raimondo – Page 4

February 8, 2014February 8, 2014

Out-of-state progressive left still skeptical of Raimondo

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Another national journalist took another shot at Rhode Island’s most hotly-debated politician: Gina Raimondo.

Syndicated progressive columnist David Sirota connects dots between Raimondo’s Wall Street campaign supporters and Rhode Island’s inability to afford to make good on pension promises while almost simultaneously cutting taxes for the rich and increasing subsidies for corporations.

It’s an accurate picture of what the last decade or so of economic policy in the Ocean State can look like when not mired in the details the local media microscope provides Rhode Island. We’ve cut taxes for the winners and we’ve cut services for the losers. We broke financial commitments to workers and we made new ones to corporations.

“So who is the real Gina Raimondo?,” Sirota asks. “Is she the politician whose pension schemes aim to protect corporate welfare subsidies while converting retiree money into Wall Street fees? Or is she the defender of pensioners against the plutocrats?”

Many on the left – and in particular the pro-labor left – feel her campaign is co-opting the progressive label for a very different agenda. At the very least she’s using the term more broadly than it has been used in the past and pro-union progressives have good reason to both take umbrage and be skeptical of her political positioning as a lefty. Organized labor is the anchor of support for the entire progressive left in Rhode Island, so it’s something of an offense to trample all over the flagship then claim to be a member of the fleet.

I’d really like for her to address the issues and allegations raised in Sirota’s latest indictment of her. I think that’s how anyone campaigning as a progressive should handle such a damning indictment of progressive credentials from a well-respected progressive writer.

February 5, 2014February 5, 2014

John Marion of Common Cause RI explains People’s Pledge

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As early as Monday RI Democratic candidates for governor will sit at this table at Common Cause RI to agree to discourage outside spending in the Democratic primary.

Democratic candidates for governor could meet Monday with Common Cause RI to hammer out the details of a People’s Pledge, said John Marion, executive director of the good government group who first suggested using the tool developed in Massachusetts to keep outside money from influencing local elections.

Marion said in an interview yesterday that People’s Pledges have been utilized four times in Massachusetts to keep Super PAC and other so-called “dark” money from spending money on negative advertising in local elections – Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown were the pioneers and it was used in two subsequent congressional races; and Marion also includes an agreement between Bill Weld and John Kerry in 1996.

But, to his knowledge, this would be the first time the ad-hoc workaround to the controversial Citizens United Supreme Court ruling that allows unlimited and anonymous money to be spent in elections.

“With the growth of third party spending … the candidates actual message gets drowned out,” Marion said. “That spending tends to be overwhelmingly negative. Those groups acts as proxys for the official campaign. Official campaigns don’t like to go negative because it reflects poorly on the candidates but when it’s independent of candidate they have no problem.”

Marion said a People’s Pledge could curtail that and be “potentially historic.”

Listen to our conversation here:

February 4, 2014February 4, 2014

People’s Pledge faces tough politics

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“The love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

-First Epistle to Timothy, Chapter 6, Verse 10; King James Version

So proclaims the KJV, and ponder that the famous part, “the love of money is the root of all evil,” is a proverb older than Christianity itself.

“Issues of campaign finance have taken a front seat in this election,” John Marion told RI Future earlier. Marion should know; as executive director of Common Cause RI the task of keeping the three big Democratic primary campaigns of Pell, Raimondo, and Taveras at the table falls to him as they meet to hammer out the details of a People’s Pledge. Raimondo and Taveras also swatted at one another over campaign donations this week.

It is beginning to sound like negotiating a Pledge will be akin to a Herculean labor. The Raimondo campaign hit with a one-two punch of an expansive Pledge, covering all outside expenditures, not simply the Super PAC spending; and also requested that the negotiations be open to the media.

It’s a canny move, given that it’s likely the Raimondo campaign won’t just be facing campaign operations, but also public sector union operations aimed at ending her career. The “typical” Pledge used by during Massachusetts’ Warren-Brown race for Senate certainly seems to harm Raimondo the most, and the blanket outside spending ban will prevent her opponents from mitigating her significant fundraising lead.

As intelligent as that may be in the immediate future, it seems to ignore that limiting the resources campaigns have will probably lead to negative advertising (because it unfortunately works); and then it becomes a race to see who can emerge the least-bloodied in September. Hopefully, instead of these being ironclad demands, the Raimondo team is merely staking out its ideal position, and will allow itself to be bargained down.

Similarly, the call for opening negotiations to the media sounds like a great idea; until you think that few negotiations of consequence have ever been hammered out in the public eye. Negotiations call for discretion and humility, and the court of public opinion rarely rewards those characteristics, especially for politicians.

