Gencarella: RI, A Government In Crisis - Nothing New
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Last week’s announcement that the House Finance Chairman, Ray Gallison (D-Bristol), was the subject of a state and federal investigation was devastating for the State of RI. Unfortunately, it’s nothing new. It was only 2 years ago that we learned the Speaker of the House, Gordon Fox (D-Providence), was in the same position and of course, is now in prison.
Just as astounding is the light that was shed upon the corruption of the legislative grant program, the mechanism by which the Speaker and the Senate President decide who gets a little (or a lot) something extra. According to tax documents, former Representative Gallison has been receiving a salary (between $50,000 and $60,000 a year) for years from one of the lucky organizations receiving funds from these legislative grants. Assuming that carried through at least 2014, it may total nearly three quarters of a million dollars that Mr. Gallison personally benefitted from these grants.
Corruption, It’s Why We Just Can’t Get It Right.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThis is the same body that just rammed through the toll legislation, expecting us to trust them with billions of your tax dollars to fix our roads and bridges. And it’s all part and parcel of the same government that cannot process tax refunds or root out fraud and abuse in the medicaid system or get the DMV working efficiently (after more than a decade of trying to implement new software to streamline the process), or repair roads and bridges with a $500 million budget.
When legislators are poised to ensure that their position benefits them and not the taxpayer, it is clear that the taxpayer loses, not just from the actual dollars stolen from the taxpayer, but because the insidious nature of accepting the corruption allows it to happen in all government systems.
Seeing The Light.
While Speaker Mattiello has said over and over again that the General Assembly does not need legislation to ensure ethical behavior in government, you know better. And apparently, he now knows better and has submitted a bill to address ethics. But this action and the rallying cry to audit all legislative grants are seen for what they truly are - a day late and a dollar short.
Ken Block is only the latest person or organization out there leading the charge to eliminate these legislative grants or at least have them reviewed to determine if they are constitutional. The Republican party, through Representative Patricia Morgan and others, has been railing against them for a long time, as have the many good government organizations, including Common Cause.
Not only should the Speaker and Senate President be eliminating the legislative grant program, but all eyes should be on passing legislation that will help remove the specter of impropriety, of fraud, and of downright corruption in all government systems. That means not only eliminating the legislative grant program and passing ethics reform, but also passing legislation that has languished in the General Assembly that would improve the processes in government.
We Can’t Move Forward ’Til We Get Our House In Order.
Line Item Veto is scheduled for a hearing today. Medicaid fraud and EBT fraud bills have been introduced year after year and hang in limbo. Legislation calling for an independent investigation of 38 Studios and a resolution calling for an advisory opinion regarding toll legislation have both gone nowhere. These very basic pieces of legislation that improve the government process must be passed.
Touted as ‘economic development’, legislation allowing this government to make determinations on which groups or individuals will receive tax credits and tax stabilization agreements, which industries and individual businesses will survive and which ones will die, must be stopped.
Remember In November.
So while ethics reform and an audit of legislative grants may be the first steps in addressing the crisis in confidence that all Rhode Islanders are feeling, much, much more must be done before taxpayers will have any faith in this government. The Speaker, the Senate President and the Governor have a long row to hoe in attempts to win the hearts and minds of its citizens. The problem for them is there’s only about a month and a half left in which to make a dent in our battered psyche. The fortunate thing for us is that November is not that far off.
Related Slideshow: Ten Things to Know About Gallison Scandal
Related Articles
- Gencarella: Are Local Governments Kidding Themselves?
- Gencarella: What Side Are You On? Do Organizations & Consortium Members Really Support RhodeMap RI?
- Pam Gencarella: Where Does Raimondo’s Vision Put Us in Five Years?
- Gencarella: Can We “Make it in RI?”
- Gencarella: Public Union Benefits Limit What Our Government Can Do For Taxpayers.
- Pam Gencarella: What’s All the Fuss About RhodeMap RI? If You Like Your Municipality, Keep It
- Pam Gencarella: Surprised, Bewildered, Shocked, Disappointed
- Pam Gencarella: Don’t Touch That Dial
- Pam Gencarella: Is the Pendulum Swinging Back Toward the Center?
- Pam Gencarella: Context Is What’s Needed - Part I
- Gencarella: RI Stands Apart From a World Where Change Is the Only Constant
- Gencarella: A Drop In The Proverbial Ocean State Budget
- Gencarella: Let’s Leave It A Local Issue
- Gencarella: ’Twas the Night Before Session
- Gencarella: TOLLS - Trucks Today, Cars Tomorrow.
- Gencarella: All ‘Tolled’, It’s A Bad Plan
- Gencarella: The Toll Plan - One Mell of A Hess
- Gencarella: Robbing Peter (and Mary and Jane and Rob) To Pay Paul
- Gencarella: Is There a Movement Afoot
- Gencarella: It’s Time to Brew Our Own Coffee and Cut Out the Coolattas
- Gencarella: RI Firefighters: Public Servants, Hardly Indentured Servants
- Pam Gencarella: The Twilight Zone
- Gencarella: Is RI On A Path To Socialized HealthCare?
- Gencarella: Rhode Island - The Rule of Lawlessness
- Gencarella & Bishop: Billion Dollar ‘Big Dig’ - Fewer Bridges, Fewer Cars, Nearly Double The Cost
