- The biggest issue for us is that our budget is an opaque budget, it's not clear.

There are items that are just lumped together and almost, I'm not saying nefariously, but almost like they're hidden.

- Welcome to, "One-on-One," I'm Ian Donnis.

Rhode Island Senate, GOP Leader, Jessica De La Cruz is one of the most visible Republicans in the state, but her party continues to struggle.

The GOP holds less than 15% of general assembly seats, and they're locked out of other state and federal offices.

Does De La Cruz have a plan to turn that around?

And can Republicans still shape policy in Rhode Island?

The Republican leader in the Rhode Island Senate.

Jessica De La Cruz of North Smithfield, welcome to, "One-on-One."

- Thank you, I'm so happy to be here at your new show.

- Let's start with the race for governor.

Two time candidate, Ken Block is running as an independent this time.

He's got a sharp critique of the status quo.

I think we can agree he's better known than the top Republican candidate, Aaron Guckian.

So should Republicans put their support behind Ken Block?

- Well, Ken Block's running as a Republican, he's running as an independent.

And so, Republicans will find it really hard to vote for an independent.

And it's not to say that... - But if he has a better chance of winning or going further in the race for governor, why not?

And you know, he ran as a Republican before.

He's not a screaming liberal, why not consider that?

- Well, that's up to the voters, you know?

They're gonna decide whether they wanna vote for a Democrat, Republican, or independent.

But if he's running into as an independent, then he's kind of like skirting or not skirting the primary.

So voters will have a choice.

But if Republicans are looking to strictly vote for Republicans, then they're going to look for the R after the name.

I'm not saying that's the best thing to do, but you know, obviously we wanna pick the best candidate.

But I think Aaron's a good guy and he has some really good ideas.

- When it comes to Republican candidates for governor, there are three, Aaron Guckian, Elaine Palino, and Robert Raimondo, which are you supporting?

- Oh gosh, I'm gonna let the primary process play out.

But I have worked with Aaron in the past and I've never met Mr.

Raimondo.

I don't hold his last name against him, but Aaron's a nice guy and he has experience and so I do like him.

But again, the primary process will play out.

- I think we could agree that if the election for governor was held today, undecided would be the winner because neither Governor Dan McKean nor Helena Foulkes, the two best known Democrats have closed the deal.

Neither seems particularly super popular with voters right now.

You're one of the best known and most visible Republicans in the state.

Why are you not running for governor?

- Oh, I thought you were gonna ask me if I was gonna vote for Helena or Dan, and I was gonna say neither.

I'll be voting Republican.

But I think there there'll be a time in which I will run for higher office.

And I've been so, almost emphatic in my nos.

Like, no, no, no.

And then a friend of mine reminded me that I was so emphatic that I would never run for office, that politics was a dirty sport and I hated politicians, and jokes on me, here I am serving in the legislature.

So never say never.

And so, I'm adopting that at the moment where I won't say never, but just not right now.

- You are from North Smithfield, and your district includes parts of Burrillville and Gloucester.

What are the top issues for voters in your district right now?

What are they most concerned about?

- Affordability.

I mean, that just seems to be the issue.

Has been for, gosh, at least four, five, six years.

Where energy prices are just spiraling out of control for them.

Grocery prices have increased.

You know, we're a family of five, of three boys, teenagers.

I mean, my grocery bill is, as you can imagine, pretty high.

So when we have the energy, we have groceries, it just seems like everything is more expensive and it's not an illusion, it really is.

And so, it's tough to enjoy your weekends or your nights off because you just don't even have enough to enjoy those weekends, you know what I mean?

- Yeah, I do.

- There's isn't a lot of expendable income.

Like, everything's gonna be allocated to my bills, my insurance, my mortgage, but what about a vacation?

What about a night out with the family?

It's hard to do now.

- Right, not a lot of discretionary income.

- That's right, yeah.

- Let's talk more about that.

On a related note, you are sponsoring a bill that would cut the state income tax by 10% by 2031.

Democrats have a different approach.

