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From: Tom Sgouros: David Cicilline was Good for Providence

in Politics

Tom - Thank you for making me laugh so hard that I fell out of my seat. Apparently, the pennies Cicillini tosses your way are enough to make you abandon what little was left of your reputation. "Providence has pulled through its storm." Say this to any person on the street and they will laugh directly in your face.

From: Tom Sgouros: David Cicilline was Good for Providence

in Politics

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Again, Tom, these Fascistini are the legacy of David Cicilline AND THOSE WHO ENABLE HIM.

From: Tom Sgouros: David Cicilline was Good for Providence

in Politics

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Balderdash.

Or, if you prefer, bullshit!

Tom, this is what you're facilitating by implicitly embracing David Cicilline as being representative of Democratic and progressive values.

Come on, Tom.

From: NEW: Cape Verdean Prime Minister Meets with Congressman Cicilline

in News

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More political preening and posturing from David Cicilline.

East Providence is a key area for David Cicilline's re-election efforts.

And so David Cicilline will spare no expense to pander to his Portuguese-American constituents.

More lies, dishonor, and incompetence from the hideous David Cicilline.

From: Tom Sgouros: David Cicilline was Good for Providence

in Politics

Oh Tommy, there you go again. Al gore never claimed to have invented the internet? Saying he didn't doesn't change that facts now, does it?
Could it be that he REALLY did say it? Could it have been on March 9, 1999? Could it have been on CNN? Could it be on YOUTUBE?
Can you go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnFJ8cHAlco to see?

Tommy my dear boy, you get a "Pants on Fire" for that little fib.

Oh, I know, youtube must be part of the "Vast Right Wing"

tisk tisk Tommy, we all know that you can do better.

From: New Biz Fillings are Up

in Business

More info about starting a business in RI is posted on the Secretary of State's website.

From: Tom Sgouros: David Cicilline was Good for Providence

in Politics

The narrative is what liberals believe instead of the truth.

From: NEW: Providence’s Knowledge District Gets New Plaza

in Lifestyle

Wow $2million for enhancing a square, but they can't pay more in taxes??? Guess when you have all that money you have to use it somewhere!!!

From: Owner of Top Political Nightspot Arrested Over Weekend

in News

Top political nightspot?? What exactly is the definition of that?

From: College Admissions: SAT Myths Busted

in Lifestyle

Of course many colleges will want or use only the highest scores. That way they can publish higher averages and increase their "prestige" (whatever that empty term means).

From: Tom Sgouros: David Cicilline was Good for Providence

in Politics

As Tom pointed out, this had a devastating affect on cities and towns across RI and it's worth pointing out that Providence actually is in a much better fiscal position than many other municipalities and that yes, Cicilline deserves much of credit for that.

the carcieri plan was to cut state employyees with furlough days as well as cut local aid. the thought being that cities and local towns would copy the state and have payroll cuts. unfortunately, non of the cities and towns followed the state. they ignored the state and kept on doing what they were doing and pushed the can down the road and raised taxes.

From: Municipalities Choking on Pension Costs: City-by-City Breakdown

in News

Here is something else to choke on. Communities will be looking to layoff employees or privatize services. NOT GOOD. In most of these cities and towns, the people most affected are residents of those localities. Lay them off and you take all that money directly out of the local economys. If they are already hurting this will be salt it their wounds.

Remove those salaries and local merchants will begin to feel the pinch. Thereby lowering the amount of sales taxes, they will collect and adversely affecting the states bottom line.

Lay off people who live in these communities severely hampers their ability to pay local and state taxes. Not to mention, property, sewer, fire and auto taxes.

There is no benefit here. Local officials, in West Warwick, privatized garbage collection and saved a negligible amount of money. Certainly not enough to help the town. Now elected officials are to embarrassed to go back to the citizens and admit they made a mistake.

Just a typical, political knee jerk reaction to a long term problem.

Negotiate pension settlements with all municipal employees. May one payout, to all of them with the proviso they keep the money here in R.I.

Here's the kicker. Once investment companys find out there is over 5 Billion dollars available for investment, here in R.I., they will be clamboring for some or all of it. Now the state steps in and says, "SURE! Bring your operation to RI. Create jobs, good paying jobs and you can have it all".

