Nicholas Mattiello – Page 2

April 9, 2016April 11, 2016

Mattiello at the Grange

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I got to the event a good half hour early. As I crossed the small parking lot outside the Oak Lawn Grange I was intercepted and asked about my business.

“I’m just here to take notes and a few pictures,” I said, “for RI Future.”

Pause. “We’re not set up yet,” said the man, “you’ll have to wait.”

“Okay,” I said, “I’ll sit over at the picnic tables.”

“Sure,” said the man, “Why not? It’s a beautiful day out.”

It was. I sat for a few minutes, reading my phone, when another man holding a clipboard approached me. We introduced ourselves. He was Leo Skenyon, Nicholas Mattiello’s chief of staff.

“I don’t know if we can get you in,” said Skenyon, “We’ve got over 130 people coming, and priority will be given to Cranston residents.”

“Okay, “ I said, “I get that. I can stand. I just need to take some notes and a few pictures.”

“We might get you into the basement with a TV,” said Skenyon, “You’ll be able to hear the answers, but you might not hear the questions.”

“We’ll see what happens then,” I said.

Mattiello at the Grange 003 — Tom Wojick

I waited outside near the entrance, watching people arrive. I saw two people from the Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence (RICAGV) handing flyers to passers by. One of them was Tom Wojick.

“Do you support common sense gun legislation?” asked Tom, holding out a flyer to a man and his wife.

“No,” said the man, “I’m a NRA member.”

I had taken a bus on a Saturday morning to the middle of Cranston to see Representative Nicholas Mattiello, the Speaker of the House and arguably the most powerful politician in Rhode Island, engage with his constituents.

This isn’t an every day occurrence. Some reps have regular events with their constituents, some have none, but as Mattiello told the crowd, his duties as Speaker take up a lot of time, and he doesn’t often get the chance to hold events like this. Today was a rare chance to see Mattiello engage with his constituents and hear what voters in Mattiello’s district care the most about. [Spoiler: It’s RhodeWorks]

Mattiello wasn’t alone either on stage or behind the scenes. Organizing the event were about a dozen men delivering coffee and donuts, escorting people to their seats and acting as what seemed like de facto security. There were two Cranston police officers stationed at the event. In addition to Leo Skenyon, who was organizing, I saw Larry Berman, communications director for the RI House of Reps, helping out.

On “stage” with Mattiello were RI State Senators Frank Lombardi and Hanna Gallo, Rep Robert Jacquard and RI Department of Transportation director Peter Alviti, there to answer technical questions about truck tolls and RhodeWorks.

When I entered the Grange Larry Berman saw me and said, “He can come in,” but behind me Leo Skenyon said, “He’s taking a couple of pictures and heading downstairs.”

That’s what I did. Here’s one:

Downstairs in front of the TV was a man who was interested in RhodeWorks but happened to live in Providence, so he was sent to the basement with me. A minute later we were joined by Lorraine Savard, wearing a small version of her “Save Burrillvile: No New Power Plant” sign pinned to her lapel.

At least I was in good company.

We ended up watching everything on closed circuit TV, downstairs from the main event. We laughed when the camera upstairs went to a wide shot, showing at least seven empty seats in the main room. We laughed again when we noticed that the two police officers were in the downstairs room with us, leaving no police presence in the room above, where over one hundred people were in attendance.

Most of Mattiello’s talk was a defense of RhodeWorks. One idea the Speaker was keen to dispel was that RhodeWorks was broadly unpopular. He said that he has in his district 14 thousand constituents and 10 thousand registered voters. When he counted the number of emails he received opposed to RhodeWorks, it was thirty.

“I don’t believe that,” said the man from Providence sitting next to me.

But I don’t think Mattiello lied. People in Mattiello’s district aren’t that upset about RhodeWorks, or at least not upset enough to threaten him politically. Mattiello maintains that the reason people don’t like RhodeWorks is because they are misinformed about it.

“We have a talk radio community,” said Mattiello, “misinformation gets out through that medium” either through callers saying things that aren’t true or talk show hosts repeating false information.

“Misinformation takes your vote away from you,” said the Speaker.

Lombardi and Jacquard also defended their RhodeWorks votes. Lombardi said, “We live in a post 38 Studios world. RhodeWorks opposition is based on a distrust of [any] legislation, not on the plan itself.”

Gallo went a different direction, touting the work she does on education, including full day kindergarten.

Eventually the question and answer phase of the discussion, nearly three hours into the event, got around to a subject other than RhodeWorks. A woman (it was very hard to hear the specifics of her question on the TV) asked about the three bills the RICAGV has brought forward, including the bill to prohibit people with concealed carry permits from bringing guns into schools.

“There are two sides to this issue,” said Mattiello (who incidently has an A+ rating from the NRA), “There are those who want no change [to our guns laws] and there are those who want to abolish guns.”

This opening surprised me. The RICAGV has worked hard to strike a nuanced position on guns, and here Mattiello was claiming that the group was simply seeking to abolish all guns.

As for guns in schools, said the Speaker, “Please tell me where this has been a problem. And if its never been a problem, you’re affecting the rights of law abiding citizens.”

Mattiello gave the hypothetical situation oaf a man with a concealed carry permit picking his kid up at school. Is he supposed “to leave his gun on the sidewalk? Leave it in his car where it might be stolen, or drive home and drop it off first?”

“In trying to solve a problem you’re creating a bigger problem,” said the Speaker.

Guns are not allowed in courthouses or airports, countered the woman (and I might add, not allowed in the State House where Mattiello works either.)

Senator Lombardi cut in at this point, saying that the problem isn’t gun owners, it’s the mentally ill accessing guns. Columbine and Sandy Hook were the results of mental illness, said Lombardi, not lack of gun control.

“If,” said Lombardi, “God forbid, a [gunman] goes into a Cranston school, I hope the first person he sees is a law abiding citizen with a concealed carry permit.”

“We have to address the mental health aspect of this equation,” added Mattiello, “People with concealed carry permits are not the problem. I don’t think they’ve ever been the problem.”

Mattiello’s last words on the issue of guns were, “You can affect the behavior of people who respect the law, but not the behavior of those who don’t respect the law.”

That kind of makes me wonder why we pass any laws.

The next question was about the ethics commission.

“Senator Sheehan’s bill is the worst bill I’ve ever seen,” said Mattiello, “I can’t imagine supporting that bill because it make’s no sense to me.”

“Conflict of interest rules are ‘gotcha’ politics,” said the Speaker, “lawyers in the General Assembly serve clients across the country. Technically they are always in conflict of interest. They would never vote!”

Mattiello feels that Sheehan’s bill will encourage “frivolous complaints”. “What’s going to happen is good people are not going to want to run [for office],” said the Speaker.

“Most people in government are extremely ethical,” continued Mattiello, “Everybody up there, I believe, is entirely ethical and good.”

Mattiello seems to believe that the job of identifying conflicts of interest falls to the fourth estate, saying, “Kathy Gregg is a great reporter. She points out every conflict of interest.”

Somewhat echoing his last word on gun control laws, Mattiello said about ethics, “Ethics commissions don’t make better people. That’s [the electorate]’s job.”

Other random things of interest Mattiello said during the meeting:

“I disagree that the Speaker is the most powerful person in the state. Sometimes it’s the governor.”

