Matt Dunn and Rainer Lohmann are among the top researchers at the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography, but it’s tough to tell based on the condition of their lab space.
After large rainstorms, a 100-liter tank that Dunn, a graduate student, uses to conduct research on detecting toxic “forever chemicals” in water is often overflowing due to leaks in the roof and cracks in the ceiling, Dunn says.
And because the building isn’t equipped with climate control technology, the temperature within the lab sometimes means that the water or chemicals are too hot to use, further delaying crucial research.
“It’s taken a lot of flexibility and persistence to see some projects through,” Dunn says. “But we just deal with what we have.”
Paula S. Bontempi, dean of the School of Oceanography, is equally dismayed with the facility and suspects that the school has lost out on attracting other talented researchers due to aging infrastructure.
Dunn and Lohmann, an oceanography professor and Dunn’s adviser, are “two of our top researchers,” Bontempi says. “And these are the facilities we have to offer them.”
That’s why, in November, the state will ask voters to authorize a $100 million bond issue for repairs and new construction at the university’s Narragansett Bay Campus, which hosts the Graduate School of Oceanography, Coastal Institute and one of the few ocean engineering programs in the U.S.
See related story: The cannabis question: Allow sales or not?
The proposal is one of three statewide ballot questions asking Rhode Island voters to approve a total of $400 million of borrowing for infrastructure improvements around the state. The questions come at a time when interest rates are rising, and borrowing costs are sure to climb with them.
In addition to URI’s request, voters will also consider a $250 million bond issue for the construction and renovation of the state’s public school buildings, and a $50 million bond issue for what have been dubbed “green economy” projects.
The questions may sound familiar.
In 2018, a bond issue for the state’s school buildings for $250 million was approved by a 3-to-1 margin. That same year, voters OK’d a $47.3 million Green Economy and Clean Water Bond by a similar margin. That vote was followed by the decisive statewide approval of a $74 million Beach, Clean Water and Green Bond in 2021.
Along with the statewide bond requests, voters in 31 cities and towns will face another crucial question with financial implications: whether to allow recreational retail sales of cannabis in their municipalities (Editor’s note: see story on Page 12), which would open the door to collecting a 3% tax on whatever sales take place within their borders.
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FULL SCOPE: Paula S. Bontempi, dean of the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography, uses a scale model of the Narragansett Bay Campus to explain the planned improvements if a $100 million bond issue is approved by statewide voters.
PBN FILE PHOTO/JACQUELYN VOGHEL[/caption]
QUESTION 1: University of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay Campus
URI President Marc B. Parlange has only been at the university for a little more than a year, but he is optimistic that voters will approve the $100 million bond issue in support of the bay campus.
He says the improvements at the 153-acre property overlooking the west passage of Narragansett Bay will not only provide new research opportunities, but it will also boost the state’s promising blue economy sector. (Earlier this year, URI fell short in a federal grant competition called the Build Back Better Regional Challenge that could have fetched as much as $100 million to boost the state’s blue economy.)
“For every state dollar invested, we return more than $6 to the state,” Parlange said. “But more importantly, we see it as part of the opportunity to build an entrepreneurial [hub] in Rhode Island.”
He says that the facilities, as they stand now, can’t support this vision of innovation.
“They are not suitable for real research,” Parlange said. “They’re not suitable for education programs, and they’re not suitable for collaboration with industries.”
In 2018, voters approved a $45 million bond to finance an initial phase of improvements to the Bay Campus. That work included the demolition and replacement of a research vessel pier and pump house, an upgraded marine operations facility, and a $17 million ocean robotics laboratory building.
The university says the pier construction should be completed next spring, and the marine operations facility and ocean robotics laboratory are expected to be ready in May 2024.
The upcoming ballot measure would help finance the construction of a new, 77,000-square-foot Ocean Frontiers Building; the replacement of two ocean engineering facilities; the renovation of the 30-year-old URI Coastal Institute headquarters; and the addition of 9,000 square feet to the Marine Geological Samples Laboratory.
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SCHOOLWORK: A construction crew member works on the East Providence High School months before it opened in the fall of 2021. The new school was made possible due in part to the approval in 2018 of a $250 million bond measure. Rhode Island voters will be asked to approve an additional $250 million construction bond measure for school buildings in November.
PBN FILE PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY[/caption]
QUESTION 2: Rhode Island School Buildings
When R.I. Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green visited East Providence High School recently, it gave her a look into the future, a cutting-edge building that provides teachers and their students with the resources for success.
“When you walk in there, you just see that the new school really caters to the needs of the student,” Infante-Green said.
