BUYING VOTES WITH YOUR MONEY
GENERAL ASSEMBLY, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
According to recent news reports, Governor Dan McKee’s administration has reached a tentative agreement with Rhode Island’s largest union of state employees, which will give state employees two $1,500 bonuses who have been vaccinated against COVID-19. This agreement has not been disclosed to the public. One of these two bonuses being given in July 2022 during primary election season.
The R.I. Republican Party has the following comments:
“This is another outrageous giveaway by the McKee administration. Earlier this year, the McKee administration entered into a $5.2 million contract for ILO, a company led by former subordinates of Mike Magee, a long-time McKee advisor. Then the McKee administration entered into an agreement with the Providence Teachers Union, which gave teachers one-time $3,000 payments to teachers and raises but did not make fundamental changes to a school system that is considered one of the worst in the nation.
Now McKee wants to enter into a contract with AFSCME Council 94 that would give $3,000 to state workers who have already been vaccinated against COVID-19.
This is not some minor incentive, like a gift card, to encourage people to get vaccinated. This is the equivalent of a political payoff.
McKee is trying to buy the votes of the state’s largest union of state employees to help him survive the upcoming Democratic primary. This is what Rhode Island politicians do when they have too much money to spend and are afraid of losing an election.
McKee is not only weak; he is a disgrace.”
“The General Assembly must step in to stop McKee’s multi-million-dollar political payoff.
First, the General Assembly must demand that the contract be released to the public.
Second, the contract should be required to be submitted to the General Assembly, and the General Assembly should reject it.
As we all know, at the municipal level, collective bargaining agreement negotiated by a mayor must still be approved by the city council (See, for example, Cranston City Charter Section 14.17).
Third, the General Assembly must refuse to appropriate funds to pay for these unjustifiable $3,000 vaccine bonuses. If the General Assembly does not act, then they are complicit in McKee’s payoff.”