R.I. budget hole waiting to be filled

PROVIDENCE –– Eighty-three days have passed since Governor Carcieri gave the General Assembly an unpopular, but comprehensive plan to fill a massive current-year budget hole.

The public outcry from mayors, labor unions and key lawmakers has long since died down. Legislative panels have already turned their attention to next year’s budget issues.

And still, it’s unclear when the state legislature will act on the $220-million shortfall, which could have dramatic implications for local property taxpayers, thousands of state workers and Rhode Island’s schools.

Mixed views on Block Island over proposed wind farm

Looking out beyond Block Island’s Southeast Light and the Mohegan Bluffs below, the Atlantic Ocean stretches to the horizon. On a clear day, the wind-whipped waters meet the pale sky in a wash of blue.

Islanders covet this view. Tourists make the 13-mile ferry trip south from mainland Rhode Island to see it. It’s what draws Rosemarie Ives to her family’s summer home overlooking the clay bluffs each year.

“The view,” says Ives, “is precious.”

Study finds R.I. pension costs soaring

PROVIDENCE –– Rhode Island cannot afford the system that currently promises lifetime pension benefits to 19,733 retired public school teachers and state workers, according to a report released Sunday by the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council that details soaring costs set to explode in the coming years.

The business-backed organization found that the state taxpayer contribution to those pensions nearly tripled over the last decade, jumping from $79.9 million in 2001 to a projected $218 million in the coming year..

That’s over the same period in which private employers have all but abandoned lifetime pensions for their employees, according to RIPEC executive director John Simmons.

R.I. candidates told to be themselves on the trail

NORTH KINGSTOWN — If you aren’t willing to walk, don’t run.

That was the advice, and warning, that three underdog state legislators gave to some of the 135 people who attended Operation Clean Government’s 2010 candidate school at the Quonset O Club yesterday.

The daylong program included panels that ranged from nuts-and-bolts topics such as filing deadlines and ethics rules to strategic forums on state and municipal issues, developing political strategies and how candidates can use marketing principles to brand themselves in the public’s mind.

Editorial: Untangle the red tape

Rhode Island, though compact, can be a very difficult place in which to open and run a business. There is copious duplication of regulatory paperwork and it often takes inordinately long to get needed permits.

So we laud state Sen. Leonidas Raptakis’s proposal to make, as he says, the state “stop requiring businesses to file dozens of repetitive filings with different agencies and establish a Master Business Application.” That would boost the local economy.

School’s Shake-Up Is Embraced by the President

No State Left Behind?

We weren't the only ones scratching our heads Thursday after the Obama Administration released a list of state "finalists" for $4.35 billion in Race to the Top education grants. Some of the Administration's biggest boosters also seemed perplexed.

Joe Williams of Democrats for Education Reform said that New York's appearance on the list of 16 finalists was "baffling." Andrew Rotherham, who writes the left-leaning Eduwonk blog, noted that Ohio's presence on the list "is not a great sign." New York has a law in place that prevents student test scores from influencing teacher tenure decisions. Ohio allows teachers unions to decide when student data can be used to evaluate instructors. Both states cap the number of charter schools that are allowed to operate.

Entrepreneurs Prefer to Keep Staffs Lean

Wendy Goldstein slashed 20% of her small company's work force in 2008 due to a major slowdown in sales. While demand has since picked up to close to what it was before, she says she has no plans to rebuild her staff to its previous level.

"The jobs aren't going to come back just because business is better," says Ms. Goldstein, owner of Costume Specialists Inc., a costume manufacturer and retailer that today employs 38 workers and four temporary helpers. "We just cut all the fat."

Narragansetts’ gaming dispute heading to trial

CGI, the tribe’s former partner, says income from Twin River means promis­sory note has to be paid up.

By LIZ ABBOTT

Sun Staff Writer

CHARLESTOWN — Alawyer for Cap­ital Gaming International LLC said last week that recent efforts to resolve a $10 million lawsuit against the Narragansett Indian Tribe have not been successful and a trial date will likely be set later this month.

