State GOP: Is Caprio Doing His Job?
Saturday, July 24, 2010
The state GOP yesterday questioned how General Treasurer Frank Caprio could perform the duties of his office and still manage to be a full-time Democratic candidate for governor.
“We know that Rhode Island has a reputation for creating ‘no-show’ jobs, but usually the people who are slacking off try to avoid the TV cameras when they’re not at work,” said state party chairman Giovanni Cicione. He noted that Caprio had dedicated a homeless shelter, attended a taxpayer forum, and participated in a gubernatorial forum at a nursing home - in just the first half of the week.
“Even worse is that the Democrats called on gubernatorial candidate John Robitaille to leave his public service job the second he even hinted that he was considering a run for Governor,” Cicione said. “What hypocrisy that Caprio continues to vigorously campaign on the taxpayer's dime when he should be working day and night to fix the pension disaster his office is supposed to be managing – it’s no wonder the unions, whose members’ pensions are at risk, won’t support him.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe state GOP noted that the Rhode Island pension system had a $4.4 billion unfunded liability, according to the Pew Center on the States.
Caprio spokesman Nick Hemond said that he had worked hard as the leader of the Treasurer’s office—pointing to the fact that the Rhode Island pension system is outperforming California’s system, which is the largest in the country. Rhode Island had a return of 13.46 percent on its pension compared with 11.4 percent for California, according to the General Treasurer's office.
Plus, he said the Treasurer’s office has turned in annual surpluses of 10 percent of its budget. Caprio was also recently named one of the top 100 finance executives in the country. “His performance and the performance of his office speaks for itself and he will stand by those results proudly,” Hemond said.
The criticism comes one week after Democrat Patrick Lynch dropped out of the race for governor, making him the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor.
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