RI Senate candidate blasts legislative grants and calls for reforming process
PROVIDENCE — "Let's face it," said the Rev. Donnie Anderson, the candidate challenging Senate Majority Whip Maryellen Goodwin, at a microphone in the Smith Hill heart of their district.
"Legislative grants exist for one purpose: They exist to give the leaders of the legislature ironclad control over legislators ... [and] it is set up to help the legislator bring home the bacon: table scraps to move votes," she said. "In return, the legislator owes leadership."
And most galling, "they are doing this with taxpayer dollars," said Anderson, citing the latest Journal analysis of the $2.2-million legislative grant program that ran as a Political Scene column on Monday.
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With $75,500 in grants awarded in the minority whip's name, Anderson called Goodwin "the No. 1 abuser of Rhode Island taxpayer dollars."
Anderson wants to overhaul the current system
She also called for several layers of reform.
If elected to replace Goodwin in Senate District 1 in Providence, Anderson said, she would introduce legislation to eliminate the current out-of-sight system by which legislative leaders award grants and create a new program "operated by a commission of community and legislative representatives."
There would be guidelines, she promised. And "awards will be based on the quality of the proposal and not on how close your organization is to a politician you know."
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She also challenged Goodwin – a veteran legislator who is currently the highest-ranking woman in the Senate – to take a "My Vote Is Not for Sale Pledge." The pledge: "to not engage in the current process of legislative grants and to work for a more open, transparent and fair system of allocating money to no-profits for humanitarian purposes."
Goodwin's response on grants received
The response from Goodwin?
"We need someone at the State House who is willing to go to bat for the many needs of our community," Goodwin said.
"I'm not sure if my opponent's point is that she won't seek state grants to assist these worthwhile causes or just that she will be less effective at it, but once she spends some more time in this district where I've lived my whole life, she will come to understand the many, many community needs here.
"This is one of the poorest Senate districts in the state. I have been proud to fight for funding through the state budget to assist the residents of our community, including by securing grants for agencies such as Amos House, the Chad Brown Food Kitchen, Special Olympics, Carroll Towers, the Davinci Center, the Providence Animal Shelter and many others."
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Anderson did not take issue with any of the specific grant recipients on Goodwin's list, only the opaque manner in which the grants are awarded and the "absolutely inappropriate" uses to which, she said, some recipients intended to put these tax dollars.
She cited Little League uniforms as one example. (Democratic Representatives William O'Brien and Arthur Corvese recently presented a $6,000 legislative grant to the North Providence Little League to "offset the cost of uniforms for the children," O'Brien recently said in a tweet.)
Anderson said local communities – not the state legislature – should help their hometown teams if they need help.
"I want to see that [state] money go to alleviate humanitarian issues, not buying really fancy uniforms so somebody can get their picture taken in the local paper," Anderson said.
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She also cited the award of taxpayer money to private clubs as an inappropriate use, and said: "those kinds of things should just not qualify. We should look at nonprofit organizations that have a specifically unitarian purpose, that are helping our most vulnerable citizens."
Anderson is a part-time minister of the Pilgrim United Church of Christ in New Bedford, and former executive minister of the Rhode Island State Council of Churches.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Candidate Rev. Donnie Anderson calls for legislative grant reform