Ex-Speaker Gordon Fox, now in prison, “had his problems but he did good things policy wise.”

“I don’t believe in trickle-down economics. I just want to be competitive with our neighboring states.”

“Rhode Island right now is in excellent shape.”

February 29, 2016May 14, 2016

My take on tolls

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The tolls issue is not a case of supporting infrastructure projects or tax policy, or even an attempt at solving our problem of crumbling bridges and roads. Everyone agrees that Rhode Island’s roads and bridges are in need of repair. The tolls issue is really a case of trust in our elected leaders and the way the State of Rhode Island operates.

One fact becomes plain to anyone that has observed Rhode Island politics for more than 5 minutes: Rhode Island does not have a truly representative democracy. Legislators often vote against the wishes of their constituents. State leadership, and in particular Speaker Mattiello, force legislators to vote for bad legislation over and over again because legislators fear losing legislative grants, powerful committee positions and or having their own legislation quashed by the Speaker. In fact, three legislators have lost their committee positions because they voted against the tolls.

I also believe that it is fair to assume that house members that voted against the tolls will lose legislative grants and not have their critical legislation voted on. The reality is that legislation is controlled by Speaker Mattiello and his influence over the votes of legislators (via legislative grants, committee positions and other things) can not be denied.

I do not feel bad about my opposition to the tolls legislation because I am an adult with an opinion and a position on this very important matter. To be clear, I find this notion of social or group conformity tied to the label “progressive” to be pretty immature. I do get why legislators felt they had to vote yes on the tolls legislation. However, voters in my district are against the tolls, without a doubt. It isn’t even close. I would have voted no on the tolls and I would have forced a very serious debate about it.

As a resident of Pawtucket, I am reminded daily of the importance and significance of public works and infrastructure projects. Everyday, I walk my daughter to school, and beneath my feet are sidewalks made by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s. When I go to Slater Park I can see a beautiful man-made pond with small bridges and a gazebo which is frequented by wedding photographers that was built by the WPA. In fact, the Pawtucket city hall was built by the Works Progress Administration. So, residents in Pawtucket are more than aware of the significance and success of public works projects, but that does not change the fact that we are against the tolls scheme.

To sum it up, this is not a progressive issue, or liberal issue, or a conservative issue. This is a trust issue. I understand that some legislators are upset with me for my position, just as they were upset about my position on the PawSox, but that does not change my position at all.

February 11, 2016February 11, 2016

Sleepless nights and cognitive dissonance at the State House

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Speaking at the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce (GPCC), alongside Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed and Governor Gina Raimondo, Nicholas Mattiello proudly ticked off a list of his tax cutting accomplishments since becoming Rhode Island’s Speaker of the House.

We’ve reduced the corporate tax rate in Rhode Island.

“We exempted sales tax on energy costs to assist businesses.

“We raised the exemption on the estate tax to keep successful folks in the State of Rhode Island.

“We eliminated the social security tax on many Rhode Islanders so we can assist the middle class after a lifetime of commitments so that they can stay and thrive in Rhode Island.

“We eliminated tax on radiology services to assist that industry.”

Acting as the self-appointed Yin to Mattiello’s Yang, Paiva-Weed spoke about how the Speaker and Governor stood with her “to take some of the most difficult votes the General Assembly could take to cut the budget…

One of them was last year… and that was cutting $70 million from Medicaid. That was a hard vote…

“In addition, many of you in this room were not standing here cheering when we had to make those difficult votes to ensure the passage of pension reform. And that was a vote that quite honestly kept me up many nights, because it really did hurt people…”

“It really did hurt people.” Let that sink in for a moment.

“We raised the exemption on the estate tax to keep successful folks in the State of Rhode Island,” the Speaker had said, not five minutes earlier.

The message was as jarring as it was obvious: Tax cuts on the rich hurt people. Our leaders know this, but they don’t want to believe it. It’s called cognitive dissonance.

Beyond just hurting people, poorly targeted tax cuts do nothing to help the greater economy and instead impoverish a government’s ability to maintain infrastructure. Hence, RhodeWorks.

RhodeWorks will shift the financial burden of repairing RI’s roads and bridges onto trucking companies, who will maintain their profits by increasing the price of goods. This will burden the poor and middle class much more than it will the rich, who will be able to manage slight price increases by drawing on the extra money they keep through the tax cuts they’ve been granted.

Despite Paiva-Weed’s protestations, she has not cast “difficult votes”. A difficult vote would be one in which she stood up for those without power and against the money of the connected elite. A difficult vote would be one of compassion and courage.

No, the votes Paiva-Weed made were easy, because the people she hurt have no power to hold her accountable for their pain. Her conscience might bother her, but what good is a conscience when the corporate tax rate needs to be cut?

As for Mattiello, after he proudly listed his accomplishments, he said, “We have been laser focused on moving our economy forward and doing the kind of things that build economic wealth and growth and jobs in the State of Rhode Island.”

“And then I hear,” said Mattiello, pausing as the cognitive dissonance crackled through his brain, “that there’s a consensus that we have the worst roads and bridges in the country and it’s the leading concern of businesses. It’s the number one driving force for businesses in their decision making.” Another pause.

Mattiello’s pauses say it all. All that money he gave away to his well off neighbors was for nothing. All those cuts to pensions and Medicaid were for nothing and all those people hurt by these cuts were hurt for nothing.

Our leaders bought the lies of economic charlatans, gave away millions in tax cuts, impoverished our state and hurt people terribly, only to find that what was really needed was a strong infrastructure, an infrastructure we might have been able to afford if we weren’t crippling our economy by cutting the taxes of dead millionaires.

February 5, 2016

House Prayer Breakfast well intentioned, but dangerous

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2016-02-04 Prayer Breakfast003 — Bishop Knisely

When Representative Robert Lancia (R District 16, Cranston) announced that he was hosting the first House National Prayer Breakfast on the floor of the House and thanked Speaker Nicholas Mattiello for his support in making it happen, I knew I had to attend.

Prayer and religion are very important to many Americans and their elected representatives, but our country and Rhode Island in particular was founded on a secular vision of governance that allows each person to bring their convictions to the discussion, but not impose those convictions on anyone else. An official House of Representatives sponsored event blurs the lines between church and state, even when the event being held strives mightily to be “interfaith,” inclusive and welcoming to all.

Lancia said that he sees the prayer breakfast as an opportunity to network, a chance to bring together the political and religious community. He hopes this will be the first of many such events.

Guest speaker Bishop Nicholas Knisely of the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island concurred with Lancia. He also hopes that this event might be the first of a series of such breakfasts, a chance to bring legislators together not as government officials, “but as people who have a commitment to a spiritual life.” Such connections, said Knisely, “maybe cannot be made in any other way.”

Yet I was there when business leaders directly petitioned government leaders in January at the 2016 Rhode Island Small Business Economic Summit held at Bryant University, and I was at the Convention Center the day before the prayer breakfast, with Rep Lancia and dozens of other legislators at the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce luncheon. This year’s legislative agenda was shaped by these events where the business community told the legislature what it expects to happen this year.

I was at the State House when the Rhode Island Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty presented their legislative ideas to Governor Gina Raimondo, Speaker Mattiello and Senate President Teresa Paiva-Weed. The fact that the business community will get most of what they ask for and that the religious community will not tells us a lot about the way religion is used by our government, and why we should be wary of mixing church and state.

