EDITORIAL

A reason for hope

Posted 1/8/15

Rhode Islanders have reason to be apprehensive about the state’s future.

Major projected budget shortfalls loom. Our economic recovery continues to proceed sluggishly, and the unemployment rate …

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EDITORIAL

A reason for hope

Posted

Rhode Islanders have reason to be apprehensive about the state’s future.

Major projected budget shortfalls loom. Our economic recovery continues to proceed sluggishly, and the unemployment rate remains among the worst nationally. Several of our cities and towns – including Providence – find themselves in extremely precarious fiscal positions. Our elected leaders, far too frequently, prove unworthy of our faith.

Yet there is also reason for hope.

On Tuesday, the Ocean State made history as Governor Gina Raimondo took the oath of office, becoming the first female chief executive in Rhode Island history. She is the first Democrat elected to the governorship in more than two decades.

The day was bitterly cold, with gray skies and snow. Against that bleak, wintry backdrop, the new governor made an appeal for common purpose and resolve.

“We’ve witnessed a growing acceptance that ‘this is Rhode Island’…it’s just the way things are. So we’ve lowered our expectations, deferred our dreams and allowed corruption to take root,” she said. “Today, we begin to change this attitude.”

Raimondo’s call mirrors the common refrain of Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, who was on Tuesday unanimously re-elected to a new term as the leader of the House of Representatives. The Cranston Democrat, who frequently touts his “laser focus” on economic growth and job creation, has made improving the state’s self-image a cornerstone of his message.

“We need to have more pride…in our state of Rhode Island,” Mattiello said during Cranston’s inaugural ceremony on Monday. “We don’t promote ourselves the way we should.”

Such words, of course, must be coupled with more concrete action and achievement. Pride and self-promotion are but pieces of the enormously complex, challenging puzzle that is Rhode Island’s re-invention.

Raimondo has spoken of pursuing innovative solutions, such as fostering partnerships between industry and academia to help forge the economy and workforce of tomorrow. She called on Tuesday for “new politics and new ideas,” while calling on all the state’s residents to find their own means of contributing to a “comeback.” Her first action was to sign an executive order aimed at ensuring high standards of integrity and ethics in state government.

The new governor certainly has a record of bold action. The landmark pension reform law she shepherded through the General Assembly in 2011 represented uncharted, and perilous, waters in a political sense.

She also faces a combustible atmosphere in the first few months of her tenure. The state budget gap for the coming fiscal year is currently projected at nearly $200 million. Public angst over the 38 Studios saga remains high. And a spring trial date is pending in the pension matter after a proposed settlement Raimondo helped negotiate fell short, with literally billions of dollars at stake.

Rhode Island is sorely in need of the “new politics and new ideas” that our new governor called for this week. It needs the spirit of unity and common purpose of which she has spoken and which she has reflected through her early decisions and actions. It needs the kind of resolve she has shown in addressing perhaps the single most important – and thorny – issue of the day.

Only time will tell whether Raimondo’s tenure proves successful. For now, we have hope.

Comments

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  • JohnStark

    I wish the new governor nothing but the best. Unfortunately, RI faces numerous structural obstacles that neither she nor anyone in the state legislature will confront. RI remains a state with high taxes, a poorly educated adult workforce, a high dependency rate, and burdensome regulations. Nowhere in the above article did I read the words "welfare reform", "regulation reform", "tax reform" or virtually anything else that would qualify as a "...bold idea". You want a "bold idea" that would attract business? Propose a five year phase-out of the state income tax. It was, after all, originally enacted as "temporary". In 1971. Everything else is little more than tinkering.

    Thursday, January 8, 2015 Report this

  • markyc

    5 year phase out of RI income tax? Keep dreaming. If she & the RI GA can balance the budget WITHOUT raising State taxes & fees, that would be a good start.

    Thursday, January 8, 2015 Report this