June 17th, 2013 at 3:43 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Ted Nesi
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is swinging his support behind Treasurer Gina Raimondo as she prepares to run for governor, three years after the billionaire leader backed incumbent Gov. Lincoln Chafee, because of his admiration for her as well as his differences with Chafee.
June 12th, 2013 at 5:00 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – The high school principal at the center of a months-long federal investigation into the violation of disabled students’ civil rights was on the cusp of being fired in April before an outpouring of support saved his job.
• Related: Federal probe finds civil rights violated at Providence school (June 11)
June 11th, 2013 at 7:56 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Tim White
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – A Providence school that caters to developmentally disabled students allegedly violated the Americans with Disabilities Act for years by making students work manual labor for little or no pay and acting as a “pipeline” to a similar program once they graduated, the Target 12 Investigators have learned.
June 11th, 2013 at 11:48 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
Gov. Lincoln Chafee loves infrastructure – but he’s not ready to support Providence Mayor Angel Taveras’s ambitious request for $39 million in federal money to build a streetcar line in the city.
“The streetcar project is a promising concept but not ready to go,” Chafee spokeswoman Christine Hunsinger told WPRI.com on Tuesday.
Taveras has asked for $39 million from the federal government to fund a $114-million streetcar system in the capital. The grant would come from the competitive Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program, which has $474 million to hand out nationwide this year – meaning Providence is seeking about 8% of the national pot.
Chafee, however, wants a different Rhode Island proposal to win TIGER money this year: the state’s request for $10 million to build new bypass roads around the Apponaug Business District in Warwick, where Chafee was mayor from 1993 to 1999. Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian is also chairman of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority, which is supposed to manage Providence’s proposed streetcar system.
June 11th, 2013 at 5:00 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
Dan McGowan broke the news Monday that Providence Mayor Angel Taveras has asked the federal government for a $39 million TIGER grant to help fund construction of Providence’s long-discussed streetcar system, which would link College Hill and the hospital districts starting in 2017.
Streetcar geeks – like Greater City Providence’s Jef Nickerson – will want to dig into the city’s entire federal application (PDF). For the rest of you, here are some highlights from the Taveras administration proposal.
Let’s start with the most basic question you probably have. Where would the streetcars go? How often would they run? This map has a good basic overview:
Much more after the jump.
June 10th, 2013 at 5:02 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Officials in Rhode Island’s capital city have asked the federal government for $39 million to help build a street car system that would connect the Upper South Providence neighborhood near Rhode Island Hospital to College Hill on the East Side by 2017.
• Related: Nickerson: Why Providence needs a streetcar system (April 6, 2011)
June 7th, 2013 at 5:02 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan
WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) – It will be two more years for embattled R.I. Education Commissioner Deborah Gist.
The R.I. Board of Education voted Thursday to allow Gist to continue guiding the state’s public schools until 2015, a deal that will throw her square into the middle of a Democratic primary for governor next year that is expected to be contentious.
June 5th, 2013 at 7:11 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – The Providence City Council is set to give Mayor Angel Taveras the green light to seize a landmark downtown building that’s been decaying for years.
• Related: Abandoned ‘Dynamo House’ could house URI-RIC nursing school (April 11)
June 3rd, 2013 at 8:19 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – The Providence City Council gave final approval Monday to a 2013-14 budget that will increase residential taxes in nearly every neighborhood while freezing commercial tax rates across the city.
• Interactive: Map of Providence property revaluations, by neighborhood (WPRI.com)
May 29th, 2013 at 3:16 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
It’s nearly official: Lincoln Chafee will be a Democratic candidate for governor in 2014.
Chafee spokesman Christian Varieka told WPRI.com the governor will make his announcement at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at Warwick City Hall. (Yes, Varieka made the call on personal time.) The news – first broken hundreds of miles south of Rhode Island by Politico and The Washington Post – struck the state’s political class like a thunderbolt Wednesday, despite the fact that Chafee has long indicated he was open to the possibility and amid rising speculation the move was coming.
Ideologically speaking, the switch makes perfect sense: Chafee is more aligned with the national Democratic Party than many of its nominal officeholders in Rhode Island. Think about it: this is a governor elected with the support of the state’s teachers’ unions on a platform of raising taxes to fund social services who just signed a law legalizing same-sex marriage in the nation’s most Catholic state.
