Entries by Carroll Andrew Morse

Surreal at the State House II: John Simmons Versus the Rule of Law

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During testimony before the Rhode Island House of Representatives Oversight Committee last night advocating for full payment of the 38 Studios moral obligation bonds, John Simmons of the Rhode Island Public Expenditures Council repeatedly made the point that the bond market will not recognize any difference between non-payment of moral obligation versus non-payment of general obligation debt. They will both be considered “default” by the state of Rhode Island.

Simmons stated that, based upon the bonding agreement, there was “fully an obligation of the state of Rhode Island to make the payments if the underlying transaction went under”. Representatives Spencer Dickinson and Mike Chippendale both challenged this.

Rep. Dickinson paraphrased an Economic Development Corporation bond prospectus, referring to a statement that “there’s no possible way that the state or any municipality is intended to obligate itself in the case of these bonds” (on page 35, according to the Rep). Mr. Simmons responded that he had seen similar language in other prospectuses “30, 40, 50 maybe a lot more times”. Pressed by Dickinson as to why this did not establish a clear difference between moral and general obligation bonds, Mr. Simmons read from a ratings agency statement, and said that the agency “is saying to you that it doesn’t make a difference to them if it’s GO, moral obligation or appropriation debt. If you do not pay it is default on debt. They’re giving an equal weight, in the sense of how they approach it”.

Rep. Chippendale quoted from the law that authorized the bonds…

I’m just going to read it. “The 2010 bonds and the interest thereon do not constitute a debt, liability or obligation of the state or any political subdivision thereof, and neither the faith or credit nor the taking or taxing power of the state or any political subdivision thereof is pledged to the payment of the bonds, or the interest thereon. That’s a fairly clear statement. Of course, you did address that and you said that’s fairly boilerplate…

Mr. Simmons’ reply was that…

What you have in the language is fairly standard boilerplate language on this type of debt, constant debt, this is a fairly large amount.

But a blithe dismissal of some very clear language in the bond authorization is a blithe assertion that everyone — legislators, citizens and investors — should know that the rules that the financial industry makes up for itself (and for its own benefit, by the way) can automatically override the plain text of a law. Finance industry decrees are the real final law of the land; the law made by legislatures, on the other hand, is only real to the degree that it does not conflict with the limits that financiers lay down.

This kind of system, where the people are expected to accept that there are privileged classes who can ignore the plain meaning of actual laws made by the government chosen by the representatives of the people, cannot be reconciled with the rule of law. If the best argument that John Simmons can muster about there being no difference between moral obligation and general obligation bonds is that bondholder and ratings agency decrees can override what the law says, his opinion on this aspect of repayment deserves summary dismissal.

More to come on this topic…

Errata: Four Sets of Bills Being Heard by the House Finance Committee on May 7

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In this week’s legislative review, I inadvertently overlooked on entire agenda: the House Finance Committee agenda for Wednesday, May 7. Here’s the four sets of bills that should have been included in the regular list:

• H8039 reduces the state sales tax rate to 3%, beginning on January 1, 2015. H8033 reduces the sales tax rate to 6%, while restructuring the rules on the meals and beverage tax, the lodging tax, and the telecommunication services tax. (H Finance; Wed, May 7)

• H7208: Requires fiscal notes on legislation to be provided to committees 3 days prior to the hearing on an applicable bill. (H Finance; Wed, May 7)

•H7728: Requires that zero-based budgeting, where appropriations requests are “based upon a justification by each department head of the budget of the department from a zero base”, be implemented across all state departments by FY2018. (H Finance; Wed, May 7)

• H7350: Repeals the restriction currently in the law that “no hotel will be constructed or operated at Lincoln Park or by the then owner or operator of Lincoln Park…in close proximity to the facility”. (H Finance; Wed, May 7) For any young children reading this, “Lincoln Park” is now known as “Twin River”.

Coming up in Committee: Twenty-Six Sets of Bills Being Heard by the RI General Assembly, May 6 – May 8

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1. H2059: Prohibits standardized testing from being used as a graduation requirement from Rhode Island high schools until after July 1, 2017. (S Education; Wed, May 7) What’s going on inside the Rhode Island’s Senate backrooms, with regards to education testing? (More detail after the jump).

2. S2030: Requires employers with 200 or more employees to apply to participate in E-verify by January 1, 2015, and all employers to apply to participate in E-verify by January 1, 2016. Employers are required to keep applying every 60 days, until they are accepted. (S Judiciary; Tue, May 6)

3. Gary Sasse and John Simmons will appear before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday, May 8, to give testimony under the heading of “Analysis and discussion of determining the payment or non-repayment of moral obligation bonds relating to 38 Studios and the consequences of such choices”.

