Chamber News

This is your RISC-Y Business email for July 19, 2010

PRESS RELEASE

RISC BUSINESS NETWORK TO KICK OFF CAMPAIGN AND ANNOUNCE ENDORSED CANDIDATES

TUESDAY JULY 20 CROWNE PLAZA HOTEL, WARWICK
BREAKFAST MEETING 7:30 am - 9:30 am
          NEWS CONFERENCE TO FOLLOW 9:30 am LOBBY

The RISC Business Network will officially launch its Pro-Jobs/Pro-Business platform campaign and announce its list of endorsed candidates to date for General Assembly at a Breakfast Reception and News Conference on Tuesday, July 20th at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Warwick. The Breakfast Reception Meeting begins at 7:30 am and the News Conference will be held at 9:30 am.

The kick-off by the Network’s election campaign, called RBN2010, will include the unveiling of: a Candidate’s Pledge, which all endorsed candidates must sign; the Pro-Growth Agenda Platform, which serves as the centerpiece of the campaign; and the introduction of both incumbent and new candidates who have thus far been endorsed by the Business Network or RBN2010. The RBN2010 endorsement carries with it an array of pledges of financial campaign support which is being managed through the RBN website, www.rbn2010.com
 
          “Job creation is the top objective of this business network,” says RBN spokeswoman Arlene Violet. “We are engaging the business sector of this state right now, today, so there will be a business community left standing here tomorrow. Those who step forward to serve, or those who want to continue serving in the General Assembly need to worry about the jobs of ordinary Rhode Islanders first and worry about their own jobs, second.”

“There will be no recovery for Rhode Island without the business sector getting politically involved and support the RBN Pro-Growth agenda and support the candidates,” she continues.

“The candidates we are endorsing are either new candidates or those who have already shown by their performance in the Legislature that they will work to create a healthier Rhode Island business community and business climate.”
RISC Chairman Harry Staley adds: “The state cannot be economically competitive, which is crucial to businesses, if the local governments are so economically unhealthy. This campaign is about promoting the incumbents and new challengers to the Legislature who understand that vital link and know the state will fail if we cannot restore state and local budgets to a more healthy condition.”

The Pro-Growth Agenda has as its centerpiece principle that the economic competitiveness of the state of RIis fully linked to the economic health of the state and local community governments. Overall fiscal policy on tax structure and budgets must be driven by 3 principles: what is affordable, sustainable and competitive. Therefore, to improve the fiscal health of the State and local governments, the Pro-Growth Agenda supports several key objectives:

1.   Get Control of the “Big Budget Drivers”: provide legislative tools to help communities reduce costs and pension debts that are crippling local budgets

2.   Restructure Local Governments: goals of more service consolidation, leaner government operations

3.    Skilled Workforce Growth and High Wage Job Creation:  Forge a stronger link between the state’s public school system and jobs in high-tech growth sectors. Support reforms in areas of improved teacher accountability and training, higher school performance, and enhanced skills training

4.   Streamlined Regulatory and Permitting Processes for Businesses: reform laws that dictate burdensome tax and regulatory requirements and/or duplicate registration systems with multiple state agencies

5.   Recruitment, Retention, and Research Alliances: Support economic programs that will create a “Best in the Nation” business recruitment and retention ability and support a robust research alliance among the state’s universities and colleges.

Tuesday’s endorsements are phase one of the RBN2010 candidate endorsement process. The Network is also involved in a “Candidates to Watch” process as it monitors the campaigns of other incumbents and new challengers. Additional endorsements are likely to come following the September 14th Primary.

The full list of RBN candidates endorsed to date is to be released at the news conference Tuesday, July 20th.

Click here for an invitation to the RISC Annual Summer Meeting on August 7th!

TO TRACK KEY VOTES OF YOUR LEGISLATORS, SEE THE RISC WEBSITE

Today's News!

Rhode Island Statewide Coalition is on FaceBook and myRISC.com

RISC Business Network is on FaceBook , Twitter, LinkedIn, and myRISC.com

Vote on this week's poll: www.statewidecoalition.com:

The election effort of the RISC Business Network (RBN2010) is releasing its list this week of General Assembly candidates endorsed to-date. These candidates are signing a pledge to run on a pro-jobs/pro-growth agenda for the state. Would you be more inclined to vote for a candidate who has the endorsement of RBN than one who does not?

Last week's poll results:

A record number of candidates have filed for Assembly seats. Some say voters are angry and are more likely to volunteer to help new candidates than in past years. Are you more likely to get involved in a local campaign this year?

Yes: 97.6%; No: 2.4%

2 cities ease law on voter signings

PROVIDENCE — A new law championed by East Providence officials has changed how its candidates and Central Falls’ election contenders collected voters’ signatures.

A provision in each of the communities’ charters said voters could sign only one candidate’s nomination papers. The candidate who submitted his or her papers first essentially owned every voter who signed his or her petition documents.

Click here to read more...

E. Providence: School Committee chairman faces election battle

An East Providence School Committee race is attracting the attention of unions across the state and even a donation from Washington.

East Providence is where the School Committee unilaterally imposed a pay cut on teachers, incurring the wrath of the national teacher's union. The National Education Association called the East Providence School Committee the worst in the nation.

School Committee Chairman Anthony Carcieri says he's a target of a concerted fundraising effort to knock him out of office. He has an opponent in a first-time candidate named Charlie Tsonos.

Carcieri said he thinks the union picked him.

Click here to read more...

Fire district consolidation? It’s like talking about the weather

A Boston College study recommended that Lincoln and Cumberland merge their independent fire districts into two municipal fire departments. Cumberland could have a unified fire department in four years and Lincoln in six years, said the study of Blackstone Valley fire protection services.

The year was 1969.

Four decades later, the discussion continues.

Click here to read more...

Cities Rent Police, Janitors to Save Cash

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - Rhode Island's sky-high unemployment rate fell for the fourth straight month in June, though partly because more of the state's residents gave up on looking for work.

Rhode Island's jobless rate was 12 percent last month, down from 12.3 percent in May and 12.7 percent back at the beginning of the year, the R.I. Department of Labor and Training said Friday.

Click here to read more...

American politics has caught the British disease

When David Cameron visits the United States this week, he will find a country whose national political argument has become more like our own in Britain than probably he – and certainly I – would ever have imagined. For America has learned, thanks to Barack Obama's crash course in European-style government, about the titanic force of class differences. The president's determination to transform the US into a social democracy, complete with a centrally run healthcare programme and a redistributive tax system, has collided rather magnificently with America's history as a nation of displaced people who were prepared to risk their futures on a bid to be free from the power of the state.

Click here to read more...

RISC
P.O. Box 567, Charlestown, RI 02813/ Phone: 401-213-6316 / Fax: 401-213-6307 Email: info@risc-ri.orgWeb: www.statewidecoalition.com

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