But a call for transparency about a Pledge aimed at increasing transparency is good politics, and it’s a fine line to walk between voicing legitimate concerns and sounding like you’ve got something to hide.

Make no mistake about it, this is a war of position right now, with each side marshaling what it needs to hammer at each other come the summer and early fall when voters start actually paying attention.

That’s partly why campaign finance has received media attention at all. It is the season of fundraisers and campaign finance reports. With little to report on beyond money, the political scene will be mostly focused on the big political campaigns until the General Assembly starts to take up bills, at which point the media will keep one eye on both.

The problem is that the state is not electing a fundraiser-in-chief, but rather a governor. Ultimately the Pledge is subservient to that goal, providing the voters the ability to select who they think would govern best. Until then, we may find ourselves, like the ancients, pierced through with many sorrows.

January 22, 2014January 22, 2014

Oops, I was wrong about the People’s Pledge’s viability!

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So back in October 2013, just after Angel Taveras called on Gina Raimondo to sign the People’s Pledge, I pretty much wrote it off as not happening. (After I asked for it to happen in September)

Quick up-to-speed: a People’s Pledge is a way to workaround the results of the Citizens United ruling. Candidates agree that if outside interests spend money during the campaign, whoever is the beneficiary of the outside spending will donate half of the cost of the ad to the aggrieved candidate’s choice of charity. This does two things: one, it tells outside groups to back off, because their help will do more harm than good. Two, it makes a candidate donate to charity, which always looks good.

So, long story short, on the 4-year anniversary of Citizens’ United Raimondo backtracked from her campaign’s initially tepid reception of the idea to make a pretty unequivocal statement that a People’s Pledge was needed for the gubernatorial primary. Common Cause RI Executive Director John Marion threw this post up here on RI Future.

Now we could (and will) wildly speculate as to why Raimondo decided to back the Pledge. Maybe the polling for it is good. Maybe it’s an attempt to cloak herself in the Elizabeth Warren mantle. Maybe it’s her significant fundraising lead. Maybe it’s a little of column A, a little of column B, and a little of column C. Whatever. It’s a good thing.

As Common Cause MA points out, the Pledge reduces dark money spending, increases the influence of small donors, and decreases the amount of negative advertising. I wrote a post about a month before the Taveras campaign announced its call for a People’s Pledge, and one of my main points was that we need to avoid bloody primaries. Now, that’s just my partisan progressive Democrat stance, a harsh primary depresses Democratic turnout, and when Dems don’t vote, Republicans win.

Common Cause RI understandably isn’t concerned at all with that, they’re more about the disclosure issues, right of the public to know, that sort of good government thing. They’re hopeful soon-to-announce Clay Pell will also endorse the Pledge, and then the campaigns can get down to brass tacks and sort this out.

I’m hopeful (again). That Pell might refuse seems a bit weird, and would raise more questions than would be good for his fledgling campaign.

So that’s where the Democratic primary stands.

How about the Republicans? Oh dear.

January 16, 2014

Horse-trading, parking and Raimondo

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With Gina Raimondo taking such an unexpected turn to the left, there’s a whole lot that’s up in the air for the governor’s race.

Many voices on Rhode Island Future have covered the importance of Raimondo’s signature issue, pension reform. Having a public school secretary as a mother, I’ve never been particularly keen for these types of “reforms”, but I’ve always felt that the best course of action was to grant people one disagrees with the benefit of the doubt. Raimondo seems to be working very hard to prove to us that her reforms did not result from a disdain for workers, but rather a commitment to fiscal restraint.

Very well, let’s have her prove it.

RIDOT may end up investing $30,000-50,000 per parking spot in a parking garage for the Garrahy Judicial Complex. This is a very bad investment. Downcity is covered in parking.

Option 1: The No-Build Option.

My top preference would be not to build this garage with state money. I think that Raimondo can capture the hearts of progressives by finding a better use for the state funding, or she go whole-hog on the fiscal conservative thing and shelve the spending and/or give the taxpayers some of their money back. Honestly, I’d be reasonably happy with either. At least we’re not building a parking structure with state money.

If she wants to double down on her investment strategy for schools, $50,000 is more than a starting teachers’ salary in Providence. There are also plenty of schools that need renovations. I had the luck to work for a year with Americorps at Nathan Bishop Middle School, but the vast majority of Providence’s public schools are in nowhere near the shining shape of that building. And I’m sure plenty of other school districts (Central Falls, Woonsocket, Pawtucket) would have good uses for that money too.

Option 2: Build Something Good.

