General Assembly
An exchange that Ed Fitzpatrick reports from the floor of the General Assembly speaks volumes about legislators’ view of their role in this state: When the funding-formula bill came up Thursday, [Rod Driver, D-Richmond] asked, “Why do we have to do this right away, the moment we see it?” House Speaker Gordon D. Fox, D-Providence,…
Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Patrick Lynch mentioned the idea of moving to a unicameral legislature in Rhode Island during last Thursday’s gubernatorial debate. He’s even tweeted about it… RI government needs to change the way we do biz. It takes a total overhaul. Let’s start with unicameral legislature But if we are going to discuss a…
Karin Gorman (daughter-in-law of Terry) has tended to be just outside the spotlight’s range, in Rhode Island politics, but anybody who attends right-of-center public events related to government will recognize her. Her visibility will increase, no doubt, when she wins a seat in the General Assembly: Karin Gorman, director and vice president of Rhode Islanders…
It looks like the General Assembly actually did get around to passing a state aid formula for Rhode Island’s schools. As we’ve been pointing out all along, folks at the local level have seemed to assume that a “fair funding formula” would be one that gives them, specifically, more money, and this legislation does acknowledge…
Ed Fitzpatrick catches a telling rhetorical cliché in a column about state representative and congressional candidate David Segal (D., Providence) (emphasis added): “I have a constituency in (his House district) that voted for me at a 70/30 rate over the years in primaries, and I think that I will be framed as a progressive as…
So, yeah, the General Assembly has managed to keep its hands pretty clean when it comes to raising taxes, but Rhode Islanders shouldn’t expect to have more money in their pockets — at least not unless they get involved in local government right now. As we’ve seen, in Tiverton, the state bureaucracy is willing to…
Every year, the General Assembly’s budget is full of optimistic assumptions meant to make the budget seem balanced on paper, with hundreds of millions of dollars to be found or taken throughout the year. This time around, though, we’ve reached the level of parody: As initially proposed by Carcieri, the Assembly’s budget plugs deficits with…
The comments to Marc’s post on the number of General Assembly members who benefit from public pensions are understandable, but most miss the point. Cutting the General Assembly’s pay and authority isn’t going to address the essential problem — namely, that an official position that doesn’t pay much will attract those who have other motivations,…
Justin, along with many of us avid watchers of the State House, was a little startled to learn that former Speaker Pro Tem Charlene Lima (D, Cranston) had not only dropped by the Tea Party Thursday but had offered expressions of camaraderie. Converted politicians are certainly welcome to the good government cause. It is difficult,…
Have I been missing something, all these years, or does the appearance of Rep. Charlene Lima (D., Cranston) in this article about the Tax Day Tea Party seem a bit disorienting? State Rep. Charlene M. Lima, D-Cranston, stopped by after the Assembly finished its business for the day. She said that lawmakers couldn’t hear the…