The RISC Business Network will be different... First, they don't care what party a pro-business candidate belongs to. Republican, Democrat, Moderate or unaffiliated, it doesn't matter. Candidates who hope to gain by the "pledge cloud" of hundreds of thousands of dollars will be fully vetted, and have to earn their funds by walking the district and executing a top-notch campaign.

Donors are asked for a pledge of $250, $500, or more, beginning with a 15 percent donation to RISC to coordinate the effort. The request for all or parts of the rest of the pledge will come later, during the campaign, when donors in the pledge cloud are told which are the best candidates with the brightest prospects....

If you are a business owner, or maybe just a citizen displeased with the makeup of our General Assembly, visit www.statewidecoalition.com and click on "Election 2010" to learn more, or call [401.213.6316]. All donations must be personal, and not corporate.

This year, the biggest "RISC" for business might be in doing nothing.

The Valley Breeze, Tom Ward: RISC-y Business Network? Bigger Risk is Doing Nothing, January 27, 2010

Did you know?

See Forbes' Debt Rating for Rhode Island

Just for starters.....

Debt per capita: $1,812; unfunded pension obligations per capita: $20,271

Join the conversation @ www.myrisc.com

This week's poll on www.statewidecoalition.com:

Do you think the majority of people in Rhode Island want to see small business succeed? If so, do you agree that having more pro-business people serving in the General Assembly is key to turning the state around?

TOM WARD - RISC-Y Business Network? Bigger risk is doing nothing

Tom Ward: RISC-y Business Network? Bigger risk is doing nothing

In the end, they say it's as simple as this: In Rhode Island, it's the "Providers" versus the "Takers," and the takers are winning, courtesy of their overwhelming advantage in the General Assembly.

"Takers," I think, is a bit harsh. They include teachers, police, firefighters, rescue and municipal workers that give us services, keep us safe, pick up our garbage, and yes, pay taxes too.

But we've come to that untenable place that many of us saw coming years ago, when the providers, businesses small and large, are asked to give more in taxes so that takers can win raises and retirements that providers cannot give their own employees, let alone themselves. Across America, the recession has made the balance between public and private sector badly out of whack, with providers unable to give more, and takers still expecting for their dues a risk-free world in which their milk and honey keeps flowing.

N.J. Senate proposes pension reform package abandoned by Corzine

TRENTON -- The Senate will take up part of a pension reform package abandoned during the Corzine administration that would cut benefits for future state hires, Senate President Stephen Sweeney said today.

Sweeney said the measures will shore up the pension system for all future workers.

"If we don't do something to rectify the pension problems, it's going to go bankrupt," he said. "We have an obligation to the people that work for this state that we ensure their pensions."

State campaign finance laws in crosshairs

The full effect of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last week to allow limitless corporate spending in candidate elections remains to be seen. But already, 24 states’ campaign finance laws seem likely to be nullified because of the controversial ruling.

Experts Urge Districts to Do More With Less

The nation’s school districts are facing a budget crisis that is expected to only get worse as the effects of the recession linger. But some thought leaders are insisting that schools and districts can and should use the opportunity to target resources in a way that serves their students better.

A conference this month, “A Penny Saved: How Schools and Districts Can Tighten Their Belts While Serving Students Better,” sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, highlighted what the organizers see as fresh thinking on education spending.

'Superman' Documentary Looks at Public Schools' Ills

Teachers and Education Reform

Education Secretary Arne Duncan wants to link American teachers’ pay to American students’ performance. Teachers unions have always said no. They are still very wary of that straight equation.

But one big teachers union leader is signaling she’s ready to talk.

Randi Weingarten is president of the American Federation of Teachers. This month she said she’s ready to work with school districts to revamp teacher evaluation and to make student performance — test scores — part of that evaluation.

In the teaching world, that’s big.

Union membership in R.I. hit 18% in ’09; Ocean State is New England’s most unionized, 7th-most in U.S.

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island continued to rank among the nation’s most unionized states in 2009 as organized labor added 2,000 more members, according to a report released last week by the U.S. Labor Department.

Union membership rose last year to 80,000 of the Ocean State’s 444,000 workers, the most since the 84,000 recorded in 2003, the government reported. The total was up from 78,000 members in 2008 and 75,000 members in 2007.