But that wasn’t the case until recently. Before the fall of 2021, when the city opened the new high school, students were learning in an aging, 70-year-old building. In the end, the state provided over $95.3 million in support of the $189.5 million school, according to the R.I. Department of Education.
The successful project also brought another, more troubling visit to mind for Infante-Green: a week earlier, she visited another school and noticed mold on the ceiling. And in other Rhode Island communities, some students continue to learn in buildings built as long as a century ago.
“If you’re walking into a school that your grandmother went to and it hasn’t changed, that’s a problem because our society has changed a great deal, and we need to keep up to compete nationally and worldwide,” Infante-Green said.
The ballot measure asks voters to authorize a $250 million bond “to provide funding for the construction, renovation and rehabilitation of the state’s public schools.”
The new request comes four years after voters approved $250 million in borrowing for public school building improvements. It was part of the plan developed in 2017, officials say.
That’s when the Rhode Island School Building Task Force, co-chaired by General Treasurer Seth Magaziner and then-Education Commissioner Ken Wagner, recommended the two bonds appear on the 2018 and 2022 ballots.
The first bond allowed renovations or construction in 33 cities and towns and six charter schools, according to RIDE.
At the local level, meanwhile, seven municipalities are seeking a combined $1.4 billion in additional school bonds, says Mario Carreno, chief operating officer at RIDE.
Those municipalities are: Warwick, $350 million for two new high schools; Pawtucket, $330 million for a unified high school; Middletown, $235 million for several new schools; East Providence, $148 million for a new middle school, early childhood center and elementary school renovations; North Providence, $125 million for three new elementary schools; Providence, $125 million for various work; and Westerly, $50 million for a new elementary school and repair work.
“[Question 2] is definitely a statewide source, but we’re seeing many local communities realizing the need for these improvements are essentially taking it up themselves,” Carreno said.
QUESTION 3: Green Economy
If approved, the $50 million in borrowing would be split among nine uses, the biggest of which would be a $16 million allocation for matching grants of up to 75% in support of municipal resiliency projects that restore or improve coastal habitats and river floodplains.
So far, the state’s Municipal Resilience Program has provided funding for 35 projects in 27 municipalities, according to the R.I. Department of Environmental Management.
Another $12 million would be earmarked for the Roger Williams Park Zoo to fund a new education center and an event pavilion. Right now, the zoo operates its education center out of a 30-year-old building and does not have an event pavilion.
Zoo Executive Director Stacey Johnson says the center and pavilion are needed to match the growing demand for programming and overall attendance. The proposed facilities would also support programs such as the popular zoo camp, a zoo management course run in partnership with URI, and community outreach efforts.
Johnson says the zoo is aiming to improve programming to draw more visitors from beyond Rhode Island, noting that around half of last year’s attendees were out-of-staters. Indeed, typical annual attendance is about 650,000 but hit a record-high of 800,000 in 2021. Attendance is projected to be about 700,000 in 2022.
“The zoo has about a $75 million annual economic impact on the state, so it can only grow as we develop our programs more and reach a wider audience,” Johnson said.
The remaining bond money would be divided among a $5 million small-business energy loan program; $3 million toward Narragansett Bay and watershed restoration; $3 million toward forest and habitat restoration; $4 million toward brownfield, or industrial-site, cleanups; and $7 million toward protecting open space, split into $3 million for the State Land Conservation program and $4 million for local matching grants.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Michael DiBiase, CEO and president of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, says the ballot measures align with RIPEC’s recommendations for state investments, even though borrowing costs are expected to increase as interest rates rise.
“It’s an accepted method of financing long-term projects like it is in business,” DiBiase said. “I think the borrowing levels are well within acceptable levels, so I do think it’s a reasonable … approach.”
The state’s Public Finance Management Board recommends the state’s debt-service-to-general-revenue ratio stay below 7%. The ratio is projected to sit at 5.58% in fiscal 2025, according to a 2021 RIPEC report.
The Ocean State’s 5.1% ratio of debt service to revenue is ranked 18th nationwide – the median among U.S. states is 4.2%. That said, DiBiase acknowledges that this round of bonds will be affected by higher inflation and interest rates.
“The interest rates to be paid on this debt will be higher, and that will increase the expense of the bonds,” DiBiase said, noting that the state previously borrowed at interest rates below 3%, but rates are now as much as a percentage point higher. The voter handbook estimates a rate of 5%, which would put the total cost of borrowing $400 million over 20 years at $641.9 million.
The anticipated interest rate will likely remain relatively low, he says, and shouldn’t significantly impact the overall affordability of the bonds if they’re approved. “The rates could continue to go up,” DiBiase said. “But I think you have to look at it from a historic point of view, and the fact that these payments are spread out over 20 years.”
