Rhode Island Politics
From my in-box: The Rhode Island General Assembly will return for two days next month – October 28 and 29 – to address a number of legislative issues. Speaker of the House William J. Murphy and Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed today jointly announced the October meeting dates. Agendas for the chambers – committees…
An editorial in the latest RI Catholic takes state Democrat Chairman Bill Lynch to task for calling Governor Carcieri a “sectarian extremist” for associating with the Massachusetts Family Institute. More germane, I’d say, are the following paragraphs from an op-ed in the previous issue by Michelle Cretella and Arthur Goldberg: As for the premises, first…
We’ve argued (for a while) for closing the loophole in Rhode Island law that enables indoor prostitution. It’s an issue upon which conservatives, independents and some progressives have found common ground. For instance, Democratic Rep. Joanne Giannini and URI Women’s Studies professor
Laments Terry Gorman, of Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement: “It gets more difficult to go in good faith to testify when it seems to be a foregone conclusion that citizens’ opinions do not matter.” After all, why waste the time making echoes in the great hollow space of a governmental “sham”? This state of…
In a state with 13% unemployment and high taxes that go, in part, to fund the not ungenerous compensation of public employees such as Ms. Esposito, do you suppose the Providence Journal thinks they’re doing public employees a favor with stories such as this in yesterday’s paper? Linda Esposito, a keeper of vital records for…
We’re right, I think to take a moment to flag the suspicious belief of the Rhode Island judiciary that processes must default in the favor of the state’s special interests while the judges have their moment to review and direct the minute management details of the government’s operation. Layman that I am, it’s entirely possible…
After a long day, the state employee union leaders got their wish when Supreme Court Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg overturned Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein’s decision and granted a stay of the implementation of Governor Carcieri’s plan to have 12 shut-down days in an attempt to save money. The result: 1,000 state workers will now…
Developments in Woonsocket are fascinating: Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist has warned School Committee members that they could be sued and Supt. Robert J. Gerardi could have his superintendent’s certification questioned if the committee follows through on its threat to defy state rulings on hiring new staff for its literacy program. … She warned the…
As a general proposition, Rhode Islanders should be more comfortable in the absence of their legislators, but this is a jaw dropper: House Speaker William J. Murphy has notified lawmakers in his chamber that the House will not return next week, as originally contemplated, but on Oct. 7 and 8. It remains unclear what the…
From a Providence Journal editorial on the General Assembly’s annual avoidance of structural change: And this series of cuts may be minuscule compared with the ones Rhode Island may face soon. Ms. Mumford estimates that the state may confront a $1.2 billion deficit in the coming months, given overly optimistic forecasts of tax revenues in…