Gina Raimondo, taking office Tuesday as Rhode Island's 75th governor, called for the state to revive its sagging economy and change perceptions of the Ocean State from outside and within.
Raimondo, 43, a Democrat, former venture capitalist and the state's general treasurer the past four years, warned the task would be painstaking.
"The problems we inherited weren't created overnight and we won't solve them overnight," Raimondo, the state's first female governor, said amid snow flurries and bitter cold on the south portico of the State House in Providence, shortly after taking the oath of office. "We have to innovate in everything we do, even in our state government."
Other state elected officials were sworn in, including Seth Magaziner, who succeeds Raimondo in the treasurer's office. Lincoln Chafee, who succeeded Raimondo as governor, did not seek re-election.
Raimondo as treasurer ran point on a landmark law in 2011 that overhauled the pension system for state employees and generated a buzz in the capital markets.
She inherits a myriad of problems, including an estimated $200 million budget deficit, one of the nation's highest unemployment rates, and a raft of local financial crises, including the bankruptcy of the Central Coventry Fire District.
Unions are challenging the pension law in Rhode Island Superior Court.
Rhode Island is also home to the 38 Studios bond financing debacle. The state is saddled with moral obligation debt tied to a loan guarantee to a video game firm owned by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling. The company folded in 2012, leaving taxpayers on the hook.
Raimondo also cited studies that ranked Rhode Island next-to-last for business desirability and the feeling that state government is larger but less effective.
"Too many cities are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy," said Raimondo. Central Falls, a 19,000-population city, filed under Chapter 9 in August 2012 and exited 13 months later.
One bright glimmer for Rhode Island is the revised outlook by Moody's Investors Service in October to stable from negative. Moody's at the time affirmed its Aa2 general obligation bond rating, which affects $2.2 billion in net tax-supported debt outstanding. Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's rate Rhode Island GOs AA.
Raimondo in her speech called for modernizing school buildings - last March she proposed a municipal infrastructure bank to help cities and towns obtain funding for infrastructure upgrades. She also called for a buildout in the marine services, health care and technology industries.
She invoked her own Providence upbringing, when her father lost his job of 26 years when Bulova moved its watch factory overseas.
"We need to foster an environment where businesses want to add jobs," she said. "Our only path out of this mess is to create middle-class jobs. Heck, even that little girl can become the governor of Rhode Island."