I also think it would be a good idea to take a page from other cities, and build a marketplace with apartments and offices above it to serve as a bus hub. The “compromise” position on the parking garage is supposed to be to put a bus hub on the first floor, but who wants to take the bus to a parking garage (and who wants to park at a bus hub?). I’ve outlined some examples here.

Option 3: The Benefit of the Doubt

The strongest presentation of the argument for state investment in a parking garage is that it will help us consolidate that huge expanse of surface parking into a vertical structure. This has some merits.

The only way the garage makes sense as a state investment is if it comes with considerable strings. Here are mine:

1. The state can invest the money upfront if it charges the full market value for parking in order to recoup costs, and continues to charge market value to upkeep and maintain the garage after the principal is paid.

2. The parking garage only deserves public money on the merit that it’s an ecological measure to consolidate parking. Therefore, the parking garage must be parking neutral. This means that any spots added by the garage have to be canceled out by surface spots removed. Since removing a surface lot generally means building something on it, and since building can’t just be ordered to happen at the drop of a hat, the state must require garage builders to pay for bonds to maintain greenery on the surface lots until something can be built. This already has precedence in the popularity of Grant’s Block as a no-car space that might have been used for parking. It also has policy precedents in Salt Lake City, Utah, where the city has such requirements for empty lots from demolitions.

3. The garage must have business spaces on the bottom floors. It might be a nice twist to charge slightly above market value for parking in order to offer lower rent to the tenants.

4. If there are any additional spaces needed to be taken beyond the surface lots in Downcity in order to reach parking neutrality, then I would propose taking some from some streets in order to make protected bike lanes with a planted median. These will help reduce the demand for parking, thus making the garage a better investment for those who do use it, and will also green our city by making biking an option for more people. Removing some lanes of a road from car traffic also saves taxpayers longterm on maintenance costs.

5. The garage must be open for 24 hour business. There’s a real problem of some parking being used for daytime use and other parking nighttime use in Downcity, such that even though there are more than enough parking spaces available, they’re not being used rationally so that they can double on their capacity.

6. There should be some decent bike parking in the garage.

Hey, I’m not a fan of pension reform. But I can make my peace with balancing a budget. Let’s horse-trade. The way to show good faith on the idea that pension reform isn’t just a reverse Robin Hood is to put your money where your mouth is.

No more subsidized parking.

January 14, 2014January 14, 2014

Social impact bonds: ‘do they promote public good, or sell it?’

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Gina Raimondo “kicked off” her campaign for Governor yesterday, and wouldn’t you know it, but the centerpiece of her policy proposals will be a new invention of Goldman Sachs, the “social impact” bond.

What, you might ask, is a social impact bond? The idea is that some great source of capital like, oh, I don’t know, Goldman Sachs, lends some community millions of dollars to improve early-childhood education. Perhaps they build a new pre-K facility, or even use the money to pay some teacher salaries. A wealth of evidence shows that this kind of investment pays a return of sorts because the kids who enjoy this better education are less likely to become teen parents or teen lawbreakers. It stands to reason, therefore, that the community so enriched by this investment can repay the bond by sending to Goldman Sachs the money that would have been spent on the welfare or jail that those teens didn’t need. How’s that for a win-win?

From the perspective of the public budget, you’re really no further ahead, of course, since the money you were going to spend on jails is spent on paying Goldman instead, but at least you have this shiny new school, and fewer criminals, too.

Of course if your pre-K students grow up to be peaceable, responsible, taxpaying, and generally lovely adults — who happen to live somewhere else — well, you can’t make an omelette without cracking a piggy bank, right?

Snark aside, what do we really have here? Is it a good idea or not? Is this a way for communities to access funds for desperately needed investments, or is it a new way for the financiers who burned down our economy just a few years ago to rape the public funds — again? Bear in mind, please, that there is a substantial risk here. Research about the future costs of jail and welfare are estimates, made to illustrate various cost/benefit analyses. They are not carefully calibrated prices. The weight of evidence says there will be savings, and the side benefit is happy people and less crime. To me, that’s enough to argue for investment, but the happy people and less crime parts of the benefit aren’t going to help pay off a loan.

It might be worth asking at this point, why those communities can’t afford to invest in these improvements the evidence says will pay off. Oh, right, it’s all the tax breaks of the past decades. Did you know that business taxes used to be the third most important source of revenue to the state of Rhode Island? Now they are fifth, behind the lottery and all the fees collected by various departments. Did you know that the richest Rhode Islanders paid over three times the income tax of the average taxpayer in 1996, and in 2011, a bit more than twice? Over the past decades, our state and nation have cut taxes repeatedly in a vain and misguided attempt to stimulate the economy and things have only gotten worse for everyone except those whose taxes were cut.

