Gov. Lincoln Almond visited the editorial staff of the Providence Business News on Wednesday, March 8. In this, the second part of a two-part interview, he discusses the state’s Centers of Excellence, the concept of a regional economy, health care, casino gambling and Plunder Dome.
Name: Lincoln Almond
Age: 63
Position: Governor, State of Rhode Island
Background: Elected as Rhode Island’s 56th governor in 1994, re-elected in 1998. Before his election Almond served as U.S. Attorney for more than 20 years, receiving his original appointment to that post in 1969. He was re-appointed by President Reagan in 1981 and served until 1993. Prior to his service as U.S. Attorney, Almond was appointed Town Administrator in Lincoln in 1963 and elected to full terms in 1963, 1965 and 1967. Almond is also the former president of the Blackstone Valley Development Foundation. He is currently a member of the National Governors’ Association (NGA) where he serves on the Economic Development Committee. He also serves on NGA’s Legal Affairs Committee, which advises fellow governors on whether the NGA should take legal positions on matters pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Almond was the 1998 Chair of the Coalition of Northeastern Governors (CONEG) and the 1997 Chair of the New England Governors’ Conference.
Education: Bachelor of Science, University of Rhode Island; Juris Doctorate, Boston University
Family: Wife, Marilyn; two grown children and five grandchildren
Residence: Lincoln
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PBN: The Centers of Excellence program has been successful in its initial phase. This time around you are looking at different areas. There is a school of thought that says that maybe instead of expanding into more centers, it would make sense to put more resources into the existing ones.
ALMOND: They are doing very well. One of our goals, of course, is to get the Centers of Excellence off of state funding and make them self-sufficient. That is part of our strategy. You should not have a Center of Excellence that you continually fund. What we have done is to go out very strongly with respect to recruitment to get directors that meet the criteria of the Economic Policy Council. In each center we want a director with the expertise to get them off of state money. I do think it is important that when we’ve got the capacity – the environmental biotechnology at URI, the design at RISD and the information technology at Brown – we ought to expand these programs.
Do you still see biotechnology has a significant part of our future economy?
I do. Whether it is a significant portion of the economyI think it is important to the economy, let’s put it that way. It is important that we foster biotechnology. We have the resources to do it – we have the expertise to do it. We have Brown University’s Medical School and we have spurred a number of companies out of that first Center of Excellence. I think it has been very successful, considering it has only been up and running about three years. About 10 or 12 companies came out of that. So it’s been successful – and you never know when one of those companies is going to break out. And when one of those breaks out it could be a major employer for the state. That’s a good investment for the state.
Talking about biotechnology and pharmaceuticals – what’s the story with Pfizer?
They have just gone through their latest merger. I have spoken to them since that merger. I think it’s all shaking out nowWe are still actively looking at Pfizer and I think Pfizer is still actively looking at the state of Rhode Island. I don’t think you will see a decision on that tomorrow. But there is still potential there for Rhode Island.
Are there any large companies – or medium companies – currently being courted by the state?
We’re always doing that. When I was down at the governors’ conference recently I skipped half a session and went and visited a company in Virginia. They are interested in the Northeast and we had a very good meeting. We are actively engaged in a site search for that company right now.
When you meet with a company like that, what objections do they raise about coming to Rhode Island?
This company, none.
What concerns do they express?
It depends on the company. The company I talked to down in Virginia had none whatsoever. They are anxious to get into the Northeast.
Do you want to tell us who that is?
No.
What else can you tell us?
The interesting thing about them is that they have ruled out Boston. They had been up there. So our competition has been narrowed. I think we are in a real good position.
What field are they in?
High tech. Information technology.
Is T.F. Green Airport a big help in recruiting a company like this?
The airport has helped with respect to this company – the greater service going out of there now. And the low cost. The airport has been good for families going to Disney World, but it has also been good to save businesses a lot of money. The cost of flying out of Green is much cheaper than it was a few years ago. For a company that uses the airport a lot, it’s a big savings. I would venture to say it is probably half of what it was several years ago.
What about employees, that’s often an issue on the other end – the availability of a workforce?
When I met with that company that issue came up. It is an issue that is not unique to Rhode Island. If they want to locate in the Northeast, we have low unemployment in the entire region. But I pointed out to them, with an unemployment rate of less than 4 percent, we grew just under 11,000 jobs in the past year. I don’t know where they came from, but they came. So I’m not worried about the unemployment rate. If a company comes and it is a good company, they’ll get their workforce. What I am concerned about is the overall skill level of the workforce. That’s why we are emphasizing education. I believe we have a number of jobs currently vacant in Rhode Island because we are not able to fill them with the skill levels required in information technology and engineering.
How do you address that through the universities?
That’s a tough one. I could go down to URI tomorrow and say I want you to triple your computer science program – here’s two or three million dollars to do it. But it’s not going to do us any good or be a good use of that money unless you have students who are applying for the computer science program. So what we’re doing is working with the junior high school and high school students — with the software council and others. We’re telling them about these exciting jobs – the jobs of the future. We’re telling them they ought to give some real thought to these jobs.