This year I have watched every session of the House and Senate and every session begins with a prayer. So far this year the legislature has prayed for nearly 15 minutes, loudly and publicly, even as they largely ignore the ideas of the Interfaith Poverty Coalition when drafting and passing their legislation.

At one point during his prayer breakfast talk Bishop Knisely pointed out that the Pilgrims left England to get away from the religious tradition he represents. (And I’ll note here that Roger Williams founded Rhode Island to get away from the Pilgrims, who were no better in respecting religious differences.) Knisely talked about the ways in which “religious and language differences were used by the mill owners [of New England] to make sure mill workers did not organize.” This is the danger of religion and state becoming too close: spirituality becomes a weapon against the underclass.

When religion is used to provide a sheen of morality to the exploits of government officials and business leaders, people do not prosper, they are instead righteously exploited. The prayers that begin each legislative session may mean something to the legislators bowing their heads, but the deeper purpose is propagandist. They are invoking the name of God to justify their power, not the will of the people, and doing so in defiance of democracy.

To those who value their religion, the prayer breakfast may seem like an innocuous idea, but to those who do not pray, or to those who find little of value in the ideas of faith, spirituality and God, these events are exclusionary and even a little frightening.

I don’t want my government engaged in prayer, and really, no religious person should want that either. Every religious tradition has multiple stories of being persecuted by governments under the sway of a rival religion. Today we might be praying to the Gods and enacting the religious codes you believe in, but tomorrow may bring strange Gods that don’t have your best interests in mind.

Best to keep church and state separate.

2016-02-04 Prayer Breakfast002 — Rep Michael Chippendale

February 4, 2016

RhodeWorks is inevitable

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RhodeWorks is going to happen and nothing is going to stop it.

The idea of installing 14 tolling gantries and charging trucks up to $20 to transport goods through our state is key to Governor Gina Raimondo’s plan to generate the funds needed to repair Rhode Island’s crumbling bridges and roads. There is a logic to this: Trucks are heavy and do the most damage to the roads so they should pay their share.

In her State of the State address, Governor Raimondo said, “While we’re at it, let’s reject the politics of procrastination and pass RhodeWorks.” Both House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello and Senate President Teresa Paiva-Weed have strongly supported the program.

The revised RhodeWorks plan is cheaper, and is to include a strict prohibition on tolling cars without a public referendum. “Generally,” said Mattiello, “I don’t like referendum questions.” But he included this feature in the truck toll bill to cut off opposition to the plan based on the slippery slope: tolling trucks will now not lead to tolling cars without a majority vote from the public.

At the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce (GCPP), Mattiello said, “I’ve thought about this more than any of you care to.” Mattiello says he’s consulted experts on the economic impact, and that the “experts say it is going to improve the economy… I don’t know any way to do this without listening to the experts.”

The GCPP is a strong, vocal supporter of the truck toll bill, as are the Building Trades. Michael Sabitoni, President of the Rhode Island Building and Construction Trades Council was a welcomed, if surprising guest at the GPCC luncheon.

After the GPCC luncheon, about five hundred members of the various building trades and their allies showed up at the State House to express their support for RhodeWorks. So many union members showed up it took over an hour for them all to enter through the metal detectors. There was supposed to be a speaking program from union leaders, and maybe it happened, but I had to leave.

It didn’t matter. Labor made their point. They want (and need) the jobs that come with fixing our bridges and roads.

Rhode Island needs to repair and upgrade its infrastructure and government, business and labor are all in agreement that the debate as to how to pay for it is over: The plan is RhodeWorks.

February 1, 2016May 3, 2016

FANG confronts Whitehouse over his Invenergy support

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As Senator Sheldon Whitehouse stood up to speak to a room packed with concerned environmentalists and sustainability stakeholders at the #ResilientPVD Sustainability Workshops, held in the Providence City Hall Monday afternoon, climate activists representing FANG (Fighting Against Natural Gas) and BASE (Burrillville Against Spectra Expansion) stood up and silently held aloft signs challenging the Senator on his stated support for Invenergy‘s Clear River Energy Center (CREC) in Burrillville.

The event was not interrupted and proceeded as planned. At one point Leah Bamberger, Providence’s Director of Sustainability, confronted Nick Katkevich of FANG, who was handing out flyers to people in the room. The flyers ask “Did you know?” and answered, “Sheldon Whitehouse supports the massive fossil fuel power plant proposed for Burrillville.” After their brief interaction Bamberger returned to her seat and Katkevich resumed handing out flyers.

Among those standing with signs I recognized Sister Mary Pendergast of the Sisters of Mercy and Burrillville resident Kathy Martley.

Senator Whitehouse came out in support of the CREC power plant in an interview with Ted Nesi. In the interview Whitehouse cited support from environmental groups for his stance, support that subsequent investigation has revealed does not exist.

The #ResilentPVD event today is part of a three day series of “charrettes, workshops, and community meetings to explore how Providence’s infrastructure, buildings, and neighborhoods can prepare for the impacts climate change.” An impressive array of sustainability experts from across the country are in attendance. There is a report expected on Wednesday.

Mayor Jorge Elorza introduced Senator Whitehouse as the state’s foremost climate champion though some in the audience were audibly agitated by that designation, with someone commenting that “He supports the fossil fuel plant in Burrillville!” Whitehouse was not visibly disturbed by the protesters, though he seldom looked their way as he spoke.

FANG and BASE are planning to protest at the RI State House Tuesday evening during Governor Gina Raimondo‘s State of the State address Tuesday evening. Governor Raimondo has also been a vocal champion of the CREC plant, as has Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello.

2016-02-01 FANG Whitehouse PVD City Hall 06 — Whitehouse and Elorza

2016-02-01 FANG Whitehouse PVD City Hall 13 — Bamberger and Katkevich

January 22, 2016January 23, 2016

“Zero-emission” cars running on fracked gas

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In an editorial this week in the ProJo, Janet Coit and Marion Gold come to the rescue of embattled Governor Gina Raimondo. Janet Coit is Director of Rhode Island’s Department of Environmental Management and Marion Gold is Commissioner of the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources. Both serve at the pleasure of the governor and whatever strengths, independence is not one of them.

Governor Raimondo has troubling connections to Wall Street going back to her days as Rhode Island treasurer. Here are just two of a recent flurry of publications questioning the pension fund reforms that she pushed through in those days:

One of Governor Raimondo’s key supporters is John Arnold, a former Enron trader who went on to found a profitable hedge fund.

The irony of the Coit-Gold ProJo editorial is that it’s based on Enron-style accounting, used in this case to hyper-inflate Governor Raimondo’s “visionary” contributions to the climate change battle.

In their editorial Coit and Gold mention that RI ranks number four on the State Energy Efficiency Scorecard put out by ACEEE. You do not have to know how this ranking is produced to understand that it is pure bunk. Just look at what the Energy Information Adminstration web site has to say about Rhode Island:

Natural gas fueled 95% of Rhode Island’s net electricity generation in 2014.
Rhode Island is the second-lowest emitter of carbon dioxide among all states. Like the lowest emitter, Vermont, Rhode Island does not have any coal-fired electricity generation.

Natural gas is mostly methane. It is a greenhouse gas that is about 100 times as potent as CO₂. Methane is burned and escapes unburnt to generate Rhode Island electricity, but we put all of those climate threatening emissions on our neighbors’ tabs.

