- Ted, it's good to be with you.

The University of New Hampshire Survey Center recently released one of its periodic polls of Rhode Island voters.

Let's talk about some of the results.

First, worrying result for Democratic Governor Dan McKee as he looks ahead to his reelection race next year, UNH putting the governor's job approval rating at just 19% and his disapproval rating at 71%.

Republican President Donald Trump fared significantly better in the survey.

UNH finding Trump's job approval at 37% in Rhode Island with 61% disapproving.

Ted, on Governor McKee, these are the types of poll numbers that make people wonder whether or not he could actually run again in 2026.

- Definitely, it's only fueled more speculation about that.

I mean, 19% is just a dismal finding.

It's the territory former Governor Lincoln Chafee got into and he was not able to run for reelection when that happened to him.

You know, you talk to the McKee team and McKee himself, they point out to other polls that are somewhat better for him, but, you know, none of them are super robust.

You know, the best one recently was in the Fordyce, and that was a few months ago now.

Hence, the skepticism as you say, especially when you already have, former CVS Executive Helena Foulkes, she hasn't announced, but she's clearly running again in the Democratic primary against McKee.

She's already raised twice as much money as him too.

So I think that's part of why there's so much feeling of will he be able to run.

- And 74% of respondents of this poll also said that he should not seek reelection.

However, there is no indication that that's going to be the case.

- Just the opposite, right?

He just announced, McKee, that he's just hired a campaign manager for his 2026 reelection race.

He's hired a finance director to help boost his fundraising.

And I think that was a shot across the bow to everyone at the State House and in Rhode Island politics saying, "Don't write me off.

I'm not going anywhere."

You know, we know McKee's very competitive and I think it would be hard for him to walk away, and I think he wants to send that message to everybody.

- It seems like he's going to have to convince a lot of people.

- Quite a few people still need to be convinced, I think that's fair to say.

- We'll make sure to watch this closely as the midterm election gets closer next year.

Let's talk about Providence where Mayor Brett Smiley is still working to win general assembly approval of a 7.5% tax hike to pay for a Rhode Island Department of Education settlement that would fund millions of the public schools.

But at no surprise that this is not a popular proposal.

Voters went to the city council and overwhelmingly said they can't afford a higher tax bill.

And last week, Representative Grace Diaz was on Spanish talk radio and received really tough criticism for her vote in approving this proposal.

Voters telling her that they will not vote for her again.

- And I'm not surprised, right?

People don't like their taxes going up.

They really don't like their taxes going up well above what's usually allowed, which is the whole reason Smiley's having to go to the general assembly for authorization here.

This is a city with an already high tax burden.

So the backlash does not shock me, but it's something that all these elected officials have to deal with right now.

- The mayor also defended his approach during a recent appearance on Channel 12 and tried to reassure taxpayers that this is the right path.

Let's take a listen to what he had to say.

- I made the cuts that didn't affect services in this proposal.

The next round of cuts are gonna affect services.

That means libraries are gonna be closed a couple days a week.

Some of our pools and rec centers won't be open every day like they used to.

No new school construction and a diminished city services.

This is the only time that we're gonna have to ask permission from the general assembly to go over the 4% cap.

Because Providence is growing, which is a good thing, we have a lot of new taxpayers every year.

- His message echoing what members of the legislature have been saying is that the alternative would've been much worse.

And you've said this before, you really connect this to the city's long-term pension problem.

- Yeah, and you know, people's eyes glaze over.

I understand when you start talking about pension benefits and retirement obligations and others, but, you know, this goes all the way back to 2010, right after the 2010 financial crisis in Providence, where Mayor Angel Taveras committed the city, you know, he did his best to clean up the pension fund, but committed the city to paying down its obligations that have been built up over generations.

Providence was, I think, roughly a billion dollars currently.

There is the shortfall there.

And it's gonna take a long time to work that down, and it's still one of the worst funded systems in the country.

So just in the last two years, the mayor had to put, I believe it's roughly $13 million more into the pension fund above what was already going in.

Well, he needs 15 million for this school's issue that you mentioned earlier.

So the amount of money being shoveled into the pension fund every year is going to continue to put pressure on the city budget through 2040, which is how long it's supposed to take them to pay down this debt.

So unfortunately, I think, this might be something taxpayers have to sort of get used to in Providence until that pension issue is dealt with.

- Oh, good news.

But Ted, it's good to see you.

- Good to see you.