Citing a state budget surpassing $15 billion, Republican candidate for governor Aaron Guckian says Rhode Islanders are spending too much and not getting enough in return. He says the state has become unaffordable, inefficient and unwelcoming for business owners and working families.
Guckian says his experience in banking, government, and the nonprofit sector make him the ideal candidate for governor. He sat down with Ocean State Media political reporter Ian Donnis to talk about his priorities.
Interview highlights
On the need to reduce state spending
Aaron Guckian: Well, I have my platform. It’s called Rhode Island Works Smarter, where you work directly with the frontline and union workers. When they find savings or fixed systems, they get incentivized and the rest would lower taxes and fees grounded or powered by modern technology. The most important part of this whole process is a 24/7, 365 anonymous idea portal where those workers could give their ideas and suggestions into it and this has nothing to do with being a whistleblower. So with that, I think it’s process improvement. You can start to save money because we can’t keep doing this. People are taxed out. I was at Ed’s Roost (restaurant in East Greenwich) and people are just, like, “We’re not bad people. We just can’t take it anymore. And our property taxes in East Greenwich are going up almost 7%.” There’s reasons for that with the schools. However, it’s just unsustainable. I just got my electricity and heat bill. I don’t know how people are doing it. It’s really, really crushing people.
Leaning into that Rhode Island Works Smarter platform, there’s almost $600 million worth of consultants baked into this $15.2 billion budget. A lot of those consultants are outside the state. So if we could work directly with the Rhode Island talent and start to get leaner, I think we could use those monies and we could use them appropriately.
On improving public education in Rhode Island
Guckian: Well, I’m a public music teacher and I taught in the classroom in North Kingstown. It was a long time ago, but I have an education background.
The teachers out there that I’ve talked to, and I’ve talked to many, (say) that they have these handcuffs. There’s so much administrative burden on them… especially in certain urban areas. Why are we doing a 10 day test, or two weeks or whatever, when it could be a 20-minute screen? And it’s hard for these teachers if you have half (the number of students) that can speak the language and half that can’t. I know that they’re addressing it. However, if we could get this administrative burden away and if the teachers went along with this Rhode Island Works Smarter… I think you could really get them back in the classroom and just reading outloud, going back to the basics – whether they’re public school teachers or even charter school. It’s just a lot of laborious administration with modern technology, a lot of that can be eliminated.
On how to raise his profile, as a Republican in a heavily Democratic state, prior to the November election
Guckian: Well, you got to start with your infrastructure, your door knockers, your phone calls. You got to raise the money. I think it’s very simple. People are really frustrated and it’s costing too much and I’m seeing (people) paying more and getting less. So people usually will vote with their wallets. It’s kind of like “Tax-achusetts.” It’s almost kind of the same thing when Governor Carcieri ran with his big audit. I would say my thing is like a modern-day big audit because everyone else is trying to save and yet they keep spending. And at some point people are going to say, “Enough’s enough.”
