valencia – RI Future

April 3, 2014April 3, 2014

On tax equity, RIPEC salves the souls of the House Finance Committee

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Last evening the RI House Finance Committee heard testimony on two bills that would increase the marginal tax rate on people making more than $200,000 a year. Representative Maria Cimini proposed a 2% increase, from 5.99 to 7.99% on incomes over $250,000, while Representative Larry Valencia proposed a 4.01% increase on incomes over $200,000 for individuals and $250,00 for married couples.

Valencia asked the committee to explain the effectiveness of tax cuts for the rich (starting in 1996) given that these were supposed to bring more jobs to Rhode Island, not less, as evidenced by our high unemployment. Appeals to reason however, were not found persuasive by the committee.

At least ten people spoke in favor of the bills, some telling very moving stories about the way they struggle in a state that continues to cut services and cut assistance to our cities and towns, resulting in higher property taxes. In fact, it’s the property taxes that are hitting these Rhode Islanders the hardest, even as the myopic House Leadership continues to champion a policy of across the board tax cuts, curbs on spending and other austerity measures. The impassioned pleas of struggling Rhode Islanders fell on deaf ears, because appeals to compassion were not found to be persuasive.

Everyone knows that the bills proposed by Cimini and Valencia are going nowhere this year. Chairperson Raymond Gallison, recently appointed to his position by Speaker Mattiello, shaped the discourse by calling up all those in favor of the bills and listening politely, reserving the last word for John Simmons, executive director of a right wing think tank, the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC). Gallison and Simmons are on a first name basis, and Simmons’ testimony was welcomed as a breath of fresh air.

Simmons simply restated the same things RIPEC says every year. Increasing taxes is wrong. The rich already face a higher tax burden than the poor. We shouldn’t be targeting the job creators. Philosophically, why should we be punishing those who are successful? The rich are rich because they are better than the poor, more deserving than the poor, and more important than the middle class. Here’s Simmons’ closing argument:

“Then there’s the philosophic issue, I guess I want to address that. It’s a little bit different. Is it because we can tax people who can make money and are successful that we should? Is that the philosophy we want for people to come to Rhode Island and grow a business here? If you make money we can take it from you? I don’t know that that’s the right message to send to people who want to come to Rhode Island. It’s the opposite. If you are successful we would like you to come to Rhode Island.”

Note that Simmons is not all that interested in those who already live in Rhode Island. He isn’t talking about improving the lives of Rhode Islanders, instead he’s talking about making Rhode Island a haven for the rich and successful. If Rhode Islanders are lucky, I suppose, we might find jobs shining the shoes and cleaning the yachts of our more deserving citizens.

This is what Gallison, representing House Leadership as Chairperson of House Finance, found persuasive: A naked appeal to everything he wants to believe is true, despite all evidence to the contrary. It’s called motivated reasoning, a process of having a conclusion and then searching for reasons to believe it. No contrary examples, no logic, no amount of suffering and no evidence contrary to the deeply held belief will be truly considered.

So what do you say to the man who eases your mind and continues to guide you down the primrose path of massive economic inequality? What do you say to the man who confirms all your biases and tells you that everything you sincerely wish were true is true and good, despite the nagging fear at the back of your mind that tells you it’s all a lie?

Gallison said, “Thank you very much John, I appreciate it.”

April 2, 2014April 2, 2014

Anti-poverty coalition rallies today for tax equity at State House

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Today in the State House Rotunda at 4:30 the newly formed “RI Mobilization Against Poverty”(RIMAP) is demanding bold action to address the economic woes of Rhode Islanders with plans that start with what Franklin Deleno Roosevelt called “the forgotten man” – the unemployed, the underemployed and the under-paid workers.

As growing wealth inequality pressurizes the streets, squeezing the middle class into poverty and those in poverty into despair, people of moral consciousness will not allow budget cuts to eviscerate what remains of the social safety net so that politicians can pad the bank rolls of the elite who fund their campaigns and profit off of side deals.

Mr. Elmer Gardiner of the George Wiley Center Leadership Committee explains:

“They recently announced that NORAD, the 7th largest auto importer in the US located in Quonset, are going to ‘create’ almost 300 new jobs paying only $10/hour -which means still they would be still economic slaves. We can’t be subsidizing these large corporations profits by paying for food stamps (SNAP) which wouldn’t be necessary if paid a living wage of $15/hour. Then these workers to have pride and self esteem, not feel that their work isn’t even enough to sustain themselves.”

