April 29th, 2013 at 4:49 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – The landmark pension reform settlement reached between Rhode Island’s capital city and its retirees and public employee unions cost the city nearly $1 million in lawyer fees over the last two fiscal years, WPRI.com has learned.
April 29th, 2013 at 12:29 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Ted Nesi
ATTLEBORO, Mass. (WPRI) – Former Boston Celtics player Jason Collins became the first openly gay active athlete in a major U.S. sport on Monday, and he’s crediting Massachusetts Congressman Joe Kennedy III with helping him make the announcement.
• Related: Enthusiastic Joe Kennedy III says it’s ‘surreal’ to join Congress (Jan. 7)
April 29th, 2013 at 11:02 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
Treasurer Gina Raimondo has invested 10 times more pension money in hedge funds than the median state-government retirement system does, a WPRI.com review of financial records shows.
Raimondo, as chair of the State Investment Commission, won unanimous approval in June 2011 of a new allocation strategy for the pension fund’s $7.7 billion in assets that added hedge funds to the portfolio for the first time. As of June 30, 13.9% of Rhode Island’s pension assets were invested in hedge funds.
By comparison, the median state pension plan in the U.S. allocates just 1.4% of its assets to hedge funds, according to a February study of 134 state retirement systems by Wilshire Associates, a Santa Monica-based investment adviser.
However, that number masks wide variation among different plans, with the share of the individual systems invested in hedge funds ranging from zero to as much as 26.5%, according to Wilshire.
Hedge funds are privately managed alternative investments that are only open to sophisticated investors. The Hedge Fund Association says they “can use one or more alternative investment strategies, including hedging against market downturns, investing in asset classes such as currencies or distressed securities, and utilizing return-enhancing tools such as leverage, derivatives, and arbitrage.”
April 29th, 2013 at 5:00 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
April 28th, 2013 at 5:00 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
April 27th, 2013 at 5:00 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site, The Saturday Morning Post
Welcome to another edition of my weekend column – as always, send your takes, tips and trial balloons to tnesi@wpri.com. For quick hits all week long, follow me on Twitter: @tednesi.
1. When the Rhode Island Senate backed same-sex marriage, the biggest winners included two people who voted no: Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed and Senate Judiciary Chairman Mike McCaffrey. Gay marriage was a rare issue that not only split the Senate Democrats’ ruling coalition but represented a real political liability for its socially conservative incumbents, McCaffrey foremost among them. While most people aren’t experts on the General Assembly, it wouldn’t have been hard for Ray Sullivan to educate Democratic primary electorates next year if their local senators were blocking same-sex marriage – and to recruit activists to make that case at voters’ doorsteps. (Think about it: How many Warwick voters tick off McCaffey’s name every two years assuming they’re getting someone with relatively Obama-ish views?) Paiva Weed – one of the shrewdest political minds on Smith Hill – has deftly removed the biggest electoral threat facing men like McCaffrey, Dominick Ruggerio and Frank Ciccone, all without any apparent damage to her authority as leader of the upper chamber. She also cleared the path for McCaffrey, a labor ally, to succeed her as Senate president – while simultaneously earning plenty of goodwill from liberals in her caucus, not to mention Speaker Fox. Well played, Madame President, well played.
2. How’s the 2014 race for governor shaping up? Read my new Bloomberg View op-ed and find out.
April 26th, 2013 at 4:29 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
After reading this story by Dan McGowan and yours truly about why the Rhode Island Senate shifted on same-sex marriage, Bloomberg View’s Josh Barro sees a lesson for proponents in other states (my emphasis):
This is similar to what happened in New York in 2011: passing gay marriage depended not only on four Republican state senators voting yes but also on Dean Skelos, the Senate’s Republican presiding officer, agreeing to let gay marriage come to the floor even though he opposed it. Rhode Island and New York are both examples of the “no fingerprints” strategy for gay-marriage opponents: letting it become law while taking as little credit or blame as possible.
If the Supreme Court doesn’t intervene, this will be a key political theme over the next 20 years: gay marriage opponents strategically acquiescing so they can stop fighting a fight they know is doomed and electorally costly. Rhode Island’s topsy-turvy politics mean that the officials making that calculation today are Democrats (all five Republicans in Rhode Island’s state Senate support marriage equality), but in most states, it will be Republicans who search for ways to lose gracefully on the issue.
April 26th, 2013 at 1:09 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Frank Caprio is looking to get back into Rhode Island politics.
• Related: Caprio leaves Dems, tweaks Obama two years after ‘shove it’ (Nov. 5)
April 25th, 2013 at 8:59 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – The average Providence resident would see his or her property taxes increase by 6% and the city would eliminate its structural deficit by asking the state to boost municipal aid under a budget proposal introduced Thursday by Mayor Angel Taveras.
