Rhode Island Politics
Matt Allen has been talking about the Rhode Islander’s grab for tax revenue from Amazon.com. Amazon’s affiliate/associate program is essentially a referral service. Web sites link to items on Amazon, and if their readers/visitors buy the item, the referrer receives a percentage of the sale. Some folks use the service as another source of advertising…
The General Assembly is still open for business – possibly with questionable motive, as Justin points out. One of the items of unfinished business that certain legislators may wish to revisit as Rhode Islanders head to the beaches is the never-ending contract. Brian Bishop looks at certain constitutional issues raised by the bill. It is…
Being neither a native nor a linguistic pro forma traditionalist, I’m in the “who cares” camp when it comes to the excision of the word “plantations” in the official full name of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The change would affirm a detrimental and immature impulse that’s pervasive in modern society and should, itself, be…
Here was one good attempt at relief – an amendment to the budget submitted by Rep John Loughlin. Chapter 45-13 of the General Laws entitled “State Aid” is hereby amended by adding thereto the following section: 45-13-1.3. Relief from unfunded mandates. – Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary, contained in the appropriations for the support…
I concur with Monique about the Speaker of the General Assembly House Bill Murphy’s suggestion that the legislature is a full-time occupation, but it was a different line of his that caught my eye when I read that article: “We said in January that the budget was going to be the issue this year and…
Needham, Peoples and Gregg have a very good description in today’s ProJo With scores of bills still in limbo, the Rhode Island House of Representatives abruptly went into hiatus at 1 a.m. Saturday. Speaker William J. Murphy cited the need to cool off and return for at least a day in July, and again on…
It’s not online, yet, but the Senate has emailed a press release announcing passage of the budget: The Senate today voted to approve a $7.76 billion state budget for the 2010 fiscal year that closes a $660 million deficit while avoiding cuts to school aid, pharmaceutical assistance to the elderly and disabled, and welfare and…
Most contracts are of limited duration in large part because circumstances change and the terms of a contract could become infeasible for either party after a certain amount of time. This is no less true of a government contract. Peculiar to public sector contracts, however, while any public employee is free to leave that job…
Governor Carcieri struck the right notes on budget deliberations in his op-ed yesterday: THE STATE BUDGET plan for fiscal year 2010 passed by the House Finance Committee is not a plan to lift our state out of this economic malaise. It lacks a coherent policy and strategy to move our state forward. My budget, which…
ProJo has the rundown. But for Federal Dollars, our legislators would have been forced to make tougher decisions. As it is…. The $7.76 tax-and-spending plan headed for passage increased overall spending by 12 percent — including $226.5 million in federal stimulus dollars — compared to the state budget adopted last June. The state-only portion dropped…