Gemma Compares Jobs Plan to Industrial Revolution
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Congressional candidate Anthony Gemma’s claim that his plan for creating 10,000 jobs in Rhode Island ranks in importance with the Industrial Revolution has raised some eyebrows.
Gemma made the claim at the recent candidates forum hosted by the Portuguese American Citizens Committee of Rhode Island.
“So one of the things I’m uniquely qualified to do is add jobs,” Gemma said. “So you may have heard that we launched our job plan yesterday, and the job plan is the most significant jobs plan that Rhode Island has ever seen, and I would venture to say in the history of Rhode Island - going back to the Industrial Revolution.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTEric Hyers, campaign manager for his primary opponent, David Cicilline, questioned the statement. “We will leave it to the voters to judge the accuracy of that claim,” Hyers said.
Gemma defended his statement in an interview with GoLocalProv—but also said not too much should be read into it. “I’m not saying I’m going to change the world,” he said. “I’m trying to change the job situation in Rhode Island like the American Industrial Revolution did.”
He said that if Rhode Island can capture just $1.6 billion of the projected $135 billion growth in the wellness industry over the next five years it will create 10,000 new jobs. He has proposed a series of tax incentives, grants, and loans to help draw that industry to the Ocean State.
