Governor debate on economy at Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce

In the second debate within 12 hours in the 2010 race for governor, the candidates provided ideas on the economy before an audience of Rhode Island business leaders at the annual Business Expo at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

There were plenty of empty seats at the forum, moderated by Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce President Laurie White. And the candidates revealed little that was new, except for an interesting question White tossed out near the end of the forum. As was the case at last night’s discussion of women’s issues at the Lincoln School, the format provide scant opportunity for drawing lines of difference among the six gubernatorial aspirants.

And the crowd was quite a bit smaller _ generously perhaps a third the size_ than the nearly 400 who attended the forum at the Lincoln School auditorium sponsored by the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island and the Poverty Institute at the Rhode Island College School of Social Work.What does it say about the state of Rhode Island politics when the state’s women’s groups and advocates for the poor can generate a substantially bigger audience for such a debate than the largest business group in the stat?

For the most part, there was consensus on the litany of problems facing the state — a bloated state budget, high taxes, a poorly educated work force, economic development efforts hampered by redundancy and competition among the state’s 39 communities.

But the most lively part of the came when moderator White asked candidates to talk about new proposals, which provoked few unconventional ideas and elicited comments that made some news. General treasurer Frank Caprio, a Democrat, put forth a tax credit for local companies that lure job-producing businesses to locate in Rhode Island. Under Caprio’s plan, the home-grown Rhode Island company and the new businesses coming from outside the state would split the tax credit. Caprio didn’t have estimates of the cost or how many jobs could be created but said it is worth a try and that any costs would be offset by the economic development generated by the new positions.

Sen. Lincoln Chafee, the former Republican U.S. senator-turned-independent, said for the first time that the state’s economy needs to extend the runway at Green State Airport in Warwick to accommodate more air travel. Chafee is a former mayor of Warwick and says the issue is a hot one in the city but also said that the jets are not as noisy as they were years ago. Chafee also called for merging the state’s vocational and technical schools with the Community College of Rhode Island, an idea he says he borrowed from Connecticut Gov. Jody Rell, a Republican.

Republican John Robitaille proposed eliminating income taxes on retirees to keep more Rhode Island elderly in the state. Atty. Gen. Patrick Lynch for the first time spoke out against the Deepwater Wind offshore wind project, saying it would be unwise to eliminate state Public Utilities Commission review of such initiatives, as proposed by Governor Carcieri and General Assembly leaders. Lynch said that as presently constituted, the Deepwater Block Island wind farm would raise electricity rates too high and make it tougher for businesses, particularly manufacturers, to grow their firms in Rhode Island.

And Republican Victor Moffitt, the former Coventry state representative vying with Robitaille for the GOP nomination, called for building an aquarium in Rhode Island to draw tourists to the Ocean State.