Politically, Chafee has been a Democrat in all but name for a long time now – in 2012 he not only co-chaired President Obama’s re-election campaign and spoke at the Democratic National Convention, he even endorsed Sheldon Whitehouse’s bid for the very U.S. Senate seat he took from Chafee in 2006.
Clearly, Chafee and his savvy chief of staff, former Patrick Kennedy aide George Zainyeh, decided the approval-challenged governor’s best bet for a second term was in the Democratic Party. (Indeed, Chafee’s 2011 decision to replace the more Republican-friendly Pat Rogers with Zainyeh now seems telling.) But what’s the path? And are they right? Here are a few initial thoughts.
May 29th, 2013 at 1:12 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Independent R.I. Governor Lincoln Chafee will join the Democratic Party, setting up a likely three-way Democratic primary for governor in 2014, according to a report from POLITICO.
May 29th, 2013 at 10:33 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – A City Council committee on Tuesday reluctantly allowed Mayor Angel Taveras’s proposed residential property tax increase to make its way to the full council for discussion in order to expedite the budget process and ensure that first quarter tax bills are due before Aug. 1.
May 28th, 2013 at 12:21 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan
There goes the neighborhood.
Nearly two months after General Treasurer Gina Raimondo put her Elmgrove Avenue home on the market, Congressman David Cicilline has also decided to move off one of the most prominent streets on Providence’s East Side.
The second-term Democrat is selling his spacious five-bedroom, 3.5 bath home in favor of a condo just around the corner on Blackstone Boulevard, Cicilline spokesman Richard Luchette told WPRI.com.
The asking price: $849,000.
May 23rd, 2013 at 6:16 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – The former executive director of Rhode Island’s Economic Development Corporation wants to build a biomass to renewable energy plant along Providence waterfront’s on Allens Avenue, but he said the city needs to commit to freezing commercial tax rates to make the project happen.
May 23rd, 2013 at 12:40 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – With officials mulling a contract renewal for Education Commissioner Deborah Gist, Providence Mayor Angel Taveras is again questioning a high school graduation mandate that ties a diploma to the state’s standardized test.
May 23rd, 2013 at 5:51 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – R.I. Gov. Lincoln Chafee on Wednesday reaffirmed his support for Education Commissioner Deborah Gist, but stopped short of fully endorsing the school chief’s request for a three-year extension when her contract ends next month.
May 21st, 2013 at 12:36 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
That escalated quickly.
The field of likely 2014 candidates for governor of Rhode Island has come sharply into focus over the last week thanks to three key announcements: Democrat Ernie Almonte’s switch to the treasurer’s race on Thursday, Republican Brendan Doherty’s decision to sit out the race on Friday, and Moderate Party founder Ken Block’s announcement this morning that he’s running again.
Almonte’s exit leaves Treasurer Gina Raimondo and Providence Mayor Angel Taveras as the two potential heavyweights in the Democratic primary, setting up a head-to-head clash between the two. Almonte’s absence could boost Raimondo, since both of them have reputations for pension truth-telling and fiscal responsibility, issues that appeal to moderates and conservatives; Taveras has a more wide-ranging portfolio.
That assumes, of course, both Raimondo and Taveras actually jump into the gubernatorial race. While the two Democrats are taking the steps necessary to mount campaigns, until there’s an official announcement the possibility remains that one of them won’t pull the trigger. Raimondo has $1.7 million already and her fundraising shows no sign of slowing, while Taveras has $560,779 and can tap the deep-pocketed network of former DSCC chief J.B. Poersch; a lengthy primary fight could be expensive and bruising.
May 21st, 2013 at 10:34 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Tim White
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Moderate Party founder Ken Block will once again be the face of his party’s 2014 gubernatorial run, according to a website that went live this morning.
May 17th, 2013 at 12:53 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Former State Police superintendent and congressional candidate Brendan Doherty on Friday said he has no plans to run for statewide office in 2014, likely clearing a path for Cranston Mayor Allan Fung to run unopposed in a Republican primary for governor next year.
May 16th, 2013 at 8:42 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Ted Nesi
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Former Auditor General Ernie Almonte announced Thursday that he’ll run for general treasurer in 2014, abandoning his long-shot bid for governor against Gina Raimondo and Angel Taveras.
• Related: Caprio calls ‘shove it’ remark ‘stupid,’ prepares comeback (May 14)
May 15th, 2013 at 2:49 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – A Providence councilman has proposed a five-point plan to help reduce or prevent a property tax hike, but the Council’s top fiscal advisor said a residential rate increase is “unavoidable” for Rhode Island’s capital city.
