Friday, January 25, 2008

state of the state of RI

rappers

reax to Carcieri’s speech

Governor Don Carcieri summed up his view of the state of Rhode Island on Tuesday night, January 22.  He described how he wants to cut 300-million dollars from the budget for FY09.  I received a few e-mails about the speech…

SO WHAT…...THE STATE WORKERS HAVE TO TAKE DAYS OFF WITHOUT PAY…BOOHOO..ALOT OF US DON’T GET PAID HOLIDAYS OR SICKDAYS..THIS STATE IS SO OUT OF CONTROL ON SPENDING…WHY WERE THE DOT WORKERS GIVEN NEW TRUCKS IN 2007???? WHAT SENSE DID THAT MAKE??? JUST AS THE FOCUS WAS ON 1000 PEOPLE LOSING THEIR JOBS THESE WORKERS PULL UP IN BRAND NEW TRUCKS AND SUV’S….I JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND WHERE ALL THE MONEY GOES TO…I PERSONALLY PAY 6300.00 IN TAXES, IT CRACKES ME UP WHEN MR.CARCERI SAID IN HIS SPEECH THAT THE BILLS ARE GETTING PAID THRU THE SAVINGS ACCOUNT…HE COMPARED IT TO US HAVING A SAVINGS ACCOUNT AND PAYING BILLS..HOW CAN WE HAVE A SAVINGS ACCOUNT WHEN THIS WONDERFUL STATE OF R.I. SUCKS EVERY LAST PENNY OUT OF THE POOR WORKING SLOB…CUTTING WELFARE TO IMMIGRANTS IS A WONDERFUL IDEA, CHECKING ON SECTION 8 HOUSING MAYBE?? I PERSONALLY KNOW SOMEONE WHO HAS SECTION 8, WORKS A FULL TIME JOB MAKING 17PLUS AN HOUR WORKS UNDER THE TABLE MAKING AN XTRA 500 A WEEK CASH,NOW HER DAUGHTER IS PREGNANT AND SHE IS GOING TO PASS HER CERTIFICATE TO HER DAUGHTER 19 YRS OLD VERY CAPABLE OF WORKING…DOES A LITTLE UNDER THE TABLE STUFF…??? UNNECESSARY MONEY GOING OUT..I ASKED THIS PERSON HOW DO YOU MANAGE TO BURN THE SYSTEM LIKE THIS..HER ANSWER…I KNOW SOMEONE WHO WORKS FOR SECTION 8 HOUSING..COM-ON START CHECKING INTO THESE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN ON THESE PROGRAMS FOR YRS AND YRS…GET THESE SPANISH AND OTHER FORIGNERS OFF OUR AMERICAN TAILS..THE WHOLE STATE NEEDS AN OVERHAUL…

I know I am naive and mostly uninformed about politics and how the Government works, so I am speaking from the heart.  Can someone please explain to me why the people who can least afford it are the ones who aregoing to suffer most from the proposed budget cuts?  What sacrifices are the wealthy asked to make?  Why can’t our State Officals take pay cuts or pay a percentage of their medical coverage?  I think that might save the State a few million.  Am I wrong?  By the way, nobody asked us if we would make the sacrifieces proposed, we are being TOLD this is what will happen.  I thought I had a voice in my future.  Signed worried and a little confused,
Jeanne S,  East Providence RI

If the governor is trying so hard to help the RI economy why is he behind the Gateway Center at Quonset Point/Davisville? The industrial park was supposed to create good clean well-paying jobs, as is being done in their Kiefer Park section. The redevelopment of the park was not meant for $7 per hour wages at big box stores that don’t even meet the town’s requirements. This development violates the North Kingstown Comprehensive Plan, the QP Master Plan 2003, the State Guide Plan 2025 and the Davisville CNBC base closure plan of 1994. Does he think big box stores will provide good jobs? How much can you possibly make selling underwear and kitchen appliances?  Where are his plans for extra schooling and/or better schooling to get persons off welfare and into a work force where they can make enough money to afford to live in RI?
There are always ways to cut the budget but taking it from the poor (the way he LOVES to do) is not the proper method. He needs to re-think his approach. Providing education and housing, healthcare and daycare is the path to getting people off welfare. Sex education and birth control help, too. Cutting benefits simply exacerbates an already overhwhelming problem. Wasting prime industrial land for the construction of stores that only pay minimum wage does not help the problem, either, and continually criticizing the poor helps no one.
 
