Political Profile: Roger Picard, Candidate for State Senate in District 20

Saturday, August 27, 2022

 

Roger Picard is a Democratic candidate for State Senator in District 20. Here is what he has to say.

 

1. What do you think is the biggest political issue this campaign season in Rhode Island?   

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Inflation is one of the major issues facing Rhode Islanders, especially the residents of Dist. 20.  It affects us in all aspects of our daily lives, from the cost of food to transportation, housing, and education.  Reigning in inflation by addressing its drivers, such as energy programs, cost of government, and barriers to economic expansion, should be the focus in the upcoming session.  We also need to assess how to offset inflation’s affects by adjusting tax policies and fine-tuning public programs while ensuring accessibility to the most vulnerable and creating a unified economic strategy in our ever-changing work environment.

 

2. What do we need to do to improve Rhode Island’s economy?    

In addition, education, both its funding and delivery, needs serious review.  However, any delivery system is only as good as its funding source.  I believe it truly a time to upgrade our educational funding formula while ensuring it is within our constitution.

To assist our economic growth, we must make sure our business community, especially the small business sector, has what it needs to not only survive but grow.  The pandemic has created a new paradigm in how products are procured and delivered, services rendered, and a new set of employment expectations by the work force.  This dynamic will require that government, through their statutory and regulatory powers, and businesses, through their own business models, will have to adjust to this new paradigm.  Progress can only be obtained if both work together.

3. What is the greatest challenge facing Rhode Island as a state?   

The biggest challenge facing Rhode Island simply is “unity through communications.”  We have many good people with many good ideas.  However, our inability to communicate with each other in civil public discourse has created a tension that inhibits the ability to truly communicate and make progress.

 

4. Why are you running for office? What makes you uniquely qualified?  

The reason for my candidacy is the bring the voice of the people of District 20 to the State House.  It is important that all perspectives are offered and considered.  Both my wife and I are life-long residents of District 20.  We both grew up, went to school, attended church, participated in local community activities, currently reside and work here in District 20.  In doing so, I feel this provides the necessary understanding of the perspectives of the people Woonsocket and Cumberland, not only through daily contact but also the nuanced feelings received by this daily interaction.

 

5. Who is your inspiration?  

Simply, I gather my inspiration through my faith and family and the people in general.

 

BIO: Senator Roger A. Picard

Roger A. Picard is a Democrat representing District 20 (Woonsocket, Cumberland) in the Rhode Island Senate.

Prior to his election to the Senate in an April 2008 special election, he served in the Rhode Island House of Representatives from 1993 to 2008.

In 2021, he was elected Senate Deputy President Pro Tempore. He serves as Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce and as a member of the Senate Committee on Housing & Municipal Government and the Senate Committee on Labor.

In 2008, Sen. Picard sponsored legislation amending the Hospital Conversion Act. He has sponsored several bills to boost small businesses, including legislation on health care for sole proprietors and self-employed people; legislation aimed at assisting truck drivers and streamlining the commercial driver’s license process; and a bill significantly lowering the manufacturing and wholesale licensing fee for alcohol manufacturers.

In terms of education, he has sponsored legislation allowing school districts to conduct virtual instruction during inclement weather and emergencies, and introduced a bill to allow students to make up lost school days through at-home learning. He also sought a statewide ballot vote on a constitutional amendment to guarantee “an equitable, adequate and meaningful education to each child” and sponsored a law requiring the creation of pathways and workforce training programs in the clean-energy sector, part of the Senate’s Grow Green Jobs RI initiative.

Other legislation sponsored by Sen. Picard includes a law requiring insurance companies to make a good faith effort to locate the beneficiaries of life insurance policies; a measure encouraging middle and secondary schools to offer performing arts programs; a law authorizing an alternative treatment for opioid addiction; and a proposal to have the governor and lieutenant governor run on the same ticket.

Sen. Picard was honored by Rhode Island AARP with its 2016 Capitol Caregivers award, recognizing his sponsorship of a law that allows single-family homeowners to construct or use accessory dwellings to care for older family members.

Sen. Picard was born on Jan. 26, 1957. He and his wife, Diane, have three children, Nicole, Kristen and Caitlyn.

He is a graduate of Woonsocket High School, 1975; University of Rhode Island, B.A./B.S., 1979; and Rhode Island College, MSW, 1995. He also holds a master’s in theological studies from Providence College. He works as a social worker for the Woonsocket School Department.

 

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