There is more about the ACEEE rating of Rhode Island as fourth in the nation that is disconcerting. Scan the ACEEE web site and you quickly discover that they mention EPA’s Clean Power Plan again and again. There are some minor problems with this plan:

Obama’s “Clean Power Plan” is a huge gift to the methane (“Clean Energy”) industry — we’ll show you how in a minute. And guess who’s big in methane? Big oil, of course […]

The plan fits perfectly with Obama’s general practice of saying one thing and doing the opposite.

Director Coit is one of the members of the Energy Facility Siting Board that is currently deliberating the fate of the new fracked-gas power plant with the Orwellian name Clear River Energy Center, Invenergy’s plan to sacrifice Burrillville to unfettered greed.

Coit is publicly on record with her support of methane:

With her so-called pragmatism, doesn’t Director Coit not sound remarkably like House Speaker Mattiello?

In the Coit-Gold editorial there is not a word about Clear River, nor about the natural gas that already produces 95% of RI’s electrical power. There is no mention that Governor Gina Ms Wall Street Raimondo is on record supporting fracked gas. That silence must be “because there is a fire wall,” as Director Coit said in the preliminary hearing of the siting board last week. How convenient!

As the Clear River theater of the siting board progresses, we might hear about the CO₂ emissions the power plant will produce in Rhode Island. What we will not hear from the Governor and her allies on the board is to whom we will charge the fugitive methane. Most of that escapes at the wellheads in Pennsylvania and along the pipelines and from the compressor stations. Nor will we hear about the suffering it causes to the people on the frontlines in Burrillville and across the globe. None of that, but we’ll follow the statutes, because we are a nation of laws.

Indeed, all of the Enron-style accounting is perfectly legal, but, dear reader, you surely do not believe any more than I do, that Mother Nature is impressed.

There is yet another accounting trick buried in the Coit-Gold editorial: the Zero-Emission Vehicle Action Plan. True, we need electric cars and they have no tail pipes that emits CO₂. Still, the electric energy such cars use has to be generated somewhere. If it comes from renewables we win; if we generate it with fracked gas, we loose. The latter is of course exactly what will happen if we let Invenergy build the Clear River Energy Center.

We are constructing a 30 megawatt wind farm off Block Island and are talking about a frack-gas facility with 30 times that capacity in Burrillville. Accounting gimmicks devoid of physics may fool the people, the editor of the the ProJo and our hapless leaders, but none of that will change the laws of nature.

Update after the original post: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse from National Grid has finally made up his mind and now supports the Clear River Energy Center. He uses his same old arguments about choke points and price spikes. That was none of that last winter is but an irrelevant detail: As New England freezes, natural gas stays cheap.

January 22, 2016January 22, 2016

NARAL demotes Raimondo to ‘mixed choice’ on repro rights

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NARAL Pro-Choice America (NARAL) rated Governor Gina Raimondo as “mixed-choice” in their recent report, a step down from her previous rating as “pro-choice.” Raimondo had run as a pro-choice candidate, earning the endorsement of Planned Parenthood Votes RI PAC and Emily’s List.

In Who Decides? The Status of Women’s Reproductive Rights in the United States, NARAL rates each of the states with an over all grade. Rhode Island received a failing grade of F. Massachusetts and New Hampshire received a C+, Vermont and Maine a B+ and Connecticut an A-. Rhode Island’s failing grade makes it, to borrow a favorite word of Speaker Nicholas Mattiello’s, an “outlier.”

The report notes that “Rhode Island enacted a measure that restricts insurance coverage of abortion in the state insurance exchange” in 2015, a reference to Raimondo’s behind the scenes budget shenanigans that ultimately resulted in an estimated 9000 people losing their abortion coverage under Obamacare. This story was covered here on RI Future first, and received scant attention elsewhere.

NARAL, a non-profit that engages in political action and advocacy efforts to oppose restrictions and expand access to abortion, has three ratings for governors and legislative bodies: pro-choice, mixed choice and anti-choice. Both the Rhode Island House of Representatives and the Rhode Island Senate were rated anti-choice.

All three Democratic candidates for president are running on strong pro-choice platforms. Hillary Clinton recently won the endorsement of Planned Parenthood and Bernie Sanders called for an expansion of Planned Parenthood funding, Raimondo’s mixed-choice rating puts her badly out of step with the national Democratic Party.

As of this writing a request for comment from the governor’s office has gone unanswered.

January 22, 2016January 22, 2016

Trio of common sense gun bills introduced in the House

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Last year, when Speaker Nicholas Mattiello brought the legislative season to an abrupt end, he said that the bills that did not come to the floor were “not very consequential” and “just not as important” as the legislation he had dealt with and passed. Among the bills that Mattiello deemed inconsequential and unimportant were three that dealt with guns.

Those three bills have just been reintroduced in the House.

H7199 criminalizes the manufacture, import, possession, purchase, sale or transfer of any ammunition feeding device capable of accepting more than ten rounds. Two years ago, when this bill was first introduced, Jerry Belair, president of the Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence asked the following question, “Rhode Island law limits the number of rounds to five when hunting deer. Rhode Island law limits the number of rounds to three when hunting ducks. If we can limit the number of rounds in a firearm to protect deer and ducks, how can we not limit the number of rounds to protect our children and citizens?”

H7243 provides that only peace officers and persons approved by the school authorities for the purposes of educational instruction may carry firearms or other weapons on school grounds. A similar bill was introduced last year and died in committee. Apparently the idea that someone might bring a gun into a school in Rhode Island without the knowledge of school administrators does not bother our legislature.

H7283 prohibits any person convicted of a misdemeanor offense under §12-29-2 (a crime involving domestic violence) from purchasing, owning, transporting, carrying, or possessing any firearm. A similar bill submitted last year died in committee after Frank Saccoccio of the Second Amendment Coalition successfully mischaracterized the bill as a gun grab in both the House and Senate committee meetings.

Last year a poll indicated that 80 percent of Rhode Islanders want to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, yet when it came time for action, the General Assembly, under the leadership of Speaker Mattiello deemed the bills above “not very consequential” and “just not as important.”

What has to change in Rhode Island before common sense gun legislation can be passed? Mattiello has an A+ (100 percent) rating with the National Rifle Association (NRA). Senate President M Teresa Paiva-Weed has an A (93 percent) rating from the NRA.

January 18, 2016January 17, 2016

Mattiello’s position on energy and environment ‘defies economic and common sense’

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Local environmental groups and activists have responded to comments made by RI House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello (D District 15 Cranston) made about his support for Invenergy‘s new planned methane gas and oil fueled power plant at the 2016 Rhode Island Small Business Economic Summit.

In the video, Mattiello says, “I’ve been an advocate working with the Office of Energy Resources. I think we have to expand our traditional energy sources and we’re doing so somewhat in Burrillville. I fully encourage that because we have to provide traditional energy as cheaply and efficiently as possible for our ratepayers. However, the world is changing and we have to look at renewables and we have to encourage the growth of renewables. Some people want just the carbon based some people want just the renewables. I think we have to take a practical viewpoint and I encourage both and we’ll grow them both just as fast as we can and let the economy and the marketplace play a little bit of a role. As far as I’m concerned we’re going to encourage the expansion of all forms of energy so that our citizens and our businesses have the cheapest energy available to them so that we can grow and thrive as a community and that our citizens can heat their homes and power their homes as efficiently and cheaply as possible.”

