PBN: There are many challenges ahead for the next mayor. Which do you see as his No. 1 priority?
COSTANTINO: I think we’re in a situation that – I don’t want to call it the perfect storm – it is the imperfect storm. What I mean by that is that there are a few No. 1 priorities that have to be done at the same time. I think you have to straighten out the fiscal crisis in the city. At the same time, you have to promote the city as being business- and job-friendly. So you have a two-pronged attack. The most important thing we can do right now is get our residents in jobs. I say this all the time: Elected officials don’t create the jobs; business creates the jobs. So you have to assist and guide business as much as you can in making this city open to business. You can do that on a whole bunch of fronts.
Certainly the first step in reducing a lot of the problems that plague the city right now is someone simply having a job. A job allows people to not put stress on the system as we know it. It’s the best social program you can have.
PBN: So you have two No. 1 priorities?
COSTANTINO: Well, if you want to go even further, you have jobs, the budget and you have public education. All three of them flow into the jobs issue. Investment in the kids and having a qualified work force is going to enhance [the city]. At the end of the day, after an education, you want someone to be able to be employed, not leave the city and go somewhere else to work because of a better economic climate. You want Providence to be competitive.
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
By Emilio DiSpirito IV License Partner | Engel & Völkers Oceanside Leader | The DiSpirito…
Learn More
PBN: Let’s focus on jobs for a moment. As mayor, you just said it, you don’t create the jobs. Then what course of action should the mayor take?
COSTANTINO: The first thing you have to do is, [figure out] how do we promote Providence in being competitive with other cities and other locations. That’s the first thing. … I did this on the state level. I was one of the first to talk about this, this 30-by-40 [mile] state. We should be a model for job growth. And we have not been competitive. That’s why I took on tax reform; that’s why I was very much involved in streamlining in permitting on the state level. On the city level, it’s even more dysfunctional.
First of all, you streamline the permitting process. You do a one-stop shopping, entrepreneurial center for small business at the city level. Its goal is not to compete with the state but to collaborate with the state. Within that center, there will be a business advocate that will be attached to [any new business proposal from a company]. That person’s job will be to navigate that proposal through the bureaucracy. But at the same time, you need to break down the firewalls between certain departments in city government and to a certain extent state government. So if there is a problem with the proposal, that business advocate will call that business up in a timely manner and say, “Here’s where we are. There’s a problem and we will be your advocate in breaking down that barrier and get your business open.”
PBN: Well, we have the big, orange P?
COSTANTINO: When I see a P what I see is parking. What I don’t see is Providence. But I’m not talking about promotion in terms of branding. The type of promotion I’m talking about is an aggressive team that when there’s a company in some other city – and I don’t care if it’s Hartford or San Francisco – but there’s a company looking to relocate, right now I don’t believe Providence is at the table. That’s the promotion I’m talking about.
PBN: Isn’t the EDC doing that? They’re tasked with promoting the state of Rhode Island, but you’d think that Providence would be a player in that process.
COSTANTINO: I’m not sure that type of collaboration takes place. I know EDC is undergoing some changes now and looking at those issues. But I don’t necessarily think the mayor can do the promotion, but I know that if there’s a biotech company that wants to come into Providence or the state of Rhode Island, the first thing they’re going to do is call Amgen, and they’re going to ask, ‘How is it to do business there? What’s the cost of doing business there?’ So one of the first things we need to do is create what I’m calling business peer-to-peer promotion. So when there’s a location decision being made somewhere outside the city, it’s business that has to go and promote Providence because a business that’s been successful here … [the relocating business is] going to listen to. I’m going to create ambassadors to the city, peer-to-peer selling Providence.
PBN: Let’s move to the city’s $1.2 billion of unfunded liabilities. Mayor David N. Cicilline had agreed to compounded cost-of-living adjustments for retired firefighters, and then the City Council amended it to a simple COLA. How would you handle the pension situation?
COSTANTINO: At the end of the day, (simple COLAs) are not enough. If you look at what I actually did in the Statehouse to approach this problem – the state pension is about 52 percent funded, and we’re talking about mid-30s for the city – I capped the COLAs at $35,000; I extended the year you can collect your pension; I extended the year you can collect retiree health care; I changed how you accrue the benefit. Those are the ways you make significant changes.
COSTANTINO: I’d like to at least open the discussion. For anybody who is concerned about their pension, the message should be, will they have a pension? I want to make this pension system healthy so they have a pension.
PBN: Where do you stand on the payment in lieu of taxes agreement, or PILOT, with the big nonprofit property owners in the city?
COSTANTINO: I think about what this city would be without the colleges, universities and hospitals. Put it this way, there are cities in other states close to us that [Providence] would be [if it weren’t for the colleges and hospitals]. They stepped up to the plate and assisted the city two years ago when it had some difficulty. I believe it’s time for them to step up to the plate again.
PBN: Can you be more specific?
COSTANTINO: It’s about $2.5 million a year that the city receives from the universities [as part of the PILOT program]. I would like them to contribute more because the last two years have been very difficult for cities and states, as well as companies. I would look to them to see if they could help the tax burden put on residents. … I’m going to force – I’m going to try to broker that arrangement.
PBN: You’re going to ask those institutions for more money while still encouraging them to help establish the city’s Knowledge District?
COSTANTINO: If they’re interested in investing in the Knowledge District and want that kind of relationship, or they want a parcel on the 195 development, there’s got to be a contract that basically says what the promise is. Are you promising 100 jobs, 200 new jobs? And at this wage? This is what we’ve done with some of the tax incentives with the state. We’ve put performance and claw-back provisions.
You want that type of relationship where it’s not a giveaway, but the city is actually getting jobs, there is tax revenue coming in. That’s the kind of relationship you want, not just with universities and colleges but with private investment, too.
PBN: Where do you stand on the elimination of the nonowner homestead exemption that will raise property taxes for many landlords in the city?
PBN: Some of your opponents criticized you earlier this year when the General Assembly approved a budget that cut state aid for Providence, a budget you played a key role in writing. How do you respond?
COSTANTINO: Every city and town got cut. They knew about it. The governor had even more severe cuts in his budget. We gave them ample notice. We’re in a national recession – I don’t know if they realize that. [Providence officials] should have started their budget process early, and it should have been transparent. Two years ago, I sent out a letter to every city and town that said, ‘Assume the most conservative numbers when you are doing your budget,’ and that’s the process they should have used. We eased the cuts [the governor had proposed, but] I had to a do a job, and would not go to the income tax and raise [revenue] and I would not go to the sales tax. I would not go to taxes. My record is indisputable in my advocating for Providence.
PBN: What are some of your plans for the city’s troubled school system?
COSTANTINO: Schools have to be full-service, comprehensive schools, not adding layers to the bureaucracy. But we need collaboration and consolidation. It starts from the kitchen table in the morning to when that child goes to bed at night. It’s all about extending the day and creating an educational environment. What we tend to do is fight for the dollar and make schools do everything. They can’t do everything. Teachers need to teach but if you have a health center, recreation center and community center, you use the assets you have so you’re not fighting for the dollars, you’re sharing the dollar. You have afterschool programs. You use the agencies around you rather than the school department doing what the agencies are already doing. •
