CHARLES J. FOGARTY
Party: Democrat
Professional experience:
Consultant, self-employed
Government experience: Lieutenant governor, 1999 to present; R.I. state senator, 1991 to 1998, majority whip, 1993 to 1994, and Senate president pro tempore, 1995 to 1998; Glocester town councilor, 1985 to 1991
Education: B.S., Providence College, 1977; M.P.A., University of Rhode Island, 1980
Family: Single, no children
Age: 51
Residence: Glocester
PBN: Gov. Carcieri has called you part of the good old boys network in Rhode Island. Are you part of the problem?
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FOGARTY: When I got elected to the state Senate in 1990, it was after the corrupt and inept administration of Ed DiPrete. We had a lot of mess to clean up, starting with the RISDC problem and the collapse of our economy here. … We had a Democratic leadership that was not open to [change], and we ultimately had to take out that Democratic leadership… As lieutenant governor, I’ve continued that effort.
PBN: How so?
FOGARTY: When there was a scandal in the … R.I. Economic Development Corporation … I called for the resignation of the director at that time for failing to properly manage and oversee that department. This year, we worked with Common Cause to put in legislation to close a number of the gaps that existed, whether it had been membership on the Ethics Commission, lobbyists reporting campaign contributions to legislators as we require them to do for general officers, financial disclosures – all sorts of things. … I don’t doubt that the governor wants to clean up government, but … he is the first governor since Ed DiPrete to be fined by the Ethics Commission, twice for violating the ethics law.
PBN: You have the reputation for being the type of guy who works with people. How would keep things moving in the right direction if you saw something that was not in the public interest?
FOGARTY: I’ve demonstrated an ability to stand up against people in my own party. I haven’t heard boo out of the governor in response to all the awful policies that George Bush and his administration have put in place that have affected us negatively in Rhode Island.
Proposing term limits for legislators and full disclosure of assets and finances for not only general officers but legislators hasn’t exactly made me the most popular person in the General Assembly.
PBN: When you say that we’re headed in the wrong direction, what do you mean?
FOGARTY: We have the highest unemployment rate in 10 years. We’re above the national average, the highest in New England. The governor set a very modest job growth goal – 20,000 jobs, which was less than his predecessor, Lincoln Almond, had done in either one of his terms. We’re barely above half of that at this time.
PBN: How do you turn that around?
FOGARTY: One of the things I want to focus on as governor is the existing businesses that are here – the small to medium-size companies that are the backbone of our economy. That’s where most of the job growth is going to come from. … The one thing that I hear most often … in my role as chair of the Small Business Council, is that they feel that their interests and needs are not being looked after by the state, and that we jump through hoops for Fidelity and other companies like that.
PBN: What needs to be done about taxes and spending?
FOGARTY: The tax that’s most out of line is the property taxes, 45 percent above the national average. … That makes it more difficult for companies to expand here if their employees can’t afford their houses. … [The governor] rails against the legislature for spending. But he proposes a budget, the legislature adopts it and then the governor, the administration, manages it. … And yet, people have not been held accountable in those departments for overspending.
PBN: Do you believe that we need to cut RIte Care or make changes to Medicaid?
FOGARTY: What we do need is some help from the federal government in terms of flexibility of how we deliver services. … One of the ways we do [control costs] is to make sure that we don’t do crazy things like forcing people into nursing homes when they don’t have to be there. … If you look at where our long-term care dollars go, the bulk of them, 89 percent, go to institutional care. … That’s a system that we can’t afford in the long run as we baby boomers continue to age.
PBN: Could explain your health plan a little bit?
FOGARTY: Five years or six years ago, we had 94 percent of the people in our state covered by some form of health insurance. … I want to get us back to where we are at 94 percent again. We are doing that in several steps. Number one – the reinsurance plan to help small businesses that we had put in. When it’s funded, we believe an additional 14,000 to 20,000 people will be able to get covered with affordable health care. … Two – another bill that we had passed this year, which provided for dependent children 25 and under that are not full-time students are eligible to stay on their family health insurance. … We’re looking at up to another 10,000 folks under that effort. The final piece of the first phase is covering every child. We have about 19,000 children in our state that don’t have health insurance. Through RIte Care and RIte Share, we want to make that as close to 100 percent as we can after my first term. The reason why that makes sense is because when those kids are sick, they’re going to the emergency room and the cost of one visit is more expensive than it is to provide coverage for them under RIte Care or RIte Share for a whole year.
PBN: How did you feel about the tax reform passed in the General Assembly this year?
FOGARTY: I absolutely supported the local property tax proposal that Sen. Paiva-Weed had put in and passed. … We’ve got to exercise the same kind of focus and discipline on the state budget as well.
With respect to the [income] tax issue, I did not support that. … It does not make sense to me, and quite frankly it is not affordable, for $73 million to go back to certain people when the majority of people are hurt by property taxes, which are twice what the average Rhode Islander pays in income taxes. … We will not create one job this year by giving 516 people $5 million in tax cuts. … I’m going to freeze them Year One. We’re not going to implement them down the road.
PBN: You’re opposed to the casino. But if the casino passes, what happens next?
FOGARTY: There’s no question that it’s going to be challenged. I think the court case prior to it making it to the ballot indicated that there were some questions about whether it was constitutional or legal. … If the voters say yes, then at that point, your responsibility is to make you negotiate the best deal possible for the taxpayers of Rhode Island.
PBN: Is there anything we have not asked you that the business community should know as to why they should support you?
FOGARTY: My focus has been and will continue to be the small and medium-size businesses of our state. … I realize that government doesn’t create jobs … But we can work in partnership with the business community to deal with some of the challenges, particularly on health care, and to provide a stable, level tax deal and a competitive environment that will encourage people to invest their dollars and stay in Rhode Island and encourage businesses to come here.