4. H7437: Writes into law in-state tuition at RI public colleges and universities for students, including illegal aliens (but not non-immigrant aliens) who graduated from a Rhode Island high school that they spent three years at, including illegal aliens who have applied for citizenship, provided that the Federal government has provides a pathway to citizenship as part of an amnesty law. (H Judiciary; Tue, May 6)

5. S2335: Eliminates tolls on the Sakonnet River Bridge, replacing the anticipated revenue with a multi-part formula requiring that fixed percentages of the total state budget be annually appropriated to a “transportation infrastructure fund” and adding a temporary 5% surcharge to motor vehicle fees to help initially seed the infrastructure fund. Also, if a Federal internet sales tax is adopted, instead of the RI sales tax dropping from 7% to 6.5%, as is specified in current law, the sales tax would only drop to 6.625%, with the 0.125% difference going to the infrastructure fund. Also, creates a study commission to look at eliminating the gas tax. (S Finance; Tue, May 6)

6. H7776: State bailout of the Central Falls pension system. According to this bill…

The state is liable to the retirement system for the cost of funding a retirement system for the existing retirees of the city of Central Falls who are members of the system under this section and chapter. (H Finance; Wed, May 7)

Day of Prayer, Day of Reason II

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What might Saint John Paul II (canonized this past weekend) have said on a National Day of Prayer and a National Day of Reason? Perhaps he would have quoted from his 1998 Encyclical Fides et Ratio: On the Relationship Between Faith and Reason — the short version is that he was for both…

[T]his does not mean that the link between faith and reason as it now stands does not need to be carefully examined, because each without the other is impoverished and enfeebled. Deprived of what Revelation offers, reason has taken side-tracks which expose it to the danger of losing sight of its final goal. Deprived of reason, faith has stressed feeling and experience, and so run the risk of no longer being a universal proposition. It is an illusion to think that faith, tied to weak reasoning, might be more penetrating; on the contrary, faith then runs the grave risk of withering into myth or superstition. By the same token, reason which is unrelated to an adult faith is not prompted to turn its gaze to the newness and radicality of being.

This is why I make this strong and insistent appeal—not, I trust, untimely—that faith and philosophy recover the profound unity which allows them to stand in harmony with their nature without compromising their mutual autonomy. The parrhesia of faith must be matched by the boldness of reason.

Day of Prayer, Day of Reason I

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On the National Day of Prayer and the National Day of Reason, Chapter 13 of the Old Testament Book of Wisdom offers a meditation into their relation and mutual boundary. Believed to have been written sometime in the last century before Christ, the problem and mystery described hasn’t changed, and probably never will, for as long as the circuit of the stars and the mighty water continue to exist…

Foolish by nature were all who were in ignorance of God,
and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing the one who is,
and from studying the works did not discern the artisan;

Instead either fire, or wind, or the swift air,
or the circuit of the stars, or the mighty water,
or the luminaries of heaven, the governors of the world, they considered gods.

Now if out of joy in their beauty they thought them gods,
let them know how far more excellent is the Lord than these;
for the original source of beauty fashioned them.

Or if they were struck by their might and energy,
let them realize from these things how much more powerful is the one who made them.

For from the greatness and the beauty of created things
their original author, by analogy, is seen.

But yet, for these the blame is less;
For they have gone astray perhaps,
though they seek God and wish to find him.

For they search busily among his works,
but are distracted by what they see, because the things seen are fair.

But again, not even these are pardonable.

For if they so far succeeded in knowledge
that they could speculate about the world,
how did they not more quickly find its Lord?

Coming up in Committee: Thirty-Two Sets of Bills Being Heard by the RI General Assembly, April 29 – May 1

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1. H7512: Eliminates the straight-party option, aka “the master lever”, from Rhode Island general election ballots. Also, H8072 eliminates the the master lever from Rhode Island general election ballots, and provides for “community outreach” in order “to educate the public, including the elderly” about how to vote without using the master lever. (H Judiciary; Tue, Apr 29)

2. H7767: Repeal of Rhode Island’s voter-ID law. (H Judiciary; Tue, Apr 29)

3. Proposed amendments to the State Constitution, that would require ratification by the voters:

• H7024: Trades an extension of Senator/Representative terms to 4 years, for a term-limit of 3 terms. (H Judiciary; Tue, Apr 29) I’m not in favor of across the board 4 year terms for the Rhode Island General Assembly, but if they were to be implemented, shouldn’t they be staggered so roughly half the seats are up every two years?

• H7458: Reduces the number of House districts to 50, with two representatives being elected from each district, one male and one female. (H Judiciary; Tue, Apr 29)

• H7593: Unambiguously extends the jurisdiction of the State Ethics Commission to the legislature (H Judiciary; Tue, Apr 29)

• H7594/S2420: Removes free-speech protections from any activity that involves the spending of money. (H Judiciary; Tuesday, April 29 & S Special Legislation and Veterans’ Affairs; Wed, Apr 30) The publication of newspaper editorials that offer candidate endorsements could be regulated by the government under this amendment — that is, if there’s weren’t a First Amendment to the Federal Constitution, that supersedes any attempt by Rhode Island’s governing class to limit political speech.

• S2113: Requires “Senators, representatives and general office holders [to] contribute twenty percent (20%) towards the premium for health care coverage paid for by the state of Rhode Island”. (S Special Legislation and Veterans’ Affairs; Wed, Apr 30)

• S2397: Changes the state’s current duty under Article XII to promote schools and libraries into a (judicially enforceable) “right to an adequate education”. (S Special Legislation and Veterans’ Affairs; Wed, Apr 30)

• H8014: Line item veto (including the option of line-item reductions), with the GA able to override any item through the usual process. (H Judiciary; Tue, Apr 29) One thought here: Does a provision like this need some kind of protection, so that the GA can’t just override everything that was line-item vetoed, with a single en masse override vote?

