A Legislature Shouldn't Be Speaker Plus Advisers

We're all rightly pleased that binding arbitration for teachers didn't make it into law, but there's something in the Rhode Island Statewide Coalition's post-victory press release that taps into a disconcerting aspect of the process:

"We commend Speaker Fox for giving this legislation the burial it deserves in the final hours of the session but we also recognize the 17 Senators who truly began the momentum to kill this bill with their courageous votes against it on the Senate floor Wednesday," states RISC Executive Director Harriet Lloyd.

As much as we may want a particular bill to go away, we'd do well to avoid acceptance of the the lopsided power of Rhode Island's Speaker of the House. The Providence Journal story on the bill's death calls it "his decision," and one wonders why legislators were shielded from a vote. Just as higher profile candidates spread political contributions around to lesser allies, the Speaker appears to have determined that he had some political capital to expend.

It's not, by the way, just a question of the Speaker putting aside a bill that he believes needs better vetting (and better timing for the outcome that he likely favors). The aspect appears again in this Providence Journal summary of the legislative session's final days (emphasis added):

"My staff and I worked extremely hard to reach a compromise on the health exchange legislation and I am hopeful that we can work things out for potential passage in the future," House Speaker Gordon D. Fox, D-Providence, said Friday. "However, I was unwilling to accept the Senate version of the bill, which included the pro-life language."

To make the process look even worse, the article describes a period during which the House's computers weren't able to access the bills and "lawmakers complained they were being asked to vote on bills they could not see." One wonders whether it's appropriate for legislators to read bills just before voting on them, anyway. Shouldn't they have at least a basic familiarity with them before the debate begins?

On the other hand, given the dynamics of the General Assembly's leadership team, it's a question whether legislators really need to read the bills, at all; they allow a small group so much power to control their activities. In that regard, another ally of the the center-right movement also offers disconcerting remarks:

"I can walk out that door and feel proud that we did what needed to be done for this state," [Warwick Republican Joe] Trillo said. "It is your leadership, Mr. Speaker. You have stepped up to the plate. You have proven that you understand what this state needed."

Bull. The legislature did was it always does and squeaked through with a budget that solves no real problems and ratchets the damaging regulator and taxation regimes just a bit more, in ways direct and indirect. Here's one of the latter, with a bit of guffaw-worthy rhetoric from the majority leader:

Republicans criticized the potential surcharge on electricity and natural gas bills to fund the [low-income utility aid] plan. "Let's be honest. We are voting on a $7-million tax increase," said House Minority Leader Brian C. Newberry, R-North Smithfield. "Let's call it what it is and vote it up or down."

Responded House Majority Leader Nicholas Mattiello, D-Cranston: "Twenty dollars per year per ratepayer. Do you consider that a tax increase? I don't. That is our obligation to take care of those amongst us that are meek."

Rhode Island so loves its meek that it has developed a civic structure and employment environment that makes it unduly difficult for them to cease being meek. Consequently, those who wish to improve their station in life must go elsewhere. Until legislators address that problem, we'll continue down this road of annual difficulties — annual attempts to slow our decline. Perhaps substantive, positive change can come at the behest of unreasonably powerful legislative leaders, but more likely than not, they'll have to be knocked down a few pegs before the system receives the hard shakes that it so desperately needs.