Reviving R.I. economy is not that complicated – just do it

Two decades ago, Rhode Island was in the grip of a harsh and unrelenting recession. The mood in the state was grim.
One night in 1992, while in my office at the R.I. Department of Economic Development, I received a call from Jim Skeffington, the prominent Providence attorney, and from Terry Murray, chairman of Fleet Financial. They told me that Fleet had a big decision to make: Expand in Rhode Island or in other, more business-friendly, states.
Within an hour, Mr. Skeffington, Mr. Murray and myself were sitting in Gov. Bruce Sundlun’s office, and that night the governor made a decision to support legislation to improve the business climate for financial-services companies.
Upon approval by the General Assembly, Fleet began a major build-up in Rhode Island. Several years later, Gov. Lincoln Almond won passage for even more sweeping legislation, and Fidelity Investments came to Rhode Island.
In 2013, under similar circumstances, Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee, House Speaker Gordon D. Fox and Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed are well-positioned to turn a crisis into an opportunity for the people of Rhode Island. Too much is at stake for our workers and their families not to act.
While Rhode Island is a wonderful state to live in, it is not a great state to do business in. Government needs to help make capital more available to small business, provide more job training and career education, fight at the PUC for lower energy costs, contain health care costs, and ease regulatory burdens related to the building code, fire code, occupancy permits and environmental permits issued by the R.I. Department of Environmental Management.
Twenty years ago, it was obvious to Gov. Sundlun and to me that financial services was a rapidly growing sector in the Northeast. Today, it is “eds and meds.”
There is plenty of opportunity for Rhode Island to grow this vital sector. Back in 1992, as director of the Department of Economic Development, I contracted with planner William D. Warner to come up with a master plan for the corridor in downtown Providence that would be freed up by the demolition of Interstate 195. Warner’s plan made the Providence corridor attractive for biotech and medically related companies in what we now call the Knowledge District. Now that dozens of acres of prime land are cleared, there is tremendous potential to attract new investment and create new jobs. Yet there is very little evidence of activity. I am sorry, but this is not complicated. At a time of 10 percent unemployment, we need to be proactive.
We can learn from the success of Massachusetts, working with MIT and Harvard, in making Cambridge an international leader in biomedical research and development. Private companies are spending $2 billion in the Bay State because they want to be close to the research mecca of Cambridge.
Here we might look to New York in search of solutions. After the terrorist attacks on lower Manhattan, New York created “Empire Bonds” to help finance the revitalization of the Ground Zero area. This is the kind of bold thinking we need here.
I agree with Sen. Paiva Weed that Rhode Island should waive sales taxes for the sale of art works. There is real potential for Providence to become a true creative capital if we exploit our long history of art and design and the presence of Rhode Island School of Design. Working with RISD, we have the potential to create an annual festival of art in the revitalized downtown, following the example of Art Basel in Miami Beach.
So let’s not dwell on our high unemployment rate and lack of investment. With strong governmental leadership, we can become one of America’s more prosperous states once again. I don’t think it’s that complicated if we do what Gov. Sundlun used to say: “Just get it done. Now!” •


Joseph R. Paolino Jr. was mayor of Providence from 1984 to 1991 and director of the R.I. Department of Economic Development from 1991 to 1995.

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