With McKee in COVID quarantine, challengers go on the attack during early childhood forum
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PROVIDENCE — With Gov. Dan McKee quarantining at home with COVID, his Republican and Democratic challengers took turns on Tuesday bashing him for not doing more to fix Rhode Island's long-troubled child welfare system, spending more on child-care and settling a contract dispute with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
Appearing at a forum sponsored by the privately-run Children's Friend and allied child advocacy groups, the candidates agreed more than they disagreed.
From both the Republican and Democrat corners came support for expanding Rhode Island's state-run "temporary caregivers insurance'' program from five weeks to as many as 16 weeks.
McKee appears in video statement
The governor sent a video statement highlighting the tens of millions of dollars in the 2022-23 budget he signed to boost in child care reimbursement rate, and provide a $250 one-time child credit.
With the governor absent, his opponents also tossed about words like: "bumbling," "appalling," and "massive brain drain" to describe the current state of affairs in the McKee administration.
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Nellie Gorbea criticizes McKee over union child care negotiation
"It is appalling that we have had somebody in the governor's seat that has not solved or even tackled" a dispute with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), said term-limited Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea.
"It's been strung along, strung along in a way of playing politics with the issue," she said.
The dispute appears to center on the private contractors who provide child daycare in their homes. The RI SEIU Council explained it this way in a June Tweet:
"We need to be recognized for our work with better benefits. @GovDanMcKee.Too many home #childcare workers lack affordable healthcare, retirement or vacation time. This needs to end. Settle a #faircontract NOW."
Elaborating later, Jesse Martin, Executive Vice President of SEIU 1199 NE, told The Journal: "Home childcare providers who formed their union with SEIU 1199NE are primarily women of color and have been working without a contract and bargaining for a new one for over six months.
"This contract has not been treated with the urgency our members and the children they care for deserve."
A Gorbea campaign spokeswoman said: "The SEIU has been trying to negotiate with the McKee administration for the past 6 months – with a key issue being parity of payment for home based childcare centers and institutional care centers."
"If the Governor thinks child care is an essential part of our economy, he should negotiate this contract and put the issue to bed," the spokeswoman Molly O'Brien said.
The Gorbea campaign did not, however, respond directly to questions about where Gorbea stands on the union's campaign for benefits for the at-home child care providers - and by extension, all private contractors - akin to what state employees get.
When asked, her spokeswoman Molly O'Brien said: "Secretary Gorbea thinks that it is the responsibility of the governor to sit down and negotiate in good faith with hard working child care providers and not drag out contract negotiations for 6 months."
Responding to a Journal inquiry, McKee spokesman Matt Sheaff said: "These are on-going contract negotiations and we don't comment on contract negotiations."
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Helena Foulkes raises concerns around SNAP benefit distribution during COVID
A second Democratic challenger - former CVS executive Helena Foulkes - said the past and present state workers with whom she has talked have told her: "It is really hard to work with someone who doesn't listen and surrounds himself with cronies."
As a result: she said: Rhode Island was "one of the handful of states in the whole country" with fewer people receiving "SNAP benefits" - formerly known as Food Stamps - during COVID.
"And it wasn't because people didn't need it. It was because the offices were closed and it took 90 minutes to wait on the phone to get access to those services," she alleged.
Matt Brown and Ashley Kalus raise red flag over unfilled Department of Human Services positions
Expanding on a theme he first raised in May, former Secretary of State Matt Brown criticized the McKee administration for not filling open positions at the R.I. Department of Human Services more quickly.
He also faulted McKee again for turning to Deloitte - the company that designed the famously flawed UHIP eligibility-verification system for Food Stamps, Medicaid and other public benefits – to send in reinforcements to help recertify hundreds of thousands of Medicaid recipients for the first time since March 2020.
In her turn, GOP candidate for governor Ashley Kalus also lamented the absence of permanent directors in most of the state's human services arena and denounced the "out of touch" pursuit of candidates for the state's next child advocate, while the current job-holder was in the hospital.
After controversy erupted over the required candidate search for the child advocate, McKee actually held a press conference to dispel any “disgusting” notions that he was looking to replace Child Advocate Jennifer Griffith while she was on medical leave.
“Anyone who says we are trying to replace the child advocate who is on medical leave is flat out wrong,” the governor said that day.
In fact, if a search committee ultimately asks for his recommendation, McKee said, "I would recommend Jennifer for another five years."
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Candidates call for expansion of family leave, a supplemental wage program and overhaul of healthcare
Democrat Luis Muñoz used his time at the microphone to reiterate his call for a supplemental wage program and an overhaul of the profit-centered health care system.
Based on her own life experiences, Kalus - who moved to Rhode Island a little more than a year ago to oversee a state contract her company had for Covid testing and vaccinations - urged the expansion of the state's paid family leave program to people who are self-employed. Brown suggested it be expanded to 16 weeks, and 100% income replacement.
TCI benefits are available to workers taking time off work to care for a seriously ill child, spouse, domestic partner, parent, parent-in-law, grandparent, or to bond with a new child.
The program is funded by employee wage deductions - 1.1% of their first $81,500 in earnings - and generally replaces 60% of gross income, with a maximum weekly benefit rate of $1,007 and minimum benefit rate of $114.
McKee campaign spokeswoman Alana O'Hare declined to comment on the many darts and arrows aimed at the ailing governor during the forum.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: While RI Gov. McKee has COVID, opponents attack him during voter forum