4. S2309: Repeals the the provisions in the law allowing “deferred deposit” loans, i.e. “pay-day” loans, and that allow check-cashing businesses to automatically operate as pay-day lenders. (S Commerce; Thu, May 1) According to the official description, this is a complete repeal of pay-day lending.

5. H7263: Clarifies that existing law states that the home address of someone confined to a correctional facility, for voting purposes, is the address they had before they began serving their sentence, and creates processes to make sure this law is properly enforced. (H Judiciary; Tue, Apr 29)

St. Augustine, Protoblogger

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From St. Augustine’s De Trinitate, written at the beginning of the 5th century, as translated by Edmund Hill…

Accordingly, dear reader, whenever you are as certain about something as I am, go forward with me; whenever you stick equally fast, stick with me; whenever you notice that you have gone wrong, come back to me; or that I have, call me back to you…

What he said.

(There are a few more passages, after the jump).

The Continuing Easter

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When they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back; it was very large.

On entering the tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe, and they were utterly amazed.

He said to them, “Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Behold the place where they laid him.

But go and tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.’”

— The Gospel of Mark, Chapter 16:5-8

 

To return to Galilee means to re-read everything on the basis of the cross and its victory. To re-read everything – Jesus’ preaching, his miracles, the new community, the excitement and the defections, even the betrayal – to re-read everything starting from the end, which is a new beginning, from this supreme act of love — Pope Francis (2014). The darkness of the previous days is driven away the moment Jesus rises from the grave and himself becomes God’s pure light. But this applies not only to him, not only to the darkness of those days. With the resurrection of Jesus, light itself is created anew. He draws all of us after him into the new light of the resurrection and he conquers all darkness. He is God’s new day, new for all of us — Pope Benedict XVI (2012). Yes, Christ is truly risen and we are witnesses of this. We proclaim this witness to the world, so that the joy which is ours will reach countless other hearts, kindling in them the light of the hope which does not disappoint — Pope John Paul II (2000).

Fish on Fridays

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Nothing symbolizes the supposed arbitrariness of religion to those predisposed towards skepticism towards religious belief more than does the Catholic practice of eating fish on Fridays during the season of Lent. I’ll admit to having asked myself, especially on Good Friday, what connection there is between fish and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And then there is the philosophical paradox. If my soul is lost after I’ve eaten meat on a Lenten Friday, does that mean I’m free to commit worse sins without making my situation worse? But if the rule doesn’t really matter, then why follow it? And on and on and on and on…

Here’s what I do know. With the choice of fish options available to a 21st century American, eating fish on Fridays is about as small a “sacrifice” in a material sense as can be asked for. But honoring the rule does require me to make some conscious choices that run contrary to what the surrounding culture tells me are cool and sensible. And if I am unable to make this small sacrifice, because I find it too inconvenient, or because I’m afraid to explain myself to others who don’t share my belief or who might think that I’m being just plain silly, then on what basis can I believe myself to be capable of taking a stand in more serious situations, when the choices might be a little harder and the stakes a bit higher?

What Rhode Islanders Need To Know About the Crisis in Central Coventry, Part 2

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What is important to keep in mind here is that, unlike the mayors and city councils of cities like Central Falls and Woonsocket, fire districts do not start out from a position, under the general laws of Rhode Island, of being able to tax without direct voter approval. Fire-district levies still have to go to the voters, and it should not be assumed that empaneling a budget commission automatically negates this. A budget commission should have to submit a budget it formulates to the same voters who recently rejected the others, and re-modifying the fiscal stability act to say in effect that the union is permanent while the voters can be relegated to an advisory role (at best) is not a satisfactory solution here.

This means that the final stage built into the fiscal stability act, receivership aimed at an official bankruptcy proceeding, where everything is put on the table including the entirety of existing contracts, will be a real possibility once the state steps in. And rightly or wrongly, the realities of political pressures and “financial market forces” are that it will be much easier to send a fire district into full-blown bankruptcy than sending municipal governments has been.

What Rhode Islanders Need To Know About the Crisis in Central Coventry, Part 1

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Superior Court Judge Brian Stern’s order liquidating the Central Coventry Fire District describes the crisis the district is in very succinctly…

The yearly operating expenses of the fire district were far in excess of the amount of funds that was being generated by taxes and other fees. The board had created what can only be described as an elaborate Ponzi scheme to hide this from the taxpayers, which resulted in a multimillion dollar structural deficit. A twenty, thirty, or even a fifty percent increase in taxes would not even resolve the entire structural deficit the board had created at the time.
Full detail on how the district got into this position, is in the main post.

Coming up in Committee: Thirty Sets of Bills Being Heard by the RI General Assembly, April 15 – April 17

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1A. S2511: Mandates that all Rhode Islanders “obtain and maintain creditable coverage pursuant to the provisions of the Affordable Care Act enacted by the Congress of the United States”. (S Health and Human Services; Tue, Apr 15) There doesn’t appear to be an exemption for (Federal) executive-branch waivers in this bill.

