Brown and McKee hammer each other during gubernatorial forum focused on poverty

PROVIDENCE — What was billed as a forum for Rhode Island's candidates for governor to spell out their "solutions for rising poverty" turned into joust between Gov. Dan McKee and challenger Matt Brown, who McKee accused of "grandstanding" and "spreading misinformation all over the place."

Flanked on two sides by Republican and Democratic competitors, Democrat McKee tried to keep the spotlight on lowest-in-three-decades unemployment rate.

"This means economic opportunity for people. Address the need. Raise people's incomes. That's what you do," he said, while also citing a litany of spending items he has proposed for public education, housing construction, emergency shelter for  Rhode Island's homeless population, more than $10 million to nonprofits for food assistance.

But Brown, a fellow Democrat and former secretary of state running for governor for a second time, repeatedly shifted the spotlight to what he alleged McKee has not done.

He accused McKee of not doing enough for  the homeless population with $1 billion in unspent federal relief dollars, and setting the stage for another  UHIP-style debacle by refusing an agency-level plea in February for 90 new hires.

More specifically, Brown questioned why the McKee administration held off on hiring full-time employees and is now turning to Deloitte – the company that designed   a famously flawed eligibility-verification system for Food Stamps, Medicaid and other public benefits –  to recertify hundreds of thousands of Medicaid recipients, for the first time since March 2020.

McKee called UHIP a "skeleton" he inherited from his predecessor as governor, Gina Raimondo.

Brown's retort: "You're bringing the skeleton back to life by privatizing work that experienced union staff need to be doing at [the Department of Human Services]. And because of all that, people are not getting the services ... they need.

"Offices have closed. People are waiting four hours to get food assistance for themselves and their families. They are waiting hours to get health-care assistance Working people can't always do that."

"Talk is cheap,'' McKee said, when it was his next turn to speak. "Take a look at the budget please. ... Money matters. Budgets matter and priorities matter."

McKee accused Brown of "grandstanding" and "spreading misinformation all over the place."

Brown shouted back, out of turn, "We got a billion dollars a year ago in emergency relief funds ... and we have hundreds of people still on the street today. There is no excuse at all."

Addressing the issues one by one, McKee vowed:  "We are not going to have a 'UHIP.'"

"We need the staff in place ... and we are going to make sure we have the staff there ...[to] make sure that that we don't have a situation where we are unable to actually deliver on the recertifications."

He said the hiring of additional full-time staffers at  the agency has "been difficult" because state hiring  practices "are slowing the process down."

As for his administration's alleged denial of new staff in February, McKee said: "I'm not going to  respond to Matt. He's grandstanding outside the State House in tents, while I'm trying to activate the $5 million into put into" new housing and shelter beds.

The two shared the stage at the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island with Democrats Nellie Gorbea, the current secretary of state; and health care activist Luis Daniel Muñoz; and Republican Ashley Kalus.

Democrat Helena Foulkes sent regrets, saying she had tested positive for COVID.

Each of the candidates got their own turn to respond to questions about where they stand on providing free school meals to all students, for example, and what they would do to increase  the state's inventory of affordable housing.

On using state dollars to replace expiring federal dollars to provide free meals for all students, they all agreed "no child should go hungry,'' but Muñoz,  Brown and Gorbea were the only two who said an unqualified yes to free meals for all.

Gorbea said: "As a mom, I absolutely support this ... for the life of me, I don't understand why it took a pandemic for us to get there"  without stigmatizing children from low-income families.

McKee said: "If there is somebody who is being denied food that needs food ... [then] yes," the state "can be filling that void." 

Kalus said she supports state funding for free meals. When she elaborated, however, she said it should be subject to a simple application "to make sure the aid is targeted so that the kids that need it get it."

Asked how they would make sure the state and federal relief dollars earmarked for affordable housing "produce units throughout the entire state," the candidates split.

Kalus, a relative newcomer to Rhode Island, said she would convene a monthly meeting of leaders in communities that have not yet met the state's 10% affordable housing goal.

Gorbea, who did an earlier stint as director of HousingWorks RI, also cited work with the  cities and towns as a starting point. "That really where the barrier is," she said. "The money's not it. We can't fund our way out of this."

McKee said the state first needs a plan, but in the interim, he has proposed a $250-million investment that can leverage as much as $1 billion for housing for low-income, moderate-income and homeless people.

Brown's starting point: eliminate any and all bans on multifamily homes, and resist legislation

, currently on a fast track, that by his calculations would count apartments that cost as much as $2,500 a month as affordable housing.

Muñoz said: "Yes, we need zoning issues to be addressed in terms of multifamily housing. ... [But] all of the money, all of the talk, all of the plans [mean] nothing without political courage."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: McKee defends record, jousts with challengers at forum on poverty