Rhode Island Politics
Heh. Someone posted an advertisement on the free classifieds website Craigslist this month seeking to enlist Democratic challengers to Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed, a Newport Democrat up for reelection in 2012. The person who posted the ad was identified only by the e-mail address automatically generated by the website: comm-rmdy8-2436493850@craigslist.org But the person…
For the seventh year in a row, Representative Grace Diaz (D-Providence) has submitted a bill that would, as the bill language euphemistically phrases it, “exempt” illegal immigrant students “from paying nonresident tuition at Rhode Island public universities, 8 colleges or community colleges”. In other words, illegal immigrant students would be permitted to attend Rhode Island…
Looking at RIPEC’s state budget projections, Ted Nesi explains how a “budget on autopilot” is untenable no matter what the entity–towns, cities, states, the country. You can also read “autopilot” to mean “assumptions.” Yet, the assumptions built into these budgets–3% raises, increase in program costs, etc.–aren’t even enough to cover the rate of growth, which…
Those like myself who are obsessed with politics to the exclusion of almost everything else can be excused for passing lightly over Bob Kerr’s column yesterday; the headline The blind date doesn’t seem to be working out gave the impression that the topic of the column was lifestyle or culture. Not so. It’s like a…
Remember that DOT staffer busted by WPRI for sleeping, eating and reading for half the work day? Well, he’s back on the job – but during a different shift. The Department of Transportation worker caught in a Target 12 Investigation spending hours on the clock sleeping, eating and reading novels over several weeks, is back…
One larger observation before jumping in. You know, here we are, at the point that we can see the day, in the near future, when public pension checks will bounce. Yet rather than focus on what is the state’s biggest crisis in many decades (arguably of the last century or more), Senate Majority Leader Dominick…
Governor Donald Carcieri was limited in what he could accomplish, given the degree to which the Rhode Island Constitution favors the legislature, but at least he offered a different view. This tidbit, from the end of the article to which I linked earlier, is apt to give a taxpayer the hopeless sense that there’s nobody…
First, former Providence Mayor David Cicilline spent seven years carrying out the charade that he was being tough on the contract demands of the Providence firefighters so that he could falsely claim the title of Champion of the Taxpayer. Then, as the end of his second term approached and it became clear that the lack…
That’s what Ian Donnis is hearing. If these murmurings are true (and I wouldn’t bother to post if someone of less than Ian’s credibility had reported it), no one should be more relieved than the Truth Commissioner himself because the former governor’s considerable campaign strengths, pointed out by Ian, Carcieri has some key assets that…
Ed Achorn’s most recent column highlights how little has changed in the public discussion of pension reform. This snippet, from a 2005 column of his, caught my eye in particular: “Robert Walsh, executive director of the National Education Association Rhode Island, responded to last week’s cries for pension reform by dismissing it all as a…