Reboot Rhode Island: My Hopeful Promise to You - Tom Iannitti

Reboot Rhode Island: My Hopeful Promise to You - Tom Iannitti

I had been planning the future of Rhode Island long before the coronavirus upended our lives creating a medical and financial crisis. My vision is centered around building new infrastructure, reforming institutions, and increasing investment capacity. My goals are centered around improving our quality of life, enhancing our shared interests, and expanding community development. My vision is not subtle. The time for dramatic, inspirational, and urgent change is long overdue.

The mistakes of the past should not define our future and we can build a better Rhode Island together. There are mechanisms in place that can serve the interests of the rebuilding process. The RI Infrastructure Bank and R.I. Commerce Corporation are vehicles that can deliver capital but both of these need to be integrated with a package of tools designed to effect dramatic change. We cannot keep plodding along the same inefficient path with obsolete institutions and outdated infrastructure. In order to rapidly transition to a high powered, sustainable, clean, and inclusive economy we need to reboot and rebuild.

Marc Andreessen, the great American entrepreneur and investor, recently wrote about the need for America to build its way to the future we deserve. I agree with Marc and recall a Family Circus comic that appeared in the Providence Journal back in 2004. In the comic, two characters gazed upon the clouds to see what shapes they could find. One of them became frightened when they saw a dragon and the other noted that, “we should not be afraid of our imaginations.” I printed that comic and kept it as inspiration and a reminder that where I see promise others may see dragons.

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My imperative is coordinating a vital recapitalization of the states and for Rhode Island, which means upward of $36 billion. In order to draw a capitalization worth billions of dollars, we must prove that our plan is worth that investment. In no uncertain terms, our plan should reinvent the American system using a strong capital engine and highly nuanced client-focused systems. These government-run systems should be used rarely, briefly and have a zero to low rate of recidivism. Our plan should restructure our towns, schools and institutions while creating a permanent infrastructure of prosperity. I see promise, not dragons, in infusing a billion dollars into each of our communities and reimagining the Rhode Island of the future.

Our plan will see an expansion of Providence as a second city rises up from India Point to JWU. This new area will be marked by the development of corporate campuses, mixed housing, and cafes that line broad streets abutting coastal preservation space. The plan is to see an increase in light manufacturing of essential goods vital to the country like PPE, medical equipment and biopharmaceuticals while creating thousands of sustainable career positions. Another centerpiece of this development will be the Rhode Island State Archives and Museum as envisioned by our own Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea. In fact, I would choose the Secretary to oversee this project from design to completion. Additionally, we will begin to balance our transportation infrastructure by creating a Monorail, or Hyper-loop, with initial implementation in Providence. Our state deserves to see new jobs and growth that sets us up as a regional and national center for innovation and our investment should make this possible.

And, our plan includes the rapid rebuilding of our towns and cities by rebuilding our roads and bridges, broadening our sidewalks, sinking unsightly wires and replacing poles with trees. We will also create more bike lanes and walking trails while finally connecting Cumberland to Charlestown and Warren to Westerly with this lifestyle infrastructure. Every municipal building in the state will receive an investment that removes them from the power grid and reduces our fiscal burden related to energy. Each town and city deserves to have the safest roads, most beautiful boulevards, and nicest parks in the nation. Our investment should make all this possible.

The plan includes the construction of new high schools that are modeled after colleges where the private sector provides facility investment in spaces like gyms and science labs. Think about CVS and Planet Fitness sponsoring new facilities for use by your kids. We will rebuild by creating new career schools so more students can transition from high school to the trades or nursing. Each town and city deserves more than a new coat of paint, boiler, and roof. Each town deserves more than a safe, warm, and clean school; the mouse seeks those things. Our teachers and kids deserve the most innovative school system in the world and our investment should make all this possible.

Our plan will reimagine some institutions while creating others. The DMV should transition to a remote work environment where Rhode Islanders will never again have an in-person retail DMV experience. Our prisons will transition to a place that rehabilitates and educates inmates so they reenter society with more tools to succeed, a firm grasp of their mental health and control of their addiction. We will rebuild by creating an immigration welcome center that will serve as a resource hub for our newly arrived friends and neighbors so they can learn how our schools work, understand civic duty and access resources to help them achieve self-sustaining prosperity. Our people deserve just institutions that serve our needs and our investment should make this possible.

Lastly, our plan also holds the promise of fully funding our pension liabilities, balancing our budgets and funding the future of our state by moving past our mistakes. Most importantly, our plan addresses the structural inadequacies that have led to our systemic failures. We can’t go on mortgaging the next generation’s future for our folly by maintaining an outdated school system, antiquated energy infrastructure, and inefficient economy. Instead of saddling future generations with crippling debt that yields the same failures, we should finance our future the right way.

I see entities like Gilbane, The Carpionato Group, Cardi Construction, Paolino Properties, Churchill & Banks, Business Development Company of R.I., Cherrystone Angel, Slater Tech Fund, Providence Equity, RI Black Business Association and RI Hispanic Chamber of Commerce as key partners in managing the billions of dollars we should draw into our state.

These organizations, their founding families and the men and women who run them are Rhode Island’s titans of industry. Our laborers, carpenters, electricians and other tradespeople are the army that will build the newly imagined Rhode Island. These are the developers of the future and capital experts who will help reimagine our home. These are the people and organizations I will call upon to work with me and together we will create a sustainable future filled with prosperity and modern nuance. 

I am going to continue to plan, spread my message across our state, and share my vision with as many of you as possible. I’m going to campaign for Governor for the next 2 years with the hope that you will share my vision for a Rhode Island that is inclusive, hopeful, prosperous, clean, innovative, and will forever boast one of the strongest and most sustainable economies in the world.

Now is not the time to be afraid of our imaginations. Now is the time for truly bold action.

 

Tom Iannitti is a former elected official and R.I. Senate Policy Analyst.  Tom also served as the Director of Government Affairs and Needs Assessment for i-SAFE, a DOJ funded foundation.  Tom lives in Cumberland, R.I. with his wife and two sons.