So now that we can’t afford to make these investments in education and infrastructure (not to mention the human capital our business community claims they want access to but won’t pay for) here’s a new plan: take money from the rich, not as taxes, but as loans, and in return pay them the benefits that used to be thought of as belonging to everyone. And if the benefits don’t actually pan out, do you imagine that the financiers will be at risk?

It’s easy to imagine a community in dire straits, seeking to salvage the futures of some of its residents, with such a desperate and risky scheme. Business owners on Federal Hill used to find themselves wondering in the same way if they should ask the mob for help. But to imagine — no, to actually see and hear — a gubernatorial candidate suggest that this is a good idea on its own merits is appalling. The idea is a disgrace, a wholesale sellout of the very concept of the public good.

So what do we learn here? First, that the creativity of people paid millions of dollars to think of new ideas to make more money is nearly boundless. Over the past decades, we offered a bargain: tax cuts for rich people in exchange for a better economy. But they used the money to buy political power and used it to extract still more money from the rest of us. They are already on the way to owning the world. Here is yet one more way for the fabulously wealthy to solidify their control of our politics and our world.

The other thing we learn? That clearly Gina Raimondo is not at all worried by the idea that she might be perceived as too closely tied to the wolves of Wall Street. The question she should answer: does she want to promote the public good, or sell it?

January 14, 2014January 23, 2014

RIF Radio: Is Raimondo a progressive? What do NECAP math failures tell us? Will Lynette Labinger become a judge? Who was Roy Campbell?

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Monday Jan 13, 2013
North Kingstown, RI – Good morning, Ocean State. This is Bob Plain, editor and publisher of the RI Future blog podcasting to you from The Hideaway on the banks of the Mattatuxet River behind the Shady Lea Mill in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.

Today is Tuesday, January 14 and our show today is brought to you by Largess Forestry, our first podcast sponsor. Forest preservationists and licensed arborists, no one will care for your trees better than Matt Largess and his crew. If you’ve got a tree or a woodlot in need of some sprucing up, call Matt today for a free consultation at 849-9191.

Rhode Islanders can expect rain and warm weather today, with temperatures getting close to 50 degrees. In other words, it will be easy even for the simple-minded to recognize the planet is warming today. Thanks God, for making it a little harder for the right-wing spin machine to spread lies about the health of our planet…

And speaking of conditions that question our assumptions about the world … General Treasurer Gina Raimondo, it seems, will be running for governor as a progressive. Her campaign logo even looks like RI Future’s!! For royalties, we only request that you pay us a visit here at the Shady Lea Mill and be our guest on the podcast.

December 19, 2013December 19, 2013

RIF Radio: Raimondo running for governor; Monti at Nick-a-Nee’s; why Finland has better education

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Thursday Dec 19, 2013
North Kingstown, RI – Good morning, Ocean State. That was local musician Chris Monti kicking off today’s podcast. You can hear him live and in person tonight at Nick-a-Nees, so I hope you can check him out.

This is Bob Plain, editor and publisher of the RI Future blog podcasting to you from The Hideaway on the banks of the Mattatuxet River behind the Shady Lea Mill in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.

It’s Thursday, December 19 … the first day that Gina Raimondo is officially a candidate for governor. The :

“To her fans and political contributors, the 5-foot-3-inch Raimondo is the scrappy pension-reformer who saved taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually. To her relentless critics within organized labor, she is the fist-pumping opportunist who used “pension reform” as a guise to enrich her “Wall Street friends” and possibly herself through blind trust holdings in the venture-capital firm she founded.”

To me, she’s both. A scrappy opportunist who saved taxpayers money by using pension reform to enrich her Wall Street friends.

The only thing the local media enjoys exaggerating more than the need for milk and bread every time it snows is the old saw about the overly-indulgent public sector retiree, most recently evidenced by the mass attention on the ex-fire fighter who was caught lifting weights while collecting a disability pension. Seriously … George Vecchione makes $8 million bucks a year running the local hospitals and good luck finding it in the Providence Journal but a union member makes $40,000 a year and it’s stripped across the top of page A1. Not to begrudge – or defend – either of these economic actors, but which one seems to you to be more responsible for the sorry state of our economy?

Only 74 undocumented students have taken advantage of new state policy that allows them to attend state colleges for in-state tuition so long as they went to a local high school. says WPRI reporter and RI Future alum Dan McGowan.

Hey before you enjoy your next hamburger consider what factory farms feed their cows. According to Mother Jones it’s an unhealthy diet of corn, soy, drugs, sawdust, candy wrappers and chicken shit. God bless the vegans. Yumm … I’m not saying I don’t enjoy the occasional burger, I’m just saying us Americans have gross diets.