“The parties have been in discussion, but they have not reached a settlement,” said Paul F. Beckwith, one of CGI’s lawyers.

As a result, a “firm” trial date will prob­ably be set on March 25, when the two sides are next scheduled to appear in Washington County Superior Court, Beckwith said.

Beckwith previously said he expected the case to go to trial at the start of this year. But the parties have appeared in court twice since then to ask for more time, as they tried to settle the legal dis­pute between them.

“It’ll eventually go to trial,” said Beck­with, lawyer with Cooley Manion Jones LLP of Boston.

Aformer gaming partner of the tribe’s, CGI alleges that when the Narragansetts began receiving a share of Twin River’s video lot­tery proceeds three years ago, it triggered the re­payment of a $10 million promissory note which the tribe had signed with Cap­ital Gaming Development Corp. back in 2001.

That note requires the tribe to start making monthly payments of $119,000 to CGI 60 days after the opening of “any gaming casino or similar facility, project or enter­prise.”

According to CGI, the tribe’s receiving proceeds from Twin River is the same as if it opened its own gaming facility.

Capital Gaming also al­leges that the tribe was re­quired to inform the com­pany of the legislation passed by the General As­sembly in 2006, which en­titled the tribe to a share of Twin River’s revenue from video lottery termi­nals. Since that legisla­tion passed, the tribe has received more than $1.5 million in gaming pro­ceeds.

But the tribe maintains that it is only required to repay CGI on the note if and when it gets its own casino in Rhode Island, and that getting a share of Twin River’s proceeds is not the same thing.

“They don’t contest the note,” said Beckwith, adding, “They’re not ac­knowledging the trigger­ing.”

The money the tribe re­ceive from Twin River can’t be used to pay pre-existing debts, such as the tribe’s note with CGI, but rather must be used for tribal housing, education, social services and economic de­velopment “consistent with state law,” according to the 2006 legislation.

The tribe’s position is set out in court papers. Neither Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas nor the Providence attorney rep­resenting the tribe in the lawsuit, William Dev­ereaux, could be reached this week to discuss the case.

“There’s no casino gam­ing revenue because there’s been no casino opened,” John Killoy, an­other of the tribe’s attor­neys, argued last year.

Killoy also disputed the allegation that the tribe breached its contract with CGI by failing to keep the company informed of events in Rhode Island. Given the extensive pub­licity gaming issues and the tribe receive in the state, that claim is ridicu­lous, he and others have said.

In November 2005, the state authorized 1,750 new video lottery terminals at Twin River and in 2006 passed a bill giving the tribe a 5-percent share of the proceeds. That bill was amended in 2007 to re­duce the tribe’s share to .17 percent of net terminal in­come up to a maximum of $10 million dollars a year. Since then, the Narra­gansetts have received ap­proximately $2 million as a result of that legislation, according to the Rhode Is­land Lottery’s annual re­ports. The state paid $674,130 to the tribe in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009, $690,959 in fiscal year 2008, and $583,228 in fiscal year 2007, the re­ports show.

The tribe says it not only had nothing to with the legislation, but also that it was a political maneuver on the state’s part to keep the Narragansetts from getting a casino. If the state could say the Narra­gansetts were being taken care of, then voters would be less inclined to approve the referendum the tribe needed to open a casino in Rhode Island.

The Narragansetts’ Chief Sachem, Matthew Thomas, said recently that CGI’s lawsuit is nonsensical to him. Not only did the Gen­eral Assembly make it clear that the tribe can’t use the Twin River money to pay a pre-existing debt, making it likely that CGI will lose the case, he’s con­fident CGI will never see any money — even if it wins the contract action — because the state won’t want to share proceeds with CGI.

“They’ll just the change the law,” Thomas said.

eabbott@thewesterlysun.com