April 25th, 2013 at 5:15 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Ted Nesi
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – House Democrats led by Speaker Gordon Fox on Thursday proposed a complete overhaul of the state economic agencies as they unveiled a sweeping set of bills they say will “improve the coordination and quality” of Rhode Island’s troubled economy.
The Democrats’ other proposals include bringing back the tax credit for historic buildings, this time capped at $5 million per project and potentially $30 million in total; allowing employers to pay workers biweekly; considering curbs on the overuse of jobless benefits by seasonal employers; and creating a new tax credit for local employers who add jobs after making major capital investments.
April 25th, 2013 at 4:56 pm by petemangione under Tony's Pinpoint Weather Blog
According to the official stats at TF Green, we are running a rainfall deficit. Now, it might not seem like it because PARTS of the past several weekends have been rainy. In addition, we just went through a raw and rainy day on Tuesday. But when we add up the actual AMOUNT of rain over the past month and a half, it just hasn’t added up to much. (For those of you in eastern Mass and Cape Cod, you have obviously received a lot more rain than those of us in Rhode Island.)
Let’s look at the numbers for March:
ACTUAL RAINFALL IN MARCH: 2.94″
NORMAL RAINFALL IN MARCH: 5.01″
RAIN DEFICIT IN MARCH: 2.07″
We were hoping to play catch-up in April, but despite a few miserable, rainy days, that never really happened.
ACTUAL RAINFALL IN APRIL (UP TO APRIL 24): 1.64″
NORMAL RAINFALL IN APRIL (UP TO APRIL 24): 3.59″
RAIN DEFICIT IN APRIL (UP TO APRIL 24): 1.95″
According to the US Drought Monitor, parts of Rhode Island are in the “Abnormally Dry” category (shown by the yellow shading). This is one level BELOW the “Moderate Drought” category.
So while we are not in an urgent situation just yet, we could sure use some more rain! Unfortunately, there is not a lot of rain showing up over the next 6 to 7 days. We might be able to squeeze out a few showers, but nothing that substantial.
The good news? If we are going to have some rain-free weather, we might as well have it on the weekend. Indeed, this weekend looks rain free for all of your outdoor plans.
-Pete Mangione
April 25th, 2013 at 12:40 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
Felix Rohatyn, the banker who famously helped save New York City from bankruptcy in 1975 as chairman of New York’s Municipal Assistance Corporation, has an interesting op-ed in today’s FT arguing political and labor leaders should negotiate solutions to thorny fiscal problems, notably underfunded pension plans – a timely take in light of Rhode Island’s debate over the Raimondo and Taveras approaches:
Once again, business and labour share a huge stake in our cities’ fortunes, and the consequences for both if we fail to stabilise our finances and set a course for growth will be devastating. Yet amid the solutions proposed, no one argues that the two sides must work together to restructure the finances of troubled states and cities. …
If the nation is to enter a new era of opportunity and growth, our government, company executives, labour leaders and employees have to co-operate on matters of common interest. They need not abandon their principles, but they must create a climate where dialogue and compromise are possible, and mutual sacrifice may be negotiated. One thing is certain: the path of stalemate leads nowhere. We need to take a new direction now.
April 25th, 2013 at 12:26 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
I’ll have my own story on all this soon, but for now check out Mike Stanton’s piece in today’s Projo about yesterday’s fight at the State Investment Commission over Treasurer Raimondo’s use of hedge funds:
Rhode Island has moved about $1 billion of its $7.6-billion state pension fund into hedge funds over the past 18 months, a move that General Treasurer Gina M. Raimondo defended against critics Wednesday during a meeting of the state Investment Commission. …
On Tuesday, Raimondo’s office provided The Providence Journal with records showing that the state paid $15.8 million in fees to 19 hedge funds for the eight months ending June 30, 2012. But the office could not immediately produce how much has been paid since then, given how the records are kept. Those fees aren’t in the detailed monthly investment reports produced for Investment Commission meetings, because they are not directly billed to the state. …
Raimondo, in an interview, said that hedges in such investments as currencies, agricultural commodities and precious metals are designed to move against the stock market, and provide a better alternative to lower-yielding Treasury notes that reaped more years ago. Noting that the pension fund lost $2 billion in the ’08 crash, Raimondo said an analysis showed the loss would have been $1.5 billion with hedge funds in the portfolio.
• Related: Chart: How Raimondo has changed RI’s pension investments (April 4)
April 25th, 2013 at 5:00 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Less than an hour after the Rhode Island Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation to legalize same-sex marriage, Gov. Lincoln Chafee on Wednesday said he met with advocates to begin discussing plans to sign the bill into law “as quickly as possible.
April 24th, 2013 at 7:23 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Ted Nesi
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – The Rhode Island Senate voted 26-12 on Wednesday afternoon to approve a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, a historic victory for its supporters that almost certainly means gay nuptials will be allowed in the Ocean State starting Aug. 1.
