Gina Raimondo

Raimondo created the Ocean State Investment Pool (OSIP), a low-cost investment vehicle intended to help the state and municipalities better manage and improve the investment performance of their liquid assets, which are used for day-to-day operations including payroll and operating expenses. $500 million in funds could be eligible for the program, which would enable Treasury "to extend its expertise to municipalities and improve investment returns by creating economies of scale."[24] The program launched on April 23, 2012.[25]

During the Rhode Island General Assembly's 2012 session, Raimondo advocated for a decrease in the maximum allowable interest rate on payday loans in Rhode Island. She hosted a roundtable discussion with then Providence Mayor Angel Taveras and members of the Rhode Island Payday Reform Coalition.[26] Raimondo submitted letters to the Senate and House Corporations Committees in support of payday reform legislation. She wrote "Far too many families are facing financial challenges that might be mitigated or avoided through a greater understanding of personal finance," and "payday loans exploit that lack of understanding... With numerous economic challenges, Rhode Island should not permit the sale of a financial product that traps so many customers in a cycle of debt."[27] Raimondo wrote an op-ed in the edition of May 29, 2012 of The Providence Journal in support of payday lending reform.[28]

Between assuming office and the end of 2019, Raimondo consistently ranked in the bottom four approval ratings for all governors in the United States.[31]

In April 2020, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Microsoft News conducted a poll to determine how well governors across the U.S. were handling mitigation of COVID-19. The poll found 76% of Rhode Islanders said they approved of the work done by Raimondo and her administration "to keep people safe" during the ongoing crisis.[32] Partnering with CVS, the nation's largest pharmacy chain, headquartered in Woonsocket, her state has achieved one of the nation's highest per capita levels of testing for COVID-19. Her approval rating has soared during the pandemic. [6]

The poll found majority support across all 50 states for how governors are handling coronavirus. Raimondo was tied with the governors of North Dakota and Utah for the 12th-highest rating. [33]

A widely-criticized rollout of a new computer network system for the Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services dubbed the "Unified Health Infrastructure Project" (UHIP) in September 2016 saw scores of people without access to government programs such as food stamps and child care due to glitches in the software, designed[34] by Deloitte. This computer crash created a backlog of over 20,000 cases.[35]

The Raimondo Administration received several letters from the federal government in August and September 2016 warning that UHIP was not ready to be launched. On the orders of Raimondo, the UHIP launch occurred as planned despite these federal warnings. The U.S. Food and Nutrition Service's Northeast Regional Administrator, Kurt Messner, urged Raimondo to postpone the launch because it would interrupt or interfere with benefits that the agency oversees. Messner said in the letter which local news outlets described as "strongly-worded" that "The transition plan remains inadequate and unacceptable." Messner also pointed out that the state had failed to gradually launch UHIP in phases or administer a live pilot test of UHIP. Messner opined that "Launching a system without having conducted a live pilot is against the intent of the regulations and against our best advice." The Raimondo Administration ultimately ignored the federal warnings resulting in benefit delays, system downtime, and benefit loss caused in error.[36]

December 2016 saw the federal government give the state Department of Human Services less than a month to fix the UHIP computer system or risk losing $13 million in federal funding. Federal officials judged that the state was not compliant in lowering a significant case backlog, starting a sufficient call-center, adequate staff training, and improving wait times at Health and Human Services field offices.[37]

In February 2017, Executive Secretary of Health and Human Services Elizabeth H. Roberts resigned from her cabinet post in the Raimondo Administration[38] due to the failed roll-out of the UHIP.[38]

In March 2017 Rhode Island Monthly reported that the U.S. Department of Justice opened an investigation into UHIP, specifically false claims and statements made about the Health and Human Services computer network rollout. The investigation was still underway as of summer 2017. In an interview, House Oversight Chair Rep. Patricia Serpa (D-West Warwick) said, "There's plenty of blame to go around. The auditor's report found that [the contract with Deloitte] was poorly written, poorly overseen and poorly executed. They were warned against the implementation because the system was not ready. Not only did they implement it, they displaced all of the most senior workers with the wealth of experience. We pulled all the plugs to make sure this was a failure."[39]