1B. S2533: Creates a panel operated under the leadership of the healthcare commissioner (“referred to herein this chapter as ‘the authority'”) charged with creating a plan for making “HealthSourceRI the sole hub for securing insurance or health services coverage for all Rhode Island residents”, aggregating all medical funding for health insurance and/or health care services through HealthSourceRI, establishing “global spending targets” for the provision of healthcare, and developing a plan to pay for it all that includes a payroll tax. (S Health and Human Services; Tue, Apr 15)

2. H7285: Repeals the section of the law allowing “deferred deposit” loans, i.e. “pay-day” loans, also repealing the provisions in the law that allow check-cashing businesses to automatically operate as pay-day lenders. (H Finance; Wed, Apr 16) According to the official description, this is a complete repeal of pay-day lending.

3. H7944: Adds fire districts to the “fiscal stabilization law”, the law that allows the state to displace the elected local governments of financially distressed communities and supersede them with budget commissions and receivers. (H Finance; Tue, Apr 15) The Senate version will be heard on the floor on the same day; it looks like a budget commission, at least, for Central Coventry is coming soon.

4. H7067: Prohibits building schools anywhere in Rhode Island on the sites of former mines, but really intended to prevent construction of the new Blackstone Prep elementary school. This bill is listed under the “scheduled for consideration” portion of the agenda, which means it is very likely to be voted on, though it’s possible that an amended version will be introduced. (H Education and Welfare; Wed, Apr 16)

5. On Tuesday, April 15 the Senate Judiciary Committee will hear this year’s raft of gun-control bills. Here’s a link to the entire agenda, plus there are two gun-related bills from an earlier hearing that day, S2719 and S2720. The two most important bills in this set are:

  • S2814: Reduces the right-bear arms in Rhode Island, to a government-granted privilege, by changing the “shall issue” process by which municipalities grant concealed carry firearms permits to a “may issue” criteria.
  • S2774: Provides for information related to mental-health related involuntarily commitments to be added to the National Instant Criminal Background Check (NICS) database used for conducting firearms purchase background checks.

The Book of Wisdom on the Cosmos and Maybe Even “Cosmos”

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My Lenten readings this weekend took me to the Old Testament Book of Wisdom. I wasn’t looking for anything related to the philosophy of science; I was actually following some cross-references related to the mention of political authority in the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans, which led back to Wisdom 6.

Then, reading ahead to the 7th Chapter brought me to the following passage, beginning at verse 15…

Now God grant I speak suitably
and value these endowments at their worth

For he is the guide of Wisdom
and the director of the wise

For both we and our words are in his hand,
as well as all prudence and knowledge of crafts.

For he gave me sound knowledge of what exists,
that I might know the structure of the universe and the force of its elements,

The beginning and the end and the midpoint of times,
the changes in the sun’s course and the variations of the seasons,

Cycles of years, positions of stars,
natures of living things, tempers of beasts,

Powers of the winds and thoughts of human beings,
uses of plants and virtues of roots—

Whatever is hidden or plain I learned,
for Wisdom, the artisan of all, taught me.

Once again, despite what you may have been told, examining fundamental sources reveals that there’s no problem between science and religion — unless people want there to be one.

Superman Building Bill Submitted

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The “Superman Building” bill was submitted in the Rhode Island Senate today. It is clearly a private appropriations bill…

This chapter shall establish the 111 Westminster historic redevelopment program and revolving fund. The program shall be for an amount not to exceed thirty-nine million dollars ($39,000,000), provided that the projects total QRE’s equal or exceed one hundred million five hundred thousand dollars ($100,500,000). The amount of the direct allocation to the owner shall be allocated over four (4) consecutive fiscal years in equal amounts of nine million seven hundred fifty dollars ($9,750,000), commencing with fiscal year 2015, and administered by the Rhode Island department of administration. No funds from the program shall be released until the project is placed in service.
…which should mean that it needs 2/3 of both chambers to pass, according to Article VI section 11 of the state constitution…
Section 11. Vote required to pass local or private appropriations. — The assent of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the general assembly shall be required to every bill appropriating the public money or property for local or private purposes.

The Plan is to Let Councilman Brien Stay on the Woonsocket Budget Commission but Step Down as Council President

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2B. H7943: Replaces the town/city council president on a budget commission of a town/city that’s under one, with a member chosen by a vote of the town/city council. (H Municipal Government; Thu, Apr 10) This bill could also be described as “replaces Albert Brien on the Woonsocket Budget Commission with someone yet to be determined (at least as far as the public knows)”. People have a better case for taking to the streets shouting “It’s a coup! It’s a coup!” in response to this bill (though it would still be a stretch) than they do in response to Gordon Fox’s resignation.

A knowledgeable and trustworthy Woonsocket source heard an interview on WNRI (1380 AM) this morning with Woonsocket City Councilman Albert Brien, where this bill was explained. According to the interview, the purpose of this bill is not to move Councilman Brien off of the budget commission, it’s to allow him to keep his seat on the budget commission, while relinquishing the City Council presidency. Councilman Brien, apparently, doesn’t really want to be council president. Councilman Robert Moreau, on the other hand, does, but because he is a retired police officer, and there is a retiree lawsuit underway against the budget commission, his taking of the budget-commission seat would create a conflict-of-interest. By splitting the jobs apart, Councilmen Brien and Moreau are allowed to take on roles they’d prefer to have.