The New York Times asks why American schools can’t compete with other first world nations around the world. Of the famous Finnish education model, they write it provides “daily hot meals; health and dental services; psychological counseling; and an array of services for families and children in need. None of the services are means tested.” Here in America, we have high stakes testing which isn’t means tested… See the difference?

Rest in peace, Billy Jack. Tom Laughlin, the man who wrote, directed and starred in the 70’s counterculture classic Bill Jack movies died earlier this week. The New York Times called these indie classics, “a low-budget fusion of counterculture piety and martial-arts violence that struck a chord with audiences and became a prototype for independent filmmaking.”

December 3, 2013December 3, 2013

Podcast: Smiley announces, Siedle accuses, Ahlquist educates, Sheldon highlights health care

Tuesday Dec 3, 2013
North Kingstown, RI – Good morning, Ocean State. This is Bob Plain, editor and publisher of the RI Future blog podcasting to you from The Hideaway on the banks of the Mattatuxet River behind the Shady Lea Mill in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.

It’s Tuesday, December 3rd, the day Detroit will, or won’t, officially file for bankruptcy protection … and, in local news, Brett Smiley is formally announcing he’s running for mayor of the Capital City today. Check out the About page on his website and you’ll see there is little doubt he sees himself as the progressive in the crowded field for mayor…

Brett will be joining Mark Gray and I for our first roundtable podcast on Thursday afternoon … if you’d like to join us, or have a question for Brett, reach out on twitter and/or Facebook….

And speaking of being mayor and running for office, current Providence Mayor Angel Taveras is scheduled to join the URI Honors Colloquium tonight on great public schools tonight … more on this developing story later this morning. The URI Honors Colloquium has already hosted such education experts as Diane Ravitch and Henry Giroux, and us progressives are sure looking forward to hearing what Mayor Taveras adds to this ongoing debate….

UPDATE: According to the Honors Colloquium, Taveras’ appearance has been canceled for tonight. “the Mayor expresses his sincere apologies for not being able to attend,” said his communications director, David Ortiz. “He had a scheduling conflict.”

Pension detective Ted Siedle is petitioning the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate pension fund investments overseen by General Treasurer Gina Raimondo. Siedle says that some investment agreements essentially allow hedge fund managers to “steal from the state” by hiding information from the public that they are expressively allowed to share with other investors.

Raimondo’s office responded by calling the accusation a political attack. Yes, it is true, the retirees whose savings Raimondo slashed definitely have a political interest in her not becoming governor … the more pointed question she should respond to: do some state investment agreements allow managers to share information with other investors while shielding it from the citizens of Rhode Island. Because all of Rhode Island may not want the person who negotiated that deal to be our next governor…

Seidle told the Providence Journal: “What I have done for Rhode Island is to draw attention to the other side of the balance sheet, the other side of the income statement, which is how much has been paid to Wall Street.”

Steve Ahlquist offers a good government reason why Rhode Island should NOT have a Constitutional Convention in 2015. In an RI Future post published this morning, he says “Con-Con” delegates are elected for the singular purpose of amending the state Constitution, and thus aren’t accountable to any future voters.

“This is the wrong way to effect change,” writes Ahlquist. “Right now, the General Assembly can be held accountable by voters: If you don’t like the way they are behaving, you can remove them from office by voting for their opponents in the next election. The Con-Con delegates, on the other hand, have no such accountability. Delegates, unconcerned with being re-elected, can suffer no penalty for failing voters. Delegate candidates could conceivably run as moderates and then work to effect radical changes once elected.”

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse held a summit on health care yesterday and said Rhode Island is proving to be a stellar example to the rest of the nation in how to deliver better and more efficient benefits to people in the 21st Century. Similarly, a new report says the Ocean State is poised to be a national leader in solar power … in other words, Little Rhody shines when it comes to health care and renewable energy sectors of the economy … that’s called being well-situated for the future. Go Rhody!

A 38-year-old truck driver was ordered to pay the Koch bros company $180,000 because he participated in an organized hack on the right-wingers site … Koch Industries is located in Wichita, Kansas and so was his trial. The website was down for 15 minutes and the company said it lost $5,000 as a result…

On this day in 1886, textile workers in Fall River fought for and won … a 10-hour work day.

And in 1910 … the International Workers of the World, also known as the Wobblies, organized their first loggers union … speaking of organized labor in the timber industry, if you’ve never read Ken Kesey’s classic “Sometimes A Great Notion,” it’s a fantastic parable on team work and the dangers of thinking you’re above it. This is one of my favorite and most disturbing movie scenes of all-time:

Publisher Andres Shifflin has died … he founded The New Press after being fired from a Random House-owned company for not making enough money. He published the leftists works of Noam Chomsky and Studs Terkeland said his firing was essentially corporate censorship.