“An ‘all-of-the-above’ approach may provide a good soundbite for Speaker Mattiello,” said Conservation Law Foundation press secretary Josh Block, “but it is an illogical and irresponsible solution when it comes to our energy grid. Renewable energy is the only path to ensuring breathable air, drinkable water and stable energy prices for decades to come, and suggesting we continue building payphones when cell phones are getting cheaper and more prevalent each day defies basic economic and common sense.”

Professor Peter Nightingale of Fossil Free RI says that “Speaker Mattiello does not get it: going green will stimulate Rhode Island’s economy more than his supposedly cheap fossil fuel energy. He calls himself practical, even as he ignores common sense economics and the laws of nature. Unfortunately, he fits in perfectly with the rest of our leadership as they sell present and future generations down “Clear River” for short-term gain. Is dark and out-of-state money interfering with their sense of decency and grasp of reality?”

Greg Gerritt, head of research for ProsperityForRI.com speaking only for himself, berated the Speaker’s understanding of economics, saying, “The more I listen to Representative Mattiello the more it becomes obvious that he has absolutely no understanding of how the economy works and where it is going, has no understanding of the relationship between healthy ecosystems and the Rhode Island economy, and no conception that economies are built from the bottom up not the top down.”

Nick Katkevich of Fighting Against Natural Gas (FANG) sent a video, saying, “Way back on a hot summer day in June a group of us went to Mattiello’s law office in Cranston over a rumor that he was planning to attend a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Burrillville Spectra expansion. To our surprise he showed up while we were there at his office.”

More on the 2016 Rhode Island Small Business Economic Summit:

Business leaders decide issues elected officials will pursue at economic summit

State leaders demonstrate their priorities, and it’s not you

More on Speaker Mattiello and his economic ideas from the 2015 Rhode Island Small Business Economic Summit:

Mattiello’s ‘dynamic analysis’ is long discredited economics

January 15, 2016April 30, 2016

The Estate Tax is a solution, not a problem

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At the 2016 Rhode Island Small Business Economic Summit (Summit), Grafton H. “Cap” Wiley IV told Governor Gina Raimondo, House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello and a room full of government officials and small business owners that “it would be great if we had enough revenue to get rid of the estate tax” or if we don’t have enough revenue, “look at an increase in the exemption.”

“That’s something I’ve got my eye on,” said Mattiello, offering to collaborate with the business community to do something about it.

The idea of reforming the estate tax came out of a previous Summit, said Wiley, and the important thing, he continued, looking towards Raimondo and Mattiello, is that, “you guys are listening.”

“Rhode Island ends up at the bottom of a lot of the ratings of taxes and business climate,” said Wiley, and though he did not specify to what ratings he was referring, two annual business climate rankings, the SBEC (Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council)’s Small Business Policy Index and ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council)’s Rich States, Poor States, include the mere existence of a state level estate tax as a negative in their questionable formulas for determining a state’s ranking.

The problem, says economist Peter Fisher, is that “the estate tax – which is paid only by the ultra-wealthy – doesn’t affect economic growth.”

Fisher says that Rich States, Poor States author Arthur Laffer, “and his co-authors devote an entire chapter to estate and inheritance taxes, incorrectly tagging them as ‘job killers’ that ‘strangle economic growth.’”

Laffer and company assert that states with an estate tax are losing ‘enormous amounts of accumulated wealth,’ and that this wealth would have created jobs, alleviated poverty, and increased tax revenue, but they fail to explain how this would happen. The wealth held by retirees typically is not the kind of capital normally used in job creation. The wealth that drives prosperity consists of real assets: natural resources, plant and equipment, public infrastructure, human capital, technological knowledge. By contrast, large estates typically consist of real estate, stocks and bonds, mutual funds, and other financial assets which could be located anywhere in the world. The future use of those assets is unaffected by where the person who owned them died.”

So why would Mattiello be so eager to look at an idea that amounts to both failed tax policy and a giveaway to the mega rich? As Bob Plain showed, the last time RI messed with the estate tax, the burden of public services and infrastructure was shifted onto poor and middle class Rhode Islanders, allowing the rich and the mega rich to become richer still. These policies contribute to our ever increasing wealth inequality and pervert our democracy, tilting us ever faster towards an oligarchy represented by the likes of “Cap” Wiley, if we aren’t there already.

Citing an Economic Progress Institute (EPI) fact sheet, Plain wrote, “The clear winners are a small number of wealthy taxpayers whose estates will pay less in taxes and in many cases, nothing at all starting next year. The clear losers are tens of thousands of low- and modest-income Rhode Islanders who will pay more in taxes next year. Unemployed homeowners and renters are among the biggest losers, because they will no longer qualify for property tax assistance and are not eligible for the earned income tax credit (EITC). Many of the lowest-wage workers will also be negatively impacted by the loss of the property tax refund, even with an eventual boost in the EITC.”

“SBEC’s stated mission, says Fisher, “is to ‘encourage entrepreneurship and small business growth,'” but “its lobbying activities reveal a very conservative, anti-government agenda.” ALEC, “is a mechanism by which corporations pay substantial sums of money to draft legislation benefiting them.” Neither group has the interests of state economies or average citizens in mind when they advance their agendas under the guise of “economic research.” These groups are made up entirely of the oligarchic prosperous and their servile, deluded sycophants.

Our gullible state leaders are not searching for real economic solutions to our state’s budgeting issues, they are instead looking for the excuses they need to pass the legislation their corporate masters demand.

To truly help our economy and budget, instead of eliminating the estate tax we should be increasing it.

Also, do yourself a favor and familiarize yourself with Peter Fisher’s website:

January 14, 2016January 14, 2016

State leaders demonstrate their priorities, and it’s not you

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Our state leaders seem to care more about a handful of dead millionaires than they do about over a thousand living seniors and disabled people. Here’s a video, “Dueling Concerns,” that I think best illustrates the priorities of our elected leaders in state government.

The first person you will see in the video is Grafton H. “Cap” Wiley IV, speaking at the eighth Rhode Island Small Business Economic Summit last Friday. Our state leaders were there, on stage or in the audience, to listen attentively and take notes. One of the many tax policy ideas Wiley suggested was to eliminate the Estate Tax, the tax that only dead millionaires pay. House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, responding to Wiley’s idea later in the program, promises that he will take a serious look at this idea.

The next person in the video below is Maxine Richman, co-chair of the Rhode Island Interfaith Coalition, speaking at the eighth Rhode Island Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty vigil at the State House, held two days earlier. This event has been occurring at the State House for about the same amount of time that the Small Business Summit has been taking place at Bryant University. Richman also has a series of proposals for government leaders, including funding the free bus fare system for seniors and disabled riders. In response to Richman’s ideas, Governor Gina Raimondo shrugs her shoulders and asks, “That sounds great, but where will we get the money?”

Richman was advocating on behalf of some of the poorest people in the state. Instead of promising to really grapple with these ideas, Raimondo and Mattiello essentially said, “Sorry, the cupboards are bare.”

But in truth, this has nothing to do with how much money the State of Rhode Island has to spend, it has to do with government priorities. Dead millionaires count for something in the eyes of our leaders; the poor, the elderly and the disabled do not.

