Raimondo challenges business community at Northern R.I. Chamber event

NORTHERN RHODE ISLAND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE President and CEO John C. Gregory presented a flannel shirt to Gov. Gina M. Raimondo to deal with the continuing winter storms. / PBN PHOTO/MARK S. MURPHY
NORTHERN RHODE ISLAND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE President and CEO John C. Gregory presented a flannel shirt to Gov. Gina M. Raimondo to deal with the continuing winter storms. / PBN PHOTO/MARK S. MURPHY

LINCOLN – The Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce held its annual dinner Tuesday night at Twin River casino and attendees got more than they have come to expect when a political campaign event broke out.
Gov. Gina M. Raimondo was the keynote speaker for the chamber’s 24th annual event, and her presence contributed to what President and CEO John C. Gregory said was a record crowd of 500. And while her talk laid out a clear agenda for her administration, one that she said was focused on creating an economic climate that would grow middle-class jobs, hers was not the only political speech.
House Speaker Nicholas A. Mattiello took the occasion of receiving the Barbara C. Burlingame Public Service Award – given for his business-friendly agenda after assuming the speaker’s position in March last year when Gordon D. Fox was forced to leave the office – to lay out his own priorities as well as to emphasize the need for collaboration among the state’s political and business leaders.
Raimondo promised chamber members in attendance that “no matter how hard it is [to turn the state around], I’ll never lose hope.” The state’s first woman governor challenged the business community to avoid the mentality that focuses on “getting your piece of the pie,” but rather on growing the pie, a theme she came back to in a number of ways.
Recognizing that the state still has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, and the highest one in New England, as well as looming $200 million and $300 million deficits in the next two full fiscal years, Raimondo posited that it was economic growth the state needed most. Rhode Island’s single greatest obstacle, she said, was having one of the weakest economies in the nation since the Great Recession.
She pointed out that a decline of 1 percentage point in the state’s jobless rate would yield $100 million in new tax revenue (assuming that the jobs created were “middle-class” jobs), and would go a long way toward solving the state’s fiscal crisis.
Smart cuts to state spending as well as strategic investments will drive her actions, she said, in ways that will create opportunities both for companies in the state and those outside who might be attracted to move here. She laid out a three-point agenda designed to accomplish both goals.
First, she said that the state needs to do a much better job at building skills in its workforce, noting that she talks to businesses every week and company leaders say that is their No. 1 need. She said that last year the state spent $60 million on job training programs but has no way to measure the outcomes of those efforts, something she promised to remedy.
Second, she wants to create a climate that is attractive to investors and entrepreneurs, people and enterprises that will look to Rhode Island for its talent, its research and development capabilities and its streamlined regulatory environment.
“I want Rhode Island to be the best sand box in America,” she said.
And lastly, she wants to focus on innovation in government, from the time it takes to deal with the bureaucracy for unemployment benefits to the much higher than the norm Medicaid expenses (without any perceivable improvement in quality outcomes).
None of these initiatives would be easy to accomplish, she said, asking the audience if they were ready to rethink economic development, specifically noting that the state should no longer let the 38 Studios failure “freeze us” from making strategic investments.
“It’s going to make some people uncomfortable,” she said, “but if we don’t make those tough choices, cities will go bankrupt,” and the state will find itself further behind those states that are moving forward.
“It’s all in our grasp,” she said. “I need you to commit yourselves.”
Mattiello’s remarks, which were delivered in a more off-the-cuff style, also said that we are at a moment with an opportunity “to move the state forward.”
He listed major accomplishments from last year’s legislative session that helped improve the state’s business climate, including a reduction in the state’s corporate tax and estate tax reform (promising that the cap on untaxed estates needs to grow even larger). But he said that he still runs into people who do not realize how much has been done to help the state’s business climate. And he too committed himself to reducing the regulatory burden the state imposes on businesses.
The event was kicked off by John E. Taylor Jr., chairman of Twin River, who said that the company would be presenting its full plans for adding a hotel at the gaming facility at a Feb. 24 public meeting. Of the roughly 200 rooms that he expects to be built, 70 percent would be complimentary to guests. He added that the four story hotel would have a pool, spa and small meeting rooms.
He also said that “we’re ready” for the coming competition from Plainridge, the slots parlor opening 12 miles away in Plainville, Mass., which is expected to open in June.
Also recognized at the event by the chamber, with its Ben G. Mondor Award was Navigant Credit Union President and CEO Gary E. Furtado.

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