The Rhode Island Democratic primary is being touted as more than a way to choose the party’s 2014 gubernatorial candidate — in a sense, reforming the state’s pension system is on the ballot as well.
Rhode Island Treasurer Gina Raimondo, who is running for governor, implemented the reform in 2011. According to The New York Times, the reform:
- raised the retirement age,
- stopped annual cost-of-living adjustments pending improvement of the system’s finances and
- reduced benefits.
The plan, according to Forbes, is controversial. Critics say that it was designed by hedge fund insiders and has lost the state pension fund millions of dollars. Rhode Island public employee unions are among its detractors. And in 2013, the League of Women Voters of Rhode Island, the American Civil Liberties Union’s Rhode Island chapter, Common Cause Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Press Association expressed concern over Raimondo’s withholding of public hedge fund records related to the state pension fund, Forbes notes.
Despite the controversy, a poll conducted in late August for WPRI-TV and the Providence Journal showed Raimondo holding a slight lead over her main competitors, Providence Mayor Angel Taveras and Clay Pell, a Coast Guard lieutenant and grandson of former U.S. Sen. Claiborne Pell (D).
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