Monique Chartier
The General Assembly and Governor Dan McKee have set Net Zero by 2050 as Rhode Island’s energy policy. The 2021 Act on Climate law also includes interim emission mandates along the way to 2050: 10% below 1990 levels by 2020 45% below 1990 levels by 2030 80% below 1990 levels by 2040 Net-zero emissions by…
All taxes are burdensome in practicality and, therefore, repugnant as policy. But if you’re going to propose a new tax, arguably, your imperative is “First, Do No Harm” to current tax revenue – and doubly so if you are proposing a tax (taxes) that has a vivid track record (in this case, of failure). It…
Bill H6256 at the General Assembly, to be heard tomorrow in House Finance at the Rise, would “repeal the property tax and sales and use tax exemption for boats”. Anchor Rising reached out to all sponsors of the bill with the following question. The marine industry employs over 13,000 people in Rhode Island as of…
Medicaid and illegal immigration complicate RI’s health system and limit doctor access for residents.
A joint Oversight hearing about the Washington Bridge will be held this Thursday at the State House. [Agenda.] There will be no public testimony and only committee members will ask questions. There is so far only one witness: Rhode Island Department of Transportation Director Peter Alviti. The Director will not be under oath when he…
The Senate hearing on President-Elect Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense is now underway. Inasmuch as the objections to his nomination raised so far at the hearing are irrelevant to the vital mission of the United States military, I am bumping up my post of November 17. There has been a “Well…
They’re ba-a-a-a-a-ack. Well, strong possibility. Truck-only tolls, that is. To clarify, Rhode Island’s only-in-the-nation, truck-only toll law is not just discriminatory – it applies only to a certain type of vehicle, trucks – but it is actually doubly discriminatory – it applies only to CERTAIN trucks (Class 8 and above). But the federal appeals court…
This is not the biggest question pertaining to Rhode Island’s handling of the failed Washington Bridge – it is secondary, for example, to WHY the state had to offer a serious incentive for what would seem to be a juicy public contract, not to mention what Ken Block is in the process of turning up…
Following the determination in April that the Washington Bridge eastbound was becoming “considerably more sensitive” (gulp), RIDOT contracted to install a new, combined structural health monitoring and vehicle weigh-in-motion program on/between the Washington Bridge and the Iway (Providence River Bridge). In May, RIDOT entered into a five year “sole source” – i.e., no RFP –…
Gene Valicenti’s weekly Tuesday conversation on WPRO with Brown University Professor Wendy Schiller took a slightly unexpected turn yesterday when Gene honored her request to comment on the handling of the Washington Bridge closure. (Starts at Minute 06:45.) Schiller: This is a significant, major problem that if something goes wrong with the eastbound side, for…
