PUBLIC PROPERTY AND SERVICES

When discussing public property and services one can speak about so many different areas. For this discussion, I will focus on the actual buildings and public property owned by the State.

It seems that Rhode Island has a propensity to rent or lease buildings from people who are known political contributors and other related friends. The leases are not always clear and are not as transparent as they should be.

It would seem logical that when the State needs to occupy space, it should, where all possible, buy it. While it would be nice if the State had a policy that would allocate money for one time expenditures, thereby making funds available to for such purchases when required.

In Rhode Island we like to spend all our windfalls on operating budget items and thereby continuing our renting instead of buying mentality.

Once we find ourselves with a need for space, if we purchase it we could dispose of it once we have finished with our state use. Instead, we pay for leases on "make do" buildings, make repairs on them while we are paying high rent, and then just leave to another lease/deal.

By being in this position of renting, we create a downward spiral. Instead of using money in better times to begin a program of buying instead of renting, our leaders squander it on operating budget projects. It would be like someone renting a house putting in a built-in pool.

We are now unable to do much to get out of the situation. We are stuck with rental and lease options with no realistic chance of ownership barring a steep increase in taxes.

There is an argument that this is not all bad in that we can barely take care of the infrastructure we own already, but the reality is that we pay to repair and maintain our rental properties to an extent already.

As long as Rhode Island continues on this course, political friends will continue to enjoy rentals from the State, but the true business of State will not get much better.

In the future I will explore more of the service areas, the cost of regulation and providing those services, a better way of delivering services statewide, and the topic of open space.