Both Governor McKean and Helena Foulkes want to raise by three percentage points the state income tax on income over $1 million.

We know there's historic inequality in America now between the rich and poor.

Why does that not justify a small increase in the amount paid on taxes over a million dollars?

- Well, it's actually not a millionaires tax.

It starts at $675,000.

So, the progressives or the Democrats who put the legislation in will say millionaires tax, but a million starts at a million, not 675.

So we have to start there and be honest.

I've been saying it for a long time, Republicans have been saying it for a long time.

But RIPEC, the Rhode Island Republic Expenditure Council has said the very same thing that Republicans have been saying.

Not because we coordinated, but because we've come to the same conclusion that Rhode Island does not have a revenue problem.

I say it all the time, they have a spending problem.

And don't take my word for it, read the RIPEC report.

So with that information, I can confidently say that we should be working on tax cuts.

And 2% on the rate for five years, 2% every year, is a very modest tax cut.

It also has what I call a safety valve on it, where if we find that it's detrimental somehow to the state or not having the effect that we had hoped, we can stop the tax cut immediately.

And we have to start somewhere.

It's a small modest cut but we have to start somewhere in giving Rhode Islanders some relief.

- Everybody likes the idea of a tax cut.

How would you pay for your envisioned 10% tax cut over a number of years?

- Yeah, it's a fair question.

And I think there are, going back to the RIPEC report, there are areas in which we can cut, but I think the biggest issue for us is that our budget is an opaque budget, it's not clear.

There are items that are just lumped together and almost, I'm not saying nefariously, but almost like they're hidden.

And I give the example of the Dr.

Pedro of the worlds of, you know, I don't know how many Dr.

Pedros are hiding in our budget.

And for those listeners- - Let me just explain what was.

That came up a couple of years ago.

It was rooted out by reporters.

This was when Nicholas Mattiello was house speaker, and it was a $1 million allocation for a Cranston chiropractor with some, an alternative medicine practice that was questioned by some people.

And it was subsequently removed from the budget after being exposed by reporters.

- Right.

And it was accidentally, it wasn't that, you know, it was clearly on the line item of the budget, right?

It wasn't that someone could point it out, if you were reading it or I was reading it that, oh, hey, what's this?

This seems a little off.

It wasn't vetted, it was tucked into the budget.

And so, if we're going to be serious about these tax cuts, we also have to be serious about a line item vito, zero based budgeting, and Inspector General to root out waste, fraud, and abuse.

That's where we start.

- Let's talk about another aspect of affordability housing.

No matter who you talk to, I think there's widespread agreement that housing is one of the most serious issues confronting Rhode Island.

This has been an issue championed by House Speaker Joe Shekarchi to try and pass a number of efforts to try and increase housing.

And he says, initially there's some positive indication that housing starts are trending in the right direction.

How do you think the state is doing?

Has it begun the process of digging out of the housing crisis?

And if not, what would you do differently?

- Well, I think we have to fix some of those mistakes or the bills that were passed that I feel were mistakes.

We are overriding local control or local input.

And so, why do we even have planning and zoning anymore if they're completely obsolete and the state is taking over?

And the other way that I look at it is, when it comes to housing, it's kind of like the United States of America.

We have 50 states, they're unique.

They're their own laboratories.

They have different laws because it's not a one size fits all approach.

And Rhode Island has 39 cities and towns, and they are distinctly unique.

And a one size fits all approach does not work.

And I use the example of one of my communities that hasn't reached that 10%.

Two of them are very close to it, that a developer came in and they wanted to build near wetlands.

They needed special permission, but then an issue arose about plumbing.

So they were going to put composting toilets in the units.

So not plumbing, not a toilet as regular plumbing that we would expect, but composting toilets.

Like, I don't want to see housing jammed down these communities throats and having them not be adequate.

- Let me interject.

- Go ahead.

- I get what you're saying.

One size doesn't fit all.

- Yes.

- And there is a tradition in New England of municipal control.

At the same time, how do you get past this issue of people agreeing generally that we need more housing, but when push comes to shove, a lot of people, a lot of communities don't want housing in this neighborhood or that neighborhood.

- Sure.

- It seems like a recipe for stasis rather than progress.

- Yeah.

- So how do we overcome that as a state?

- Sure, I think first of all, we can't be punitive.

The state can't say we're going to punish you if you don't meet these standards.

We should incentivize behavior that we want.

So if we want more housing, we should make it easier to build with less regulation.

And we should incentivize the communities to build, to allow building.

The other thing is, I don't think that this crisis is going to be fixed on the communities, in rural communities on their backs.

It's simply not possible.

They don't have the infrastructure in place.

And in order to educate children, in order to have safe communities, in order to have the infrastructure, it needs to be done over time and not in just one fell swoop.

The other thing is, we need not just housing as in houses, single family houses, we need more apartments.

The more we have in stock and supply, the price will come down.

Not everybody's ready for a house right away.

When I first got married, it took me eight years to buy a house.

I wasn't ready for the responsibility of cutting the lawn, or calling a plumber, or an electrician every time that I had a problem.

I relied on my landlord to take care of the snow, to take care of any, you know, a faucet that broke.

I was just not prepared.

And some people don't even want that responsibility.

You have the elderly and the young that maybe are like, listen, I don't have the time, the resources to do it or the health.

And so, we need to build, but we also need to build why not in urban areas that are equipped for a large influx of individuals, and use blighted properties.

Where other communities and other states have torn down blighted properties to build new beautiful apartments, housing, condos.

That's the way that we should do it.

We should incentivize and we should not be almost like delusional to think that it's going to be fixed in the rural communities.

Can they help?

Yes.

But is it gonna be fixed on their backs?

Absolutely not.

- We have no shortage of government shortcomings in Rhode Island, Washington Bridge, problems with the state payroll system.

We could go on and on.

I recently had one of the state's top government watchdogs on the show, John Marion of Common Cause.

He said he thinks the problem is how the state relies on a lot of outside contractors and that the governor and the legislature fail to do enough in terms of oversight of these contractors.

Do you agree?

And if so, how do you think the legislature could step up its role?

- I think there is a lack of oversight.

The last time that the Senate, that I can remember, and I've only been there for eight years, the last time that I can remember that we had meaningful oversight that effectuated some real change for the positive was, I have to give a shout out to Senator de Palma.

He held robust hearings.

And when people say, the oversight hearings aren't effective, I would point to the time that he was chairman.

It was very effective.

Every government agency was going to be coming before the committee, and they were going to have to answer some questions.

I think that government can be effective in that area, but for whatever reason, they choose not to be.

And maybe, I know this is gonna be controversial, but maybe the oversight committee should be chaired by the opposite party of power.

- I think another counter example that we could agree on was when the legislative leaders hired the former top federal Prosecutor, Modon Zachary Cuniet question, the former RIDOT director, Peter Alvti, it was very revealing.

It showed how the state relies on contractors to ensure the integrity of other contractors' work.

And the state is essentially cut out of the process.

And, but I think your- - Good point.

- That was an exception rather than the rule.

- Yeah, exactly.

- Let me ask you, as we've heard, you have a sharp critique of state government, but you are one of four Republican senators in the 38 Member Senate, that's about 11% of the chamber.

What needs to happen differently to elect more Republicans in the legislature?

- I'll give you a story.

It's not, obviously it's just an experience that I had, but, and I may have shared this in the past with you, but I remember, you know, at Christmas time, and most of my family are Democrats, you know?

I'm the, I don't wanna say the black sheep in the family, but our family's a little different.

We'll talk politics.

There's no hard feelings afterwards.

And a lot of them had said, "We're gonna vote for Trump."

And I was just shocked because they're democrats, they're union folks, union guys.

And I thought, okay, why?

What's the impetus for this change?

And they went on about things that were happening and how the Democrat party has changed.

And so, there was a little glimmer of hope within me, and I said, "So are you voting Republican down ballot too like for state senate?"

And, oh, no, no, no, no.

I said, "Okay, well why?"

And is very much relational.

It was that, well, they went to the feast and I met them, or they came to the grand opening or donated to a cause.

And so, I think Republicans underestimate how important it is to be involved in the community as much as, and to be almost, not even involved, but easily accessible.

I feel like, personally I'm always in the community.

People stop me in the store.

- To your point, we've seen how Republican candidates for the legislature have underperformed.

President Trump's performance in some Republican leaning communities.

- Yeah, it comes down to having candidates as well that are ready to run and put the work in.

You're going to wear out the shoe leather if you want to win, if you want voters to know who you are.

Well, I've lived in Rhode Island all my life, but when I moved into North Smithfield, I had only been there for two years when I was encouraged to run for office and I thought, no one's gonna vote for me.

I only know a handful of people in the community.

But I knocked on every door, every registered voter door, sometimes twice.

And that is how the community got to know me.

They get to ask me questions.

And so when the negative ads came out, they were like, "Well, no, I met Jessica, she's a nice person, she explained her position to me."

And you know, some agreed, some didn't.

And I think republicans need to be maybe more accessible to candidates.

And I would tell candidates, your first time, your first go around, if you lose, which you probably will, maybe, maybe not, I don't know, but you should run again.

You shouldn't just run once and throw in the towel.

I remind them of Brian Newberry, who ran three times, and on his third time he won.

And now has been in the legislature, I don't know for how many years, but for a while.

So there's that.

But I also think funding is a big issue, you know?

So I'm gonna try to be helping candidates with that.

Hopefully I'll be successful.

But I always tell people, don't despise small beginnings.

You know, anything great has had to start off in an infancy stage.

And I feel like we've been there for a while, but it doesn't mean we give up.

It doesn't mean that we throw up our hands and say it's impossible, nothing is impossible, and we just have to keep trying.

- With the GOP having a small presence in the legislature, do you see a key issue that your party can work with on Democrats in this legislative session?

- I always try to work with Democrats.

I mean, even that legislation, that tax cut WHIP the coin is on that legislation.

I forget the other colleagues who signed, but I had one colleague come up to me and say, next time you have a piece of legislation like this, please come and see me, I would love to sign it.

So I always work with my colleagues wherever I can.

Sometimes if you see my name on a piece of legislation and I'm the sole person on there, it's because I didn't have enough time to gather signatures.

But most times, I wanted to be, not most times, all times, I want it to be bipartisan.

So I work with them whenever I can.

But I would say there are a lot of issues in which we could turn the state around, in which there's no political will on their side to do.

- Leader De La Cruz, you've been a big advocate for Zambarano Hospital in Burrillville.

That's the state's long-term care hospital.

There was a plan to make a new hospital and work on that has come to a halt after the cost tripled in two years.

I think the state is spending even more money on it because it now has to transport these long-term patients with severe medical issues out of state to be cared for.

Where did the state go wrong on this?

- Well, five years ago I worked with a host of individuals to save that hospital and to allocate the necessary funds to build it.

And five years has passed and nothing has been done.

The, no buildings have been torn down on the campus.

You know, there has been some work, like fixing an elevator, but that's the existing building that's there.

You know, they've done the study, as the state always does.

And now they're on their second study, I think.

Maybe third, I think, probably second.

What else do we need to study?

The Faulkner study, the initial one said we needed a 100 bed hospital.

And now they're, I guess looking for maybe, a different answer in the study.

I'm not sure why they're doing again.

But here's the issue for me is that, as I meet with hospital administrators, and I meet with them once a month, and we talk about, where's the progress?

And there has been none.

The last fiscal year, they had $25 million allocated to the hospital to continue their work, and the money just disappeared.

And I asked, where did the money go?

We don't know.

So I would like to know, and nobody's been able to give me an answer in the administration, where did that 25 million go?

And now this year, the 25 million that's allocated for this fiscal year is also gone.

So we're talking about $50 million.