Portsmouth Council Votes to Keep Sewers Alive

The Portsmouth Council, led by the Republican majority, voted 4 to 3 to conduct yet another cost study.  While vigorously stating their opposition to sewers, the Council majority, led by Keith Hamilton and Huck Little and supported by Peter McIntyre and Democrat Jim Seveney, refused to put an end to the sewer project.  Instead, citing legal concerns they were unwilling to identify, they designated Town Administrator Robert Driscoll, to lead a study group to produce a cost benefit analysis comparing sewers and a Wastewater Management District.  The study group will also include the Finance Director and Town Planner.  The analysis will cover the areas of Island Park, Portsmouth Park, Common Fence Point and the Hummocks.  Mr. Driscoll is the strongest advocate for sewers in Town government.  The Council did not adopt a Wastewater Management District, the primary alternative to sewers.
The Council also did not identify a completion date for the cost benefit analysis, and did not provide a budget as the task is to be completed by town employees.
The Portsmouth Concerned Citizens submitted an agenda item to ensure an opportunity to be heard during last night’s discussion of sewers.  That agenda item was altered by the Town Solicitor to eliminate the reference to ending the sewer project.  The PCC, none-the-less, asked the Council to “vote to end all consideration, planning and expenditures for the proposed sewer project and adopt a Wastewater Management District.”
Council member Dennis Canario introduced a motion to amend Mr. Hamilton’s motion to conduct the cost study and keep the sewer project under consideration.  His motion would have ended the sewer project.  Mr. Canario’s motion was supported by Karen Gleason and Jeff Plumb, but failed on a three to four vote.  Council members Hamilton, Little, McIntyre and Seveney voted against the motion.
The Council did not include a cost study requirement for a Wastewater Management District in the Facilities Study recently delivered by the engineering firm Woodard & Curran.  The town has expended $272,000, with the State Department of Environmental Management (DEM) matching that amount for a total of $544,000, on a sewer system study.
The Council’s legal concerns appear to be based upon contracts signed with DEM to secure financial support for the sewer study and the legal authority DEM may have to unilaterally impose sewers on the citizens of Portsmouth.  While some members of the Council, especially President Peter McIntyre, obviously fear legal action by DEM, the contracts are public documents, as is any legal authority granted by the Assembly to DEM.  Even so, the Council continued to refuse to openly discuss its legal concerns.  Town Solicitor Andre D’Andrea insisted throughout the discussion that the Council members could not discuss these legal matters in public session. He maintained that all discussions must be held in secret to avoid revealing legal strategy in some future lawsuit by DEM.  It is clear that the Town has established a business relationship with a state agency that the Council fears will sue the Town.  The Town’s Environmental counsel Mr. Mr. Christopher D’Ovidio, in response to a question from audience member Liz Pedro, confirmed that DEM has never sued a municipality to force implementation of sewers.
A review by PCC members of the Town’s contracts with DEM reveal a Termination clause that permits Portsmouth to end the contract upon 30 days notice, without penalty.
At the close of the sewer discussion, Mrs. Gleason made a motion to ensure that the town will reject any future DEM payments.  Environmental council D'Ovidio commented that such action would be ‘prudent’ and the motion passed unanimously.

Coalition plan backs pro-business candidates

The Rhode Island Statewide Coalition (RISC) is developing and marketing a plan to give small businesses in Rhode Island, the largest employment sector in the state, a larger presence in the state legislature.

The plan, developed by Jeff Deckman, a political, business and nonprofit consultant who is also a former executive director of the Rhode Island Republican Party, asks small businesses to set aside either $250 or $500.

The businesses would then take 15 percent of that donation, ($37.50 for $250, or $75 for $500) and send it to RISC.

Budget troubles promote consolidation plans

The contract is ready. It’s just a matter of fine-tuning the system to make sure any glitches have been fixed.

If all goes well, Warwick and East Greenwich will share fire dispatching by March –– one of several consolidation or regionalization proposals at the state and local level during a major budget crunch.

Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian is also in preliminary discussions with Cranston and North Kingstown about expanding the shared fire dispatching services with those communities.

R.I. still in fight against proposed LNG terminal

PROVIDENCE — When a federal appeals court rejected efforts by the state’s coastal agency last fall to review plans for a liquefied natural gas terminal in Mount Hope Bay, some thought the state has lost its only chance to stop the terminal. But that is not so.

The state Department of Environmental Management has denied two applications filed by the LNG developers and both cases are alive in state and federal courts.

“Some people thought all was lost for the state,” DEM Director W. Michael Sullivan said. “But we’re in three courts on this.”

Carcieri vows economic revival

PROVIDENCE — With Rhode Island facing “the most severe economic turmoil of the last 30 years,” Governor Carcieri used his eighth and final State of the State address Tuesday night to help instill hope in a skeptical legislature and a discouraged television audience, while renewing his commitment to battle tax increases at any cost.

The term-limited governor repeatedly evoked the words and values of Rhode Island’s forefathers to encourage his audience during a 37-minute speech, offering many familiar themes but few specifics.

East Providence considers selling school building

EAST PROVIDENCE — City officials are considering selling the former Union Primary School to help reduce the School Department’s more than $5.2-million deficit.

It is the one addition to a deficit-elimination plan that was sent to and later rejected by the state auditor general in September 2009. Mayor Joseph S. Larisa Jr. said the city will be able to pay off the school district’s debt in five years if the auditor general, who received the modified plan Monday, approves it.

The City Council and School Committee must also sign off on the arrangement, and then it must be followed through, which hasn’t always happened with past deficit plans.

Cranston trying to settle dispute with schools over budget

CRANSTON — Nearly two years and $500,000 since the School Department sued the city, both sides are talking again, hoping to settle out of court a legal dispute that has left more than $9 million in limbo.

A portion of the lawsuit — whether the city properly funded the district for the 2008-09 school year — remains unresolved in Superior Court.

The School Department sued the city in May 2008 under what is known as a Caruolo action, saying it had been shortchanged by the city. Had it prevailed, the district’s base funding — on which annual funding is based –– would have been increased by that amount, affecting every year thereafter.

Carcieri appoints board of R.I. Economic Development Corporation

PROVIDENCE — Governor Carcieri has expanded and overhauled the board of the state’s beleaguered Economic Development Corporation, appointing a mix of officials from industries he hopes will help lead Rhode Island’s economy out of the recession and into the next decade.

Education, health care and big business are heavily represented in the lineup announced Tuesday, with University of Rhode Island President David M. Dooley and Timothy Babineau, president and CEO of Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital, slated to join.

Al Bettencourt: Fix the estate tax

This letter is in response to your Jan. 16 editorial, “We need estate tax,” in which you ask for the federal estate tax to be reinstated. While I believe the repeal of the tax should stay in effect, I am a realist and know that won’t happen. However, I do believe that the exemptions should be substantially increased, perhaps to $10 million a person and how property is appraised should be revised both on the state and federal level. I am particularly concerned about small businesses, especially farms.