Rhode Island Politics
Thanks to WPRI’s indefatiguable Ted Nesi for the heads-up. Rhode Island’s largest public-sector union declared victory Friday in a lawsuit against Pawtucket, just hours before the mayor revealed the city is running an unexpected $2.3 million deficit. Superior Court Judge Sarah Taft-Carter ruled Jan. 5 that Pawtucket cannot force retired teachers to start sharing the…
… and who is disadvantaged by the 68,000 voters to be gratuitously moved from RI-2 to RI-1. (It’s a “compromise”, dontcha know.)
Last month, Governor Chafee petitioned the federal government on Wednesday to reclassify marijuana as a drug with accepted medical uses … Last week, Speaker Fox added his voice to the effort by appeaing to the law enforcement side. House Speaker Gordon D. Fox says he’ll personally petition the U.S. Department of Justice to seek a…
A new report on the unpaid fines from the RI Board of Elections (BOE) is out (h/t Dan McGowan) and it is five pages of names and the amount they owe. Some of it is a who’s who of Rhode Island politics. So first, how does someone get fined by the BOE? Once a person,…
Two aspects of this Monday editorial in the Providence Journal, lauding Central Falls Superintendent Fran Gallo for progress in her school district are interesting. For one, multiple Projo columnists have compared Democrat General Treasurer Gina Raimondo favorable with Republican reformers in other states, like Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Ohio Governor John Kasick, on the…
On the last weekday of 2011, David Klepper of the Associated Press writes what could be the least surprising news story of the year (h/t WPRO News)…As he prepares for his second year in office, Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee is looking for ways to spur the state’s frail economy, rescue its struggling cities and…
Last week, the state escalated its involvement in East Providence’s budget problems by putting in a Budget Commission. It did so only one month after sending in a Fiscal Overseer. Observers have correctly pointed out that this was three full months earlier than called for by the procedure outlined in the so-called Fiscal Stability Act…
Somehow, I thought the state would go a bit more slowly when it came to using its new “tool” for taking over governance of Rhode Island municipalities: Again raising the sense of urgency and severity, Governor Chafee appointed a financial commission to oversee East Providence on Tuesday. The decision makes the city the state’s first…
Looks like a load of political garbage has arrived at the Central Landfill. Co-Chair of the [General Assembly Study] commission tasked with investigating the odor emanating from the Johnston landfill, Stephen Ucci, called for the resignation of Executive Director of RI Resource Recovery Michael OConnell. Ucci made the announcement at a public hearing held at…
An interesting tactical question regarding the current state of Rhode Island’s Congressional redistricting process is why “Plan F” instead of “Plan C”. At the municipal scale of resolution, Plan C and Plan F (unveiled last night by the Rhode Island Redistricting Commission) are based on the same concept: Move Burrillville from CD1 to CD2 and…