Advocate for government and laws that serve all citizens
The United States and the state of Rhode Island are founded in law. Rhode Island has a constitution that defines the powers of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. The primary purpose of the General Assembly is to develop and pass legislation (make laws) that is in the best interest of all the citizens of the state. As a member of the district representatives in the General Assembly, I will advocate for laws that apply equally to all citizens. I will seek to repeal laws that have been created to serve the special interests of organizations or individuals. I will advocate for the creation of laws, regulations and processes that insure that employment with the state of Rhode Island is based on merit and goes to the best qualified individuals. I will oppose legislation the serves the purpose of special interest groups or specific individuals. I will not use my position to further the causes of special interest groups or to benefit specific individuals. I pledge to advocate for the best interest of all of the people all of the time. I pledge to create a legislative climate where people rely on laws rather than who they know to get something accomplished.
Reform the benefits and retirement packages for state employees including elected officials – streamline and simplify the operations of the state government
Businesses and governments throughout the United States have moved away from providing employees with defined benefit retirement packages. When employees earned far less pay, defined benefit retirement packages were necessary to insure that employees could earn a reasonable retirement benefit. The federal government moved from the Civil Service Retirement Program (a defined benefit program) to the Federal Employee Retirement System (a defined contribution program) in the mid-1980s. Defined contribution programs are based on the investment returns of employee and employer contributions to the retirement program. They do not promise a guaranteed benefit but provide the employee with a lump sum of money to draw upon in retirement. The value of the lump sum is determined by the amount the employee and employer contribute plus the return on the investment of the contribution. A defined contribution program is also portable and can be taken from job to job and state to state. If elected as your representative I would advocate for a defined contribution program for all state employees, both appointed and elected, who have not been vested in the current defined benefit system.
When government employees earned significantly less than non-government employee, people were attracted to these jobs by benefits such as subsidized high end health insurance, paid sick leave, separation pay, guaranteed employment, step increased and cost of living adjustments. While many of these benefits were inexpensive in the past, they can now amount to as much as a 50% increase in an employee’s basic compensation. Some of these same types of benefits are also currently available to elected officials. If elected I would advocate for a complete and thorough review of all of these benefits with the objective of eliminating and/or consolidating many of the benefits. While, I support providing health insurance to all government employees, I would advocate reducing the cost to the tax payer through higher employee contributions to premiums and providing choices of health insurance programs with built in deductible provisions and/or health savings plans. I would apply these changes to both employees and elected officials.
I would also advocate for consolidation of government services within state government and between state and local government. Consolidation of the various data systems that operate at the state and local levels would be a good place to begin. Rhode Island is much too small to support redundant and divergent systems.
Advocate for tax reform - Lower dependence on Property tax
Rhode Island is one of the states in the nation that has an inordinate dependence of local property taxes to support state and local government. At the same time the percent of income from Sales taxes is one of the lowest in the nation.
Our dependence on property taxes is a result of a low state commitment to support local function such as education, roads, and public safety. Therefore, local communities must tax property owners to maintain these functions.
Even though our sales tax is at 7%, the low income from Sales taxes is a result of the many exceptions to this tax. Each year the General Assembly passes legislation exempted additional special interest groups from the sales tax. The most notable exception is provided to the boating industry. An individual who buys a boat or boating supplies is exempt from paying sales taxes on the purchase. This exemption provides a subsidy to the boating industry while other retail industries must compete without this advantage. This type of exception is unfair to the taxpayer and other industries and should be corrected.
If elected, I will advocate for a revision to the tax structure that is currently in place in Rhode Island with the objective of implementing a fairer and more effective system.
Consolidate and improve educational programs for all children
Most communities in Rhode Island operate educational programs that are independent and autonomous from one another even though children might move from one district to another throughout their educational experience. This system is inefficient in terms of operation, policy and governance. I will advocate fo consolidation of as many functions as possible and a movement toward one system that would serve all children in an equitable manner. I will also advocate for the establishment of advisory councils in each school to insure that parents and community members have easy access to decisions about the operations of each school.
The state was not awarded federal “Race to the Top” monies because we do not have a funding formula. It is the responsibility of the General Assembly to provide for legislation that funds schools equitably throughout the state. I will advocate for the establishment of a fair and equitable funding formula for state aid to education in Rhode Island.
Our state also does not have an adequate data system to analyze student achievement and develop plans to improve that achievement. As a Superintendent of School, I advocated for the establishment on a single student information system and data warehouse for all children in all schools throughout Rhode Island. As your representative, I would advocate for this necessary data support for the improvement of the education of our students.
Support the development of small businesses through decreased regulations and incentives
Other than government, small businesses are the largest employer of people in Rhode Island. Much of our past efforts to improve employment have been to attract large businesses to our state. I believe that the economic future of Rhode Island is based on the success of small business entrepreneurs. As your representative, I will advocate for a review of the requirements that we place on the establishment of small businesses with the objectives of reducing and consolidating these requirements to the minimum necessary to insure public safety. I will also advocate for more aggressive assistance and increased financial incentives to individuals hoping to establish or expand small businesses. We have seen the success that can be obtained by using public utility incentives to establish collaborative organizations like RINET and OCEAN to provide high speed internet connectivity to school and colleges.
Create opportunities for highly trained young people to keep them in Rhode Island - end the brain drain
Rhode Island has a number of excellent programs of higher education and vocational training that prepare young people to enter the workforce. When these young people complete their program, they find that they cannot gain employment in Rhode Island but must move to another location to obtain work. At the same time we pay massive amounts of money and incentives to outside companies to carry out projects in Rhode Island. This money does not remain in Rhode Island and does little to stimulate the economy here. A good example is the incentives that we pay to the entertainment industry to film movies and television series with Rhode Island as a backdrop. I believe that this money would be better invested in helping young people from the Rhode Island School of Design to establish their own film or video companies. In another example, the federal “Race to the Top” monies that we expected to get were proposed to be spent on bringing in consultants and firms from outside of Rhode Island to work with our teachers in developing programs. As a former educator I know that a significant amount of expertise exists within this state. I would advocate using that expertise.
