EDITORIAL: McKee Limps Into the State of the State

EDITORIAL: McKee Limps Into the State of the State

On Tuesday night, Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee will deliver his State of the State address.

He will enter the House Chamber battered and bruised from his first two years as an elected governor — and most of the contusions are self-inflicted.

Long forgotten are McKee’s early successes, which he accomplished as he completed Gina Raimondo's term, such as helping Rhode Island move from the worst vaccinated state in the country to the best.

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Last year, McKee's theme in his State of the State was that he was the coach leading Rhode Island.

Sadly, even recently fired New England Patriots Coach Jerod Mayo had a better year than McKee.

Now, McKee is starting his final two years of his elected four-year term.

He will attempt to claim that his administration is not responsible for the significant failures of Rhode Island’s government during the past two years.

But the reality is that he has been at the helm, or has had significant culpability, in all of them. They are stacking up like cords of wood in Burrillville for a home heated with a wood stove.

Many of these failures are simply gruesome and raise questions about McKee’s leadership skills.

Some of the issues seem so simple, yet he has transformed them into a bungling mess. The ramifications are not only woeful nuisances and embarrassing; they are, in fact, dangerous and costly — costly in not just state resources, but some of these failures have crippled Rhode Island businesses and cost thousands of jobs.

 

Here Are Five Major Failures:

 

1. Stadium Financing Scheme 

The financing structure of the minor league soccer stadium in Pawtucket was a monumental failure. McKee led the effort as the chair of the Commerce Corporation and decided to use long-term bonds to finance a $27 million investment into a privately-owned stadium. 

By using bonds rather than making an appropriation, the total cost to Rhode Island taxpayers is $130 million. There are few protections for taxpayers. If the team folds, then the stadium is empty.

 

2. McKee-Alviti's Bridge

The failure of the westbound of the Washington Bridge is simply an embarrassment for Rhode Island's government. 

The government often tries to do things it's not good at and sometimes appears to be an overstep, but building and maintaining roads and bridges is one of those things that are on the must-do list, and Rhode Island failed.

While the genesis of the Washington Bridge may have begun under Gina Raimondo’s administration, the architect of the failure — the man in charge — RIDOT Director Peter Alviti was retained by McKee and repeatedly defended by the Governor.

 

3. Management of the Healthcare System

The petty fighting between McKee and Attorney General Peter Neronha is one of the reasons why two major hospitals — Roger Williams and Fatima — employing nearly 3,000 are in chaos.

For more than two years, McKee, Neronha, legislative leaders, and functionally anyone who paid attention knew that Prospect Medical Holdings, the parent company of CharterCARE. was in deep financial trouble, and the best solution was to place the company in receivership. 

But the petty fighting won, and now the jobs and a critical part of the healthcare system are hanging by a thread.

 

4. Data Breach

Of course, anyone can be the victim of a cyberattack, but there was nearly a decade of warning signs and years to transition from Deloitte, the consulting firm managing much of the state's technology infrastructure. But instead of leading and looking at other tech solutions, McKee signed a contract extension and is now trying to pin the failure on Deloitte.

The Governor should look in the mirror.

 

5. Lack of Vision

The biggest failure in McKee’s first two years has been his inability to articulate a vision for Rhode Island. He is unable to lay out how he is moving forward and maybe that is because the state is staled or falling back.

There are other frustrations — Fain pulling out of Providence, Superman Building in a perpetual vacancy, Hasbro’s likely departure after 100 years, Rhode Island Commerce, management of the nursing homes, health insurance rates have skyrocketed, unemployment up 27% in the past year.

McKee promised improvement in the state’s K-12 education performance, but it simply has not occurred. Providence is begging for its schools back.

Disappointingly, McKee has failed to admit mistakes, learn from them, and take steps to improve.

Now, the federal COVID money is gone, and the Trump administration is unlikely to be friendly to one of the bluest states and home to some of the harshest critics.

Heading into 2025, the State of the State's "coach" is struggling.