Can Rhode Island do without a Lieutenant Governor?

JOB CUTS? Lt. Gov. Elizabeth H. Roberts speaks to a class of Johnson & Wales University students. Robert J. Healey, a perennial candidate for the post, has proposed to effectively eliminate the lieutenant governor’s office if he is elected. /
JOB CUTS? Lt. Gov. Elizabeth H. Roberts speaks to a class of Johnson & Wales University students. Robert J. Healey, a perennial candidate for the post, has proposed to effectively eliminate the lieutenant governor’s office if he is elected. /

Human resources executive Michael Vittoria says he’s been shocked while attending business meetings in Connecticut to see how far Rhode Island is ahead of its neighbor in preparing for the pending, far-reaching changes in federal health care laws.
And he credits R.I. Lt. Gov. Elizabeth H. Roberts for that advanced preparation. Stakeholders in the Ocean State have been discussing those changes – including the creation of state-level health insurance exchanges – for months, through a task force of health care providers, businesspeople and consumers, led by Roberts.
“She certainly has used the power of her office and her influence to take hold of a serious problem for businesses,” said Vittoria, vice president of human resources at Sperian Protection Inc. in Smithfield and president of the Business Group on Health. He is also a Roberts campaign contributor.
Others, however, aren’t so sure that the office of lieutenant governor is all that useful.
Grafton “Cap” Willey IV, a longtime member of the Smaller Business Association of New England’s Rhode Island chapter, said that, in the corporate world, the office’s duties likely would have been folded into another position to save money.
“The lieutenant governor really can’t do anything anyway,” he said.
Every four-year election cycle it seems questions arise about whether Rhode Island really needs a lieutenant governor, an office with one primary purpose: Step in when the governor is incapacitated.
But with budget pressures mounting and an unusual case of political maneuvering in which a Republican nominee for the office stepped aside for an independent candidate who was then backed by the GOP, the issue has been getting more scrutiny.
That independent candidate, Robert J. Healey Jr., has vowed to effectively abolish the office if elected, or at least eliminate its six staff members and the office’s $975,000 share of the $7.8 billion state budget. He won’t take a salary, either.
It’s a campaign promise the then-Cool Moose Party candidate made in lieutenant governor races in 2002 and 2006, too, when he was in three-way races with Democrat and Republican nominees.
But with the departure of Republican Heidi Rogers from the race – she said dropped out because she also wanted to abolish the office but didn’t have the name recognition Healey enjoys – Healey said he has the best chance of winning against incumbent Roberts and another independent, Robert. P. Venturini, a public-access TV host. “I’m going to save the taxpayers $4 million over four years,” he said. “I think the taxpayers are wasting money to have someone using the office for a personal agenda.”
For her part, Roberts, a Democrat who toyed with the idea of running for governor this time around, says the lieutenant governor’s role has taken on more importance because of the office’s “perspective outside government gridlock.”
In an interview with Providence Business News last week, Roberts painted herself as an advocate of sorts for consumers and business.
She said she proposed legislation adopted in 2009 that helped out-of-work residents gain access to discounted health coverage. She also participated in the fight against sizable health insurance rate increases.
Her office has even fielded calls from three out-of-state companies interested in relocating to Rhode Island, and she has introduced executives of those companies to officials at the R.I. Economic Development Corporation.
“Everybody wants to see value in the government, and for the most part, the businesspeople I’m working with look at me as somebody who listens to them and responds,” Roberts said. “I look for challenges facing business and residents and try to make a difference.”
While Healey has enjoyed support among advocates for smaller government, the business community largely has stayed out of fray. Laurie White, president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, said the group isn’t taking a position on the issue, but she added that she hasn’t heard her members “clamoring” for the office to be eliminated.
And the right-leaning Rhode Island Statewide Coalition’s Business Network hasn’t weighed in because it “doesn’t think [abolishing the lieutenant governor’s office] is the largest saving program” it can focus on, said Donna Terry, a coalition spokeswoman.
Over the years, the office of lieutenant governor has been lost in the shuffle, with its limited powers that shrank even further in 2002 when a constitutional amendment removed the duties of presiding over the Senate and filling in when the governor is out of state. The officeholder does serve as chairperson of the Small Business Advocacy Council, the Long-term Care Coordinating Council and the Emergency Management Advisory Council. And Roberts said people shouldn’t overlook the lieutenant governor’s primary purpose. In the last decade, 20 lieutenant governors nationwide have had to step into the lead role, mostly due to resignations, according to the National Lieutenant Governors Association. “That need for a consistency of leadership should not be taken for granted,” she said.
Abolishing the office isn’t as easy as electing Healey. A majority of legislators would have to allow the question to be put before voters statewide in the form of a constitutional amendment.
Healey said his election would send a message to state lawmakers, and he would push for an amendment to be considered.
Some who question the effectiveness of the lieutenant governor’s office say changing the way that person is elected could make the position more useful.
Willey and others say it would be more effective if the governor and lieutenant governor were combined on one ticket and gubernatorial candidates selected running mates.
“Having an independent office doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Willey said. “[Roberts] does a lot of nice things, but [the office’s effectiveness] is a legitimate question.”
But Vittoria said a single-ticket election might have prevented Roberts from taking a key role in the discussion about health care reform in Rhode Island, which she has made a top priority.
“On one level, there are some advantages to running as a ticket – you get someone rowing in the same direction,” he said. “But in this case, had the lieutenant governor been in the same party, a lot of the work might not have been done by the lieutenant governor. She might have been assigned to other things.”
Still, Healey was unimpressed with Rhode Island’s preparation for the changes to the health care law.
“Everybody who takes this office has a pet project,” he said. “But the reality is there is no power in the office. And no power means all you can do is talk. I don’t need to pay $1 million to have somebody talk.” •

No posts to display

2 COMMENTS

  1. ABSOLUTELY! This position and many others can be abolished if this miniature state is ever going to support itself again. Like small business, there is no need for the levels of management, more people should be crossed trained. And, what happen to technology minimizing manpower?

  2. Fortunately, comments, if quoted accurately, by one SBANE member related to the efficacy of the Lieutenant Governor’s office, do not reflect the opinions of the majority of the SBANE RI members and guests that were polled recently. In a recent poll taken at the October 13th SBANE RI Breakfast meeting, 74% of the respondents think that the office should remain a separate independent office or be bracketed with the Governor as a ticket. Only 26% of those polled think that the office should be eliminated.

    The Lieutenant Governor’s office duties are important and defined by statute.

    The Small Business Advisory Committee provides the small business community with a seat at the table where small business concerns can be addressed and solutions be discussed. The role of Chair of this committee has been handled admirably by Lieutenant Governor Roberts and by Lieutenant Governor Fogarty before her.

    Other statutory duties such as chairing the Long Term Care Coordinating Council and the Emergency Managment Advisory Council provide useful and necessary avenues to address issues and concerns related to Emergency Management and Long Term Care.

    Those who propose eliminating the position are probably not aware that, in the U.S., there have been over 20 gubernatorial successions in the last 10 years. Also, those who propose elimination don’t seem to offer a valid alternative process for gubernatorial succession in the event a sitting Governor becomes incapacitated or incapable of performing his/her duties.

    Through her official capacity as Lieutenant Governor, Elizabeth Roberts has always worked closely with SBANE and has been extremely supportive of the small business community. We consider her office a strong and powerful vehicle for addressing small business issues and problems. To assume that the Lieutenant Governor’s office “can’t do anything” is dramatically underestimating the impact of her work in small business advocacy, healthcare reform, and emergency management.

    Philip M. Papoojian
    Vice Chairman
    Smaller Business Association of New England (SBANE)