Warwick, RI - Another scandal is brewing in Rhode Island. This one involves Mayor Charles Moreau of Central Falls who got a big discount on a home heating furnace from a friend who does business with the City of Central Falls (Hummel Report 1/14/10 and 1/21/2010).  

At a minimum Mayor Moreau has violated the Code of Ethics and accepted an illegal gift.  Today the RIGOP has filed the attached complaint with the Ethics Commission arguing that, at a minimum, Mayor Moreau has violated the Code of Ethics and accepted an illegal gift.  “Somehow we need to make sure public officials are held accountable for their actions,” said Republican Party Chair Giovanni Cicione.  “Unfortunately, Attorney General Lynch does not seem willing to vigorously pursue public corruption – perhaps the Ethics Commission will do the job that he refuses to do.”

When current Attorney General Lynch was confronted with this story by former Attorney General Violet and Jim Hummel on local public broadcasting show the Lively Experiment on January 14, 2010, he indicated he would not initiate an investigation into Mayor Moreau’s conduct because Moreau was ‘a friend’ of Lynch. 

“Regardless of Lynch’s warm relationship with the Moreau administration, Mr. Lynch has a duty to look into this kind of wrongdoing and bring people to justice,” concluded Cicione. “This ‘do nothing’ attitude towards fighting public corruption exhibited by our Attorney General is one key reason why economic growth is stifled in Rhode Island – it must stop.” 

***

At the Rhode Island House Finance Committee yesterday, Gubernatorial Candidate Chafee made it clear once again he is no champion of the property taxpayer but merely a politician who will grovel for the support of the public sector union bosses.  He has officially broken his first promise of his new gubernatorial campaign, which was “to be a champion of the property taxpayer” and “a partner with our mayors and town managers … to repeal many of the costly state mandates on cities and towns.”  Instead of siding with mayors and town managers in favor of reducing benefits through pension reform (i.e. a minimum retirement age) and a 25% co-share for health care premiums for public sector employees, he “urged” the House Finance Committee “to leave benefits alone” for public sector union employees (ProJo 1/13/10).

Without a doubt, Mr. Chafee does not want his mayoral legacy in Warwick of giving away the store to public sector union members to be tampered with in anyway.  He is proud of signing union contracts that allows employees to retire with no minimum retirement age after only 20 years of work.  (ProJo 7/29/96).  He believes it was his “biggest achievement” as mayor to give public employees big raises while paying no co-share of their health care premium. (ProJo 5/3/94, 10/10/2000)  He thinks it is “awesome” to give part time crossing guards “full benefits.”  (ProJo 9/3/93)  No doubt the public sector unions thought these kinds of these deals were “awesome” too.  This is why “local unions were endorsing Lincoln Chafee's 1998 City Hall reelection bid” and letters were being sent out to “municipal union members on Chafee's behalf” as a “payoff for the years” Chafee “spent nurturing labor friendships in the state's second-largest city.” (ProJo 10/10/2000).  This is also why, in a prior mayoral campaign, after “Chafee helped the union with a good contract,” the American Federation of Teachers asked other unions to have “the favor be returned” by supporting Chafee. (ProJo 1/6/95).

Rhode Island Republican Party Chair Giovanni Cicione commented:  “Mr. Chafee’s old three step plan has not changed one bit - give the public sector unions what they want, get the unions to support your campaign; raise taxes to pay for those sweetheart deals.”

“Mr. Chafee may not have any coherent plans to cut spending, but taxpayers can be certain he will not to cut the generous benefits of public employees - he seems to be going out of his way to protect these outrageous union benefits by raising taxes on groceries and medicine,” concluded Cicione.

***

Within hours of the Mr. Chafee’s campaign announcement earlier this week, the Rhode Island Republican Party made it clear that Chafee’s ‘New Way Forward’ was really just his old three step plan as Mayor:

1.         give the public sector unions what they want;

2.         get the unions to support you; and

3.         raise taxes to pay for those sweetheart deals. 

With each passing day, it is becoming clearer that Chafee is ready to raise taxes on anything, including basic necessities, in order to maintain the current generous benefits enjoyed by public sector union employees and win “the endorsement of organized public sector unions” (Warwick Beacon 1/5/10).  Said RIGOP Chairman, Giovanni Cicione: “Our seniors and taxpayers don’t need the “Chafee Three Step.”

Mr. Chafee has unequivocally put the generous pensions of “current public employees” off limits to any reform efforts even if it would reduce the cost to taxpayers (ProJo 1/7/10).  This makes it clear that Mr. Chafee is more willing to play ball with the public sector labor bosses than even the R.I. House Democratic leadership.  Even though the House Democratic leadership has unfortunately put 401k plans for government employees off the table (ProJo 1/4/10), they at least supported some of the Governor’s pension reform efforts which affected current public employees and saved taxpayers millions.  (09-H5983Aaa Article 7 House Journal 6/24/09, and 05-H5270Aaa Article 7 House Journal 6/27/05). 

