What Is Good Government?
It’s efficient. Our government is paid for by us, and it’s reasonable to want our money to be used wisely to get the most out of our hard-earned dollars. Good government achieves that by working in well-organized and competent ways.
It’s thorough. We want our government to fix problems and make our lives better. Halfway solutions are not enough, and good government works on problems rigorously, methodically, and with great care and solves them as completely as possible.
It’s responsive to its citizens. We know what we need, and we’re happy to share our needs with our representatives in the Statehouse. Good government actively listens to its citizens and works on the things that concern them the most.
What Would a Good State Government Do?
If Rhode Island had an efficient, thorough, and responsive state government, what would it do?
Ideally, it would have its own version of the One Minnesota Plan, an ambitious project to build a healthy and vibrant state and to meet the needs of all its citizens—including healthcare, child care, education, housing, and better government.
Sadly, Rhode Island state government isn’t functioning well enough to take on a complex task like the One Minnesota Plan, so we need to improve our government and get it to a place where it can start solving our biggest and most difficult problems.
How Can Rhode Island Get Good State Government?
Our state government is struggling to keep up. It has a lot to do, but obstacles are getting in its way.
Our legislators don’t have enough time to complete their work, and it’s forcing them to settle for quick fixes instead of developing real solutions to our problems.
Laws that don’t align with the missions of our state agencies are interrupting their work and distracting them from their objectives and goals.
Rhode Island’s climate change law isn’t working, and the threat of climate change to property, our economy, and a stable government continues to grow.
To get a more effective government that truly helps us, we need to remove these roadblocks, and happily, we can with:
With these changes, we can make our government more efficient and thorough, and we can give our legislators and elected officials more time to hear us and find out what we care about and what we want.
These are the first steps toward the good government that Rhode Island deserves and needs, and they’re the first goals I want to work on to give us better lives and a better future.