Year-in-Review with Gov. Gina Raimondo

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) – As 2018 draws to a close, Gov. Gina Raimondo is busy drafting next year’s budget and addressing the states $200-million deficit.

“There’s going to be shared sacrifice, tough decisions, but we’re going to get through it just like we do every year,” she told ABC6 News Anchor Rebecca Turco in a wide-ranging interview Wednesday, reflecting on her past year in office.

Phasing out the car tax, as it stands, may be on the chopping block. “I don’t think there’s any more hated tax in Rhode Island…Having said that, it’s incredibly expensive the way it’s structured,” Raimondo said. “I’d like to continue. It remains to be seen whether we’ll be able to in the same way”.

Raimondo also hopes to expand sports betting, based on the wildly successful launch at both Twin River casinos. The state gets about half of that revenue.

Then, there’s Hasbro. The governor has been working to convince the toy company to stay in Rhode Island, after the company CEO announced they’re considering leaving Pawtucket.

“I think I can safely say they want to stay in Rhode Island and we just have to keep the discussions ongoing,” said Raimondo.

As more recreational marijuana shops open in Massachusetts and Connecticut considers legalizing the drug, Rhode Island may be among the next in line. I’m more open to it than I’ve ever been because our hand is being forced by Massachusetts and Connecticut,” Raimondo said, “But I’m looking very hard at what can we do to regulate it to protect the health and safety of our Rhode Islanders, particularly our children.”

Raimondo says she’s committed to working harder on public education, after students on average scored 17 points lower in English than Massachusetts and 20 percent lower in Math. “Change takes time,” she said. “Massachusetts has been at it with a single strategy for 25 years. In that 25 years, we’ve probably had 10 different strategies. So if we can learn one thing from Massachusetts, it’s let’s stick to it.”

The governor hopes people define has first term as turning the corner on Rhode Island’s economy. For her second term: “I hope people say we made the recovery stick and we made it go long enough so that more people were included.”

As for what surprised her the most about being governor, it’s the reaction of girls and young women. “It’s powerful for them to see a woman in this office, that that could be them,” she said. “I tell everyone the same thing: you can be whatever you want to be.”

© WLNE-TV 2018