For years now, for instance, the Rhode Island Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty has asked that the General Assembly do something to reign in the usurious PayDay Loan companies, all to no avail. Mattiello dismisses the harm such companies do to our communities as ideological in nature without irony, unable to see that it’s his own ideological fixations that are responsible for enormous suffering in our state. The PayDay loan companies fund a powerful lobbyist who happens to be a close friend and mentor to Mattiello.

Lowering or eliminating the taxes on dead millionaires is a policy that flows naturally from an ideology that Mattiello and Raimondo embrace. This ideology, that has no basis in economic reality, says that lowering taxes on the moneyed classes will “trickle down” to the rest of us, and magically fund RIPTA and increase the fixed wages of the poor and elderly. The fact that it doesn’t work this way, never has and never will, threatens the deeply held beliefs, ideologies, of our government leaders and those they are beholden to, who were aptly represented at the Small Business Summit.

At one point in his presentation “Cap” Wiley told the crowd of small business owners and politicians that “businesses don’t vote,” implying that such a state of affairs denies business people political power.

That’s a crock of self-serving shit.

Businesses don’t need to vote as long as they are able to buy the attention and loyalty of elected officials.

Here’s my suggestion: Raise the estate tax. Use the money to not only fund the free bus fare system, but to also raise the earned income tax credit for low income families to 30 percent. That will do more to get our economy cooking than lower taxes for dead millionaires ever could.

Here are some of the unedited videos.

Previous coverage of the 2016 RI Small Business Economic Summit:

Business leaders decide issues elected officials will pursue at economic summit

Previous coverage of the Rhode Island Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty:

Interfaith Vigil at State House proposes ambitious poverty agenda

January 13, 2016

No pressure, House of Reps, but people are dying

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The Good Samaritan Act was passed in the RI Senate last week on the second legislative day of the season and the enthusiastic support the Act has received from Governor Gina Raimondo and Speaker Nicholas Mattiello gave advocates hope that the bill might be on the fast track. Those hopes were dashed last night when the vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative Doreen M. Costa (R District 31 Exeter, North Kingstown) motioned to hold the bill for further study.

Larry Berman, communications director for the Office of the Speaker, explained that, “It is customary to hold almost all bills of substance after the first hearing. The exceptions are for minor bills such as marriages. This enables the committee members and staff to review the testimony and many times there are changes made after listening to the testimony.”

The bill exempts “from liability any person who administers an opioid antagonist to another person to prevent a drug overdose. It would further provide immunity from certain drug charges and for related violations of probation and/or parole for those persons who in good faith, seek medical assistance for a person experiencing a drug overdose.”

The bill under consideration in the House is identical to the one that passed in the Senate and it seemed all the members of the House Judiciary Committee were on board with the bill, or at least anxious to be seen sitting in support of it. I have never attended a committee meeting where every member was present when role was called. Even Committee Chair Cale P. Keable (D District 47 Burrillville, Glocester) noted that having no absentees at a committee meeting “hasn’t happened in a long time.”

“Overdoses represent a public health crisis,” said Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, director of the Rhode Island Department of Health, in her testimony before the committee, “that is as urgent as any crisis we have ever confronted in Rhode Island in the past.” Both Director Alexander-Scott and Maria Montanaro, director of the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals presented evidence that the law saves lives.

Jonathan Goyer, who is in recovery and works as an advocate combating drug addiction and overdose told the committee, “No pressure, but as I’m sitting in the back of the room, there’s a good chance that as we all sat in here, that we just lost another life… and I don’t think we need to wait until next week, I think it needs to pass today.”

But the bill did not pass, and will not pass this week.

Larry Berman told me the Good Samaritan Act, “is tentatively scheduled to be posted for a vote at the next Judiciary Committee meeting, Tuesday, January 19, and then it could be brought to the floor for a potential vote by the full House on Thursday, January 21.”

No pressure, House of Representatives, but people are dying.

You can watch all the testimony in the video below.

And you can watch Jonathan Goyer explain how Narcan helps save lives here:

A lesson in the use of Narcan

January 8, 2016

Progressive Dems urge Raimondo to issue executive order on driver’s licenses

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During the 2014 gubernatorial race, Gina Raimondo made a campaign promise to the Immigrants in Action Committee that she would sign an executive order within her first year, issuing licenses to undocumented immigrants within Rhode Island. Raimondo further made her support clear in an ACLU questionnaire, that asked: “Do you support providing driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants?”, to which Raimondo responded: “YES. I was the first candidate in the gubernatorial race to explicitly call for driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants. This is an issue of fairness and public safety.” However, January 6 has gone by, marking the end of Raimondo’s first year as Governor, and instead of issuing an executive order, Raimondo has responded with inaction.

Speaker Mattiello encouraged the Governor to bring up the issue “legislatively,” so that public comment could be heard, and that legislators could then form a position on the issue. However, it is very unlikely that the General Assembly will act on this issue. In 2014, for instance, H 7262 was referred to the House Judiciary, and the hearing on it was postponed at the request of the bill sponsor. In the Senate, a similar fate befell its version of the bill: S 2241 was sent to the Judiciary Committee, and was simply not heard. In 2013, S 422 was referred to the Judiciary Committee, and sent to “further study” – effectively killing the bill. Thus, judging by these prior attempts, Raimondo’s choice to pursue the legislative route to address this “issue of fairness and public safety” is unlikely to result in meaningful legislative action, especially when the Judiciary Committees and Speaker Nicholas Mattiello remain determined to obstruct any opportunity of passing legislation to correct this longstanding wrong in the State of Rhode Island.

The Rhode Island Progressive Democrats continues to urge Governor Raimondo to issue an executive order, as she promised Rhode Island’s voters and the immigrant community during her campaign.

[From an RIPDA press release]

January 8, 2016

Business leaders decide issues elected officials will pursue at economic summit

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“Today is about you putting your issues on the table and [about] how you can influence the decision making process that we have in this great state,” Mark Hayward, District Director of the Rhode Island Small Business Association (SBA) told an eager gathering of business owners, lobbyists and politicians, “Your participation at this Summit will essentially decide… the direction of [economic and business] issues that are going to be critical to you over the next year.”

The 2016 Rhode Island Small Business Economic Summit (Summit) is held at Bryant University and sponsored by the SBA and the Center for Women and Enterprise. A long list of state senators, representatives and gubernatorial staff come out to this event every year. Big names include Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, General Treasurer Seth Magaziner and Governor Gina Raimondo. It took Hayward two minutes to list the the government reps appearing, and he didn’t get them all. It’s the kind of political access social justice groups cannot imagine.

The point, says Hayward, “is to provide an opportunity for members of the small business community to have a discussion with members of the General Assembly and the [Governor’s] administration and,” he says, “over the years, we have succeeded because many of the issues that are being taken up today, derive from the Summit.”

2016-01-08 Economic Summit — The sold old Summit

Hayward introduced speaker Stefan Pryor, Rhode Island’s Secretary of Commerce. Pryor painted a rosy picture of Rhode Island’s economic future, saying, “We’re beginning to see the optimism lift, we’re beginning to see the unemployment drop, we are starting to see the new projects start, and we are starting to see the pessimism dissipate.”

