House Speaker Mattiello, challenger Frias spar over taxes, ethics, PawSox in WPRI debate | Video

Oct. 19--PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Round II: Mattiello V. Frias.

Facing off Friday during a half-hour WPRI-TV debate, House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello accused his home-district challenger Steve Frias of mischaracterizing his record on taxes, ethics-reforms and the PawSox.

In his own turn at bat, Frias sought to dispel the notion that a Mattiello defeat in House District 15 in Cranston would lead state lawmakers to elect a more left-leaning, anti-business House speaker.

"If we defeat the Speaker, we will not get a progressive speaker. What we would get is a more ethical speaker, a speaker who doesn't run campaigns that engage in illegal activities, a speaker who may support government reforms like line-item veto," said Frias, referencing Mattiello's brush-ups with the Rhode Island Board of Elections over his operatives' 2016 campaign activities.

"If the Progressives had enough power to take over the House, they would do it right now. They don't," Frias said.

The two men faced each other during a taping of WPRI's "Newsmakers," which will air on Sunday morning.

They are competing -- a second time -- for the 10,700-plus votes in a Cranston House district that chose Donald Trump in 2016 when the majority of voters in the rest of the state went for Hlilary Clinton. Frias, an attorney who is one of the state GOP's delegates to the Republican National Committee, came within 85 votes of beating Mattiello that year.

Over 30 minutes on Friday, Republican Frias said Democrat Mattiello raised taxes and motor vehicle fees. Mattiello said he cut them, citing the car-tax as one high-profile example, along with rollbacks in corporate, estate and retirement-income taxes. He also denied that the $19.7 million-plus in anticipated new sales taxes from taxing internet sales was, in fact, a new tax. Had the purchases been made at a brick-and-mortar store, he said, the same purchases would have been taxed.

"We've expanded the sales tax on the internet," said Frias. "We have not," said Mattiello. "Yes, we have," said Frias. "We have not," Mattiellio insisted. "I'm paying a tax on the internet. I don't know if you are," said Frias. Mattiello: "You always had a tax on the internet." Frias: "I'm paying it now. Over-the-counter drugs. Expanded. Pet services. Sales tax."

Mattiello: "Do you have a dog?" Frias: "No, I had a cat, but now you've got me off message here." After a moment's pause, he resumed his litany: "DMV fees. Gas tax. So we are paying more in taxes under you. Even the car tax. ...You rolled back the phaseout in 2010. Now you are trying to make up for it."

Frias accused the speaker of looking the other way when former Cranston Rep. Frank Montanaro -- now one of his top State House aides -- got caught by WPRI taking advantage of a tuition waiver reserved for full-time Rhode Island College employees, years after taking a leave from RIC. Mattiello said he told Montanaro privately to pay the money back.

"That's between the union and Rhode Island College. It has nothing to do with me at the State House," Mattiello said.

"When you see an abuse, you stop it," said Frias. "We cannot have self-dealing and insider dealing, and that's what Frank Montanaro represents."

"Let's talk about what I've done," said Mattiello. "I've been called the most ... reform-oriented speaker in recent history," said Mattiello, citing his role in passage of legislation reinstating the Ethics Commission's power over legislators, "put[ting] our financial disclosures online, lobby reform, campaign finance reform."

"He was dead set against ... giving the Ethics Commission [power] over the General Assembly. It was dead on arrival," argued Frias, until Mattiello's appointee as House Finance chairman -- former Rep. Raymond Gallison -- "got busted and had to resign." (Gallison was sentenced to prison after admitting to stealing $677,957 from a dead client's estate and pilfering from a disabled woman's trust fund.)

While they both opposed the proposed deal to finance a new stadium for the Pawtucket Red Sox that came out of the Senate, Mattiello took credit for crafting a replacement that protected the taxpayers from any potential liability. "He clearly just doesn't understand," Mattiello said.

"False," said Frias, insisting that the state's taxpayers would have had to bail Pawtucket out if the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency was unable to make the payments on the high-interest "junk bonds" that Mattiello proposed.

"That's just not true," Mattiello insisted, "there was never any backing or guarantee. ... No guarantee."

Other issues also divided them.

Term limits? "Absolutely. No more than eight years," said Frias.

"No absolutely not," said Mattiello.

Legalizing recreational use of marijuana? Mattiello: "We consider all options. " Frias: "I am not in favor of legal pot," Mattiello: "I'm not in favor either, but we would do the analysis."

Passing legislation to "codify abortion rights" in Rhode Island state law? Frias: "It does more than that, and I oppose it." Mattiello: "I am pro-life, but I understand that there is a big concern, so we'll certainly have our discussions. You have to respect large segments of the population."

He would not commit to a vote on the bill, but said: "You certainly try to respect the people that you represent."

___

(c)2018 The Providence Journal (Providence, R.I.)

Visit The Providence Journal (Providence, R.I.) at www.projo.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.