If you were to take a look at Rhode Island’s economy five or ten years from now, how would it be different from today?
It’s going to continue to diversify more than it is. That’s very good. I think our economy is much more diversified today than the day I took office. I see financial services remaining very strong in Rhode Island. I see the high tech side of things growing. We have a real need for middle income jobs. We have to go after those particular jobs. But I see the economy growing.
Kip Bergstrom of the Economic Policy Council suggests that we as a region have to work togetheris there any move beyond the conceptual stage to try and make that a reality.
I have always been a very strong proponent of the regional approach. I am a strong proponent of Boston. I want to see Boston do better because we benefit from that. You know, people in Rhode Island look down upon themselvesbut make a ring around Boston and Providence is the number one metropolitan area coming out of Boston. We’ve done better than all of the areas around Boston. One of the reasons for that is our transportation system, which the Economic Policy Council has been emphasizing. When you come out of Boston, your main roots of transportation come right down here to Rhode Island. That’s a big advantage for Rhode Island and we’ve got to capitalize on that. The regional economy is very important. When I meet with the New England governors, the port is very important to them. What I always say is that if you do not have a port in Rhode Island, you will not have a port between New York and Halifax. That would hurt the entire region.
Do the other New England governors see the logic in participating in a regional economy?
Absolutely. Of all the groups I meet with, the New England governors are probably the best from that standpoint. They’re very much on board with the regional approach. We saw that with electricity deregulation. Ours would have gone nowhere without other states following. We worked very hard on that issue. The first three years I was governor, I would say half of our meetings were on power. The gas lines coming in from Canada to New England are extremely important. All of the new clean power plants that our coming on line are coming because of the availability of natural gas out of Canada.
In terms of health care, how much of a player can the state really be in trying to change that environment and the significant problems that businesses now face?
You have to look at this from a broader perspective. First of all, keep in mind that Rhode Island has been among the leaders nationally in taking on a significant number of children and adults into the insured population through our RiteCare program. That’s probably about 100,000 people right now. We should be very proud of that. There is no child in Rhode Island through the age of 19 who does not have access to health insurance. We also do it with respect to pre-natal health care for women. That means we get healthier children, which ultimately will reduce health care costs. So we’ve taken that particular piece and done a significant job with it. And by the way, Rhode Island was penalized for doing that by the federal government. A federal program came in after we had enlarged the children’s health care program beyond the federal program, which only goes to 150 percent of the poverty level and we go to 250 percent. So we could not use the federal money. We sought a waiver two years ago to use that money to ensure low-income families and we were told not to even submit that waiver. It’s ironic that President Clinton in his State of the Union said that we should expand the program to include adults… I’ve got almost $20 million in federal money just sitting there right now that I can’t use for Rhode Island because I can’t get it freed up by the federal government, because of the fact that we have a more aggressive program than the federal government. That is outrageous — when a state gets penalized for doing better than the federal government.
Have you taken a position on the Lifespan, Care New England merger?
No I haven’t because eventually one of my directors is going to have to play a part in that. I’ve always taken the position that I do not think it is advisable for the governor to take a position when an issue like that is pendingI am not going to intervene with the director of the Department of Health.
What impact has Plunder Dome had on the city and the state, and how do you see this all playing out?
Well, it obviously has a very negative impact on the state. There is no question about that. On the other hand, it has to be done. When I was Unites States Attorney, I always said that one of the things that hurt the most was that you had to hurt the image of the state to get some things done. You hope to become a better state for it. One of the examples I can give you is that it wasn’t very pleasant for Pawtucket when I did the investigation there – but that city is a stronger city today for the investigation and the prosecution. You can’t tolerate that kind of activity.
One question that comes up all the time is whether this renaissance of Providence would continue if Buddy Cianci were not the mayor?
Let me tell you, the state is going to prosper long after I am the governor. One person doesn’t make anything. Life goes on.
How is your relationship with the mayor?
It’s always been pretty good, in the sense that the capital city is very important to the state.
With Hospital Trust/BankBoston becoming a thing of our past and the state’s banking climate is such a state of change, are you concerned about the impact in terms of charitable donations and support of non profit agencies? What about the overall impact of the banking changes on our financial services community?
Actually, I am somewhat optimistic. I have met with Sovereign on a couple of occasions and we have had discussions. I expect them to be very strong in Rhode Island and we’ve talked to them about job growth here. There is no question in my mind that they like Rhode Island and the idea of doing business from here. I think the potential is there for Sovereign to be a very strong player. There is always that possibility that some of their Pennsylvania operations, in terms of backroom operations, could come up to this area.
Have there been discussions with them in particular about that?
No, but it’s a hope. They are very much aware of Rhode Island being a favorable state in which to do business.
What is the story with the casino proposal in West Warwick?
We hope there is no story. I think it’s bad for the economy. It will be before the General Assembly and I hope that the General Assembly does not authorize it to go on the ballot. If it does come to me I will veto it. It will have to be passed through an override of the veto to go on the ballot in November. It’s not good for the quality of life. It’s not good for the economy.
