Tom Sgouros: Short Takes

Tom Sgouros: Short Takes

Pension reform

As expected, pension reform passed last week. There isn't much to say about it beyond bemoaning the fact that such a contentious vote had to happen at all. There exist ways our state could have honored its promises to its retirees at far less cost than we did. Pension expenses are slated to go up only 3.5% next year, but costs were slated to rise by over 50%. There were ways to address what abuses and injustices the pension system contains that didn't involve trashing it. For all practical purposes, those approaches were excluded from discussion, to our shame. Our state broke its promises, and there are no ways I know of to put a happy face on that.

Oh, and the next time someone tells you about the stranglehold Labor-with-a-capital-L has over the statehouse, just challenge them to say when was the last time unions won a hotly contested vote there. And then laugh at their funny joke. It has been a ridiculous proposition for years, and the last month shows just how ridiculous. When you hear people say things like that, you are hearing someone who is either tragically misinformed, or lying to you. It's hard to put a happy face on that, either.

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And to those few progressives pleased about victory over the "special interests" at the state house, I would like to know who else it is you see as advocating for the economic interests of workers and the middle class there. For all their warts, the unions of Rhode Island are the only consistent presence at the state house with those interests at heart. The cartoon is that they only advocate to line their own pockets, but this is light-years from the truth. At your statehouse, unions have been at the center of debate over issues like immigration, health care reform, insurance reform, and welfare spending, which are related to their wages only in the most peripheral way.

Business interests -- the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, RISC -- are very strong at the statehouse, and have a long record of success to show for it. You have them to thank for bringing low tax rates for corporations and rich people, a financialization of state business that wastes state money in commissions and interest payments, contracting deals that allow rich business owners to skim what used to be salary payments to workers, and all the special deals for favored real estate developers and rich Red Sox pitchers.

Just to be clear, because I hear this a lot, I am not a union member, nor am I a union employee. I earn my keep through my own business and none of my living depends on unions in any way at all. I follow no one blindly, but more often than not I support them because I know they advocate for me on issues of tax fairness, welfare, unemployment, social spending, education, and the vision of a just society where hard work is rewarded with decent pay and respect (not to mention a dignified retirement). I am proud to stand with them because until someone comes up with another voice as strong to replace theirs, I know that a wound to Labor -- with a capital L -- is a wound to us all.
Still no happy face.

East Providence falls

One of the fascinating and disturbing developments of the last year has been to watch how easily minor concerns like democracy can be swept aside in a financial crisis -- even in unnecessary and 100% predictable crises like we've seen here in Rhode Island. Not to mention in Europe.

I'm no fan of Mayor Charlie Moreau, but he certainly didn't cause the financial crisis in Central Falls. He certainly didn't do much to help it, but blaming it all on him is just silly. In truth, it was his attempts to deal with the crisis that provided the state the pretext to evict him from the Mayor's office. That is, it was his decision, along with his City Council allies, to take the city into receivership in the first place. In response, the state changed the law to elevate the claims of bondholders over all other creditors (including employees, contractors, and library patrons), and to replace Moreau's receiver with gubernatorial appointee to run the city as the Governor would have it run.

Now it seems that East Providence is under the same gun. Governor Chafee has appointed Stephen Bannon the administrator of the state police, as a fiscal overseer of the city. He will have authority higher than all the officials of that city, elected and otherwise, and will be able to say who gets paid and how much, and will have final approval over their budget. Unlike in Central Falls, the Mayor, Bruce Rogers, seems happy to have this overseer, but doesn't one wonder then, what was the point of electing him?

In an era of declining state support for our cities (and our towns), it seems that municipal governments are independent with democratically elected leadership only until they get into the inevitable trouble that lack of support causes. No happy face here, either.

 

Tom Sgouros is the editor of the Rhode Island Policy Reporter, at whatcheer.net and the author of "Ten Things You Don't Know About Rhode Island." Contact him at [email protected].

 

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