Rep. Robert Flaherty of Warwick achieved his rating of zero in the Anchor Rising legislative ratings via a different route than most of the other zeroes on the list, by missing a large number of significant votes. He was present for the vote on the Teachers’ Health Insurance Board (where he voted in favor of the override and against the principle of separation of powers).
However, Rep. Flaherty had no recorded votes in the four remaining areas that were considered. Rep. Flaherty missed both votes on watering down Mayoral academies in 2008 as well as the vote for their start-up funding in 2009. In this budget session, he missed both votes on unfunded mandate relief, he missed the votes on the car-tax Article and its different components, and he missed the votes on pension reform.