Pryor did not mention the cruel poverty that affects nearly 1 in 5 children in our state, but he did mention that the state is “still suffering from unemployment. We still compete for the worst unemployment rate in New England.”

Pryor did not draw a connection between the high unemployment, high poverty and what he called a “favorable tax climate” for business. “We have the lowest corporate tax rate in the northeast, a hard-earned distinction at 7 percent. In the recent session we completely eliminated the sales tax on energy, the Business Energy Tax. It’s not an easy tax to eliminate a tax entirely but it’s gone. Gone forever.”

Pryor assured those in attendance that Rhode Island will not be raising taxes on business owners. “We have not raised a major tax, corporate, income or sales, in twenty years,” said the Secretary with pride, “Think about that relative to tax stability and at the same time we’re axing taxes.

“Why do we think we can maintain that kind of stability going forward? In this past session we put the final touches on and solidified pension reform that then General Treasurer Raimondo had begun. With all your help, Medicaid reform, in a substantial way, was undertaken.

“These structural reforms will save Rhode Islanders over $4 billion dollars over the next 20 years” and “this will ensure future retirement security and future budgetary stability, said Pryor, “That’s the platform we’re building. The hybrid of generations of discipline and not raising taxes, even when times were tough.

“These are the signs of responsible budgeting and sensible fiscal stewardship.”

You can watch all of Pryor’s remark Here:

January 6, 2016

Interfaith Vigil at State House proposes ambitious poverty agenda

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2016-01-06 Interfaith Poverty Vigil 02 — Bishop Herson Gonzalez

For the eighth year the Rhode Island Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty held a vigil at the State House near the beginning of the legislative season to, in the words of House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, “remind all of us in the General Assembly of how important it is to keep the issues related to poverty at the forefront of our agenda.”

The vigil was attended by representatives from a multitude of faiths. Governor Gina Raimondo, Speaker Mattiello and Senate President M Teresa Paiva-Weed all spoke briefly to the crowd. The keynote was delivered by Bishop Herson Gonzalez of the Calvary Worship Center in Woonsocket.

Maxine Richman, co-chair of the RI Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty (Coalition) spoke first, outlining the 2016 Advocacy Platform for the group. She began with a sobering statistic. 14.3 percent of Rhode Islanders live in poverty. That rate climbs to 19.8 percent when we talk about children specifically.

“A 14.3 percent poverty rate is the story for this year,” said Richman, “but it need not be the story for next year.”

The coalition believes that all Rhode Islanders are entitled to affordable housing, nutritious food, accessible healthcare, equitable education and work with decent wages.

Though the General Assembly raised the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) last session, something both Paiva-Weed and Mattiello touted as a great success in their opening remarks Tuesday, RI’s present 12.5 percent rate is a far cry from Connecticut’s EITC of 27.5 percent or Massachusetts’ 23 percent. The Coalition is asking the General Assembly raise the RI EITC to 20 percent.

Channeling yesterday’s loud rally, and on the day that Governor Raimondo has officially broken her campaign promise to issue an executive order allowing undocumented workers to obtain driver’s licenses, the Coalition asked state leaders to take this important step.

Right now low and no income Rhode Island families with children are eligible to receive cash assistance for a maximum of up to 24 months within a five year window. A mother with two children is eligible to receive $554 a month for up to 24 months. When the 24 months are done, the family is cut off, leaving children to live in crushing poverty. The coalition would like to end the 24 month limit.

Also, as they have asked nearly every year and to no avail, the Coalition would like the General Assembly to take action to reform PayDay loans. This is unlikely as long as Speaker Mattiello continues to pretend that “arguments against PayDay lending tend to be ideological in nature.”

The coalition would also like to see an expansion of Child Care Assistance and Early Childhood Education. as of Fall, 2014, for instance, only 34 percent of eligible children were enrolled in Head Start, “with many centers maintaining long waiting lists.”

The Coalition further wants to reduce out-of-school detentions which predominantly target students of color and feed the school-to-prison pipeline. They would also like to expand opportunities for workforce foundational skills and occupational training.

The RI Coalition for the Homeless (RICH) needs adequate funding to implement Opening Doors RI, and would like state leaders to seek a $100 million affordable housing bond.

The Coalition also backs efforts to prevent domestic abusers from accessing guns, a bill that died in committee last year to the consternation of supporters and the embarrassment of the General Assembly.

The Coalition would like to see adequate funding for Senior Centers and lastly, the Coalition wants the General Assembly to maintain the current RIPTA Senior/Disbabled Fare Program, recognizing that balancing the budget of public transit of the backs of the most vulnerable is simply cruel. Paiva-Weed was the only state leader to state that she would work to make this happen. Raimondo vowed to make RIPTA “affordable” which is apparently a number other than free.

“These all sound good, but where do we find the money?” asked Raimondo.

“I am very concerned about imposing a fee on elderly and disabled RIPTA passengers,” said Paiva-Weed, “and I am committed to looking at alternative funding.”

Attempting to explain his statement at last years Interfaith Poverty Vigil where he said that he wants to eliminate the social safety net, Speaker Mattiello spun a vision of a Utopian future world. “When we get the economy to a point where everybody’s thriving,” said the Speaker, “every single family has a wage earner that is successfully feeding the family, and everybody is doing well and is well fed… families are happy… that will be the day we don’t need a safety net. And at that time our safety net will justifiably be smaller.”

Here’s Bishop Herson Gonzalez’s keynote address.

Note: I was fortunate today to get permission from Rachel Simon to run her pictures of the event. So all these pictures are under her 2016 copyright.

And here’s the full vigil.

January 6, 2016

Senate passes Good Samaritan Act, House takes it up on Tuesday

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“We applaud, and are deeply grateful to, the Senate for its quick action today in making the reinstatement of the [Good Samaritan Overdose Prevention Act of 2016] the legislative priority of the first week,” said Steve DeToy of the Rhode Island Medical Society, Rebecca McGoldrick of Protect Families First and Steven Brown of the ACLU of Rhode Island in a joint statement.

“Reinstating this law will save lives, and is an essential step in addressing the dire overdose epidemic Rhode Island is grappling with. Furthermore, it is a step in the right direction of how we should address drug use and addiction. For too long we have made it the task of the criminal justice system to address these issues, and this approach has been costly, ineffective, and destructive. It’s time that we handle drug use and addiction as a public health and medical issue and put saving lives above making arrests. The Good Samaritan bill makes major strides towards that goal by giving people in the community greater confidence that they will not be arrested if they seek medical care.

“In that regard, we are hopeful that in considering this legislation next week, the House will not only pass it speedily but will also consider expanding it to cover other drug-related offenses as well.”

The bill was introduced by Sen. Michael J. McCaffrey (D-Dist. 29, Warwick).”Identical legislation (2016-H 7003) submitted by Rep. Robert E. Craven (D-Dist. 32, North Kingstown) will be taken up by the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday at the rise of the House in Room 101 says a General Assembly press release. The bill exempts “from liability any person who administers an opioid antagonist to another person to prevent a drug overdose. It would further provide immunity from certain drug charges and for related violations of probation and/or parole for those persons who in good faith, seek medical assistance for a person experiencing a drug overdose.”

