EDITORIAL

An anxious moment for Ocean State

Posted 2/12/14

This week, once complete, may go down as among the most significant in the state’s history.

It will, undoubtedly, play a major role in shaping Rhode Island’s future.

The Federal Mediation …

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EDITORIAL

An anxious moment for Ocean State

Posted

This week, once complete, may go down as among the most significant in the state’s history.

It will, undoubtedly, play a major role in shaping Rhode Island’s future.

The Federal Mediation Conciliation Service, which for more than a year has been overseeing secret talks between state leaders and public unions on litigation related to the landmark 2011 pension system overhaul, earlier this week scheduled a Wednesday press conference to discuss developments in the matter. On Monday, Gov. Lincoln Chafee and General Treasurer Gina Raimondo, who championed the overhaul, briefed key Democratic lawmakers on a possible settlement.

All parties involved have been virtually silent on any specifics; although House Speaker Gordon D. Fox told reporters he and others had received a look at the key points of a proposed deal. The briefing, he said, left “a lot to digest.”

How any settlement ultimately plays out will have enormous implications for the state as a whole, as well as for its cities and towns. The overhaul approved by the General Assembly was designed to save billions and stave off financial ruin while ensuring public employees would receive pensions. If the settlement jeopardizes the core objective of fiscal stability in the pension system, the ripple effects could be devastating.

It is also possible a deal could impact collective bargaining on the local level. In Cranston, where a pension reform agreement with police and fire personnel recently received the final needed approvals, Mayor Allan Fung had already planned a special closed-door meeting with the City Council to discuss such a development.

Any settlement will require approval by the General Assembly, and with elections coming up in November, such a process is certain to be rocky and wrought with political considerations. The pension overhaul is already a hot-button issue, particularly for public unions. For Raimondo, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, it is at once her greatest political asset and most significant vulnerability.

We will all know more very soon, it seems. Once we do, the landscape ahead will come into better focus.

But for now, it is an anxious moment for the Ocean State, which claims the nation’s highest unemployment rate and continues to struggle in terms of finding a new economic identity for the 21st century. Whatever one’s stand on the pension overhaul, the reality of Rhode Island’s precarious position cannot be denied.

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