RIGOP Acknowledges ‘Advisory Status’ of General Treasurer

Suggests Caprio Voluntarily Reduce His Pay to $1000 Every Two Weeks

Warwick — The Rhode Island Republican Party today called on General Treasurer Frank Caprio to account for the value of his time and energy spent campaigning rather than dong the job he was elected to do.

Citing a steady stream of campaign events this week, the RIGOP questioned how Caprio could justify taking his full salary while doing half his job.

“We know that Rhode Island has a reputation for creating ‘no-show’ jobs,” said party Chair Giovanni Cicione, “but usually the people who are slacking off try to avoid the TV cameras when they’re not at work.” “This week Frank managed to dedicate a homeless shelter, attend a taxpayer forum, and participate in a debate, all before the week was half over.”

“Even worse,” continued Cicione, “is that the Democrats called on Gubernatorial candidate John Robitaille to leave his public service job the second he even hinted that he was considering a run for Governor.” “What hypocrisy that Caprio continues to vigorously campaign on the taxpayers dime when he should be working day and night to fix the pension disaster his office is supposed to be managing – it’s no wonder the unions, whose members’ pensions are at risk, won’t support him.”

Citing a recent Pew Center on the States study that made note of the fact that the Rhode Island pension system had unfunded liability that equaled 277% of covered payroll, giving us a grade of 1 out of a possible 5, and making us the third worst state in terms of pension funding (http://media2.wpri.com/_local/pdf_files//The_Trillion_Dollar_Gap_final.pdf) the RIGOP requests an accounting of the Treasurers time spent campaigning to date and for him to step down if he would prefer, as it seems, to dodge the pension issue and focus on campaigning instead.

News Release: Rhode Island Republican Party