Legislative failure
In the first telephone call, Fleet Bank’s chief economist Nicholas Perna was saying how Rhode Island’s numbers don’t look bad, that the state had recovered 51,000 of 54,000 of the jobs lost in the great recession of 1989-1992, slightly ahead of Connecticut. By year’s end, he said, state officials should be popping the champagne, celebrating a full recovery. In the second telephone call Perna said new figures were in, and the old ones readjusted, showed that Rhode Island was a year away from popping any corks and that the state had only recovered 48,000 of the jobs lost, still 6,000 shy of its 1989 peak. And Rhode Island was slightly behind Connecticut in the jobs recovery, last in New England, and way behind the region as a whole, which is at 129 percent.
Yes, Rhode Island has been a part of the recovery, but the figures show pretty decisively that we have lagged behind and will continue to do so.
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
That’s why it is so disheartening to listen to those who oppose even the most minor business-friendly changes for no other reason than because ‘we’ve always done it that way,’ even if that means that Rhode Island is among only a handful of states that ‘continues to do it that way.’
And so it was in this past legislative session, when the General Assembly rejected efforts to allow biweekly pay for hourly employees, and to allow manufacturers to pay regular wages on Sunday to those whose regular work schedules include Sunday hours.
In both cases, the AFL-CIO argued against the reforms, convincing legislators to keep Rhode Island among the very few states that prohibit what has become in other areas the normal way of doing business.
And we have been able to maintain tradition again, because the legislature’s failure to enact reform will continue to promote the image of Rhode Island being both an expensive and unfriendly state in which to operate a business.
It is no wonder that we struggle for job creation here, that we’re last in New England in recovering from the great recession, that out-of-state companies are reluctant to view Rhode Island and its political structure as really being serious about courting and promoting business growth.
Lifespan hearings
Last week, Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse held the first of four regional public hearings on the proposed affiliation of Lifespan and Care New England. Other hearings are scheduled for July and August.
The outcome of these hearings, and the attorney general’s and then health department’s decisions relative to the merger will shape the future of health care in Rhode Island.
Many questions remain, and overriding all is what happens when one state is dominated by one health care provider, non-profit or for-profit. What will happen to competition? What will happen to quality of care? How powerful does this new entity become in negotiating insurance rates with health insurers? And what impact does that have on businesses and individuals?
In no other state has there been a proposal for such dominance of a health care entity. It is an issue that dwarfs any concerns about for-profit versus not-for-profit. Can and should one single entity be allowed such a dominance of market share?
We hope that residents of this state, and businesses, take advantage of the public hearings to express their concerns along with getting specific answers to important questions. The results are critical.
Hearings are scheduled for July 14 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in room 271 of Chafee Hall on the University of Rhode Island campus in Kingston; on August 4, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in room 2510 of the campus theater on the Warwick campus of the Community College of Rhode Island; and from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on August 26 in the council chambers at Middletown Town Hall, 350 East Main Road, Middletown.