Police Union Rejects Pension Settlement; Taft-Carter Orders More Mediation

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Multiple sources have reported that the police union members involved in the Rhode Island pension reform lawsuit have voted the proposed settlement down in the first stage of a two stage approval process. According to the arcane rules in place, rejection by one of six different plaintiff groups means the settlement is not supposed to go forward. Judge Sarah Taft-Carter has responded by (what else?) ordering the parties back into secret mediation.

Ian Donnis of Rhode Island Public Radio has posted an unofficial tally of the vote provided by “spokesman for the coalition of plaintiffs in the case” Ray Sullivan…

Teachers: 7,442 eligible, 2,320 ballots received: 31% vote to reject
Retirees: 6,840 eligible, 1,810 ballots received: 26% vote to reject
State: 5,045 eligible,1,697 ballots received: 34% vote to reject
Municipal: 3,261 eligible, 504 ballots received: 15% vote to reject
Fire: 619 eligible, 170 ballots received: 27% vote to reject
Police: 417 eligible, 254 ballots received: 61% vote to reject

It is becoming extremely difficult at this point to see how a “settlement” process could be finished in time for the General Assembly to act on legislation, prior to the end of the session that’s supposed to finish up in early June.

Coming up in Committee: Twenty-Four Sets of Bills Plus One Ceremonial Resolution Being Heard by the RI General Assembly, April 8 – April 10

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1. S2091: Repeal of the master-lever, i.e. the option of using a single mark to vote for all of the candidates from one party (while ignoring non-partisan races, and creating general confusion in elect more-than-one races), from RI General election ballots (S Judiciary; Tue, Apr 8)

2A. H7944/S2778: Adds fire districts to the “fiscal stabilization law”, the law that allows the state to displace the elected local governments of financially distressed communities and supersede them with budget commissions and receivers. (H Finance; Tue, Apr 8 & S Finance; Tue, Apr 8) This is pretty obviously directed at the Central Coventry Fire district. It’s a single-sponsor bill — but the single sponsor is Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello, though it had submitted by then-Rep Mattiello before all heck broke loose at the statehouse. Also worth noting is the simultaneous-hearing fast-track the bill appears to be on.

2B. H7943: Replaces the town/city council president on a budget commission of a town/city that’s under one, with a member chosen by a vote of the town/city council. (H Municipal Government; Thu, Apr 10) This bill could also be described as “replaces Albert Brien on the Woonsocket Budget Commission with someone yet to be determined (at least as far as the public knows)”. People have a better case for taking to the streets shouting “It’s a coup! It’s a coup!” in response to this bill (though it would still be a stretch) than they do in response to Gordon Fox’s resignation.

3A. H7939: Provides for information related to mental-health related involuntarily commitments to be added to the National Instant Criminal Background Check (NICS) database used for conducting firearms purchase background checks. The records sent to database will be from cases where there has been a demonstration of “clear and convincing evidence that the subject of the hearing is in need of care and treatment in a facility, and…continued unsupervised presence in the community would, by reason of mental disability, create a likelihood of serious harm”. (H Judiciary; Tue, Apr 8)

3B. H7587: Changes firearms permitting by local law enforcement agencies from a “shall issue” process, to a “may issue” process requiring an applicant to show a “good reason to fear an injury to his or her person or property” or another “proper showing of need”. (H Judiciary; Tue, Apr 8) As noted previously on this blog, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that issuing permits allowing the carrying of firearms off of private private on an exclusively “may issue” basis is violates the Constitutional right to bear arms.

Pope Francis on the Cosmos and Maybe Even “Cosmos”

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As part of some reflection during this season of Lent, I’ve been reading Pope Francis’ 2013 encyclical “The Light of Faith“. This week, I came upon two interesting nearby passages…

The gaze of science thus benefits from faith: faith encourages the scientist to remain constantly open to reality in all its inexhaustible richness. Faith awakens this critical sense by preventing research from being satisfied with its own formulae and helps it to realize that nature is always greater. By stimulating wonder before the profound mystery of creation, faith broadens the horizons of reason to shed greater light on the world which discloses itself to scientific investigation.

That was from a section titled “The Dialogue Between Faith and Reason”. In the section immediately following, “Faith and the Search for God”, Pope Francis adds…

Religious man strives to see signs of God in the daily experiences of life, in the cycle of the seasons, in the fruitfulness of the earth, and in the movement of the cosmos.

There really is no problem between science and religion, despite what you may be told, unless people want there to be one.

There’s a Reason the Socialism-of-Fools is Also Known as Socialism

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From Jim Wyss, of the Miami Herald…

Call it fingerprints for food. In the latest effort to keep shelves stocked in Venezuela, the government on Tuesday will begin registering the biometric information of customers who use state-run grocery stores.

President Nicolás Maduro says the measure will prevent hoarding and help keep price-controlled food from being resold for a profit on the black market.