• Related: Big campaign has RI gay-marriage backers near victory (April 24)
April 24th, 2013 at 2:50 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan
The chairman of Providence’s most powerful City Council committee has landed a job with House Speaker Gordon Fox as a policy analyst, WPRI.com has learned.
Councilman David Salvatore, who heads up the council Ways and Means Committee, was hired April 22 and will earn $53,716 a year.
According to House spokesman Larry Berman, Salvatore will help House develop and implement policies, monitor current and potential legislation and research legislation in other states to develop policy and legislation in Rhode Island.
Salvatore previously worked as an unclaimed property administrator and a business processing manager in the general treasurer’s office, but was let go by Treasurer Gina Raimondo last year. Salvatore claimed his termination was a result of a pension reform op-ed he co-authored in The Providence Journal, but Raimondo called the accusation “absolutely untrue.” Read the rest of this entry »
April 24th, 2013 at 12:51 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan
The executive director of Rhode Island’s beleaguered Republican Party has resigned, WPRI.com has learned.
Ann Clanton, who was appointed to the post in March 2012, left the party earlier this month after Mark Smiley won a controversial election to become chairman of the party. Clanton supported former Providence mayoral candidate Dan Harrop over Smiley in the chairman’s race.
Smiley told WPRI.com that lawyer Matthew Fabisch has been appointed interim executive director, but is not currently being paid. Campaign finance records show Clanton earned $2,500-per-month between May 2012 and Sept 2012, but did not collect a check from the party for the rest of the year.
April 24th, 2013 at 12:09 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan & Ted Nesi
When the Rhode Island Senate meets Wednesday to vote on legislation that would legalize same-sex marriage, it will be taking up an issue that died in the House just two years ago and was still considered a long shot as recently as last winter.
But a savvy political campaign that first threatened and then encouraged state lawmakers – combined with a rapid shift in public opinion – now has Rhode Island poised to become the final state in New England to allow gay and lesbian couples to wed.
April 23rd, 2013 at 6:51 pm by Tony Petrarca under Tony's Pinpoint Weather Blog
Good Evening from chief meteorologist Tony Petrarca…..
Certainly not feeling like late April, almost May Today. Temperatures stayed in 40s all day. Normal high temperature this time of year is around 63. Today’s chilly air did not come from Canada, but rather of the cold Atlantic waters. No surprise this time year to have the water still cold. But even though the ocean is cold, the late April sun is strong enough to warm things up nicely….the key in getting the warmth is not only having the sun out (obviously), but also a wind that comes in off the land (example: west or northwest breeze), rather than the water.
Look at the forecast map below. See what afternoon sun and a land breeze for most of the day can do….Highs Wednesday Afternoon recover 65-70…that almost 25 degrees warmer than Today! A late day sea breeze will knock the temperatures back down along south shore…regardless a much milder day on the way…enjoy.
April 23rd, 2013 at 4:12 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
By Ted Nesi
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Rhode Island moved another step closer to legalizing same-sex marriage on Tuesday after a key legislative panel approved a bill that would allow gays and lesbians to wed in the state, setting up another crucial vote for Wednesday.
April 23rd, 2013 at 11:09 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
Back in January U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse told WPRI.com one of the most important ways for a U.S. senator to be effective is basically out of his control: seniority.
If that’s the case, Whitehouse’s senior colleague Jack Reed is about to get significantly more effective.
U.S. Sen. Max Baucus of Montana on Tuesday became the sixth Senate Democrat to announce he will retire rather than seek re-election next year. All but one of those six lawmakers – New Jersey’s Frank Lautenberg – have served in the Senate longer than Reed, who was first elected in 1996.
The departures of those five – Baucus, Carl Levin, Tom Harkin, Jack Rockefeller and Tim Johnson – will vault Reed from 14th to 9th on the list of the U.S. Senate’s most senior Democrats. Of course, that assumes Reed himself will win re-election next year – about as safe an assumption as there is in politics.
• Related: Levin retirement sets up Jack Reed for powerful chairmanship (March 7)
April 23rd, 2013 at 9:21 am by Michelle Muscatello under General Talk, Tony's Pinpoint Weather Blog
There’s not a whole lot of good things to say about today’s weather. It will be an UGLY day with low clouds, drizzle and showers continuing through the day and night. Temperatures will barely budge, with highs only in the mid to upper 40s and a stiff northeast wind making it “feel” –the windchill– in the 30s. Brrr!
In terms of rainfall, we’re looking at mostly light amounts across RI–generally under 1/4″. However, the amounts will be more impressive over southeastern MA… possibly nearing 1/2″ in New Bedford and as much as 1″ to 2″ across parts of the Cape and Islands. The culprit is an area of low pressure that will track south and east of Nantucket.