And one-hit wonder reggae singer Junior Mervin died yesterday … he wrote “Police and Thieves,” about senseless street violence … it became a hit for punk band The Clash, and turns out it’s just as relevant the 21st century United States as it was to 20th century Jaimaca and London.

November 20, 2013November 20, 2013

Taveras still popular outside of the chattering class

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Influential progressives and others from the chattering class may be turning away from Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, but their suspicions haven’t seemed to seep into the minds of average Rhode Islanders yet.

After a rough first few weeks running for governor, Taveras still seems to be the most popular candidate, according to a new Fleming Associate poll paid for by the Providence Journal and WPRI.

But while the poll shows a plurality of people believe Taveras is best equipped to fix the economy and he enjoys the highest favorability ratings of the five assumed candidates, the most telling indicator for the left may be that 60 percent don’t yet know enough about Clay Pell. In the entire poll, the only thing respondents agreed on more was that they don’t yet know Ken Block.

Here’s the Providence Journal story on the poll and here’s the WPRI version. Maybe the most fascinating thing about this poll is how the two rival news agencies handle the exact same data?

But please comment below and let us know what you think is the most interesting thing about the latest look into what regular Rhode Islanders think of the field and some of the issues.

November 6, 2013November 6, 2013

Divide between Taveras, Raimondo: how they play the game

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I agree with Sam Howard who suggests there isn’t a giant gap in the policy priorites of Angel Taveras and Gina Raimondo, but I don’t think that means there would be many other similarities in how each would governor Rhode Island.

On WPRI Newsmakers Sunday, Ted Nesi asked Taveras about a post Howard wrote on this blog, specifically: “I don’t see much, policy-wise, that differentiates the two candidates. I think Gov. Raimondo will make policy choices that a Gov. Taveras would also make, and vice versa.”

Taveras dove into his well-versed “Head Start to Harvard” campaign narrative and Nesi responded: “But I think that’s Howard’s point, you will have different biographies but then once you take office you both will govern in pretty similar center-left Democratic fashion.”

I don’t think they would govern in similar styles and I haven’t seen tons of evidence that Raimondo will govern in a center-left Democratic fashion. Or, at least, that’s certainly not how she accomplished her signature political victory.

Here’s how Bob Walsh, executive director of NEARI, parsed the difference in their approaches to cutting public sector pensions to WPRI in December of 2012 (watch the whole episode to see what the political landscape looked like just 11 short months ago!).

For me, and probably for many voters, policy differences aren’t the biggest factor in deciding for whom we pull the lever. It’s how you play the game.

October 25, 2013October 27, 2013

Wingmen: Put your money where your mouth is

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Should the public sector invest its savings based on our social values?

Of course we should! That such a question can even be debated speaks volumes about what our values are: making money. Though, as my TV arch nemesis Justin Katz points out, it would be a great follow up if that gun stock turns out to be a real dog!

News, Weather and Classifieds for Southern New England

October 25, 2013

Angel is in!

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Providence Mayor Angel Taveras makes it official on Monday as the Providence Journal reports he’ll announce he’s running for governor next week. WPRI also reported the news last night.

Taveras, the “Head Start to Harvard” first Latino mayor of Providence is a champion of progressive values and local liberals are inspired by his candidacy in the same way we were with Barack Obama in 2008. A key difference is Taveras has executive political experience as mayor of the Capital City. He averted a financial crisis in Providence by negotiating compromises with organized labor and local tax-exempt nonprofits.

Taveras will likely square off against General Treasurer Gina Raimondo, who has come under fire lately for cutting public sector pensions and then reinvesting those savings in volatile alternative investments with high fees for money managers. Pundits anticipate a bruising primary, with Taveras receiving grassroots support from local labor unions and other Providence political activists while Raimondo will benefit from anonymous super PAC donations from wealthy Wall Street special interests.

Yesterday, Taveras personally asked Raimondo if she would sign a People’s Pledge and disavow anonymous out-of-state donations. Her campaign has yet to respond to the overture though it did distance itself from the idea on Wednesday.

Clay Pell is also considering running for governor as a Democrat. The wealthy grandson of Senator Claiborne Pell, it’s unclear how his candidacy could affect the Taveras-Raimondo race.

October 24, 2013October 24, 2013

The making of a Wall Street Democrat

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Raimondomania has turned into Raimondomageddon.

