<html><head></head><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:16px"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477238936418_4131">Thanks to Aaron and all who have added to this discussion!</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477238936418_4131"><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477238936418_4131" dir="ltr">One more point: I am struggling with Question 4 (higher education). On the one hand, I am a huge fan of CCRI, RIC, and URI, and the $25.5 million for the engineering building is probably sorely needed.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477238936418_4131"><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477238936418_4131">On the other hand, the Question also authorizes $20 million for a purpose that is so vague that it will be impossible to tell whether the money was properly spent or not: "<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477238936418_6124">building an innovation campus that supports cutting-edge research into products, services and </span><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477238936418_5938" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">businesses that will build Rhode Island’s economy."</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477238936418_4131"><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477238936418_4131" dir="ltr"><font face="sans-serif" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477238936418_6245"><span style="font-size: 16.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477238936418_6244">This is essentially giving a blank check for $20 million to do anything as long as it's arguably intended to build the economy, and justifying it by including the word "innovation". Which is uncomfortably similar to the arguments for 38Studios (minus the baseball glamor).</span></font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477238936418_4131"><font face="sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 16.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477238936418_4131"><font face="sans-serif" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477238936418_6279"><span style="font-size: 16.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477238936418_6278">Thoughts?</span></font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477238936418_4131"><font face="sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 16.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477238936418_4131"><font face="sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 16.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kate</span></font></div></div></body></html>