NEW: Pell Unveils RI Infrastructure Plan

Thursday, May 22, 2014

GoLocalProv Politics Team

 

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Clay Pell

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Clay Pell has announced his strategy to strengthen Rhode Island’s infrastructure.

Pell's plan, "Seizing the Future: Building A More Resilient Rhode Island" stresses the link between a resilient infrastructure and a strong economy.

The strategy focuses on building infrastructure to withstand climate change, rebuilding damaged roads and bridges, and expanding transporation systems.

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Read more on Pell's Infrastructure Strategy Here

Pell's statement

Said Pell, “Rhode Island’s natural strengths position us – if we so choose – to be a world leader in response to climate change. As an officer in the Coast Guard, I witnessed firsthand how our nation acts as an international leader in crisis response, disaster recovery and resiliency. Rhode Island must be at the forefront of developing technology, designing resilient infrastructure, and innovating networks to capitalize on the economic opportunities that our small size can achieve, allowing us to serve as a model for others."

Resilient Infrastructure

The strategy focuses on the threat posed to Rhode Island’s stressed infrastructure network by the effects of climate change, especially extreme weather events.

In response, Pell calls for Rhode Island to focus on building “resilient infrastructure,” engineered, designed and built to ensure it can withstand or quickly recover from all manner of disaster. In particular, Pell calls on Rhode Island to work with partners in Washington to take advantage of federal programs intended to integrate critical state infrastructure with the national preparedness system for prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery.

Rhode Island Infrastructure Rehabilitation and Replacement Program

The Pell plan calls for two $100 million bond referendum questions – one on the 2016 ballot and one in 2018 – to create a $200 million Rhode Island Infrastructure Rehabilitation and Replacement Program, which will provide capital funding for roads, bridges, and highways, as well as transit, ports and railways. If approved by the voters, the RIIRR program would set the Rhode Island on a path to having one of the highest quality and well-maintained infrastructure networks in the country.

"Unfortunately, the state’s roads and bridges are in disrepair, the public transit system is fractured and often unreliable, and current financial resources to make improvements are woefully inadequate to the scale of the challenge," Pell said. "We cannot continue to squander an opportunity by failing to invest in critical infrastructure needs at a time when borrowing costs are historically low, and when so many Rhode Islanders in the construction trades are out of work."

Added Pell, “It is time that Rhode Island put people back to work by improving the quality of the infrastructure that connects and protects us all, and ensure this critical infrastructure is resilient to the challenges of climate change.”

Evaluate Transit Investment Opportunities

"The quality, accessibility and, affordability of Rhode Island’s transit and transportation systems determine in large part how productive its residents and businesses can be. But transportation provides so much more than just a person’s ability to be productive; it connects us to our community, it allows seniors to live independently, helps us get to work and to school safely and efficiently, and allows us access to all the wonderful things the Ocean State has to offer,” said Pell.

Supporting and Expanding Commuter and Freight Rail

The strategy calls for the following action to support both commuter and freight rail:

  • Directing Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) to develop a unified commuter rail management program that integrates its own statutory authority and expertise with the authority and expertise of Rhode Island Public Transit Authority, Statewide Planning Program, Rhode Island Public Rail Corporation and Rhode Island Airport Corporation. 
  • Directing RIDOT to investigate the feasibility and costs of adding a third track along the Northeast Corridor to increase the operational flexibility of commuter and freight rail service.
  • Leading efforts to establish more commuter rail stops in Rhode Island, starting with those locations currently being evaluated as part of the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP).
  • Championing and funding improvements, in partnership with Providence & Worcester Railroad, to the Providence Train Station ensuring the safe movement of hazardous material through the station, so as to decrease the current bottlenecking that can cause freight service delays.
  • Working with the Congressional Delegation to secure funding to replace five bridges in Massachusetts that would lead to an increase in the maximum freight car capacity leaving Rhode Island ports and would decrease shipping costs.
  • Prioritizing funding for three new sidings (7,000 linear feet of track) to provide storage space for 95 rail cars along the Quonset Main Line.

Supporting and Expanding Public Bus Transportation

The strategy calls for the following action in support of bus transit:

  • Create a state employee commuter transit pass program to support the purchase of bus and commuter rail passes by state employees. This program will be modeled on the successful pass systems developed for higher education institutions in the state as well as for many private employers.
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of moving away from a central hub transit system to a route based system that can better serve the state.
 

Related Slideshow: 10 Questions Pell Has to Answer When Running for Gov of RI

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10. Pell's Base?

Where is Pell’s voter base going to come from?

It is difficult to identify Clay Pell’s base beyond a few prep school chums (in California) and the lovely people who live on Bellevue Avenue in Newport.  
 
Every winning candidate needs a core base to leverage to win.
 
Taveras is counting, in part, on the Hispanic community as his base.
 
Raimondo is working to solidify two core groups – women and fiscal conservative Democrats.
 
Pell, who is both wooing and being wooed by progressives and public sector unions (see #6), must grow beyond the group the summers in Newport.
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9. Seriously

Seriously – Another No Private Sector Experience Governor?