A Testing Notification Bill Passes a Semi-Present Senate Committee

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Yesterday evening, the Senate Education committee passed a high-school testing bill which, as a result of the amendment process, is substantially different from the bill originally introduced.

The original bill placed a permanent prohibition on the use of standardized testing as a graduation requirement. The amended bill assumes that a “state assessment requirement for graduation from high school” will be in place, and defines procedures for notifying parents and students that assessment requirements are in danger of not being met, and for informing the governor and the executive branch of various test-related results.

The bill passed by a 6-0 vote of the Education Committee with 6 members absent, but only reached 6 votes with the help of the Senate President and Majority Leader adding their two ex-officio “yes” votes to four “yes” votes from regular committee members — to state the obvious here, this means that only four of ten regular committee members showed up to vote on a potentially important bill.

I will point out here that you cannot come to the conclusion that a quorum was present at the committee hearing with a simple answer of “ex-officio members do count towards a quorum” [only 6 of 12 members present] or “ex-officio members don’t count towards a quorum” [only 4 of 10 members present]; you only get to a quorum for last night’s vote by saying that ex-officio members do count when determining how many members are present, but don’t count when determining how many people need to be present.

For reference, here what Roberts’ Rules has to say about ex-officio committee members and quorums…

If the ex-officio member is under the control of the society, there is no distinction between him and the other members except where the president is ex-officio member of all committees, in which case it is evidently the intention to permit, not to require, him to act as a member of the various committees, and therefore in counting a quorum he should not be counted as a member.

Like most parliamentary procedure rules, this one is grounded in solid principle; the principle to consider here is whether committees should be passing bills, dependent on ex-officio votes, when a majority of regular members can’t be bothered to show up or may have decided to avoid a difficult issue.

A Constitutional Convention for Rhode Island? The Pros and Cons of Democracy and Rights

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Steven Brown of the RI Chapter of the ACLU: “The votes that voters get to choose across the country are on some of the most divisive, controversial, social, ideological issues there are; abortion, gay rights, same-sex marriage, anti-immigrant. We are deluding ourselves if we think we can hold a convention and not have those issues come to the fore….What’s troubling about that is that we are talking about individual rights that should not be subject to majoritarian control. You’ll hear about all of the safeguards that are in place; first you have to elect the delegates, and then the convention has to vote to approve an amendment, then it’s up to the voters to approve or reject it….They aren’t safeguards, when you’re talking about minority rights”.

Professor Jared Goldstein: “On a basic level, the concern that we’ll have a runaway convention, or that they’ll pass recommendations that are contrary to our fundamental rights is really a point of view that expresses simple, profound distrust of the people, that is, we can’t trust the people the enact legislation that will help us because they may take away our constitutional rights….Don’t we want the people to decide these fundamental questions about what our society is like?…If the answer is no, then who do we trust? Do we just want the judges to decide what our rights are? What are they basing them on?”

A Constitutional Convention for Rhode Island? The History and Legal Framework

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John Marion of Common Cause Rhode Island: “The question [of whether to have a convention] has come before the voters three times since the 1974 changes to the constitution. In 1984 it passed, it got 53.8% of the votes. In 1994 it was defeated, and only received 40.5% of the votes. And in 2004, the most recent time it was on the ballot, it received 48% of the votes.

What are its chances this time?…The only thing we have to go on is a January 2013 poll by Public Policy Polling, where they did, I believe, a sample of roughly 500 Rhode Islanders, and it came up with 40% of Rhode Islanders supporting, 25% opposing, and 35% undecided.”

A Constitutional Convention for Rhode Island? How the State Constitution is Not Just a Mini-Federal Constitution

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Professor Robert Williams: “Some people think that the state constitutions are too easy to change, and therefore aren’t really constitutional. Some people think that state constitutions are too long, they’re too detailed….What these people are doing are comparing state constitutions to the model that all of us know, which is the United States Constitution. I want to suggest that that’s a big mistake, and as you go forward and try to determine whether to have a convention to look at your state constitution, and if you do have a convention, look at what functions and qualities a state constitution has in contrast to the US Constitution….They’re different from the United States Constitution and they ought to be different”.

Professor Alan Tarr: “Most of us revere the US Constitution….Most of us feel we couldn’t do a very good job improving on [the Founders’] handiwork. But somehow, we don’t feel the same reverence, the same attachment to our state constitutions….What we really have are two different constitutional traditions. At the national level, we value stability and continuity. At the state level, we value change and experimentation. The reflects a conflict of views, if you will, at the very point of the founding”.

Coming up in the Relevant House and Senate Education Committees: Banning Standardized Testing as a Graduation Requirement Forever*

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Other 1. H7672/S2185: Prevents a standardized assessment, and possibly any statewide assessment, from ever* being used as a graduation requirement. (H Health, Education and Welfare; Wed, Apr 2 & S Education; Thu, Apr 3)

S2185 was heard in the Senate Education Committee last week, as one of three possible alternatives for postponing/prohibiting standardized testing as a graduation requirement. It’s definitely the prohibit-not-postpone bill, and is the only bill of the three that’s been called back. It’s listed on the Education committee agenda as “scheduled for consideration”, which means there is a very strong likelihood it will be voted on.

