To the Editor,
I was horrified to read in the May 20 Providence Journal article entitled “Mattiello: Next pitch is the state’s” that the Speaker of the Rhode Island House is still trying to make a deal over the baseball stadium. Obviously he is not listening to the public. I attended the public forum at Hope HS on May 18 and other than someone who thought they might get a construction job for a few months building the stadium, not one person thought it was a good idea to provide any state or city tax subsidy to a bunch of millionaires trying to extort money from the public by threatening to leave. I am a baseball fan, as were most of the others at the hearing. But none of us thought giving away the public’s money was a good idea, and many thought the site was very flawed.
For a Speaker laser focused on economic development, Representative Mattiello is missing the boat on this too. There is no financial gain for the people from this by any measure, giving a public subsidy to very wealthy people will only serve to increase inequality, and as Picketty demonstrated recently, growing inequality harms economies. Economic development in the 21st Century is a bottom up, not a top down, proposition. That Rhode Island continues to think top down, and gives sweetheart deals to inside players, is why our economy does not work very well.
Greg Gerritt