We have more people today living in poverty than at any time in the history of this country, including the highest rate of children in poverty of any industrialized nation. Here the top one percent owns 38% of all the wealth in America while the bottom 60% own 2.3% collectively. In fact one family, the Walton’s of WalMart, are worth 138 Billion Dollars, more than the bottom 40% own all together. At a freezing cold Black Friday protest, a student said had to quit his job at WalMart and work for a local business the pay wasn’t enough to live on. While protesters chanted “low pay is not OK,” Scott DuHammel of the Painters and Allied Trades Union said “I think this is a terrible situation. The workers obviously deserve more.”

In fact one family, the Walton’s of WalMart, are worth 138 Billion Dollars, more than the bottom 40% own all together. At a freezing cold Black Friday protest, a student said had to quit his job at WalMart and work for a local business the pay wasn’t enough to live on. While protesters chanted “low pay is not OK,” Scott DuHammel of the Painters and Allied Trades Union said “I think this is a terrible situation. The workers obviously deserve more.”

UniteHere has been confronting the same poor pay and benefits at the Renaissance Hotel and the Weston, where the owners multi-millionaire owners lawyer threatened the city with “consequences” if they were not given tax credits for a development project.

And the story is the same all across the service industry. A mother of two children on strike at Wendy’s said “I am tired of getting paid $7.75/hour, and that’s sad…after working there for 4 years.” Women across the country have been earning 78 cents compared to every dollar that a man earns for doing the same job. Carolyn Mark, President of RI National Organization of Woman elaborated. “The number is higher now – 84.8 cents to the dollar, although it’s much lower for women of color. The common wisdom is that it’s not that RI women are doing so much better than women around the country, but that men in Rhode Island are doing that much worse.”

Poverty is the root community problem creating a cycle of crime leading to do to lack of opportunity – a downward spiral caused by a lack of jobs and unequal quality, materials for and access to education which is the key to social mobility. John Prince, founding member of Direct Action for Rights and equality points out that victory of the Ban the Box campaign, which a means amends employment laws to limit inquiries like “have you ever been convicted of a crime” helps to break a cycle of economic inopportunely. “I never heard a judge sentence anyone to a lifetime without employment. What we need now is for the City of Providence to finally enforce it’s First Source law to hire residents first so there are real jobs developed here.”

Today, the the House Finance Committee will be hearing Rep. Cimini’s bill H7471 would raise taxes by 2% for people making over $250,000 and Rep. Valencia’s Bill H7552 would raise taxes by 4% for people making over $200-250k. This is the way to raise revenues to develop the economy of the state, not by balancing the books on the backs of the poor and shrinking middle class. Austerity cuts are not an option. We need a law to raise the minimum wage to a living wage of $15/hour. Build Rhode Island “from the bottom up. Keep Martin Luther Kings Dream alive with action.

RIMAP is a coalition of organizations and individual from a wide array of backgrounds among anti-poverty, social justice, civil rights, women, human rights, community, labor, seniors, disabled, student, immigrant, and LGBT with a steering committee modeled after tho one formed by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his Poor Peoples Campaign in 1967.

June 18, 2013June 19, 2013

Thus far but no further on voter ID law

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It was never fully implemented, and it won’t be fully repealed either.

Instead Rhode Island will keep its controversial Voter ID law as it is now: identification is needed but it doesn’t have to have a picture. As a result, the Ocean State remains one of the 19 states that require a non-photo id to vote, rather than one of the 11 that requires a photo id. The remaining 20 states don’t require identification. (see map)

It leaves in place obstacles to voting, but won’t effect voter fraud. Rhode Island also retains the onus of providing free id cards to anyone who may need one (this is a Constitutional requirement so voter ID laws don’t serve as a de facto poll tax). If it’s true that a good compromise is one in which neither party is happy, this is a good compromise.

The Providence Journal reports that Rep. Larry Valencia’s bill that would repeal the voter ID law has been amended and enjoys the “backing from House leadership.”

The law, passed in 2011 amidst much controversy, was championed by Woonsocket conservative and ALEC minion Jon Brien, who proudly referred to himself as the “godfather of voter ID” in Rhode Island. It was co-signed by House Speaker Gordon Fox – read the Phoenix’s great history of the local voter ID saga here.

In October, as both Fox and Brien, both Democrats, faced spirited electoral challenges from the left, Fox promised to introduce a bill that would reconsider voter ID.

“Should I be fortunate to be re-elected, I will be sponsoring legislation to include a ‘sunset provision’ in the law. The sunset would force a ‘re-look’ at the law, which means legislative hearings would be held to learn the effectiveness of the law and whether modifications need to be made. That would include looking at the more restrictive provisions set to be enacted for the 2014 election cycle.”

Fox beat independent Mark Binder and Brien lost to labor-backed Democrat Steve Casey, who voted against marriage equality this year and sponsored an awful bill that would punish truancy by holding back social services.