From: Tom Sgouros: David Cicilline was Good for Providence

in Politics

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My Dear Tom,

In presenting your partisan defense of David Cicilline, you exhibit a laudable – if wholly misguided – loyalty to a friend and former patron (word on the street is that you were paid in the neighborhood of $30,000 by the 2010 Cicilline congressional campaign; if so, mazel tov) of the sort never to be observed emanating from the man you champion.

Let’s be clear: A report commissioned by the City of Providence and issued in April, 2011 found that, as mayor, David Cicilline was responsible for Providence’s fiscal disaster. David Cicilline tried to lie his way out of this responsibility by shifting blame, but as the report notes, “[T]he [Cicilline] Administration did not recommend the difficult choices necessary to avert a fiscal crisis. The Administration did not present a corrective action plan that could have minimized the pending financial melt-down that the City has experienced. Furthermore, the City’s financial challenges have been made more difficult to address because of a dysfunctional financial management system ... where requirements of the City Charter were ignored, where unrealistic budgetary assumptions were presented, and where effective monitoring of the Administration by the City Council was made difficult and was thus lacking.”

You, Tom, dismiss these charges with prejudice as you simultaneously accuse Gary Sasse, the fiscal advisor to the Providence City Council who, in effect, authored the report, of conducting a cover-up of the true source of Providence’s economic woes: fiscal mismanagement by the then-chief executive of the state of Rhode Island.

Here’s what you wrote: “The Council hired Gary Sasse, former Governor Carcieri's Director of Administration, for his sage fiscal advice. Sasse, of course, was part of the state administration that pulled the rug out from under Providence's finances in 2010. So of course he's not going to tell the Council it was the state's fault. Instead, he wrote a report blaming almost all of the problems on Providence management. What did they think he would tell them?”

As if the commission were a one-man show.

You fail to note, Tom, that Gary Sasse chaired the Providence Review Commission and worked with the City to avoid municipal bankruptcy in the early 1980s, served as a fiscal advisor to the late Governor Bruce Sundlun during the credit union crisis, worked with the General Assembly to pass legislation capping property taxes, and chaired former Governor Carcieri’s Tax Policy Workgroup.

You ask us, Tom, to believe that Mr. Sasse, a former director of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, a former director of the Rhode Island Department of Administration and the state Department of Revenue, and now director of the Bryant Institute for Public Leadership at Bryant University, would willingly manage a cover-up of fiscal mismanagement by the chief executive of the state of Rhode Island.

You further fail to note, Tom, that Ernest Almonte, former Auditor General of the State of Rhode Island and Chairman of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), also was a member of the commission you scorn. You fail to note that the AICPA, with more than 350,000 members, sets ethical standards for the profession and U.S. auditing standards for audits of private companies, non-profit organizations, and federal, state and local governments.

You ask us, Tom, to believe that Mr. Almonte, who was responsible for auditing the $7 billion State Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the $3 billion Federal Single Audit, and municipal and quasi-public agencies’ oversight, performance audits, and fraud audits, would willingly manage a cover-up of fiscal mismanagement by the chief executive of the state of Rhode Island.

You ask us, Tom, to examine the public records of Messrs. Sasse, Almonte, and Cicilline for evidentiary patterns of deceit.

You ask us, Tom, if we should believe you and David Cicilline, or our lying eyes.

Speaking of deceit: David Cicilline failed to abide by City Charter law when he failed to inform the City Council of his raids on the so-called Rainy Day Fund. And when David Cicilline prevented the Council’s auditor from examining the books, he instituted a cover-up of his own mismanagement and related perfidy.

But let’s return to the commission report. Why, Tom, did David Cicilline refuse “[to] recommend the difficult choices necessary to avert a fiscal crisis"? Or, if you prefer, to raise taxes?

Because recommending those difficult choices -- even though they would have been in the best interests of Providence -- would not have been in David Cicilline's personal best interests.

David Cicilline broke his trust with the people so that he could support his selfish political agendas.

How's that for progressive behavior?

Quite a leap from the old politics as usual, wouldn't you say?

What you’ve presented here, Tom, is not the splendid, informed, articulate policy analysis for which you are celebrated and which I respect and admire.

What you’ve presented here, Tom, is partisan political campaign rhetoric.

Why you’re not currently being paid by David Cicilline remains, for me, a mystery.