CAPRIO MAKES ABOUT FACE ON PENSION REFORM WITH HYBRID PENSION PLAN PROPOSAL
It has been reported that Frank Caprio, candidate for Rhode Island Governor, has proposed a new form of hybrid pension plan for active state employees. While promoting this plan might appear to be a legitimate state function for the General Treasurer, the timing of Caprio’s proposal, coming just days after the Providence Journal published an op-ed piece by RIGOP Chairman Giovanni D. Cicione exposing Caprio’s past opposition to pension reform and in light of Caprio’s history on this issue, demonstrates that the proposal is nothing more than political posturing and the misuse of his staff’s time to promote his gubernatorial campaign.
“For three and one-half years, General Treasurer Frank Caprio embraced the status quo in Rhode Island’s public employee pension plan,” noted Chairman Cicione. “This transparent attempt to score points as a fiscally responsible candidate for governor is an election year ploy and the General Treasurer is using taxpayer supported staff and resources for political activity. Caprio and the employees of the General Treasurer’s office should be apologizing to Rhode Island taxpayers for the billions of dollars in unfunded pension liability that Caprio has been content to oversee instead of working on his campaign for Governor.”
In announcing this plan, Caprio was quoted as saying, “he first recommended a hybrid system in 2008.” This statement, however, is completely refuted by the facts. For example, the Providence Journal reported in January of 2008 that “Caprio has not yet taken a position on what, if anything, the state should do to lower its annual pension costs or $4.9 billion in unfunded liability for the promises the state made in earlier years to current and future retirees. Instead, he has been ordering up studies.” (ProJo 1/25/08). Speaker of the RI House, William Murphy, appointed Caprio to a pension review panel later that year and he continued to “study” the pension issue throughout 2008 as the panel missed deadline after deadline to issue its report. (ProJo 9/22/08).
As late as March of 2009, the Treasurer’s designee to the pension review panel opposed a proposal to limit annual COLA increases to the first $30,000 of pension benefits, which is similar to the proposal now supported by the Democratic leadership of the General Assembly (Pension Commission Final report, pp. 229-230). As recently discussed in Cicione’s op-ed, Caprio has a long history of collaboration in the under funding of the State pension system and the use of unrealistic projections to hide the true scope of vast unfunded liabilities.
“Now that the political winds have shifted, Caprio wants to portray himself as a fiscal conservative,” continued Cicione, “but taxpayers will remember Frank Caprio’s history as a member of Rhode Island’s Democratic leadership that is responsible for this pension mess and that can no longer be trusted to oversee a defined benefit pension system. Thanks to the irresponsible actions of the General Assembly, including those of Former State Representative and State Senator Frank Caprio, the burden on taxpayers to support the state pension system is far beyond anything that Caprio’s hybrid pension plan could address adequately. Instead, we need to move as many public employees over to a 401k style plan as soon as possible and get this pension mess behind us as quickly as possible,” concluded Chairman Cicione.
Press Release: Rhode Island Republican Party
Update: We only have 1 ticket left. Contact us ASAP to claim it. After that, you’re at the mercy of the Guild!
I’ll match my facts against Sen. Tassoni anytime, anywhere.
In the 7/21/2011 Observer (http://breezepapers.com/2011/07/20/observer/tassoni-says-gop-boss-hirons-should-get-his-facts-straight) the senator takes some liberties with the truth concerning statements made earlier by John Dionne and myself. Below is my response to the Observer.
Sen.Tassoni says Mr Dionne and I need to get our facts straight. I am up for that challenge.
Mr Dionne said the senator’s sponsorship and support of Binding Arbitration was based on his past relationship with labor unions. The senator’s answer was that he’s no longer employed by a union. Correct. But that does not change the fact that he was in the past as Mr Dionne stated. Not to mention his newspaper’s (http://www.commongroundnews.net) advertisements are at least half for unions, affiliated organizations or businesses owned by fellow democrat politicians. While the senator is no longer a public union employee, he is clearly in good standing with the public sector union political action committees. In the 2nd quarter of this non-election year he received over $2500 in public sector PAC donations. (http://www.ricampaignfinance.com/RIPublic/Filings.aspx)
Moving on to the Binding Arbitration Bill (S0794 http://www.rilin.state.ri.us//BillText11/SenateText11/S0794A.pdf )and the Senate votes on it on June 29th. (The Senate Journal http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/journals11/senatejournals11/SJournal6-28.pdf). Sen.Tassoni sponsored the bill. If it is a conflict to vote for a bill, how can it not be to sponsor it?
There were 7 votes related to the bill. 5 amendments, a motion to move the final vote to June 30th and the actual vote on the bill. Sen.Tassoni recorded no vote on the first 6 votes and finally abstained on the 7th. Final total 6 walks, 1 abstention.
Is binding arbitration bad for Smithfield and North Smithfield? I am not an expert so I’ll defer to the elected municipal officials. Of the 21 elected municipal officials (Smithfield 5 council, 5 school committee; N. Smithfield 5 council, 5 school committee, 1 administrator), 15 are listed in opposition at the RI Coalition Against Binding Arbitration website (www.ricaba.org). The rest have not answered, yet. The opposed includes the 3 members of the democratic majority on the Smithfield School Committee.
Clearly the municipal officials in the 22nd senate district think this idea is a bad one. From the national media it appears states are not enacting this idea right now. Most are running away from it.
Yes, sometimes our General Assembly members should recuse themselves. Sen.Tassoni has sponsored hundreds of bills in his time in the RI Senate. He generally makes the top 5 in the number of senate bill filled every year. Researching how many time he has recused himself since his election is not an easy task. However, I would bet the number can be counted on 2 hands.
Recusing oneself from an issue should include not submitting bills on the subject, not voting on the subject and not advocating for the subject. About a third of the senator’s letter was singing the praises of the binding arbitration bill he submitted. Score 1 out of 3 on recusing.
Phil Hirons, Jr.
Chair, Smithfield Republican Town Committee
Vice President, RIRA