If it is eventually passed by the entire Senate, the question will of course become what will the new House leadership (including new House Majority Leader and old Providence Teachers’ Union legal counsel John DeSimone) do with it.

Coming Up in the House Municipal Government Committee on Thursday, April 3: Replacing the Central Coventry Fire District

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1. H7906: Establishes a new fire district (the Main Fire District) to replace the Central Coventry Fire District, subject to approval by the voters of the former CCFD. (H Municipal Government; Thu, Apr 3)

The Central Coventry Fire District was ordered liquidated by Rhode Island Superior Court Judge Brian Stern on February 24. The firefighters union had originally planned a lawsuit to try to prevent this, but on Friday, Erica Ponte of WPRI-TV (CBS 12) reported…

Firefighter’s Union president Dave Gorman says the union has agreed to hold off on pursuing its lawsuit, pending legislation proposals which may allow the state to appoint a budget commission to oversee fire district finances.

The legislation sought by the union is needed becasue Rhode Island’s fiscal stabilization law enabling the state to take over cities and towns (in stages) via a budget commission and receiver, currently does not extend to fire districts. S2778, not yet scheduled for a hearing, is the bill that would change this.

Coming up in Committee: Twenty-Six Sets of Bills Being Heard by the Rhode Island General Assembly, April 1 – April 3

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3. On Wednesday, April 2, the House Finance Committee will hear a raft of bills on state income tax changes:

  • H7207: Subtracts “amounts deemed taxable income to the taxpayer due to payment or provision of social security benefits” from adjusted gross income for calculating state income tax.
  • H7418: Exempts from the Rhode Island income tax “any individual who has reached full retirement age as defined by the Social Security Administration” .
  • H7423: Exempts from the Rhode Island income tax the first “$15,000 per year of income paid to an individual by a retirement plan qualified as such under federal law” .
  • H7471: Adds a 8% tax-bracket for incomes over $250,000
  • H7552: Adds a 10% tax-bracket for individual incomes over $200,000/married couple (filing jointly) incomes over $250,000.
  • H7424: Allows teachers to claim a $250 tax-credit on their Rhode Island income tax “for any amount spent purchasing supplies and equipment, for use in the performance of their teaching duties”.

3B. H7429: Phases back in the former $6,000 car-tax exemption. (H Finance; Wed, Apr 2)

4. H7623 requires at least 15% of the work done on public works contracts of a million dollars or more to be done by apprentices. H7697 changes a current requirement that contractors working on public works contracts of a million dollars or more employ apprentices to a much milder requirement that “all specifications in any invitations to bid in any public works contract awarded by the state valued at ten million dollars or more shall include a notice that all bidders responding to an invitation to bid on a public works project may employ apprentices for apprenticeable crafts”. H7964 makes clear the Federal rules override state rules regarding apprenticeship requirements on state contracts of a million dollars or more. (H Labor; Tue, Apr 1)

5.S2388: Prohibits law enforcement officers or state/local government officials from inquiring about the immigration status or social-security numbers of complainants and witnesses involved in law enforcement/judicial processes. (S Judiciary; Tue, Apr 1)

6. H7818: $75 million bond referendum, to be used “to produce an additional supply of housing units at rents affordable to families working at or near minimum wage”, “to produce additional housing for individuals with disabilities to be coupled with services and case management” and “to provide grants to local communities for renovation, demolition, and homeownership opportunities in neighborhoods designated for revitalization”. (H Finance; Tue, Apr 1)

7. H7066: Bases car-tax assessments on trade-in instead of retail value. (H Finance; Wed, Apr 2)

The Mattiello Speakership; Past, Present and Future

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Past: It was difficult to look at the (unsuccessful) Marcello coalition and believe they were offering reform, as much as they were offering a refashioned oligarchy to replace the old one.

Present: Here are three specific proposals for rules reform, consistent with Speaker Mattiello’s call for a House of Representatives that is truly run by its members:

  • A prohibition on members being removed from a committee, without their consent, after they’ve received their initial committee assignment from the Speaker (this is so non-radical a proposal, the Rhode Island Senate already does it).
  • Creation of a clear procedure — that everybody understands exists — for rank-and-file members to use to recall bills “held for further study” and place them on committee agendas for up-or-down votes.
  • Tidying-up the discharge petition procedure for freeing bills from committee, removing the current rule preventing their use until 50 days into the session, and removing any ambiguity about the “only one petition to be presented for a public bill or resolution during the course of a session” clause in the rules meaning one petition per bill, as opposed to one petition per year.

Future: Trying to downplay the serious differences and avoid explaining the errors of progressivism and the excesses of unionism in order to ease the process of political coalition building isn’t likely to stop the progressives from immediately coming after Speaker Mattiello, or the unions from shifting their support elsewhere, if they don’t get their top agenda items. With the help of some standard-issue Rhode Island political inertia, the new Speaker may be able to maintain the coalition he has assembled for a time, but to prevent it from being whittled away, he will need to resolutely work at convincing a broad swath of Rhode Islanders about why his version of “jobs and the economy” is superior to competing versions which have strong constituencies amongst activists in the Democratic party.