To that end, Binder deserves a big giant thank you for helping Rhode Island hold the line on voter ID. Larry Valencia, too!

March 21, 2013March 21, 2013

Voter ID Repeal Bill Hits House Judiciary Committee

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Individual voter fraud.

If I could reduce the font of those three words in proportion to the actual occurrences of said fraud, they would be imperceptible to the human eye, and yet, two years ago the General Assembly passed a voter ID law, which amounts to, as Steven Brown of the ACLU of Rhode Island put it, “A solution looking for a problem.”

This year, Rep. Larry Valencia aims to overturn that law. Last night, the House Judiciary Committee heard testimony from Valencia and a host of other proponents of voter ID repeal, including Steven Brown of the RI ACLU, James Vincent, President of the RI NAACP, Sam Bell of the Young Democrats of Rhode Island, and former state prosecutor Robert Ellis Smith. Only two opponents of the repeal gave verbal testimony, one of which was Paul Caranci, a member of Secretary A. Ralph Mollis’ staff. Not surprising considering that Mollis crafted the original voter ID legislation.

Opponents of Voter ID laws have a host of issues to get fired up about. From voter disenfranchisement, to the fact that voter fraud, on an individual basis, really does not exist.

“The Bush administration assessed millions of ballots during the eight years he was in office,” Rep. Valencia said, “and found only a handful of individual voter fraud reports.” He went on to say that voter ID laws create barriers where none should exist, and that people who choose not to vote, or are turned away from the polls because they lack proper ID, rarely report these incidents, so gauging how often this happens is next to impossible.

Caranci pointed to the high turnout in the 2010 election as proof that voter ID laws do not lead to voter disenfranchisement. “We have no idea how prevalent this problem is, because we lack the tools to effectively detect and prosecute instances of individual voter fraud.” He also indicated that Rhode Islanders overwhelmingly support voter ID. Polls show that nearly 85 percent of the state support such a measure.

“Regardless of the popularity of voter ID, I support repeal,” said Valencia, “because it’s the right thing to do.”

Provisions in the Voter ID law also make it easier to vote by mail ballot, where we have seen instances of voter fraud. Ironic that a law that proposes to eliminate voter fraud that really doesn’t exist, actually makes it easier to commit fraud by mail.

Rep. Joseph Almeida peppered Caranci throughout his testimony with the mantra, “Show me instances of individual voter fraud. Show me the numbers. Show me the data.

Rep. Doreen Costa, who sponsored the Voter ID bill in the last session said, “I’m very proud of this bill. If 85 percent of Rhode Islanders support voter ID, well, we’re elected to do what they want.” Costa left the meeting before the majority of repeal proponents offered their testimony.

May 25, 2012May 25, 2012

Paiva Weed Pushes for Reversing Cuts to Disabled

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Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed said she is pushing for restoring funds to programs for the developmentally disabled in this year’s budget.

“From an overall policy perspective we believe decisions in last year’s budget resulted in a negative impact on the community,” she said. “The senate has consistently made restoration of funding for the developmentally disabled a priority.”

Last year, funding for the developmentally disabled were cut by $24 million. Only about $12 million was cut from the state budget; the other half comes in federal matching funds.

Paiva Weed said Senate Finance Committee Chair Daniel DaPonte and House Finance Committee Chair Helio Melo, both East Providence Democrats, are working together to see how much of the approximately $12 million in local cuts can be restored.

“At this point finance chairs have been negotiating,” she said. “Hopefully they will resolve it all soon.”

During the last week or so, the finance committee chairs, among others, have been busy putting together the budget proposal behind closed doors. When I caught Melo opening the door of his office (after his secretary told me he wasn’t in there) he was tight-lipped about what might be in the much-anticipated proposal. “We are looking at it,” he said. “We are looking at everything.”

As a result of the cuts last year, programs were scaled back, even though they weren’t supposed to be, and several hundred low-income wage earners had their hours cut.

House Finance Committee member Rep. Larry Valencia, a progressive Democrat from Richmond, said, “It’s important to see what we can do about reversing the cuts from last year,” he said, noting that pay cuts to low-wage employees has a significant effect on the state’s economy.

Sen. Lou DiPalma, a Middletown Democrat who is the deputy chair of both the finance committee and the human services committee, is also pushing for funds to be reinstated.

“We need to see how to move needle from where it was last year,” he said. “The cuts last year went much too far.”

Advocates for what’s known as DD funding were successful this session at drawing attention to the cuts. The biggest crowd at the State House this session was for a rally to raise awareness to the cuts – it drew close to a 1,000 people I would estimate. And several labor unions affected by the wage cuts either staged one-day strikes earlier in the session.