Happy Saturday. Mr. Nesi went to Washington to break news this week, so I’m filling in. As always, send your takes, tips and trial balloons to dmcgowan@wpri.com or tnesi@wpri.com, and follow @danmcgowan and @tednesi on Twitter.
1. First off this week, don’t miss the stories Ted Nesi filed from Washington during his trip to Capitol Hill. … John McCain and Jack Reed peel back the curtain on their partnership leading the Senate Armed Services Committee, and explain why it matters to Rhode Island. … McCain and Reed air their disagreement over the fight against ISIS. … A closer look at Sheldon Whitehouse’s energetic efforts to win over Senate Republicans. (McCain: “Sheldon Whitehouse is probably my only friend in the Senate who is a socialist bordering on Communist.”) … McCain breaks the news that he won’t endorse in the GOP presidential primary.
2. A dispatch from Ted Nesi: “Tapping unusual funding sources to pay for public initiatives has become a hallmark of Gina Raimondo’s political career since she took office five years ago, and this was the week it backfired on her rather spectacularly. Raimondo has always had an easy time harnessing cash, as was widely noted as far back as 2010, when she set a blistering fundraising pace in a sleepy campaign for treasurer. Then in 2011 she courted controversy by encouraging anonymous donors – later revealed to include the hedge-fund billionaire John Arnold and his wife – to drum up support for her pension overhaul through EngageRI. Soon after she became governor, Brown created a new policy shop to advise her office, funded with nearly $3 million from Arnold. Then there was the Brookings study, commissioned by Raimondo to guide public policy but paid for by private donors (including Rhode Island native Mark Gallogly, whose old firm, Blackstone, just bought Wexford Science + Technology). And now there’s the contretemps over tapping the RIC and URI foundations to pay for, respectively, a chief innovation officer and a trip to Davos. In each case, Raimondo allies say she’s saving taxpayers money while doing things that are good for Rhode Island. But continuing to go the non-traditional route will also continue to raise questions about whether Raimondo’s methods skirt normal rules and accountability.”
3. Those close to Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza are hoping several major construction projects in the capital city will quiet critics who believe the mayor struggled to find his footing during his first year in City Hall. Friday’s announcement that Wexford Science + Technology and CV Properties LLC signed a purchase and sale with the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission to build their life-sciences complex on the former highway land along with the hotel project at the Fogarty building in downtown and the URI-RIC nursing education center guarantees Elorza will be in office for what he’s already calling “one of the busiest construction seasons in decades in Providence.” Of course, his plan to restructure the fire department to save money is likely to cost more – at least in the current fiscal year – and members of the City Council have expressed frustration with the administration seemingly digging its heels in the sand by not moving forward with a new fire academy even though the current budget set aside money for a class. At the same time, it’s never a good sign to pick up the Providence Business News and see one of the state’s most well-known business leaders suggesting the city should consider filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. Of course, every elected official dismisses the idea of bankruptcy, but just about every number-cruncher in City Hall quietly acknowledges that Providence’s finances remain shaky.
4. Don’t miss Ted’s 12 things to know about the new Brookings Institution report on Rhode Island’s economy, and watch the authors on Newsmakers.
5. A new poll from the Hassenfeld Institute released Friday makes one thing clear: Rhode Islanders aren’t quite sure how the state should pay for its plan to fix roads and bridges. We know from a previous poll released by the organization that 76% of voters believe the state and local governments spend too little on maintenance. But the new poll shows 37% would prefer reallocating state money to pay for the repairs and 22% support the governor’s proposed revenue bond. (It’s worth noting that another question in the poll suggests 44% strongly favor or somewhat favor the governor’s proposal.) Gary Sasse, who heads up the institute, told me he believes “people are looking for an alternative to to the tolls,” while also noting that anti-toll advocates are clearly “getting their message out.” Aside from tolls, Sasse said he was surprised that 20% of voters think the best way to improve education in the state is to give principals more authority over what happens in their school building, a policy that has already been strongly embraced by Education Commissioner Ken Wagner and school officials in Providence. “We used to call that site-based management,” Sasse joked. “It’s like deja vu all over again.”
6. The best cold case story you’ll read this month. And it’s from Tim White.
7. We’re going to learn a lot about the future of public education in Rhode Island in the next few weeks. The House of Representatives is poised to vote on two pieces of legislation that would give city and town councils a vote on charter school applications and require the Department of Education to make an affirmative finding that a charter school will not have a detrimental fiscal impact on its sending communities next week. All signs point to both the House and the Senate supporting each bill. The following week, Governor Raimondo is expected to include tweaks to the education funding formula in her budget address. The governor is considered a supporter of charter schools, but it’s unlikely the public choice schools will go untouched. One state some education officials in Rhode Island appear to be eyeing is New Jersey, which gives charters 90% of a sending district’s per-pupil expenditure, but 10% of the money that is typically follows the child stays with the sending district to cover those pesky fixed costs so many superintendents complain about. While even those in the charter sector seem willing to budge when it comes to sending a portion of money back to traditional school districts, it’s hard to believe they’ll be willing to live with those cuts and the charter school bills likely to pass in the General Assembly.
