01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, October 26, 2004

FOR RHODE ISLAND voters, Nov. 2 is payback time.

This summer, the state's public-employee unions, which are led by Frank J. Montanaro, arranged a political hit on Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey, who had made it clear he intends to fight for the taxpayers in next year's contract negotiations.

Union leaders, openly admitting that they feared Mayor Laffey's example could spread and embolden other elected officials to put taxpayers first, decided to use their money, organization and other clout to take him out in Sept. 14's Republican primary. They hoped to sneak a puppet candidate past Cranston voters.

But the voters -- desperate to get property taxes under control and to reform a city that has been looted by special interests for decades -- instead decided to send a message back to Boss Montanaro. They turned out in astonishing numbers -- more than doubling the previous GOP-primary record -- and endorsed Mr. Laffey by a 3-to-1 margin.

Now, Mayor Laffey and GOP candidate Jim Davey are working to send another powerful statewide message. They hope to defeat state Rep. Frank A. Montanaro (D.-Cranston) -- Boss Montanaro's son -- on Nov. 2.

In many ways, Representative Montanaro, 43, is the poster child of special-interest control of the General Assembly. It is their money -- especially the money of public-employee union groups allied to his father, who is head of the state AFL-CIO and State Association of Fire Firefighters -- that put young Frank in office at 25 and has kept him there for 18 years.

Soon after his election, he obtained his state job, as assistant director of facilities at Rhode Island College, which pays him about $53,600 a year. Combined with his state representative's salary, he makes $65,880 a year directly from the taxpayers.

But there's more. He also runs FAM (Frank A. Montanaro?) Promotions, listing his home as the business's address a few years ago on his financial-disclosure report. The company that operates the city's Cranston Memorial Ice Center, Tampa-based Global Spectrum, paid FAM Promotions $1,275 in January, and another $2,250 last year, according to its cash-disbursements journal.

Immense political power seems to be concentrated in Montanaro's family. His father, of course, is the unelected governor, running Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, controlling the state Labor Relations Board and often chairing the state Economic Development Corporation. Young Frank's wife, Joy, a dental hygienist, is chair of the Cranston Zoning Board of Review. His uncle, Richard Crudele, ran the city's Building and Maintenance Department until Mayor Laffey took over. His cousin, former state Rep. Coleen Crudele, is chairman of Cranston's Board of Contracts and Purchasing.

Like any politician, young Frank stays in power with the help of those who wish him to do their bidding. Just look at the political-action-committee contributions in his latest report: Warwick firefighters, Central Falls firefighters, Johnston firefighters, Pawtucket firefighters, North Providence firefighters, Cranston firefighters, Providence firefighters, Coventry firefighters and his father's Rhode Island State Association of Fire Fighters; also, the state National Education Association, the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers, West Warwick teachers, North Providence teachers, Cranston teachers, Johnston teachers, Providence teachers; also, the Amalgamated Transit Union (the largest union at RIPTA), Brotherhood of Correctional Officers, Cranston police officers, the Service Employees International Union, the International Union of Operating Engineers, United Steelworkers of America, Iron Workers union, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Rhode Island AFL-CIO and Council 94 of AFSCME.

Does anyone detect a theme here?

I found one business-related contributor in his latest report: Newport Grand, the gambling facility.

Voters have a right to ask: Whose side is he on -- ours or theirs?

When Mayor Laffey hired a firm to study the cost of public safety -- it reported back that the total cost of fire protection was 233 percent more than in the average city Cranston's size -- Mr. Montanaro's response was to champion a House resolution (it passed) attacking the study!

It's nothing new. Mr. Montanaro got more money from teachers unions than any other representative in a Journal study of contributions from 1994 to 1997. He used his position to do such things as defeat a proposal that retired teachers pay the cost of increases in premiums on life-insurance policies provided as part of their benefits package. He called it a "nickel-and-dime bill."

It's not just Mr. Montanaro, of course. All over the state, the single-party dominance of the legislature allows self-interested little deals to flourish, and public-employee unions all but dictate government policy.

The unions end up with superb pay and benefits. The taxpayers get second-rate services, crushing taxes and the destruction of their children's future in Rhode Island, since few companies want to set up shop and create jobs in such a poorly run polity. (The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, in Washington, just ranked Rhode Island 48th in its treatment of entrepreneurs, small businesses and their employees.)

It will continue until voters opt for change. Nov. 2 is their next opportunity to do so.

Edward Achorn is The Journal's deputy editorial-pages editor. His e-mail address is eachorn [at] projo.com.