Restoring Rhode Island
1. ENERGY
High energy costs—particularly electricity—stifle economic growth and harm working Rhode Islanders every day with escalating expenses. But together, we can do something about it.
Rhode Island electric bills are crammed with hidden "taxes" that only peripherally relate to the actual cost of powering our daily lives.
For example, did you know that when you pay your ever-rising bill each month, you're also funding:
1. Renewable Energy Growth Program
2. Renewable Energy Distribution Charges
3. Energy Efficiency Charges
4. Gross Earnings Taxes
5. LIHEAP Enhancement Charges (Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program)
These may or may not be worthwhile programs—worthy of debate in the General Assembly—but they don't belong in our energy bills, period. I support LIHEAP, for instance; we need a fund to help those among us who struggle to stay warm in winter - but debate and pass legislation to fund it from our general fund instead.
These changes alone could potentially lower RI electric bills by as much as 20%.
Next, eliminate the legislative mandate requiring Rhode Island Energy to buy so-called "green energy." Simply let our supplier purchase the cheapest electricity available, regardless of source.
This change could slash the average bill by an additional nearly 15%.
Together, we can cut our electric bills by 35%—today—if we muster the political will.
*Based on 2025 rates for typical average usage of 500 kWh.
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2. THE CASE FOR AN RI INSPECTOR GENERAL
Let’s take a look at where our money comes from—and where it goes.
Rhode Island’s FY2026 budget totals $14.34 billion.
• Federal funds: $5.09 billion (~35.5%)
• State (general fund) revenues: $5.81 billion
• State-controlled share: $9.25 billion (~64.5%)
That means we have direct control over roughly two-thirds of the total state budget.
But not all spending is flexible. Around 40% to 60% of the budget is tied up in mandatory obligations—like Medicaid, pensions, and debt service. The rest is discretionary, where reforms and oversight can make a real impact.
Estimating Fraud & Waste — and Why We Need an Inspector General:
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), up to 7% of government spending may be lost to fraud, waste, or improper payments.
If that holds true for Rhode Island, we could be losing more than $700 million a year.
Now imagine this:
A Rhode Island Office of the Inspector General, modeled after Delaware’s, could operate for just $2 million annually—yet potentially save hundreds of millions through audits, oversight, and accountability.
That’s not just cost-effective. It’s common sense.
Bottom Line:
A fully funded, independent Rhode Island Inspector General could pay for itself many times over—saving taxpayers hundreds of millions and helping restore trust in government.
It’s time.
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3. THE WASHINGTON BRIDGE
Accountability. Trust.
On December 11, 2023, Governor Daniel McKee closed the westbound span of the Washington Bridge. Under the circumstances, I believe he made the right decision. A catastrophic failure of the bridge loaded with commuters would have resulted in a staggering loss of life.
On March 14, 2024, Governor McKee announced a “day of reckoning” for the failures that led to the bridge's closure. What we've learned since is that this so-called “day of reckoning” involves a protracted court fight.
The Governor’s apparent priority is recovering money from the contractors who inspected the bridge throughout its long deterioration.
Information about the failure continues to trickle out to Rhode Islanders due to the outstanding work of Rhode Island’s cadre of investigative reporters like @hummel_report, @TimWhiteRI and others with new information breaking often!
Here’s my fear: The court battle could end in an out-of-court settlement, with bonding agents and insurance companies ponying up what the Governor calls “doll-iz” to the state of Rhode Island—and the Governor will declare victory.
The problem is, these types of settlements are most often accompanied by non-disclosure agreements, where neither party admits fault and both are prohibited from disclosing the details of the events that actually caused the problem.
Was Rhode Island’s Department of Transportation culpable through negligence in the events that led up to the failure?
We may never know, and thus RIDOT will go on its merry way. Rhode Islanders may never learn if governmental dysfunction actually caused the bridge to fail.
The Governor argues that the most important thing is to recover money. I stipulate it's simply not. There isn’t enough settlement money to buy my trust in state government.
Accountability and transparency for government, in my view, are the most important factors. In fact, the money recovered will have far less impact on the lives of Rhode Islanders than a reformed, transparent, accountable, and competent RIDOT. A RIDOT that can meet the needs of the future and ensure that nothing like this near-tragedy ever happens again.
Everything—and I mean everything—that led up to this failure must be disclosed to our citizens and policymakers so we can fix whatever problems may (or may not) exist in RIDOT. If it is determined that malfeasance or incompetence at RIDOT contributed, then those responsible must be held accountable.
More money for Rhode Island government to spend is not the solution. I believe it's a convenient vehicle to cover for systemic problems that must be solved.
It all comes down to a single word - trust...
and NO amount of settlement dollars will ever restore our trust.
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4. HOUSING
Let’s take a look at where our money comes from—and where it goes.