8. Speaking of education, a new report from Washington D.C.-based Civic Enterprises and the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University shows Rhode Island has the sixth-largest high school graduation rate gap between low-income and non-low-income students in the United States. The study shows about 71.1% of Rhode Island’s low-income students graduate on time, compared with about 92.9% for wealthier students. (About 55% of students in Rhode Island are considered low-income.) No other New England state ranked in the top 10 or the bottom 10 in terms of the achievement gap. There was some good news for Rhode Island. The graduation rates of black and Hispanic students (both are 71.8%) increased five percentage points between 2011 and 2014.
9. It came with little fanfare, but Jan. 1 marked the first day of a new law that requires Rhode Island politicians to appoint a treasurer or deputy treasurer of their campaign accounts. But before lawmakers pat themselves on the back for taking steps to add more oversight to campaign spending after former House Speaker Gordon Fox was sent to federal prison last year, it’s worth taking a closer look at the legislation. Only candidates who receive or expend at least $10,000 in any year are required to appoint a treasurer. While that covers most statewide candidates, it would likely exclude some members of the General Assembly – as well as other local offices, like the Providence City Council – because there aren’t a lot of politicians who raise or spend $10,000 in one year. On the bright side, 2016 is an election year, so some General Assembly candidates will probably raise more than they did last year.
10. With all eyes on Governor Raimondo’s trip – and its subsequent cancellation – it’s worth mentioning that Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza spent much of the week in Washington D.C. at the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Winter Meeting. Elorza, who co-chairs the Immigration Reform Task Force with Anaheim, Calif. Mayor Tom Tait, was scheduled to attend the panel’s meeting on “how the nation’s refugee resettlement system operates,” but he chose to take an earlier flight home because of the weather in Washington. Elorza also serves as vice president of Community Development and Housing Committee.
11. Even though Mayor Elorza is not up for re-election in 2016, every other Rhode Island mayor is and there are some interesting storylines: with new term limit laws, this will be the last re-election for Cranston Mayor Allan Fung and Central Falls Mayor James Diossa. Fung will be in a pitched battle with city Democratic Party Chairman Michael Sepe. Meanwhile, the popular Diossa is unlikely to have a serious challenger. In Warwick, the state’s second largest city, Republican Mayor Scott Avedisian will face a challenge from Democratic candidates Richard Corrente, who already has a website up, and possibly Stephen Boyle, a Providence College graduate who is president of the Greater Cranston Chamber of Commerce. (Boyle has not yet filed paper work to run.) In North Providence, Mayor Charles Lombardi will likely face a challenge, possibly from Councilwoman Kristen Catanzaro, according to the The Valley Breeze. Like Diossa, Cumberland’s first-term Mayor Bill Murray and longtime Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena don’t appear to be facing serious opposition.
12. Senate Minority Leader Dennis Algiere held on to his leadership post this week when the tiny Republican caucus unanimously re-elected him to remain in the role he’s held since 1997. The election earlier this month of Sen. John Pagliarini brought with it questions regarding whether Algiere would remain minority leader, but the new senator took to the Facebook this week to say the GOP leader “has been gracious and extraordinarily helpful in mentoring me.”
13. North Kingstown-based Sons of Liberty Spirits sent Peyton Manning’s wife a bottle of whiskey because “we heard that’s the best way to get something to you.” Go Pats!
14. Anyone who has ever worked in restaurant industry here might disagree, but Rhode Islanders are surprisingly generous tippers.
15. The Boston Globe asks, “Does the New Hampshire primary even matter anymore?”
16. Big congratulations are in order for Ted, who is being honored with the media achievement award at the annual meeting of the Southeastern New England Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America next week. Those guys know Ted as one of the top reporters around, but he’s also a great friend and mentor and the best editor Tim White and I could ask for.
17. Set your DVRs: This week on Newsmakers – Bruce Katz and Mark Muro of the Brookings Institution. Watch Sunday at 10 a.m. on Fox Providence. This week on Executive Suite – Dr. Annie De Groot, CEO of EpiVax. Watch Saturday at 10:30 p.m. or Sunday at 6 p.m. on myRITV (or Sunday at 6 a.m. on Fox). Catch both shows back-to-back on your radio Sunday nights at 6 on WPRO-AM 630 and WEAN-FM 99.7. And you can subscribe to both shows as iTunes podcasts – click here for Executive Suite and click here for Newsmakers. See you back here next Saturday morning.
Dan McGowan ( dmcgowan@wpri.com ) covers politics, education and the city of Providence for WPRI.com. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter: @danmcgowan