1A. H5343: Sensible fiscal rules for fire-districts, including a 4% annual cap on tax-increases, limitation of debt to 5% of annual operating budgets, a ban on tax-classification plans, and a ban on assessing supplemental taxes “without conducting a properly advertised special meeting which satisfies the annual budget meetings notice and attendance provisions”. (H Finance; Wed, Mar 11)

1B. H5344: Requires “2% of of the total registered and qualified voting members of the fire district” to be present at a fire-district financial meeting to establish a quorum. Also, H5345 establishes new notice requirements for fire-district meetings, including a minimum 60-day notice period for the annual budget meeting (H Finance; Wed, Mar 11)

2. H5519: Constitutional amendment (to be ratified by the voters) giving the Governor a line-item veto power over appropriations. (H Finance; Wed, Mar 11) I understand the desire to express this as a short amendment, but given the way the RI budget process works, given the currently proposed form, what’s to stop the GA from conducting a single en masse override of everything that was vetoed?

3. H5329: Terminates the “the Rhode Island health benefits exchange, known under the name ‘HealthSourceRI’, and the unified health infrastructure project” and transfers “all management and operation of the Rhode Island health benefits exchange to the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U. S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services”. (H Finance; Tue, Mar 10)

4. H5329: Exempts “Coventry, East Greenwich and West Greenwich from all the terms and provisions” of the “written long-term economic development vision and policy for the state of Rhode Island” and the “strategic plan for implementing this policy”. (S Finance; Tue, Mar 10)

5. H5651: Imposes an additional $46 fee for a marriage license, $44 of which is to be administrated by the Rhode Island Coalition against Domestic Violence to fund domestic violence prevention programs. (H Judiciary; Wed, Mar 11) I’ll repeat what I said about a similar bill from last year: The Department of Justice reports that “intimate partner violence” rates for married women are significantly lower than are the rates for never married or divorced/widowed women, yet a group of RI legislators think it’s a good idea to make couples who are taking basic steps towards responsible commitment pay for the bad acts of everyone. This bill creates the impression that Rhode Island’s dour progressives really don’t like marriage very much.

6. H5632: Adds “when [a] minor person is involved in a relationship deemed by a parent or other interested party to be a dangerous and unhealthy relationship” to the definition of domestic abuse where protective orders can be issued. Also, allows a third-party to file for domestic-abuse related protective orders. (H Judiciary; Wed, Mar 11)

7. H5650: Prohibits life sentences without parole for any crime committed by an offender who is less than 18 years of age. (H Judiciary; Wed, Mar 11)

8. H5674: Makes it an unlawful employment practice “to refuse to reasonably accommodate an employee’s or prospective employee’s  condition related to pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition”. (H Labor; Thu, Mar 12)

9. H5817: Makes it a crime “to knowingly install, conceal or otherwise place an electronic tracking device in or on a motor vehicle without the consent of the operator and all occupants of the vehicle for the purpose of monitoring or following the operator occupant or occupants of the vehicle” that falls under the definition of domestic violence. (H Judiciary; Wed, Mar 11)

10. H5770: Makes it illegal to distribute indecent material that was created “without the consent of the person or all persons depicted in the visual image”. (H Judiciary; Wed, Mar 11)

11. S0267:/H5634: Prohibits use of “hand-held personal wireless communication devices” (e.g. cell-phones) while driving. (H Judiciary; Tue, Mar 10 & S Judiciary; Tue, Mar 10)

12. H5485: “A health insurance policy, subscriber contract; or health plan offered, issuer, issued for delivery, or issued to cover a resident of this state…shall not limit or exclude coverage solely because the insured’s injuries arose due to a motor vehicle accident”. (H Corporations; Tue, Mar 10)

13. S0127:/S0505: Decriminalizes a person’s first two instances of driving without a license. (S Judiciary; Tue, Mar 10)

14. H5357: Requires driver’s license applicants under the age of 18 to take a driver’s education course provided by the state’s sub-board on higher education. (H Judiciary; Tue, Mar 10)

