General Assembly

House Minority Leader Brian Newberry’s View of the Budget

By Carroll Andrew Morse | June 19, 2011 |

Rhode Island House of Representatives Minority Leader Brian Newberry (who prior to the last election, by the way, scored 10 out of a possible 10 in the Anchor Rising legislative ratings, which were based on fiscal and governance issues) has posted a review of the state budget to his State-Rep Facebook site. Rep. Newberry offers…

Another Rabbit Hat Budget

By Justin Katz | June 18, 2011 |

The late-Friday release of the RI House’s budget proposal is in keeping with the overall impression one gets at first glance. At least Gov. Chafee’s budget tried to do something. The General Assembly looks most inclined not to ruffle the feathers of any significant (read: “powerful”) constituencies, and thereby continues the ratcheting effect that has…

The Budget Emerges…

By Carroll Andrew Morse | June 17, 2011 |

Ted Nesi’s Twitter Feed is one of the places to be for emerging details on the budget. UPDATE: And Philip Marcelo has the Projo’s report already up.

What We Expect from Our Leaders

By Justin Katz | June 16, 2011 |

On last night’s Matt Allen Show, Matt and I talked about expectations for the forthcoming budget, speeding tickets, and things on the blog. Stream by clicking here, or download it.

Coming up in Committee: Thirteen Sets of Bills Scheduled to be Heard by the RI General Assembly, June 14 – June 16

By Carroll Andrew Morse | June 13, 2011 |

Here’s your warm-act for the presentation of the budget. Note that at the time of this post, there are no committee meetings scheduled for Thursday afternoon. 13. H6104/H6222: Changes in regulations regarding distributed generation of electricity from renewable sources. (Senate Environment and Agriculture, June 15) 12. Traffic law changes, including making seat-belt violations a primary…

More Commentary on Stephen Iannazzi

By Justin Katz | June 9, 2011 |

My situation may be unique (although I doubt it), but one of the consequences of Rhode Island’s political and economic structure is that it is so darn difficult just to get by and raise a family that little time remains to keep a consistently watchful eye on local political corruption. Such has been the case…

The Fox Designing the Hen House

By Justin Katz | June 6, 2011 |

Redistricting must occur, I suppose, and a process must obviously be in place to handle it, but Rhode Island’s proposed process doesn’t even have much of a pretense of different voices and token opposition: House Bill 6096, which now goes to the House floor, places the state’s once-each-decade redistricting process in the hands of an…

Coming up in Committee: Twelve Sets of Bills Scheduled to be Heard by the RI General Assembly, June 7 – June 9

By Carroll Andrew Morse | June 4, 2011 |

12. H5133: Repeals the prohibition against “classified” state employees from running for state office. (House Labor, June 7) 11. S0858: All agencies, authorities, commissions, boards, municipalities, political subdivisions, and other public units of the state would be able to contribute funds to a pool that the General Treasurer would invest for them. Introduced at the…

Five Other Sets of Bills Scheduled to be Heard by the RI General Assembly, June 7 – June 9

By Carroll Andrew Morse | June 4, 2011 |

…and here’s a few more with impacts that are less-than-clear. H5939/H6104/H6222: Lots of technical changes to regulations over “distributed generatation capacity and resources” of electric utilities. (House Environment and Natural Resources, June 7) H6076/S0790: From the official description: “This act would transfer many of the powers, duties and responsibilities from the [and] change the state…

Re: The 195 Redevelopment Commission Bill and the Ethics Commission

By Carroll Andrew Morse | June 2, 2011 |

A few people that I have talked to about the proposed I-195 redevelopment commission law tell me that evading Ethics Committee jurisdiction is not as easy as I had originally thought it was. The question of whether appointed commissioners would be subject to Ethics Commission jurisdiction over “state or municipal appointed officials“, despite the proposed…