Governor Gina Raimondo’s ambitious and controversial plan to modernize aging state roads and bridges – in part, through the imposition of tolls on trucks – has been voted the 2016 Pell Center Rhode Island Story of the Year.
Raimondo’s blueprint, approved by the General Assembly in February, was selected by a panel of 19 judges from the media and academia. Runners-up in the annual contest were the governor’s failed “Cooler & Warmer” tourism campaign, and Corruption at the State House: House Finance Chair Raymond E. Gallison Jr. Resigns.
The RhodeWorks plan is “a story that’s going to keep giving, I think for years to come,” said panelist John Howell, editor and publisher of the Warwick Beacon.
“The story helped the public think about important questions – how, what and why programs are financed and the impact this particular program may have on our state. It fueled discussion and made us question and use our intellects,” said best-selling author Padma Venkatraman, a member of the Pell Center’s Story in the Public Square Story Board.
Listen to Gene Valicenti and the Providence Journal’s G. Wayne Miller discuss the choice below:
