Projo Politics Blog

The Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns’ executive director, Dan Beardsley, has decided to introduce a little live polling action at his group’s annual meeting on Thursday.

With a small hand-held device at their place settings, each attendee will be able to vote their gambling and budget-balancing preferences, along with their choices for president in 2008 and governor in 2010. The results will register immediately on big screens at the front of the Warwick Crowne Plaza reception room, and an excited Beardsley says the audience response technology will allow him to break down the results by gender, county and other variables.

Beardsley isn’t willing to give away all his questions in advance, but he said a sample question might be: What is the single most important thing Rhode Island can do to improve education? Among the possible answers: establish an “equitable and predictable” school-aid formula, replace collective bargaining for teachers with a single statewide teachers contract, have the state take over K through 12.

Another likely question: If you have absolute power to fix the state’s persistent budget imbalance, what would you do: tighten eligibility for entitlement programs, lower the rate while expanding the reach of the state’s 7-percent sales tax, privatize every possible state service, lay off 5,000 state employees, allow 24/7 gambling at Newport Grand and the former Lincoln Park, now known as Twin River?

And, of course: What, if anything, should Rhode Island do if lawmakers in Massachusetts embrace Governor Patrick’s casino-gambling plan: allow full-scale casino gambling in Lincoln and Newport? Strike an agreement that enables the Narragansett Indians to move forward on their long-sought casino, or do nothing as there is already enough gambling in Rhode Island?

Asked the impetus, Beardsley said after attending more “boring meetings” of one sort or another than he can count, he was both grateful and amused to see how the technology enlivened the last big National League of Cities and Towns meeting he attended.

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