Governor Raimondo cancels controversial trip to Switzerland
By Bianca Buono
@BBuonoABC6
Governor Gina Raimondo and an aide were supposed to leave Wednesday night for Switzerland where they were going to attend a world economic forum.
"It’s my job to bring jobs home to Rhode Island. I’m going to showcase Rhode Island on a global stage,” Gov. Gina Raimondo said in an interview Tuesday.
But due to a big storm in the forecast, she canceled the trip, putting the controversy surrounding it to rest.
"Education is the last area where politics should be injected,” said State Senator Paul Jabour, who represents District 5.
The trip would have cost $7,000 and State Senator Paul Jabour was unhappy about how the trip would have been paid for. he University of Rhode Island Foundation was going to pick up the tab.
"My initial reaction was why would we do that? And that sounds not like the foundation,” Jabour said.
Jabour, who also holds a seat on the foundation’s board, says that’s an improper use of funds and what’s to stop political figures from asking educational foundations for money going forward.
"Institutions of higher education and their foundations are being tapped or asked to do things that may be against what their underlying purpose might be,” Jabour said.
The URI Foundation was established to raise money to further the education process of the university. Jabour says the main source of the money raised is from alumni, who typically specify where they want their money to go.
"Even if someone donated ‘x’ amount of dollars and said this would be for public officials I doubt that would happen,” Jabour said.
Jabour says the next step is creating a law that keeps politics out of educational foundations."
"Even lending or paying money to public officials for activities that are not consistent with the purpose of the foundation,” he explained.
© WLNE-TV 2016