Voters should understand that two sources of revenue have funded Clay Pell’s adult life – the federal government and trust funds.  His public service in the Coast Guard is admirable, but Clay Pell has never had to worry about: 
 
Mortgage, rent, car, health insurance, groceries, credit card, electric, oil/gas, telephone, cable, cellphone, college loans, tuition, or even yacht payments.  
 
They were all taken care of before his own birth.
 
He has to convince voters that he is credible.
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8. Decision making

Has he ever had to make an executive decision?

There is no indication that Clay Pell has ever had to make a significant management decision in his life. We all saw how David Cicilline struggled with managing Providence’s budget – Mayor’s offices and Governor’s offices are tough places for on-the-job learning.
 
Like their decision making or not, both Taveras and Raimondo have had to make executive decisions – Pell is going to need to assure voter he can make management decisions (See tough decisions below).
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7. Ordinary RIers

Can Pell connect to Rhode Islanders?

Most of the places Clay Pell spent his formative years, Rhode Islanders have not experienced.  The reason why – they are private clubs, top-flight private schools and colleges. The Thacher School to Harvard to Georgetown Law School.  Each of these premier schools has an annual tuition of more than $50,000 a year.
 
While Pell may claim to be committed to “ordinary” people (as he said in a WJAR interview), he needs to demonstrate that he is can understand the plight of unemployed and underemployed Rhode Islanders.
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6. Progressives

Progressives and Unions are in Love with Pell, is that good for RI?

Two powerful and influential groups in the Democratic primary are progressives and public service unions. With Rhode Island’s unemployment the worst in the United States and the economy, de facto, still in the recession, the next Governor will have many difficult decisions. 
 
The decisions will include difficult budget choices – not likely to be popular with public sector unions and progressives.
 
As the Wall Street Journal wrote this week, "...makes him attractive to public unions who are likely to spend heavily in the primary. Robert Walsh, the executive director of the National Education Association Rhode Island, has already welcomed Mr. Pell's entry into the race. "Suddenly, an opportunity appears."
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5. Kwan Factor

Is he more than Michelle Kwan’s husband?

Rhode Islanders love a good celebrity and Clay Pell’s wife Michelle Kwan is certainly a celebrity. She won her first ice-skating World Championship in 1996 when she was just 15 years old. And had qualified for the Olympics in 1994 at age 13 only to be bumped by the recovering Nancy Kerrigan.
 
The two-time Olympian Kwan will wow Rhode Island during the campaign, but will she overshadow her husband?
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4. Claiborne Factor

Is he more than Claiborne Pell’s Grandson?

The venerable Claiborne de Borna Pell retired from the United States Senate nearly two decades ago. While older voters may be fond of the deceased Senator’s legacy – many Rhode Islanders were not old enough to vote or did not live in the state when Pell was in office.
 
While the Pell family name may have some limited impact and young Clay Pell’s campaign will dredge up lots of legacy stories (so many you may think Clay was the author of the legislation creating the Pell grants).
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3. GOP Factor

Can Pell beat a Republican?

Pell’s ability to skate between Raimondo and Taveras to win the Democratic primary in a coalition of union and progressive’s support will force him to win from the left.
 
Coming out of the primary will have defined him to the general election voter as a liberal of the highest degree. Brookings Institute Vice President Darrell West recently told an audience during a speech at the Newport Art Museum that progressives are back in vogue (citing the recent election of ultra progressive Bill deBlasio as Mayor of New York), but with Rhode Island’s economy stuck in a recession, Pell may have a difficult time convincing voters in the General Election that he is viable.
 
Remember in the past five elections – Rhode Islanders have elected Republicans to the Governor’s office four times (Almond twice, Carcieri twice) and in the last election while a liberal Lincoln Chafee won, more than 60% of the voters cast a ballot for the conservative Frank Caprio (D), GOP candidate John Robitaille or the business leaning Moderate Party candidate Ken Block.
 
Either GOP candidate will be able to paint Pell as too liberal for the challenges facing Rhode Island’s stagnant economy (9.1% unemployment).
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2. Experience, any?

Does Pell have any experience?

Pell graduated from law school in 2008. That is right; Clay Pell has only been out of school for 5 plus years.
 
It is hard to believe that his experience in Coast Guard as a junior officer and his White House Fellowship qualifies him to be the chief executive of a state – he has never managed senior staff (he has never been senior staff), never managed employees of any significant scale, he has never managed a major budget, and he has zero economic development experience – a trait that some voters might look for after Chafee’s term.
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1. Tough Enough?

Is Pell tough enough?

Both Gina Raimondo and Angel Taveras demonstrated in the past three plus years in office the ability to make “tough” decisions.  
 
Taveras had to clean up the Cicilline budget mess that had nearly bankrupted the City of Providence and Taveras even fired all the teachers in the Capital City. Of course, he walked that dog backwards during the following months ensuring a lack of trust with both teachers and fiscal conservatives.  
 
Raimondo’s pension reform effort has drawn passionate support and venomous scorn.  Regardless, it has demonstrated Raimondo is battle tested.
 
Pell’s professional career is not only short (5 plus years), but also been advisory – the buck has never stopped at Clay Pell’s cubicle.
 
 

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