Rhode Island Politics
Although I haven’t yet managed to get a handle on the realistic role and responsibilities of Rhode Island’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC), I can’t help but feel that a little outrage on the part of its president, Saul Kaplan in response to legislative hammering: Lawmakers yesterday demanded answers from Rhode Island’s Economic Development Corporation about…
Via N4N: Rep. Stephen R. Ucci (D-Dist. 42, Johnston, Cranston) has introduced legislation that would allow voters to decide on a proposal to increase term lengths for and impose term limits upon members of the General Assembly. Under the proposal, elections held after 2010 would be held every four years. Legislators would serve four-year terms…
The RI Senate has approved the supplemental budget, largely in the form that the governor proposed. I haven’t had the time to figure out this, though: The plan restores $5 million of the $7 million the governor had proposed to eliminate for the Neighborhood Opportunities Program, which supports affordable housing initiatives. That funding will go…
Times are so dark — and the general thrust of the solution so obvious — that special interests and other general-revenue soakers can’t even escape to the Lifebeat section for relief. Credit goes to Rita Lussier for using her influence for the cause of sanity: Not to alarm you, but this situation is a ticking…
It is simply not possible that a reasonable person acting out of a desire for mutual, productive dialog could attempt to paint an extremely recent executive order pertaining to illegal immigration from a relatively powerless governor as a contributing factor in our current economic crisis. The strategy is transparent and disturbing: push policies that benefit…
A caller to WPRO’s Matt Allen Show today came up with the idea of charging a fee for every bill that a Rhode Island legislator wishes to file. Matt suggested $500 a pop, to be deducted from the legislator’s annual salary. In view of the many look-at-me, pointlessly distracting bills that are filed every session,…
Sure, it may be an easy mark, but just because they make it easy, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be noted: During their marathon House budget-cutting debate last Friday, lawmakers talked again and again about the need to “share the burden” and “share the pain.” But they decided to spare themselves from making any contribution to…
Pat Crowley’s complaints about a letter that Governor Carcieri apparently sent to Bob Walsh, Crowley’s NEA boss, are transparently two-faced in so many ways that I won’t enumerate them. Simply put, the idea that Walsh would respond otherwise than with the mind-numbing reply that Crowley publishes is laughable. It is, let’s just say, improbable that…
There’s something very Rhode Island about this proposed legislation: A bill filed recently in the state Senate would forbid all vehicles with more than two axles from driving over the Sakonnet River (Route 24) and Pawtucket (I-95) bridges. While the 22-ton limit on both bridges would remain in effect, Senate bill S 2891 would ban…
So, faced with a reduction in benefits, about 2,500 state workers are expected to retire. Under the new plan, they’d have to be 59 years old, have 20 years in and then would have to pay $1,700 per year for health benefits (20% of the total health package). Currently, retired state workers pay nothing towards…