May 10th, 2013 at 5:05 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
Providence has topped a set of national rankings, and Mayor Angel Taveras probably isn’t happy about it.
Taxpayers in Rhode Island’s capital city paid the highest commercial property taxes charged in any of the nation’s 53 biggest cities in 2011, according to the latest edition of a widely cited comparative study by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Minnesota Taxpayers Association.
The previous edition of the study listed Providence as having the second-highest commercial property taxes among big cities, behind only Detroit – a statistic that’s been widely referenced locally ever since Governor Chafee cited it on Newsmakers and then had his research confirmed by PolitiFact.
But the tax burden on commercial property in Providence grew even heavier in 2011, when Rhode Island’s cash-strapped capital slapped a tax bill of $4,975 on commercial property worth $100,000 – $69 more than second-ranked Des Moines and $75 more than third-ranked Detroit. Here’s a chart:
Taveras has proposed freezing the commercial tax rate for seven years – apparently at what has been the highest level in any major U.S. city, according to this study. Even that may not happen: City Council members have expressed skepticism about the proposal, suggesting they may raise commercial taxes even more.
The study said Providence also charged the fifth-most on apartment buildings among the 53 big cities in 2011, with a tax of $21,765 on a $600,000 property, behind Des Moines, Detroit, New York City and Buffalo. In addition, Providence ranked 11th-highest for homestead property taxes on the median-value home and 9th- and 10th-highest for industrial property taxes on machinery, equipment, inventories and fixtures.
The latest edition of the study was cited Friday on Twitter by Gary Sasse. “Rhode Island’s economic health is linked to more competitive business taxes in the Capital City,” he commented (in abbreviated tweet form). Not coincidentally, the owner of the now-vacant Superman building wants a tax break to redevelop it.
May 10th, 2013 at 9:40 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
May 9th, 2013 at 5:20 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan and Tim White
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Nearly two years after Providence closed several public schools, the city is still paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep the lights and heat running in the empty buildings, WPRI.com has learned.
May 8th, 2013 at 4:20 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
It turns out that the Democratic gubernatorial hopeful who has the biggest chunk of pension money invested in hedge funds isn’t Treasurer Gina Raimondo – it’s Providence Mayor Angel Taveras.
Providence has invested 19.75% of its total pension assets in hedge funds, the Taveras administration disclosed Tuesday after WPRI.com requested a breakdown of its investment portfolio.
Rhode Island’s state pension system has invested somewhat less in hedge funds – 14.6% of assets as of April – under a new investment strategy implemented by Treasurer Gina Raimondo soon after she took office in 2011.
Providence’s Board of Investment Commissioners, which is chaired by the mayor and oversees the city’s pension portfolio, started investing in hedge funds on the advice of its longtime financial consultant, Boston-based Wainwright Investment Counsel, Taveras spokesman David Ortiz told WPRI.com. The investment board meets roughly once a month.
May 7th, 2013 at 9:23 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
May 6th, 2013 at 3:07 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Rhode Island’s capital city will repay the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development more than $600,000 that was improperly spent by a troubled taxpayer-backed loan program, WPRI.com has learned.
May 2nd, 2013 at 3:22 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Dan McGowan
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Angela Romans, the top education advisor to Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, is leaving City Hall for a job with Brown University’s Annenberg Institute for School Reform, WPRI.com has learned.
May 1st, 2013 at 10:35 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes
By Ted Nesi and Tim White
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Treasurer Gina Raimondo continued to raise campaign cash at a rip-roaring pace during the first three months of 2013, far outpacing the other leading candidates for the state’s top job.
April 30th, 2013 at 4:42 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
High Rock Development isn’t the only organization putting out studies about the “Superman building” today.
The administration of Providence Mayor Angel Taveras quietly released a 95-page study [pdf] Tuesday afternoon that suggests state taxpayers should consider providing $60 million in historic tax credits to subsidize the conversion of the former Bank of America building into apartments. That’s significantly more than the $39 million requested by High Rock in its own proposal for the redevelopment.
However, Taveras all but disowned the study’s conclusion in a statement his office released along with it, saying: “I am concerned this proposal would not be the wisest public investment – especially if there is a less costly alternative to maintaining the Superman Building as a contributor to our state’s economy. More work needs to be done to explore the option of maintaining the building as office space.”