The quarterback of pension politics was revered by the right in 2012, winning praise from the Manhattan Institute, ALEC and the Wall Street Journal among others. But 2013 has been a political lynching from the left – with Ted Siedle, Matt Taibbi, David Sirota and more all calling her signature accomplishment a wealth transfer to Wall Street.

To help keep track of all the out-of-town media attention, I made this timeline. It’s still a work in progress, so let me know if I’ve omitted any in the comments below and I’ll update as warranted. The tool on the right controls the view of the timeline.

October 24, 2013

Providence pioneered gun divestment in RI

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Far be it for RI Future to give Gina Raimondo credit for an initiative pioneered in Providence but that’s exactly what I did yesterday when I applauded her for suggesting the state divest from guns. The State Investment Commission did vote to stop investing in a company that sells guns yesterday, but the Capital City voted to divest from guns back on March 18.

“The City Council has a moral responsibility to ensure that no public money is being used in the manufacture of weapons that are endangering public safety,” said the resolution passed by the Council. “Now, therefore, be it resolved, that the Providence City Councîl does hereby urge the Providence Boaïd of Investment Commissioners to continue its review of the pension investments to determine whether or not its portfolio includes equity firms that have holdings in companies that manufaeîure assauìî weapons and divest from any such firms.”

October 23, 2013October 23, 2013

Divest pension funds from guns, but don’t stop there

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Divesting from dangerous weapons is a step in the right direction, and I applaud Gina Raimondo’s effort to make our pension fund more socially responsible. This blog doesn’t often have opportunity to agree with the hedge fund-loving general treasurer, but I certainly hope the State Investment Commission takes her advice and takes our money out of a company that distributes guns.

I’d also encourage Raimondo and the others who control Rhode Island’s $7 billion nest egg to look hard for other opportunities to be more socially responsible with our money. This would be a pension reform progressives would be proud to support, and would be better for our economy than cutting COLAs or enriching hedge fund managers.

Divestment, or socially responsible investing, is already a movement in Rhode Island. The Providence City Council recently voted to make its investment portfolio better match its values (what that will look like still remains to be seen) and Brown Divest Coal has long advocated for the Ivy League endowment to take its money out of companies that harm the environment.

Here’s hoping Seth Magaziner’s political ambitions will help shine a bright light on why socially responsible investing is a better bet for Main Street. High finance can be community-minded. And the more it is, the more profitable being community-minded will become.

October 21, 2013October 21, 2013

Will Raimondo return all her JP Morgan cash?

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JP Morgan looks close to settling with the Justice Department, says the New York Times.

JPM would pay $13 billion in penalties that follow from the bank’s shady mortgage lending, which helped to precipitate the financial crisis and make the lives of tens of millions of people completely miserable. It would be the largest fine that a company has ever paid in a settlement with DOJ, but surely doesn’t go far enough.

Rhode Island was, of course, hit disproportionately hard by the financial crisis and the mortgage fraud that fomented it. You might think that this would make local pols want to steer clear of association with the people and corporations who did all that terrible stuff to the Rhode Island electorate — but then you’d be wrong.

If politicians are expected to return funds taken years ago from an insurance fraudster who cost his victims a few tens of millions of dollars, then shouldn’t the same standard certainly apply to money from bankers who’ve helped cost the American economy several trillion dollars over the last 5-6 years?

So let’s call the question: How many JP Morgan execs has General Treasurer and Wall Street acolyte Gina Raimondo taken money from since she became State Treasurer? Well, I don’t know! Because I spent an hour or so counting them yesterday afternoon and then had to get back to doing some real work. (Namely, this book salon over at firedoglake about that book I wrote/edited about the SOPA fight.) Somebody should keep on looking, or maybe I’ll find more time to later. Just go over here and search the filings for the word “morgan”.

But here’s a partial list of what I dug up during a skim of just a few of her most recent campaign finance filings. These are not bank tellers, mind you: Bank tellers are fine people. These are not fine people: These are the people who lead/led the company that’s on the verge of having the biggest settlement ever with the DOJ, because they engaged in rampant mortgage fraud and helped destroy our economy and the livelihoods of tens of millions of people. Disproportionately in Rhode Island.

And they love Gina Raimondo and are bankrolling her political career!

-Jill Bickstein, Managing Director for Corporate Responsibility (sic)

-Cheryl Black, Managing Director

-Kelly Coffey, head of Diversified Industries Investment Banking

-Martha Gallo, Chief Compliance Office

-Eric Gioia, Vice President of J.P Morgan Chase’s private bank

-Karen Keough, chief state lobbyist

-E John Rosenwald, Vice Chairman Emeritus

-Peter Scher, Head of Corporate Responsibility (sic)

-Emily Seizer, Vice President for international affairs

-Richard Smith, Vice President

Reporters should consider asking if Raimondo will give back the money that she took from these people and their associates. (Really, somebody please at least tweet the question at her a few times. I don’t think she’ll respond to me.)

