Marc Comtois
Save the Bay’s Jonathan Stone recently wrote: For years, vacancies have undermined the CRMC’s capacity and effectiveness. Now, the council’s lack of compliance with the separation-of-powers amendment continues to leave its decisions open to legal challenge. The Supreme Court confirmed that CRMC members must be appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of…
The House Finance Committee is releasing its modifications to Governor Carcieri’s proposed budget. Here’s what we’ve learned (via the ProJo 7to7): Tax Increases: * Raise the gas tax by 2 cents/gallon (earmarked for RIPTA) * Require out-of-state websites (think Amazon.com) to charge RI consumers Rhode Island’s 7% sales tax when applicable. * Rejects most of…
RI Sen. Charles Levesque (D-Bristol/Portsmouth) and Rep. Peter Palumbo (D-Cranston) have introduced legislation that would keep expired teachers’ contracts in place until they are replaced by new contracts. The Senate passed the measure and it is now waiting in the House (see the proposal here) for consideration. Why? Levesque said the intent is to help…
Governor Carcieri was on the John DePetro Show this morning and expressed his concern over what he was hearing–more taxes, fewer cuts–about the budget being floated out of the House. Calling them a “tin ear bunch,” he was clearly frustrated that some of his proposed program cuts had been reinstated and, worse, that taxes (including…
United Healthcare is suing the City of Warwick, as reported by Russell Moore at the Warwick Beacon: United Healthcare of New England…claim[s the City of Warwick] violated its own ordinances in awarding a healthcare administration contract for its employees without seeking a joint bid with the school department. The suit asks the State Superior Court…
Welp, the budget “drops” (I believe that’s current hip vernacular, right?) in the House tomorrow afternoon at 1 PM. And no one has a clue what’s in it but a select few. I heard NBC 10’s Bill Rappleye say this morning on the John DePetro Show that he couldn’t find anything out and it doesn’t…
Safeway CEO Stephen Burd explains: While comprehensive health-care reform needs to address a number of other key issues, we believe that personal responsibility and financial incentives are the path to a healthier America. By our calculation, if the nation had adopted our approach in 2005, the nation’s direct health-care bill would be $550 billion less…
In preparation for Father’s Day, and homage to what once was…. (Submitted with tongue firmly in cheek….honest!). More old-fashioned stuff HERE.
Rep. Charlene Lima (D-Cranston) was on the Dan Yorke Show to talk about license plates, but Dan steered the conversation to the budget. Lima stated that the budget would be out next Tuesday and that, from what she was hearing, the emphasis was on budget cuts and not tax increases. She also indicated that some…
James Poulus observes: I’ve said elsewhere that our vision of politics is being corrupted by a well-meaning but misguided epistemology of compassion: increasingly, we consider the person or group demanding a right to be the most trustworthy source of information about whether they deserve it. Anyone aggrieved, we think, must really be suffering grief, and…