Raimondo’s Economic Priorities Take the Biggest Cuts in the New Budget — Over $20M
Sunday, June 18, 2017
Pound for pound, the agencies that saw the biggest cuts in the fast moving FY 2018 budget contain Governor Gina Raimondo’s economic initiatives.
Combined, Commerce RI and the I-195 Commission absorbed more than $20 million in cuts in the House finance budget released this week, versus what the Governor proposed.
The cuts to the economic programs seemed to take both the Governor and Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor by surprise when they emerged this week during the negotiations.
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Budget Reactions
“We will be reviewing the budget through the weekend and early next week,” Matt Sheaff, spokesperson for Commerce, on Friday afternoon.
The cuts hit I-195 hard. The commission was trimmed $8.1 million from what the Governor proposed.
Similarly, two of Raimondo’s most cherished programs - Rebuild RI and Wave Maker - were slashed by $7.5 million and $1.5 million, respectively.
Almost all of the Commerce programs were cut:
Wavemaker reduced $800,000
University Research Collaborative reduced $150,000
P-Tech reduced $1,200,000
Rebuild RI reduced $7,500,000
National Security Infrastructure Fund $200,000
Municipal Technical Assistance Fund reduced $250,000
Main Streetscape reduced $500,000
Innovation reduced $1,500,000
I-195 Development Fund reduced $8,100,000
To date, Rebuild has obligated $83 million of its $150 million cap, although few of those projects have broken ground.
Questions to Raimondo’s office about the cuts to I-195 Commission and Commerce were not responded to on Friday.
Raimondo's Commerce Strategy Under Attack
Last week, Cranston Mayor and GOP front-runner for Governor Allan Fung said on GoLocal LIVE:
"How do you have at least a $90M revenue shortfall? Most likely you overestimated on your budget, and on top of that, let's not forget the overspending by more than $30 million - so that total deficit is closer to $135 million," said Fung.
"But here's [what] I call really failed and weak leadership from the Governor. Unless we get a new Governor in place that's willing to tackle and implement strong financial policies, we're going to be in trouble again, year after year, " said Fung, accusing Raimondo of not "rolling up her sleeves, like we've done in Cranston."
Fung's criticisms mirror former Governor Lincoln Chafee’s critiques.
In February, while appearing on GoLocal LIVE with GoLocal News Editor Kate Nagle, Chafee said the Raimondo’s transfer of taxpayers dollars to billion dollar companies such as General Electric and Johnson & Johnson was flawed.
“I have never liked corporate welfare. It's unfair to existing businesses…some out of state business comes in and you give them the candy store. I just don’t like it," said Chafee.
Chafee said the approach needs to be built on fundamentals.
“I think a better way to build the economy is through investment and education and infrastructure. Then lower taxes -- under my approach, unemployment went from over 11 percent to under 6 percent. (And) we created more jobs than the candy store approach.”
Chafee said he was disappointed that millions of dollars “out the window to General Electric and J&J. I don’t like it.”
Raimondo’s Good News
Raimondo got some good news this week.
For the first time in three months, Rhode Island added jobs. The number of employed RI residents was 532,700, up 1,100 from the April figure of 531,600. Over the year, the number of employed RI residents was up 10,200 from May 2016.
The RI labor force totaled 555,500 in May 2017, unchanged from April 2017 and up 2,900 from May 2016, according to the RI Department of Labor and Training.
“"The investments we've made in job training, education, infrastructure and economic development are working. Thanks in part to the Rebuild RI initiative and RhodeWorks, we've added 2,300 construction jobs in the last year - more than any other sector. In fact, one out of three new jobs created in Rhode Island in the last 12 months has been in construction,” said Raimondo.
Related Slideshow: FY18 House Finance Budget
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