October 20, 2013October 21, 2013

RI should divest from hedge AND index funds

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Both J. Michaels raise good points about how the public sector should manage its financial investments in Ed Fitzpatrick’s great column this morning for which he writes the perfect lede about Rhode Island’s game of pension football:

“It was the best of investment strategies. It was the worst of investment strategies.”

Thankfully, there may be a third way that could take the best of both while skimming away the parts nobody likes.

J. Michael Downey makes the point that General Treasurer Gina Raimondo’s big bet on hedge funds serves as a wealth transfer from local retirees to Wall Street investors. “Instead of promoting retirement security for all Rhode Islanders, the changes have apparently enriched wealthy hedge fund managers,” he told Fitzpatrick.

Meanwhile, J. Michael Costello, “one of the longest-serving members of the State Investment Commission and managing partner of Endurance Wealth Management,” according to the ProJo, defended hedge funds saying, “we have a very underfunded pension system that has to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in excess of what comes in every year. As a result, you need to be careful with the various market fluctuations, so the motivation is to use these types of funds that traditionally hedge against significant downside events.”

If only there were a way to protect against downside events without transferring wealth to otherwise disinterested economic actors … Oh wait, there is!

Rhode Island should consider divesting from both index and hedge funds and invest instead in local and/or sustainable funds. There is certainly a way to structure a fund that hedges against the S&P 500 while boosting the (not-yet-indexed?) Ocean State 250.

It’s also well worth noting on this blog that Raimondo has defended the investment and denounced the fees – and I hope to get to compliment her efforts one day at transferring the wealth back from Wall Street to Main Street.

October 18, 2013October 18, 2013

Wingmen takeover of 10 News Conference

Andrew Morse, of Anchor Rising/Ocean State Current, and I square off for the full half hour on 10 News Conference. Moderator Bill Rappleye moderates us through a wide-ranging discussion on everything from guns permits in Exeter, hedge funds in pension investments to the 2014 governor’s race.

News, Weather and Classifieds for Southern New England

Best part, in my opinion, is the last 30 seconds when Rapp asks me if I think Clay Pell will run for governor. “I hope not. I think that’s the worst thing about American democracy that rich kids with famous last names can declare that they are running for government.” Just to clarify, I actually love that anyone – rich or poor – can declare they are running for government or governor. What I hate is that it’s easier for rich kids to do than poor kids.

A couple important corrections:

Of course we do know who gives significant political donations directly to Gina Raimondo. And there is no reason to suspect the Manhattan Institute would be among them.

Also, Ted Cruz is a Senator, so he doesn’t have a district other than the great state of Texas.

Sorry readers, viewers, WJAR and marketplace of ideas.

October 18, 2013October 18, 2013

Hedge funds: Wall Street snake oil

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In 2012 powerful right wing special interests predicted Gina Raimondo’s pension cuts would serve as a model for the rest of the country. They have, but perhaps not the way the Manhattan Institute, Michael Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal editorial board had hoped.

Instead, a diverse coalition is coalescing to call attention to the often hidden dangers of hedge funds.

Rolling Stone magazine, Forbes.com, the Institute for America’s Future, labor unions and this scrappy independent blog have all made strong arguments for why and how what Raimondo called “Truth in Numbers” was actually a politically calculated wealth transfer from Rhode Island public sector retirees to Wall Street billionaires.

But, whether you believe hedge funds are a silver bullet to beat the stock market or high finance snake oil, the same debate on their effectiveness is happening in the world of private sector investment as is happening in the Ocean State’s public sector investment. Mom and pop money managers and the mainstream media are serving up credible economic evidence that safer, traditional investments are more profitable in the long run.

A PBS Frontline investigation from April, 2013 called The Retirement Gamble reported on a hypothetical example eerily similar to Rhode Island’s pension investment.

In short, fees matter. So what can you do? You aren’t going to find a fund that invests your money for free, but experts say you can come close by buying index funds. Their fees can be a tenth of what the average mutual funds charges. And over time, in bull and bear markets, on average, index funds perform better than their more expensive actively managed fund cousins. This is no secret to anyone who is paying attention.

So why aren’t our trusted financial advisers and those ads telling us to buy index funds? Why do some 401(k) plans not even offer them on their menus?

It’s because even though an index fund might be a better option for you and me, a broker operating under a suitability standard has no incentive to sell it to us. He or she will make higher commissions from options that have higher fees.

And here’s an infographic that also illustrates the hedge fund myth.

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