Monique Chartier

Proposed Taxes on Boats: No Analysis that They Wouldn’t Jeopardize Current Revenue

By Monique Chartier | May 6, 2025 |

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…

BREAKING: Rep Edith Ajello Withdraws as Co-Sponsor of the Tax-the-Boats Bill

By Monique Chartier | May 5, 2025 |

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…

Shortage of Doctors Triggered by State’s Short-Funding of Big Medicaid Promises

By Monique Chartier | April 11, 2025 |

As you have probably seen, Anchor Medical will close up shop by the end of June, unwillingly cutting loose 25,000 patients.  They cite their inability … to hire replacements for our physicians who have retired over the course of the last decade — while costs continue to rise, reimbursement rates make it extremely difficult to…

Weird – Testimony at Washington Bridge Hearing Won’t be Under Oath

By Monique Chartier | February 9, 2025 |

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…

UPDATED – the Hegseth Nomination: Warriors, Not Culture Warriors, in the US Military, Please

By Monique Chartier | January 14, 2025 |

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…

Truck Tolls or Any Tolls – Ever More Revenue Still Ain’t the Fix

By Monique Chartier | December 15, 2024 |

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…

The Schrodinger Legality of RIDOT Paying a Losing Bidder

By Monique Chartier | December 8, 2024 |

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…

RIDOT Contract: Statewide Weigh-in-Motion Enforcement Program. RIDOT: Nah.

By Monique Chartier | September 24, 2024 |

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 –…

No, Gene, Do Not Redirect Professor Schiller’s Excellent Questions About the Bridge Fiasco

By Monique Chartier | September 4, 2024 |

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…

Rhode Island’s Tiny Greenhouse Gas Emissions: the Obvious and the Not-So-Obvious

By Monique Chartier | August 4, 2024 |

The above pie chart speaks for itself.  Rhode Island’s greenhouse gas emissions are so small, they barely register on the chart. That Rhode Island, the smallest state in the country and, on top of that, one with a poor business climate that has further driven down its carbon footprint [because that’s the highest priority, right?…