According to documents submitted to the federal government, the cost estimate for UHIP through 2021 is $656 million. State taxpayers will pay $154 million of this amount while the federal government will pay the remainder.[40]

In January 2020 State Senator Sam Bell said that a Rhode Island Senate Fiscal Report on Raimondo's budget proved that "a single UHIP update kicked 5,500 Rhode Islanders off their Medicaid" in November 2019 without due process and the decisions were based on a computer update. Bell went on to say that "Medicaid terminations need to be done with some due process. They should not come from a notoriously glitchy computer system. You should have a chance to fight the decision to rip away your health insurance. When you lose your Medicaid with no warning and no effort to transition you onto the exchange, the consequences can be deadly."[41]

Under Governor Raimondo, the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth & Families has come under fire due to its relatively high rate of deaths and near-deaths of children in its care.[42] In a period between January 2016 and December 2017, there were 31 fatalities or near fatalities of children in its care, with eight being confirmed fatal.[42]

Raimondo appointed Trista Piccola as her new DCYF director in January 2017. Piccola's term was marked by the death and near-deaths of children,[42] high staff turn-over rates,[43] votes of no confidence,[44] and high budget deficits.[45] Rep. Patricia Serpa and Rep. Charlene Lima called for the resignation of Piccola, which finally occurred in July 2019.[46][47][48]

In October 2018, the United States Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families ordered the Raimondo Administration DCYF to improve in 33 of 36 areas assessed.[49] The federal report noted that DCYF services were "inadequate, not developed when needed, or lacked consistent monitoring." Harvard Kennedy School professor and former Obama Administration official Jeffrey Liebman agreed with the recommendations and analysis of the report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and claimed that the DCYF is "the most messed-up agency ever."[50]

With the departure of Piccola, the interim director is DCYF executive legal counsel Kevin Aucoin.[51] Aucoin has served in an interim director capacity twice before when DCYF was without a permanent Director. Secretary of the Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services and Raimondo cabinet member Womazetta Jones said in December 2019 that she was "very determined to stay the course of not hiring anybody unless it's the right person." As of December 2020 DCYF does not have a permanent Director.[52]

Under Governor Raimondo's leadership, the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) has focused on shifting children from congregate settings to licensed foster homes. DCYF has increased its capacity and utilization of licensed foster homes, including an increase in the number of licensed kinship families, from 280 in October of 2019 to 576 in June of 2020. As of December 2020, 83% of all children placed in out-of-home care are placed in a foster home. Since 2015, the Department’s intensive reforms have resulted in a 43% reduction in the number of youth placed in congregate care and a 39% reduction in the number of youth placed in out-of-state congregate care. At the same time, the Department has increased the number of children placed in licensed foster family homes.[53]

In early February 2020, Raimondo appeared alongside former Republican New York City Mayor and Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg at the Wexford Innovation Center in Providence to endorse his candidacy, a move she described as "an easy call."[54] Raimondo was named a national co-chair for the Bloomberg campaign.

Press secretary Jennifer Bogdan Jones of the Governor's Office told The Providence Journal that "[Raimondo] is prepared to do whatever it takes to support Mike and defeat President Trump."[55] As campaign co-chair, Raimondo would have "provided advice and attended events." Less than a month later, however, Bloomberg dropped out of the race and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden.[56] On the same day, Raimondo also endorsed Biden. She said Bloomberg "obviously" performed poorly on the debate stage but supporting his candidacy "was an easy decision for me at the beginning. But [supporting Biden] is an easy decision, too." Raimondo concluded that it was now time "to unify behind Joe Biden."[57]

On March 28, 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo threatened Raimondo with a lawsuit over a new state quarantine policy, which would make sure people from coronavirus-hit New York would self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in Rhode Island.[58][59] On March 29, Raimondo repealed the order that specifically referred to New Yorkers, and broadened it to include any out-of-state traveler entering Rhode Island with intent to stay.[60]