3. H7262: Driving “privilege” licenses for illegal immigrants. (H Judiciary; Tue, Feb 11) In order to obtain a license, a “foreign national” must submit (for starters) “a foreign birth certificate, a valid foreign passport that is unexpired or expired for less than three (3) years before the application for a license including a certified translation if the document is not in English, or a valid, unexpired consular identification document issued by an applicant’s country of citizenship”. So if nothing else, this should end (if we assume a rational world) the question of whether illegal immigrants can honestly be described as “undocumented”.

4. H7026 requires teachers to be notified of layoffs due to “fiscal exigency or program reorganization” by June 1. (Currently, layoff notices of any kind must be sent by March 1). H7193 adds program reduction/elimination and budget reduction to a “decrease in pupil population” as cases where teacher layoffs must be carried out on the basis of seniority, and sets May 15 as the corresponding layoff notice date. (H Labor; Tue, Feb 11)

5. H7368: Places a moratorium on “approvals for new healthcare equipment or new institutional health services prior to July 1, 2015”, with what appear to be exceptions for “domestic medical tourism” and “currently licensed multi-practice physician ambulatory surgery center[s]” (H Health, Education and Welfare; Wed, Feb 12) An attempt to explain the purpose of this bill is available here.

6. S2036: Moves the amount of time served to be eligible for parole from 20 to 30 years in cases of life sentences for 1st or 2nd degree murder, and from 10 to 20 years in cases of life sentences for other crimes. Also, convicts serving consecutive sentences would be required to serve their minimums consecutively. S2029 would require 50% of any non-life sentence for 1st or 2nd degree murder to be served, before a convict would be eligible for parole. (S Judiciary; Tue, Feb 11) By the numbers, this means that life is potentially a more lenient punishment than a sentence of greater than 60 years. How important this is depends on actual sentencing guidelines and practices.

7A. Bud. Art. 5: Bond issues to be decided by the voters on the 2014 ballot, including $125,000,000 for “Higher Education Facilities”, $35,000,000 for the “Creative and Cultural Economy”, $40,000,000 for “Mass Transit Hub Infrastructure” and $75,000,000 for “environmental and recreational purposes”. (S Finance; Thu, Feb 13)

7B. Bud. Art. 4: A series of “financing leases, guarantees, bonds, and/or other obligations”, enabled by Rhode Island’s Public Corporation Debt Management Law, that do not require voter approval (S Finance; Thu, Feb 13) including…

• “Financing in an amount not to exceed $30.0 million for the provision of information technology improvements, including $0.5 million to pay costs of financing”,
• “Financing in an amount not to exceed $13.0 million for the provision of renovations and upgrades to the Virks Building at the Pastore Center in Cranston, which will provide additional office space for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, including $0.2 million to pay costs of financing”,
• “Financing in an amount not to exceed $45.0 million for the provision of financing for construction of a parking garage at the current site of the Garrahy surface parking lot providing approximately 1,250 parking spaces and 13,800 square feet of retail space on the ground level”, and
• Rhode Island Airport Corporation bonds that “shall be limited to not more than $60,000,000….Total debt service on the Bonds is not expected to exceed approximately $4,600,000 annually and approximately $135,000,000 in the aggregate based on anticipated level annual payments, an estimated average interest rate of 6.25% and a maturity of 30 years”. Also, these bonds “shall not constitute indebtedness of the State or a debt for which the full faith and credit of the State is pledged or a moral obligation thereof”.

8. S2101: Extends the current requirement that persons convicted of sexual and violent offenses provide DNA to be logged in a database, to a requirement that persons arrested for “murder, manslaughter, first degree arson, kidnapping with intent to extort, robbery, larceny from the person, first degree sexual assault, second degree sexual assault, first and second degree child molestation, assault with intent to murder, assault with intent to rob, assault with intent to commit first degree sexual assault, burglary, and entering a dwelling house with intent to commit murder, robbery, sexual assault, or larceny” or convicted of any felony do so. (S Judiciary; Tue, Feb 11)

9. H7309: “The state police and local police departments, upon observation of a foreign registered vehicle present within the state for thirty (30) days or more shall identify the owner of the vehicle and, if a Rhode Island resident, provide a notice containing a copy of this section to the owner, and to the tax assessor in the city or town in which the vehicle is located”. (H Judiciary; Tue, Feb 11)