Accum rain by 8am Wednesday
The storm departs by early tomorrow morning (before 9am) and then the good stuff begins! We have a huge turnaround tomorrow… we should break into sunshine through the morning, and that–combined with a shift in the wind to the southwest–will push our temperatures up to near 70 inland and 60s at the coast.
RPM Model Forecast Highs for Wednesday
A rather unimpressive cold front will sweep through Wednesday night with a passing shower followed by a large area of high pressure that will sit over New England and keep us storm-free from Thursday into the weekend. There are even signs that high could continue to control the weather into early next week. Temperatures under the high will be seasonable–a comfortable low to mid 60s.
April 22nd, 2013 at 10:38 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
The fine folks over at Bloomberg View asked me to write a short op-ed for them about the outlook for Rhode Island’s 2014 gubernatorial race, focusing on Treasurer Gina Raimondo’s high profile after the pension fight and how it will impact the campaign. Here’s how I kicked off the piece:
Rhode Island General Treasurer Gina Raimondo has experienced a meteoric rise to fame that most politicians can only envy.
Raimondo, a 41-year-old former venture capitalist, was virtually unknown in 2010 when she coasted to victory as a Democratic candidate in a deep-blue state. Soon the new treasurer surprised almost everyone by engineering the most sweeping overhaul of a public-pension system ever enacted. By the time her reforms became law in November 2011 she was one of the most popular politicians in Rhode Island, and the subject of adulatory coverage in both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Even before the pension process was over, there was growing speculation that Raimondo might run for governor in 2014, in no small part because the incumbent who signed the pension law — independent ex-Republican Lincoln Chafee — has had an approval rating in the 20s for most of his term in office. It has become clear in recent months that the treasurer is likely to throw her hat into the ring.
April 22nd, 2013 at 5:22 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
By Ted Nesi
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – R.I. Democratic Party Chairman Edwin Pacheco said Monday he’s resigning as head of the party to run for secretary of state, becoming the second Democrat to jump into the race.
• Related: Newport Dem Guillaume de Ramel will run for secretary of state (Jan. 24)
April 22nd, 2013 at 4:36 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
By Dan McGowan
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Providence Mayor Angel Taveras on Monday said he still plans to include a seven-year commercial tax freeze in his 2013-14 budget proposal despite a 13.2% citywide decrease in residential property values that has some city council members concerned a tax increase for homeowners is on the horizon.
April 22nd, 2013 at 3:12 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
Lawyers for the state and public-sector labor unions are apparently still talking behind closed doors in an effort to resolve the fight over Rhode Island’s landmark 2011 pension law without going to trial.
Lawyers on both sides of the case met Monday afternoon with R.I. Superior Court Judge Sarah Taft-Carter, who is handling the suit. In December, she ordered the state and the unions into a formal mediation process overseen by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
The lawyers met with Taft-Carter in her chambers for about 45 minutes and updated her on the mediation process’s progress, court spokesman Craig Berke told WPRI.com. The parties have said they aren’t allowed to detail their discussions publicly. This was the fourth status conference on the pension talks since February.
Taft-Carter has scheduled the next status conference for May 17 at 2 p.m., Berke said.
• Related: EngageRI: Why the law is OK (March 18) | Prof: Law may be unconstitutional (Dec. 24)
April 22nd, 2013 at 9:57 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
Treasurer Gina Raimondo has a message for members of Congress: don’t tax municipal bonds.
Raimondo and 41 of her fellow state treasurers sent a letter [pdf] last week to the top Republican and Democrat on the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, emphasizing “the importance of maintaining the current tax exemption for municipal bond interest” as they consider plans to overhaul the U.S. tax code.
The letter was organized by the National Association of State Treasurers, which describes itself as “a bipartisan organization of state treasurers and other finance officials with similar duties.” The group said tax-free municipal bonds save states and municipalities an average of 25% to 30% on interest costs.
“The tax-exempt bond market has worked effectively for over a century,” Virginia State Treasurer Manju Ganeriwala, the association’s president, said in a statement. “Let’s not dismantle something that works.”
Raimondo, a Democrat, is considering a run for governor in 2014. Here’s her signature on the letter:
April 22nd, 2013 at 5:00 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
April 21st, 2013 at 5:00 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
April 20th, 2013 at 7:40 am by petemangione under Tony's Pinpoint Weather Blog
One of the nice things about spring is that often we don’t need to heat or cool our homes very much. Our wallets like this as our monthly bills tend to be lower! However, you may need to crank the heat up a little bit over the next several nights. Some of our suburbs could be close to the freezing mark tonight and then again on Sunday night. However, with daytime highs in the 60s and 50s we won’t need much heating (or cooling) for most of the day.
Below is a look at a temperatures forecast for around midnight tonight; if you have plans to stay out late, make sure you bring the jacket! -Pete Mangione
