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March 2, 2010

Sasse Converted to the Dark Side?

Justin Katz

I'm not sure what to make of this news:

Gary S. Sasse has been hired by the Rhode Island House of Representatives to serve as a part-time adviser to the House Leadership, according to an announcement today by Speaker Gordon D. Fox. Sasse will work 20 hours per week. ...

"Having Gary Sasse as a resource will be invaluable to me and the members of the House of Representatives," said Speaker Fox. "I have asked him to focus his energy on issues relating to government restructuring and tax policy, as well as other projects as we move forward. He brings an enormous amount of knowledge and expertise that will continue to benefit our state as he has done for more than three decades."

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer? Buy credibility for economically fatal programs currently in the making? Or do I have Gordon Fox all wrong?

Comments

Sasse has an ego as big as anyone on Smith Hill. He quit working for the Governor because the Governor had the temerity not to follow the budgetary path Sasse wanted the Governor to take.
When I first read this news about Sasse two words came mind immediately - double agent!

Posted by: Tim at March 2, 2010 10:16 PM

Tim,

Exactly.

Justin,

You don't have Fox all wrong, you have Sasse all wrong.

This guy Sasse is like a bad penny.

Posted by: Robespierre at March 2, 2010 11:18 PM

Justin,

Gary Sasse of East Greenwich, RI (is that Governor Carcieri's home town?), was Executive Director of RIPEC and as a so called "Watch Dog" group made the numbers match (2+2=6 or 2+2=2) what was wanted by the supporting private industry groups to portray how bad RI was handling things (teacher, state and unions)!

Don't forget his college degree is in political science!

So as State of RI Director of Administration and Director of the Department Revenue he found himself at ground zero with a lot of state employees and the unions looking over his shoulder so there was no making 2+2-6 anymore plus RI had a real recession going on! So much for the business model! He was now working in the real world!!

To Gary it was time to jump ship before his fuzzy math is discovered!!!

Now the GA has him back as a consultant for 20 hrs a week! Geeeee do you think this has anything to do with getting a retirement check and fixing the GA numbers because he can purchase up to 5 years of associated service to get 10 years vested service just like Mr. and Mrs. Carcieri can purchase 5 years of their teacher time towards retirement with 3% annual COLA and paid Dental; medical healthcare.

In the end, it's all about the money!

Posted by: Ken at March 3, 2010 12:32 AM

Robespierre, right you are.
Fox and Costantino want "Governor Sasse" (lol) to help them find creative ways to raise taxes.

Ken it's really not that complicated.
It's all about the ego with "Governor Sasse".

Posted by: Tim at March 3, 2010 7:45 AM

Another paycheck (and later on, a pension) that the RI taxpayers will have to provide for yet another career political hack, for the rest of his life.

Posted by: Chris at March 3, 2010 12:27 PM

Gary Sasse has more personal integrity and intellectual horsepower than the entire leadership of the General Assembly combined. For a very long time, he has been a consistent voice on what ails Rhode Island and the painful steps that must be taken to save the rapidly sinking ship. And he is not the only member of the Governor's staff who has left the administration in frustration about the Don's maddening reluctance to drop the gloves and go to war with the unions, poverty industry and General Assembly over the bitter medicine that will inevitably have to be taken. That he has chosen to go to work for the GA, and continue his fight, rather than retire to Florida strikes me as yet another example of his fine character, rather than an indictment of it. But reactions like the ones posted here certainly help one to understand why so many reformers choose to leave RI instead of staying here to fight for change.

Posted by: John at March 3, 2010 4:38 PM

Please he is in this for the paycheck plain and simple.

Posted by: doughboys at March 3, 2010 11:23 PM

"You don't have Fox all wrong, you have Sasse all wrong. "


No, no, no... you have Carcieri all wrong.

He's about as Republican as...well... Linc Chafee. Look at what the opportunists in his administration and in the state GOP are doing to help Frank Caprio.

....oh, and let me get back off the floor: "He brings an enormous amount of knowledge and expertise that will continue to benefit our state as he has done for more than three decades."

Are you serious....look at what shape the state is in... they should all be arrested!

Posted by: George at March 4, 2010 10:34 PM