And why does this governor always pick on state and municipal employees who earn far, far less than the private sector employees? He cited figures tonight that were hugely over blown with regard to pay and benefits, and consistently provides figures that are not true for the majority of state and municipal workers. His plan to cut 1,000 workers may sound wonderful to some, but it simply will not work as he presents it, and the upshot is that he saves perhaps 1/4 of what he’s telling us he will save.
Carcieri is ineffective and doesn’t get his message across because he’s too much of an elitist. A snob of the first rank. He should show more respect to women; the Lt Gov especially. He should show more respect to gays. And he should leave his religion in church where it belongs. RI was founded on the separation of church and state, yet he cannot grasp the concept.
Here are some of my suggestions for improvement on his part. If he wants to save money he shouldn’t be flying off to Iraq to support an unnecessary war. Let him stay home and pay attention to the average Rhode Islander’s day. Let him follow a state or municipal worker around and see what a day working for the taxpayer really involves.  He should also drive himself around. This is a small state. He doesn’t need a state policeman wasting time acting as chauffeur. Let him get a compact car and pay for his own gas like the rest of us. If he wants to help the poor let him start a WPA project like FDR did. We could use an upgrade of our roads and bridges, water systems and sewers. How about a re-design of Rte 95 at Exits 9, 14, and 22???? How about an upgrade of the airport at QP, at least for UPS and FEDEX planes? Carcieri needs to cut his own staff and get rid of that spokesman (Jeff Neal?) among others. Rhode Islanders are beginning to resent that young man and Carceri shouldn’t hide behind him, anyway. If he wants to get the word out about something, let him say it himself. He should come out of the clouds and do a little more of his own personal one-on-one with the citizens of RI, instead of presenting pie in the sky speeches for methods of saving money that exist somewhere over the rainbow. There is a group out there of adult white males who will nod stupidly in agreement with him, but people with their feet planted firmly on the ground, and a brain in their heads, understand that most of what he said (while some may have made sense) simply won’t work in a state as small and territorial as RI. Carcieri needs to “dress for what his figure is, not what he wishes it was.“
There is one area, however, where he should spend a great deal more money. He needs a better haircut.
Kalula

My husband and I have listened to the Governor’s speech.  As a Rhode Islander I agree with him that the budget needs to be cut, but as a state employee, I feel it should not be cut at my expense.  All too often the first thing governors have done is balanced their particular problem on the backs of state employees—either with medical, furloughs, or cut in retirement benefits.  I have been working for the state for 10 years.  I was hurt about 3 years ago when the Governor cut my retirement benefits because I wasn’t totally vested.  At that point in time if I could have quit and found a job in the public sector, I would have.  But, I am at an age that it isn’t that easy for me to do and I had too much vested in my position to just throw away 8 years.  Had I been a younger person I certainly would have.

This particular Governor has constantly maligned state employees in every way, shape and form.  He seems to have no respect for the hard work we do, nor does he seem to care that we work under less than ideal working conditions.  All the state employees I know are working way more than our job descriptions.  People in our offices are retiring or transferring to other departments and those positions are not being filled.  The people that are left in the office have to take up the work that the other person left.  This is happening far too much.  My particular office is working on a skeleton crew.  We lost 3 people in a 7 people office.  Each of us has had to take up the slack.  My particular position was already down one person and now I have been added more work from the 3 people that left.  When I filled a desk audit proving that I was working above and beyond my position I was told I was not.  I was told it was in that clause that is in every job description that says “and other needed duties.”

My office is also working in unsanitary conditions.  Our office has not been thoroughly cleaned since April 2007 when the last of our manual labor crew retired.  Yes, the 4 people that are left are taking up that slack as well.  We are vacuuming, dusting, emptying the trash and cleaning the toilets.  But when we do this we are taking away from important more pressing jobs that need to be done.  When I arrive at work on a winter snowy morning I am not even sure if our parking lot will be plowed or if the walk to the office door will be shoveled.  Many times when I get to work I have to shovel the walk myself until someone else arrives to share the task.  This is not in my job description, but if I complain I will probably be told it is in that “clause”.  Do the secretaries in your office have to shovel the snow or clean the bathrooms, even those used by the public?

Several years ago when the Governor first started his “efficiency in Government” revamping many things in offices throughout the state, he did that in my office as well.  He implemented a rate hike on one of our registrations that still has not recouped from the cost if initiating that rate hike.  Between the cost of the hearings, meeting place, advertisements for the meetings and stenographers, etc, we have not even come close to coming even with all the costs we incurred in that rate hike.

As I said, I am a 10 year state employee.  I do not make $61,000 a year as the Governor said the average state employee makes.  I make $32,000 a year.  When he was counting this average he counted in union and non-union employees.  He counted in all those heads of departments that make well over $100,000 a year.  Will salary people take this furlough also?  .  Is he going to take the furlough cut along with the employees?  Is his office going to as well?  See the records of how many in his office make over the $61,000 per year and he keeps hiring more for his office even though he says there is a freeze on hiring.  Ask him how many of his people got approved for their desk audits.

I make less than if I worked in the private sector, but I do so because of the retirement plan and other benefits.  Most state employees would be working in the private sector and receiving more everyday remuneration, but for most of us, the benefits were more important than the weekly pay.  Is it fair that after 10 years, when I am close to thinking about retirement, that he cuts my retirement?  Is it fair that I will be forced to work beyond age 65 because he feels that state employees are given too much retirement?  I am in no way going to get (or even near it) the $250,000 that he currently makes in retirement each year.  I will be lucky to get $10,000 a year from my state retirement and now he wants to even cut from that.  My ten years have counted for almost nothing.  Oh, and another thing—he never tells the public how much each state worker MUST contribute from their pay check each pay period towards retirement.  We don’t have a choice but to give a certain amount.  That amount really hurts when you are not making that much to begin with.

We had bottled water in our office because our office is used for public meetings, etc.  Now we don’t have it as a cost cutting factor.  It only cost us around $12.00 for the rental of the cooler, water and cups.  Now we don’t even have a cooler.  To get water in our facility we must use the bathroom sinks.  I don’t believe that is sanitary and poses a health and safety issue.  Also, because we are a public building we will now have to have our water tested.  This water testing will cost the state around $400 per year.  Our delivery of bottled water only cost about $144 per year.  Where is the saving here?  What I see is the state paying more to cut costs.

Before I close I just want to say that what I see from what this Governor is doing is just depleting the morale of the average state employee.  I used to love to go to work.  Now I have to drag myself in to work each day.  I am tired of all work I have to do with never ending piles on my desk, on the chair next to my desk and on the table near me as well.  Each day finds me getting more and more behind.  Reports are not being written to the FEDS for grants received because of the time factor.  The FEDS are reclaiming our grants because these reports are not getting written.  We (the state) are losing money because people are not there who used to write these reports.  We are loosing hundreds of thousands in grant money because the Governor decided the state had too many employees.  Where is the savings here? 

I could go on and on but I feel that you tend to be more on the side of the Governor and dislike state employees as well.  It is a shame that the media focuses on the lazy ones and doesn’t talk about the ones that are doing a good, untiring, conscientious job.
Sincerely,
CD
Once proud, now tired state employee

Well, what a great amount of NOTHING we heard tonight.
He wants No new or raised taxes but the citties and towns are MANDATED to provide certain things that the state has always paid for.  Where is the money supposed to come from?
Here in Coventry we are voting tomorrow on a bond thing they want 19.8 MILLION dollars 10 of that to go to our wonderful school committee and oh yeah the state is GOING to give us back FIVE million of that 10 NOT NOT NOT.
I really hope the people in this town paid attention to what was said tonight. I will tell you I am willing to bet that taxes here in Coventry will go UP AND UP AND UP.  They won’t give us new taxes they’ll jus RE-EVALUTE our property like they have done twice in the last 18 months.
What a state.
Judith