legislation?
Probably a big point of contention as Rhode Island and its public sector retirees try to mediate a compromise on pension reform will be whether or not organized labor was considered when drafting the legislation. As few hundred Providence fire fighters, police officers and other public sector union members protested outside a conference for Bond [...]
Linc Chafee <3s RI, Me Too
People constantly tell me how unpopular it is to agree with our governor. Well, I couldn’t agree more and I couldn’t care less! He may not always offer me a good quote, but Rhode Island has done pretty well under his tenure given the circumstances he inherited. I’ll take that. He seems almost allergic to [...]
Story Isn’t Whether to Sit Down, But Who’s At Table
Sorry, Providence Journal, much as you might not like it, we are no longer debating whether or not the state should be negotiating pension reform with organized labor as your over-hyped headline and otherwise great long-form story on the drama this morning suggests. Remember, after all, on Tuesday when you broke the news that the [...]
Dueling Letters: Chafee to Raimondo and Her Reply
Gov. Linc Chafee first floated to Treasurer Gina Raimondo the idea of negotiating with labor on pension reform just three days after the November election, over a pastrami sandwich, during a working lunch between the two political leaders. A letter from the governor to Raimondo dated November 13 thanks her for joining him for lunch [...]
Gina Raimondo Should Be at Pension Talk Table
I don’t doubt Gina Raimondo’s actuarial acumen. But oftentimes I think her political instincts leave much to be desired. The general treasurer/gubernatorial candidate-in-waiting might be the Democratic darling to the budget-cutting crowd for shepherding pension cuts through the legislature, but there’s a political side to the court challenge too and she has chosen not to [...]
Progressives Should Care About Pension Security
I suspect if that if named a United States Senator tomorrow (might as well give the right-wing immediate heartburn at that prospect) my committee assignment of choice would be the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, the so-called, and when run correctly, aptly named HELP Committee. Putting four important issues so remarkably interlinked [...]
Gina, Chafee Also at Odds on Muni Pension Bills
38 Studios isn’t the only matter of public policy that Gov. Chafee and Treasurer Gina Raimondo disagree about. There’s also the governor’s hotly-debated municipal pension reform proposal that Raimondo has given the cold shoulder to publicly. While she said much of her work has been behind the scenes, and with municipal finance directors rather than [...]
RI Progress Report: Schilling Speaks, Woonsocket Asks for State Help, Senator Kerry’s Yacht Back in Newport
The Providence Journal wins the exclusive first interview with Curt Schilling … and guess what: 38 Studios’ collapse wasn’t his fault, it was Chafee’s fault for scaring away investors by telling the public that the company didn’t have any money. If only Chafee could have scared away the state from investing way back when…. And, [...]
RI Progress Report: 38 Studios, Woonsocket Race To Bankruptcy
38 Studios laid off all of its employees yesterday … I guess Curt Schilling and Linc Chafee will be completing Copernicus by themselves. Speaking of going bankrupt, Woonsocket’s supplemental tax increase failed to win approval in the House yesterday afternoon after Rep. Lisa Baldelli-Hunt, a Woonsocket Democrat, stymied its passage. “The end came suddenly, with [...]
38 Studios and the ‘Job Creator’ Logic
Word started buzzing around the State House just prior to Gov. Chafee making his historic executive order recognizing same sex marriages from other states – but the rumors weren’t about marriage equality, they were about 38 Studios. By the end of the day, Bill Rappleye of Channel 10 broke what very well could become the [...]
RI Progress Report: ALEC, Knuckleheads, ‘Legislation Last’
The Projo editorial board weighs in on the ALEC controversy. Though they say nothing about the issue on a local level, they write: “The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) offers a case study in how corporate money can be used to distort democracy. Ted Nesi also chimes in saying that, despite his claims to the [...]
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