“It appears Mr. Chafee thought that these pension reforms went too far since they affected current public employees,” said Cicione.  “As a former mayor, Chafee should really have a better handle on the impact of pension handouts and long term municipal budgeting.”  “Without reasonable concessions from all state and municipal employees on pensions, cities and towns across the state will face bankruptcy or higher taxes.”

“It appears that Mr. Chafee is not at all serious about reducing government spending,” concluded Cicione.  “Simply put, under Chafee’s “New Way Forward”, a 70 year old on a fixed income would have to pay higher taxes on their home, their medicine, and their food in order to subsidize the lifestyle of a 40 year old retired city worker – that’s just wrong.”

***

When Lincoln Chafee announced his candidacy for Governor this week, he pledged “to be a champion of the property taxpayer” and “a partner with our mayors and town managers … to repeal many of the costly state mandates on cities and towns.”  Unfortunately, when he was mayor, Mr. Chafee acted more as a champion for public sector unions than for the taxpayers when he gave sweetheart deals to unions, like the Warwick Teachers Union, and then raised regressive property taxes year after year to pay for these deals.  (As noted by the RIGOP in its press release yesterday entitled “OPPOSITE OF RIGHT PART II: Chafee’s ‘New Way Forward’ Will Send Rhode Island Backwards.”)

If Mr. Chafee is really a champion of property taxpayer who will support city and town officials in their efforts to eliminate state mandates, the RIGOP challenges Mr. Chafee to unequivocally support the elimination of state law mandates that benefit public sector unions.  Here are two simple examples: 

First, will Mr. Chafee support cities and towns who want to be free from being required to negotiate with firefighter and police unions as to minimum staffing levels?  This was proposed in Article 43 of 09-H5019, and was supported by Dan Beardsley of the R.I. League of Cities and Towns (Beardsley 2009 Final Legislative Report), and the Democratic and Republican Mayors of Cranston, Cumberland, Johnston, Lincoln, North Providence and Pawtucket (Letter from The Coalition of Communities Improving Rhode Island 4/14/09)

Second, will Mr. Chafee support cities and towns who want to be free to impose a 25% co-share for health care premiums on all city and town employees without having to negotiate with local public sector unions?  This was proposed in Article 44 of 09-H5019, and was supported by Dan Beardsley of the R.I. League of Cities and Towns (Beardsley 2009 Final Legislative Report), and the Democratic and Republican Mayors of Cranston, Cumberland, Johnston, Lincoln, North Providence and Pawtucket (Letter from The Coalition of Communities Improving Rhode Island 4/14/09)

“If Mr. Chafee is, as he claims, a champion of the property taxpayer, then Mr. Chafee should not hesitate to support these two pieces of legislation,” said RIGOP Chair Giovanni Cicione.  “I suspect, however, that he is simply avoiding the hard choices and once again robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

“The last thing this state needs is another privileged member of the Rhode Island political class who has spent a career currying favor with public sector unions in order to win office,” Cicione continued.  “Mr. Chafee’s plan to tax food, clothes, and prescription drugs will just be yet another ‘new way’ to raise taxes in an era when we should be finding solutions to put more money in peoples pockets by cutting taxes across the board.”

***

CHAFEE NOT BEING HONEST AND HIS CAMPAIGN HASN’T EVEN STARTED YET

In a press release announcing his campaign kick-off, Mr. Chafee modestly spoke of his “unquestioned integrity”.  The RIGOP has a question, Mr. Chafee. Is integrity based on honesty?

Republican Party Chair Giovanni D. Cicione noted today that “as Linc Chafee’s campaign is about to start, it appears the spinning is well underway and Chafee is not telling truth about something as simple as his less than stellar fundraising performance.”

As was reported last week on WRNI radio that J.R. Pagliarini, Mr. Chafee’s new campaign manager, asserted that “Chafee wasn't focused on fund-raising in the last quarter of 2009” when asked to explain why Chafee only raised about $41,000 from individuals in the most recent quarter.  (WRNI 12/31/09). 

However, Mr. Chafee publically stated that at the start of the 4^th quarter and a month into it that he needed to do better at fundraising.  For example, in early October, Chafee said, "We've got to do better than the last quarter", when he only raised about $70,000 from individuals.  He also admitted that he was “working harder at raising money” (ProJo 10/8/09).  In early November, Chafee said “you’ve got to raise the money,” and admitted “We’ve got to do better at fundraising.”  (ProJo 11/9/09).  Clearly, Mr. Chafee was focused on fund-raising in the last quarter of 2009.

“If Mr. Chafee wants to claim “unquestioned integrity” then he should be sure to communicate with his campaign staff so as not to mislead the public,” said Cicione.  “If you can’t even be honest about your poor fundraising performance, then why should the voters expect you to be honest about important issues such as Rhode Island’s dire economic and budgetary problems?”  “It’s time for solutions,” concluded Cicione, “not spin.”

###