Coming up in Committee: The Senate Education Committee Anti-Testing Agenda for Wednesday, March 26

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1. Several bills intended to delay or prevent the use of standardized testing as a graduation requirement in Rhode Island public schools (S Education; Wed, Mar 26)…

  • S2059: Prevents standardized testing from being used as a graduation requirement through the 2019 school year.
  • S2135: Delays the use of the PARCC assessment until a 21-member “common core state standards evaluation commission” makes its report.
  • S2185: Prevents a standardized assessment, and possibly any statewide assessment, from ever being used as a graduation requirement.

Coming up in Committee: Nineteen Sets of Bills Being Heard by the Rhode Island General Assembly, March 25 – March 27

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2. H7540: Salary controls for certain hospital personnel, excluding licensed doctors and nurses (leaving administrators, I presume), limiting them “to a rate of compensation greater than one hundred and ten percent (110%) of the amount determined annually by the director to constitute the northeast regional average compensation level for comparable personnel serving in comparable hospitals”. (H Corporations; Tue, Mar 25)

3. H7623 requires at least 15% of the work done on public works contracts of a million dollars or more to be done by apprentices. H7697 changes a current requirement that contractors working on public works contracts of a million dollars or more employ apprentices to a much milder requirement that “all specifications in any invitations to bid in any public works contract awarded by the state valued at ten million dollars or more shall include a notice that all bidders responding to an invitation to bid on a public works project may employ apprentices for apprenticeable crafts”. H7964 makes clear the Federal rules override state rules regarding apprenticeship requirements on state contracts of a million dollars or more. (H Labor; Tue, Mar 25)

4. S2594: Creates a new section of the law relating to “crimes against the public trust”. (S Judiciary; Tue, Mar 25) With the recent Federal Court decision making bribery-on-retainer legal in Rhode Island, the Judiciary Committee should go over this bill with a fine tooth comb, to make sure it covers the type of “gratuities” that transpired in the Central Falls Mayor’s case.

5. S2653: Defines four elements that must be satisfied in order to establish “criminal intent” with respect to laws that do not have their own specific criminal intent requirements (S Judiciary; Tue, Mar 25) The fourth of the four requirements is that a person act “with either specific intent to violate the law or with knowledge that the person’s conduct is unlawful”. Doesn’t this run counter to centuries of legal tradition, where ignorance of the law is not an excuse?

6. A set of bills on various types of computer-related crimes: H7456 modifies the basic definitions of cyberstalking and cyberharrasment; H7509 makes it a felony to access protected information on a computer without the proper authorization; H7845 creates a felony crime of online impersonation. (H Judiciary; Tue, Mar 25)

Coming up in Committee: Thirteen Sets of Bills Being Heard by the Rhode Island General Assembly, March 18 – March 20

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1A. H7444: Requires that the town/city council and school committee of every municipality to be served by a propsed mayoral academy charter school give explicit approval, before the mayoral academy can open. (H Health, Education and Welfare; Tue, Mar 18)

1B. H7495: Requires that students be randomly assigned to mayoral academies, i.e. instead of a lottery being held to award slots to students who have first applied for mayoral academy admission, admissions lotteries will include all students who are geographically eligible to attend a mayoral academy. (H Health, Education and Welfare; Tue, Mar 18) The sponsors of this bill are unintentionally providing some keen insight into progressive education ideology — once something like a system of Mayoral academies calls into question progressive notions of education-focused structural education reform being impossible, people must be prevented from being allowed to actively choose to participate in successful reforms, or else they will start to entertain silly ideas that they can help themselves in ways other than supporting ever-increasing funding for traditional government bureaucracies.

2. On Tuesday, March 18 the House Judiciary Committee will hear this year’s raft of firearms related bills. They are all listed in the separate post below.

3. On Wednesday, March 19, the House Finance Committee will hold its hearing on the “Health Benefits Exchange” (see p. 65 here).

4A. H7569: Extends the ten-cent cap on the Sakonnet River Bridge toll for a whopping three months, from April 1, 2014 to July 1, 2014. (H Finance; Tue, Mar 18 & S Finance; Tue, Mar 18) Simultaneous hearings suggest that the GA is in a hurry to get this one through.

4B. H7432: Eliminates tolls on the Sakonnet River Bridge, replacing the anticipated revenue with a multi-part formula requiring that fixed percentages of the total state budget be annually appropriated to a “transportation infrastructure fund”. Also, adds a temporary (still HAHAHAHAHAHAHAing over this) 5% surcharge to motor vehicle fees to help initially seed the infrastructure fund. Also, if a Federal internet sales tax is adopted, instead of the RI sales tax dropping from 7% to 6.5%, as is specified in current law, the sales tax would only drop to 6.625%, with the 0.125% difference going to the infrastructure fund. Also, creates a study commission to look at eliminating the gas tax. (H Finance; Tue, Mar 18) Gary Sasse of the Hassenfeld Institute for Public Leadership has tweeted positively about at least the concept of this bill, which is a point in its favor. However, I’m still skeptical of a bill that calls for new borrowing right away, promising to pay it back with a new multi-part process in future years.

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