15. H5656: Increases penalties for drivers involved in collisions with a “vulnerable road user”, defined as “a pedestrian”, “a bicyclist”, “a police officer or emergency responder on duty while outside of a vehicle”, “a highway worker performing duties outside a vehicle”, “a person riding on or driving a wheelchair, motorized or not”, “a person using a skateboard, inline skates, or rollerskates”, “a person riding on or driving an animal” (H Judiciary; Tue, Mar 10)

16. H5422: Prohibits health plans from denying coverage “solely because the health care service is provided through telemedicine and is not provided through in-person consultation or contact, so long as such health care services appropriately provided through telemedicine services.”. Telemedicine, in this bill, is defined as “the delivery of clinical health care services by means of real time two-way electronic audiovisual communications, including the application of secure video conferencing or store-and-forward technology to provide or support health care delivery, which facilitate the assessment, diagnosis, consultation, treatment education, care management and self-management of a patient’s health care while such patient is at an originating site and the health care provider is at a distant site”. (H Corporations; Tue, Mar 10)

17. S0570: New penalties for failing to pay or evading a toll. One section of the law says that a single instance of “fails or refuses to pay the required toll, and deliberately circumvents or proceeds around or through a gate or other barrier on a project” can result in a penalty of a six-month suspended license and a $500 fine. (S Judiciary; Tue, Mar 10)

18. H5429: Before any party could sue over a “condominium dispute”, they would be required to “petition the department of business regulation for arbitration” (H Corporations; Tue, Mar 10) Illustrative of what may be the most fundamental problem with the Rhode Island state government — it’s members truly believe they are the human resources bureaucracy for everyone’s entire life.

19. H5289: Repeals the section of the law that currently exempts commercial loans larger than $1M from being subject to a maximum rate of interest. (H Corporations; Tue, Mar 10)

20. H5488:/S0153: “Any public utility providing phone, cable television, or broadband internet service to seventy-five percent (75%) of the eligible residents of any single city or town shall make available said phone, cable television, or internet services to the remaining twenty-five percent (25%) of the city or town”. (H Corporations; Tue, Mar 10 & S Commerce; Tue, Mar 10)

21. H5798: Removes the ban in current law against building a hotel at Twin River casino site. (H Finance; Wed, Mar 11)

22. H5765: $125 fine for driving with “snow and ice on vehicle”. (H Judiciary; Tue, Mar 10)

23. H5627: Bans smoking at beaches that are under the jurisdiction of the Department of Environmental Management. (H Judiciary; Wed, Mar 11)

24. S0152: Bans security deposits, for commercial utility customers, after one year of scheduled payments have been completed. Also, S0536 requires that commercial utility customer security deposits be kept in an interest bearing account, where the interest is returned to the customer. (S Commerce; Tue, Mar 10)

25. H5601: Somebody wants to sell alcohol within 200 feet of a church or a school, and wants to change state law, so that his or her municipal government can grant an exception allowing him or her to do so. (H Corporations; Tue, Mar 10)

26. S0535: Provides an exception to the ban on “latch-open device” gasoline pumps, for “stage II vapor recovery nozzles that will only operate when the bellows assembly is compressed into the automobile fill pipe and will automatically shut off if the nozzle is removed from the fill pipe”. (S Commerce; Thu, Mar 12)

Ranking Indeterminate: H5602: New regulations regarding prescription drug benefits. (H Corporations; Tue, Mar 10)

Inobvious Priorities: H5619 >> Bans loud noises that occur “hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or other consistent period if the noise or device can be heard within a four hundred foot radius ” from where the sound originated. This would ban, to use a completely random example, yacht clubs from firing off their ceremonial cannons at sundown on weekdays; S0040 >> Creates the position of economic ambassador for Rhode Island, with the stipulation that it “shall be honorific only, and shall not confer official status; nor shall the statements or views of the economic ambassador be regarded as the official position of the state in any court of law; nor the position of any of the state officers”; S0083 >> Requires laundries — at the discretion of the laundry licensing authority, of course — to post the ” retail price charged for each type of garment cleaned, dry cleaned, or accepted for cleaning by such business, except for garments requiring special handling or care”.

Local Impact: Charlestown, Coventry, Smithfield, Tiverton, Warwick.