Bills to rename T.F. Green Airport, intervene in insurance dispute, advance in R.I. House

Providence Journal (RI)

June 20--PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Legislation to rename T.F. Green Airport and intervene in an insurance industry dispute are moving toward R.I House votes despite mounting opposition.

The House Corporations Committee Tuesday voted 7-2 with one abstention in favor of a bill that would change T.F. Green Airport into Rhode Island International Airport.

Rep. Charlene Lima, D-Cranston, joined Rep. Antonio Giarrusso voting against the bill, saying former Rhode Island governor and senator Green's legacy should be preserved on the state airport building.

"I am not against adding Rhode Island or international to the official airport name -- I'm against removing T.F. Green from the name altogether," Lima said before the vote. "[Green] had the courage to be progressive when many others were not. ... He supported civil rights; he enacted laws against the poll tax and made lynching a federal crime. ... He deserves the right to have his name on the airport."

Lima said airport officials had passed on her suggestion of Rhode Island-T.F. Green International Airport for being "too long."

"However, you have Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport," Lima said and noted that RIAC President and CEO Iftikhar Ahmad's previous job had been as director of aviation at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.

"He wants us to go back on history, break our word and take the name off," she said.

To soften the blow for defenders of Green's legacy, and at least one member of his family who has opposed the name change, the Airport Corporation proposes naming the "Interlink" parking garage and train station building after the former governor and senator.

Airport officials have argued that putting Rhode Island in the airport's name will raise its profile and make it easier for travelers to locate.

No one spoke in favor of the name change before the committee vote, but lawmakers received a letter from low-cost airline Allegiant in support of the name change.

"I can't underscore enough how critical it is to us for an airport name to be immediately recognizable with the state and region it serves," Dustin Call, manager of airport affairs for Allegiant, wrote in the letter. "This is an invaluable tool to us when marketing the airport and destination to our customers, particularly those from other regions of the country."

Rep. Anastasia Williams, D-Providence, abstained from voting on the airport bill. She told The Journal she wanted to make several points about the airport to a larger audience on the House floor.

The bill now moves to the full House for a vote. A matching bill was introduced in the Senate by Majority Leader Michael McCaffrey, but it remains in committee with the legislative year dwindling to a close.

Moments before the airport vote, the Corporations Committee passed without discussion a bill proposed by a Cranston insurance agency drawing waves of opposition from the insurance industry.

Introduced by Providence Democratic Rep. Scott Slater with no co-sponsors, the bill would create payment rules for the obscure surplus lines market, where insurance is written for unusual or high-risk scenarios not covered by regulated, off-the-shelf policies.

It would give insurance agents at least "45 days after the end of the month in which the transaction occurs" to pay the balance of a surplus line bill.

At a May Corporations Committee hearing, Slater and Paul Damiano of Damiano Insurance Agency, in Cranston, testified in support of the bill.

Damiano told the committee that insurance companies have recently begun to "accelerate their collections," giving agents, who serve as middlemen to clients seeking surplus lines, a narrow and precarious window to make payments without cancellation.

But at least eight insurance companies, financial institutions and industry groups wrote letters of opposition to the bill, saying Rhode Island would be the only state in the country to pass such a law.

"This looks like two brokers had a dispute and one ran to their representative," said Frank O'Brien, vice president of government relations at the Property Casualty Insurers of America. "No other state does this. It is bad public policy. Surplus line writers need the flexibility to write specialized policies for special risk."

Since 2014, Damiano has donated $14,000 to political campaigns, including the maximum $1,000 contribution to Slater and House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello in each of the last four years.

"The insurance industry requires money to be immediately collected from their agents or they cancel policies," Larry Berman, spokesman for House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, wrote in an email about the rationale for the bill. "This bill provides for a more appropriate amount of time for the insurance companies to pay their agents."

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