Rhode Island’s FY2026 budget totals $14.34 billion.
• Federal funds: $5.09 billion (~35.5%)
• State (general fund) revenues: $5.81 billion
• State-controlled share: $9.25 billion (~64.5%)
That means we have direct control over roughly two-thirds of the total state budget.
But not all spending is flexible. Around 40% to 60% of the budget is tied up in mandatory obligations—like Medicaid, pensions, and debt service. The rest is discretionary, where reforms and oversight can make a real impact.
Estimating Fraud & Waste — and Why We Need an Inspector General:
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), up to 7% of government spending may be lost to fraud, waste, or improper payments.
If that holds true for Rhode Island, we could be losing more than $700 million a year.
Now imagine this:
A Rhode Island Office of the Inspector General, modeled after Delaware’s, could operate for just $2 million annually—yet potentially save hundreds of millions through audits, oversight, and accountability.
That’s not just cost-effective. It’s common sense.
Bottom Line:
A fully funded, independent Rhode Island Inspector General could pay for itself many times over—saving taxpayers hundreds of millions and helping restore trust in government.
It’s time.
Back to topics
Back to topics
5. EDUCATION
Accountability, Trust.
What price tag would you put on trust? Trust that the bridges you cross are safe, trust that your state government is competent, honest,
has your best interest at heart and trust that it spends your tax dollars wisely with transparency and accountability?
On December 11, 2023, Governor Daniel McKee closed the westbound span of the Washington Bridge. Under the circumstances, I
believe he made the right decision. A catastrophic failure of the bridge loaded with commuters would have resulted in a staggering loss
of life.
On March 14, 2024, Governor McKee announced a “day of reckoning” for the failures that led to the bridge's closure. What we've
learned since is that this so-called “day of reckoning” involves a protracted court fight. The Governor’s apparent priority is recovering
money from the contractors who inspected the bridge throughout its long deterioration.
Information about the failure continues to trickle out to Rhode Islanders due to the outstanding work of Rhode Island’s cadre of
investigative reporters like @hummel_report, @TimWhiteRI and others with new information breaking just this week!
Here’s my fear: The court battle could end in an out-of-court settlement, with bonding agents and insurance companies ponying up
what the Governor calls “doll-iz” to the state of Rhode Island—and the Governor will declare victory. The problem is, these types of
settlements are most often accompanied by non-disclosure agreements, where neither party admits fault and both are prohibited from
disclosing the details of the events that actually caused the problem.
Was Rhode Island’s Department of Transportation culpable through negligence in the events that led up to the failure? We may never
know, and thus RIDOT will go on its merry way. Rhode Islanders may never learn if governmental dysfunction actually caused the
bridge to fail.
The Governor argues that the most important thing is to recover money. I stipulate it's simply not. There isn’t enough settlement
money to buy my trust in state government.
Accountability and transparency for government, in my view, are the most important factors. In fact, the money recovered will have
far less impact on the lives of Rhode Islanders than a reformed, transparent, accountable, and competent RIDOT.
A RIDOT that can meet the needs of the future and ensure that nothing like this near-tragedy ever happens again.
Everything—and I mean everything—that led up to this failure must be disclosed to our citizens and policymakers so we can fix
whatever problems may (or may not) exist in RIDOT.
And if it's determined that malfeasance or incompetence at RIDOT contributed, then those responsible must be held accountable.
More money for Rhode Island government to spend is not the solution. I believe it's a convenient vehicle to cover for systemic
problems that must be solved.
It all comes down to a single word - trust, and no amount of settlement dollars will ever restore our trust.
#RestoringRhodeIsland #Accountability #WashingtonBridge #RhodeIsland #Trust
6. ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
Let’s take a look at where our money comes from—and where it goes.
Rhode Island’s FY2026 budget totals $14.34 billion.
• Federal funds: $5.09 billion (~35.5%)
• State (general fund) revenues: $5.81 billion
• State-controlled share: $9.25 billion (~64.5%)
That means we have direct control over roughly two-thirds of the total state budget.
But not all spending is flexible. Around 40% to 60% of the budget is tied up in mandatory obligations—like Medicaid, pensions, and debt service. The rest is discretionary, where reforms and oversight can make a real impact.
Estimating Fraud & Waste — and Why We Need an Inspector General:
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), up to 7% of government spending may be lost to fraud, waste, or improper payments.
If that holds true for Rhode Island, we could be losing more than $700 million a year.
Now imagine this:
A Rhode Island Office of the Inspector General, modeled after Delaware’s, could operate for just $2 million annually—yet potentially save hundreds of millions through audits, oversight, and accountability.
That’s not just cost-effective. It’s common sense.
Bottom Line:
A fully funded, independent Rhode Island Inspector General could pay for itself many times over—saving taxpayers hundreds of millions and helping restore trust in government.
It’s time.