10. H7264: Requires parents of drivers license applicants who are under the age of 18 to take a course on drivers’ education curriculum and licensing. But at least the bill mandates that the course must be free. (H Judiciary; Tue, Feb 11)

11. H7152: Bans student use of cells phones on school buses. (H Judiciary; Tue, Feb 11)

12. Bud. Art. 14: In the event that an internet sales tax is passed by the Federal Government, the Rhode Island corporate income tax-rate will be lowered from 9% to 6% (and a provision that would have lowered the state sales tax from 7% to 6.5% under the same circumstance is removed from the law). (H Finance; Thu, Feb 13)

13. The great walkback of the 2013 session continues; Bud. Art. 19 strips the soon-to-be empowered “secretary of commerce within the Rhode Island executive office of commerce” (aka the Undergovernor for Commerce) of the responsibility for “engag[ing] in regulatory reform across all state agencies to protect the health and wellbeing of Rhode Islanders while meeting business needs for a clear, predictable, and reliable regulatory structure in the states” and moves that responsibility to the Office of Management and Budget. (S Finance; Tue, Feb 11)

14. Bud. Art. 18, sec 1: Separates the adjutant general of the Rhode Island national guard from the role of head of the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency, replacing him or her with “an executive director, who shall be appointed by and serve at the pleasure of, the governor” (with no mention of Senate confirmation). (S Finance; Tue, Feb 11)

15. H7054: Requires candidates, political parties and political action committees to report their expenditures over $100 “in furtherance of the nomination, election, or defeat of any candidate or the approval or rejection of any question submitted to the voters, or at any financial town meeting, financial town referendum, or other election at which amendments to a city or town charter are proposed”. (Reporting of contributions for any of the reasons cited above is already required). (H Judiciary; Tue, Feb 11)

16. S2106/S2107/S2108/S2246: A set of bills that will allow municipal labor contracts to have a term of five years (instead of three) “if a municipality has a locally administered pension plan in ‘critical status’, and is required to submit a funding improvement plan”. (RI law already allows five-year contracts in communities where a budget commission or receiver has been installed). (S Labor; Wed, Feb 12)

17. Bud. Art. 12, secs 3 and 4: Expansion of the sales tax on hotel rooms, with specific mentions of “sellers of travel packages”, “room resellers” and “bed and breakfasts (B&B’s)” and “time shares”. (H Finance; Thu, Feb 13)

18. We don’t make note of too many “study commissions” in this space, but will mention the one proposed by H7280, “to study all aspects of consolidating municipal government and public education functions in order to determine if any services can be consolidated on a county and/or statewide basis”. (H Municipal Government; Tue, Feb 11)

Indeterminate rankings: Bud. Art. 15: Adds $52.1 million “originally planned for a [historic tax credit?] reserve fund” to the historic tax credit project fund, raising the amount of credits available from $299.9 million to $352.0 million. This budget article also rather pointedly strikes “to foster civic beauty, promote public education, pleasure and welfare and otherwise generally improve and further enhance the long-term economic well-being of the citizens and municipalities of the State of Rhode Island” from the explanation of the purpose of historic tax-credits, which makes one reasonably wonder what projects that don’t meet those criteria may have been placed on the insider’s track. (S Finance; Thu, Feb 13)

H7225: Places a 60-day time limit on post-conviction appeals into the “Courts and civil procedure” section of Rhode Island law. (Current law states only that an appeal is “subject to the same requirements as a final judgment in a civil action”). (H Judiciary; Wed, Feb 12)

Bud. Art. 13: Convoluted changes to the state’s share of table-gaming revenue at Twin River that include the phrase “After casino gaming has commenced in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts…” (H Finance; Thu, Feb 13)

Inobvious Priorities: S2015 >> Enables regulation requiring dry-cleaners to either post their prices or provide a leaflet with their prices;  S2178 >> Allows cities and towns to pass ordinances requiring minimum-manning for parking lots (It’s also somewhat telling that two inobvious priorities bills are being heard on the same day by the Senate Commerce committee); H7131 >> Registration of music therapists; H7234 >> Defines “the display of antique vehicles and equipment, retail sales, tours, classes, petting, feeding and viewing of animals, hay rides, crop mazes, festivals and other special events” as ” valuable and viable means of contributing to the preservation of agriculture”.

Local Impact: Barrington, North Providence (where liquor license insurance needs are apparently only matched by those of Burrillville), Woonsocket.