Rhode Island Politics
According to the Rhode Island General Assembly website, four bills are to be heard by the House finance committee this afternoon, and be eligible for floor-action on what is purportedly going to be the last day of this legislative session…What looks to be a good-goverment bill regarding state purchasing and bidding (S2442). Most of the…
If you or members of your family are currently unemployed, please take notice of the following. Whether or not you’ve spoken out about past government abuse, now is the time to be heard! Last week’s orchestrated procedural shenanigans by the leadership of the State Senate to stifle debate and deliberation, and temporarily kill reasonable legislation…
Three questions about what is happening at the Rhode Island Statehouse this week…Given that a Constitutional referendum on the expansion of gambling looks to have been fast-tracked, will the referendum be simply a yes-or-no decision on the casino, with all of the details to be decided by the legislature later, as at least one early…
[See my post for a recitation of events and Andrew’s post for a description of bill procedure and why democracy within the Capitol is too often considered a “parliamentary trick” by leadership.] This is the question that I asked the office of the Senate President four times over the course of three days last week:…
For commenter edification, here are the three “highlights” of the just-passed House Budget, cribbed from the ProJo: * Car Tax – 50-22 voted to cut around $120 million in car tax subsidies from cities and towns. Gave cities and towns the ability to implement their own car tax “to make up for the losses” by…
I don’t know enough about the project in question to endorse his insinuations, but William Stanley, of Cranston, does point out a curious allocation of limited resources: Both of these bridges are critical to the residents, especially because without them, such emergency services as police, rescue and firefighting must travel a considerable distance, and in…
Oy. Think Greece and Spain are drowning in debt? Look a little closer to home. Seven U.S. cities recently had their municipal bonds downgraded below investment grade. Their debt is now junk, considered more worthless than that of the so-called PIIGS. “America’s short-term budget crises, long-term growth perspectives and needs for austerity are similar [to…
I previously commented on the one degree of disconnect that I’ve come to believe is the core political problem in our state. The event that motivated that post was an immigration reform-related bill that was brought up in the RI House (kinda). Now, as Andrew and Monique have explained, the same shenanigans–again related to an…
Under Marc’s post, Joe Bernstein points out that RI needed E-verify Yes, it does. Present tense: it needs e-verify. Jobs are the single biggest enticement for people to come here – here to the United States and here to Rhode Island – without respect for the law. This was clearly demonstrated when our economy tanked…
Something just isn’t adding up with the news out of the General Assembly about this supposed “tax overhaul.” According to some details explained by Neil Downing, it looks like all taxpayers would make out pretty well under the Senate’s version, although the rich and the single appear to get the best deal, relatively speaking. Those…