Governor Gina Raimondo is expected to sign the bill and also issued a statement. “The Good Samaritan Overdose Prevention Act of 2016 is an important tool to combat this public health crisis. Rhode Island’s response to the overdose crisis must first and foremost be focused on saving lives. I applaud the General Assembly for their action to encourage Rhode Islanders to call 911 in an overdose emergency.”

When Speaker Nicholas Mattiello abruptly ended the legislative session last year the Good Samaritan law was one of the most important and vital pieces of legislation not to pass. The original bill had a sunset clause, but has been so successful in saving lives its reinstatement was considered a given. Activists were shocked, lives were put at risk.

Mattiello considered having a special Fall legislative session to discuss the PawSox deal, truck tolls and the Good Samaritan Act, but that Fall session never came to pass.

January 5, 2016

Licenses for All rally rocks opening session at State House

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When Governor Gina Raimondo was a candidate, she did not promise to partner with the legislature to work out a solution to the problem of undocumented workers and access to driver’s licenses. She said that she would issue an executive order compelling the DMV to begin issuing such licenses within her first year in office. In fact, she signed her name to that promise. Raimondo has two days to make good on her word, or it will be a campaign promise broken.

To remind her of her promise, members of RI Jobs With Justice, Fuerza Laboral, English for Action, the Providence Student Union and others rallied at the State House outside the House chambers, demanding that their voices be heard and that promises be kept. As Speaker Nicholas Mattiello puttered about inside the House chambers, metaphorically polishing his gavel and preparing for the new legislative session, advocates for licenses were lead in chants by Juan Garcia and shouted the Speaker’s name.

Mattiello ignored the protesters.

Overlapping with the “Licenses for All” rally was a “No Tolls” rally. This rally was made up primarily of conservative anti-tax groups. This coalition was protesting against the proposed truck tolls, which the tax groups feel are a slippery slope to car tolls. There was some friction when members of the anti-toll rally took issue with the undocumented workers agitating for licenses, with one angry man leading a small group in screaming, “Go home!” over and over again.

Later those rallying for licenses chanted, “We pay taxes!”

Speaker Mattiello told Gene Valicenti on WPRO that he didn’t, “expect to be moved” by the toll protest, and he seemed equally unmoved by the Licenses for All rally. One wonders what does move the Speaker if our democratic process and exercise of our First Amendment rights are so inconsequential.

Time running out for Raimondo to keep undocumented resident driver’s license promise

Coalition demands driver’s licenses for all, regardless of immigration status

January 4, 2016

David Norton announces run for District 60 House seat in Pawtucket

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David Norton, one of those most responsible for preventing the new owners of the Pawtucket Red Sox from moving to a proposed new stadium in Providence, has announced his intention to run for the District 60 House seat against incumbent Democrat David Coughlin.

“Today, I announce my candidacy for State Representative of District 60 Pawtucket,” said Norton in a statement, “I have many reasons for running for State Representative. My primary reason is the way in which Pawtucket was insulted and ignored by Rhode Island House Leadership during the PawSox fiasco.”

According to Norton, Rep. Coughlin, “has a total of $26 dollars in his campaign account. He has not held a fundraiser in years. He doesn’t attend events in Pawtucket. He has no presence and is not known by his own constituents in the community of District 60 Pawtucket.”

Norton went on to say,

“David Coughlin, essentially, was handed District 60’s seat by Rhode Island House Leadership. Let me be very clear on one point, the Rhode Island Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello, not David Coughlin, is in control of District 60’s seat, as is the case in so many other House Districts in Rhode Island.

“In the 2014 election, David Coughlin ran UNOPPOSED for House District 60’s seat, and was given a favored position on the powerful House Judiciary Committee as a freshman legislator, which is likely the reason that he votes as Speaker Mattiello tells him (as so many other Rhode Island legislators are forced to.) I would like to make clear, again, that this is the case in many other House Districts in Rhode Island.

“In reality, I will not be running against David Coughlin, because David Coughlin hasn’t got the resources, organization or independent leadership to run against me. The unfortunate reality is that I will be running against Speaker Nicolas Mattiello and the State political machine. Like so many other seats in the Rhode Island House of Representatives, the Speaker owns District 60’s seat by way of doling out favors in the form of legislative grants and favored committee positions, as is the case in District 60.

“The only way Speaker Mattiello can keep District 60’s seat as his own is to pour money into my opponent’s campaign. The only way the Speaker can hold District 60’s seat is to send an army of anti-McCoy Stadium door knockers or other House Leadership Members to invade Pawtucket to win this race for David Coughlin.

“I like David Coughlin. He is a nice guy, as far as I know. This isn’t personal: this is political. Politics is a fight. I am a fighter. I want the people of District 60 to have an independent voice at the Rhode Island State House. I want to be that voice.”

November 24, 2015November 24, 2015

Coalition demands driver’s licenses for all, regardless of immigration status

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“In June of last year, when the candidates were running for governor, we got a promise from all the candidates, including Gina Raimondo, that she would sign an executive order granting driver’s licenses to undocumented people in Rhode Island within the first year of office,” said Juan Garcia, from the Comité de Inmigrantes en Acción.

Garcia was speaking at a State House press conference organized by Todos Somos Arizona, (We Are All Arizona) coalition, a group that supports immigrant rights. Since the Paris attacks last Friday, say organizers, “we have seen a surge in xenophobic messages and remarks made by politicians and the media against refugees and immigrants across Europe and the United States, including Rhode Island.”

2015-11-23 Driver's Licenses 03 — Todos Somos Arizona

Garcia said, “We just want to send a message, especially with everything that has happened in Paris with the terrorist attacks. The people standing behind me are not terrorists. We are human beings, and what better way to promote safety in Rhode Island than to give everybody a driver’s license?”

The coalition argues that this is a human rights issues and that, “driver’s licenses for all residents of Rhode Island would mean safer roads for everyone… Parents need driver’s licenses to drive their children (many of whom are US citizens) to school, doctor’s appointments, and to get to work. They shouldn’t have to live in fear everyday simply to provide for their families.”

“We do not want to be criminalized,” said Heiny Maldonado, director of Fuerza Laboral, “We only want to be recognized for the people that we are.”

José has been in the country in since 2000 and has been driving without a license since 2009. “It’s a safety issue,” he said, “I drive in fear, looking through my rear view mirror… I work a lot, I drive a lot and I need to provide for my loved ones.”

Veronica, speaking on behalf of Inglés en Acción / English for Action (EFA), said that she was speaking for undocumented parents who need to meet with teachers, meet with doctors and need to attend English language classes. They are, says Veronica, “afraid that they can’t get somewhere because they don’t have licenses.”

A dozen states, including Illinois, Vermont, California, New Jersey and Connecticut, have already passed legislation to provide licenses for all of their residents, regardless of immigration status. “We demand that Speaker [Nicholas] Mattiello support the governor, and not block this action,” said Garcia.

So far, Governor Raimondo has failed to keep her campaign promise and sign the executive order. In response to a query, the Governor’s office replied, “The Governor supports providing licenses for undocumented Rhode Island residents and remains committed to pursuing a solution. She has a team across state agencies working on this, but no decisions have been made on timing or process at this time.”

The Todos Somos Arizona coalition includes English for Action (EFA), Olneyville Neighborhood Association (ONA), Jobs with Justice, SIEU, Fuerza Laboral, Comité de Inmigrantes en Acción / Immigrant Action Committee and the American Friends Service Committee.

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