And going back to line item vito, the zero based budgeting, the Inspector general, I would like to know where this money has gone.

And why over five years, we did nothing to get this hospital a shovel in the ground, a foundation built, nothing has been done.

- I wanna take your temperature on President Trump.

Even conservative media stars like Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson were aghast when he recently threatened that a whole civilization will die unless Iran opened the Strait of Hormuz.

More recently, the president, in an unprecedented kind of way was jousting with the Pope on social media.

Do you have any concerns about the president's competency?

- No, I don't have a concern about competency.

President Trump has always been and will always be a hyperbolic individual.

I'm not a fan of those comments.

Certainly his little tiff with the Pope, if one wants to engage in politics, then it is what it is.

So you have to be ready for the pushback that you'll receive.

But I also, you know, when it comes to conservative folks, there are people on the right who don't like Tucker Carlson and don't like Megyn Kelly, and don't like the Candace Owens of the world, because they find them to be too extreme to the right.

So I think, when I talk to Democrats, they say the very same thing about their party.

Oh, I wish Joe Biden didn't do this, or I wish Kamala didn't do this.

It's a poor representation of all Democrats.

Well, you know, Republicans may say the same thing about their pundits as well.

But yeah, I mean, he's been hyperbolic in the past, and I don't expect that that will change ever.

- We see how the price of gas is way up due to the war in Iran.

President Trump has submitted a huge defense request that could cut into programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

Are you concerned that these things will hurt the Republican cause as the GOP tries to gain legislative seats in Rhode Island this year?

- Well, Rhode Island has been struggling for a long time, well before Trump was in office and has been struggling for many, many years.

And when it comes to energy prices, Rhode Island isn't feeling the pension now because of Trump or because of the Strait of Hormuz.

It has been policies that were enacted by the Democrat led legislature.

- But isn't the pinch worse now?

- Maybe a little bit, but I mean, not to the extent of what we've been feeling for the past five years.

You know, energy prices have increased, gosh, I don't even know how much, but I know that we could cut that by 25% if we were to roll back some of those mandates, the green energy mandates.

And we're not against green energy, I certainly am not.

I just have to tell you, I just bought a hybrid electrical vehicle, electric vehicle, and I love it.

I don't think I'll ever go back, my gas mileage is great.

Senator Rogers has solar on his roof, on his home.

We love green energy, but we're just not at the time and place in which we can adopt green energy and without it costing much, much more than the fuels that we've used in the past.

So again, I know that we wanna talk about Trump and what he's done, but our issues very rarely are because of what Washington is doing.

Sometimes, yes, but most times it's because of the policies that have been passed by the Democrat super majority legislature - Leader De La Cruz.

- Yes.

- Conservatives like you have traditionally been strong supporters of the state of Israel.

We see how support for Israel has been declining among both Democrats and Republicans in the aftermath of what's in Gaza in the last couple of years, and now the war in Iran.

Has this caused you to reexamine at all your support for Israel?

- No, no, I think Israel has a right to exist.

They're in a very tough position being the only democracy in that area, and they're surrounded by enemies.

People who hate them and want to see their annihilation.

And so, my support for Israel has not waned, no.

- Let's close a little bit on the lighter side.

For people who live outside of North Smithfield.

What local restaurant should they visit?

- Oh, in North Smithfield or outside of North Smithfield?

- In North Smithfield.

- I don't even wanna tell you because it's such a small little spot and it's... - Very political.

- Okay, there's so many great spots.

But my favorite spot for Portuguese calamari is Lucky Dog.

It's this tiny little restaurant.

You need a reservation, and sometimes you have to wait like a week or days because they're so small, but their food is so good.

- We'll leave it there.

Thanks so much for joining us, the Republican leader in the Rhode Island Senate, Jessica De La Cruz of North Smithfield.

- Thank you for having me, and I appreciate it.

- Thanks for watching, "One-on-One" with me, Ian Donnis.

You can find all of our past interviews on the YouTube channel for Ocean State Media.

We'll see you next week.

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