video: NEW: Hinckley Says Over-Regulation Hurting RI Fishing Jobs
Thursday, March 22, 2012
U.S. Senate Candidate Barry Hinckley Wednesday joined members of Congress in standing up for fishing industry jobs at a rally called Freedom To Fish in Washington, D.C.
Hinckley called for reform of the Magnuson-Stevens act to stop over-regulation from destroying even more Rhode Island jobs.
“I think what was most striking to me was that while we had Senators and Congressman from both parties, from Massachusetts to Florida, our Senator, Sheldon Whitehouse, was a no-show, he apparently doesn’t have the time or interest to speak up for Rhode Island fishing industry jobs,” said Hinckley.
Hinckley, who says he experienced first hand how over-regulation by the government decimated the family boat building industry in the early 1990’s, sees strong parallels between what happened to boat builders at the hands of regulators and what’s happening to Rhode Island’s fishing industry.
“Growing up in the boat building industry I watched my father and grandfather come home every day with more and more bad news from the government,” says Hinckley, “then, in the early 1990’s the government decided to implement the luxury tax on boats which almost destroyed our business.”
Hinckley says the effect was job losses and the devastation of an entire way of life for boat builders, not just in Rhode Island but also across America, and while the luxury tax was eventually repealed, it was too late for many skilled Rhode Island craftsmen as the once thriving boat building industry never fully recovered.
“We can’t allow this to happen to yet another Rhode Island industry – our fishing industry in Rhode Island deserves support and deserves a voice – which Sheldon Whitehouse is either unable or unwilling to provide,” said Hinckley, ‘one thing is for certain, I will always be counted on the side of hard working Rhode Islanders.”
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