2. Of this year’s raft of gun rights/gun-control bills, this one is the most significant:

• H6017: Changes concealed carry permitting authority for the RI Attorney General from a “may issue” basis, to a “shall issue” basis, provided that the permit applicant passes a background check, and meets all criteria laid out in a detailed application specified in the law. (H Judiciary; Wed, Apr 15)

The other bills being heard are:

• H5872: Extends the ban on individuals convicted of committing crimes of violence “purchasing, owning, carrying, transporting, or having in his or her possession any firearm” to individuals convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors. (H Judiciary; Tue, Apr 14)

1. H5563: Inter-district school choice plan for Rhode Island public schools, where “any child may attend a public school, in a city or town where he/she does not reside, as provided for in this chapter”. (H Finance; Thu, Apr 9)

2. H5956: Bans union versus non-union status from being used as a criterion for the awarding of public contracts, and prohibits public-works contracting provisions requiring utilization of specific unions, or requiring that a union be recognized as an exclusive bargaining representative. (H Labor; Thu, Apr 9)

3. H5962: Extends the authority of the Director of Environment Management to regulate construction near freshwater wetlands, to include granting building approvals over “areas subject to flooding”, “contiguous areas that extend outward”, or land “two hundred feet from the edge”. (H Environment and Natural Resources; Thu, Apr 9)

1. Bud. Art. 11, sec 15: The oddly-constructed statewide property tax, written not as a tax on property but on “the privilege of utilizing property as non-owner occupied residential property within the state during any privilege year commencing with the privilege year beginning July 1, 2015”, which applies to non-owner occupied properties valued at $1M or more. (H Finance; Tue, Apr 7) A tax on the “privilege” of owning property is very difficult to justify (using earth logic) from the perspective of trying to writing laws that are clear and fair, as a tax on a “privilege” can be assessed whether the privilege is exercised or not. But here’s an interesting question: Is a tax on “privilege” versus actual property deductible from Federal income tax? There are ramifications either way…

2. H5784: Requires that at least one health plan offered to individuals and small businesses by the Rhode Island health benefits exchange exclude “coverage for induced abortions”, with exceptions for cases involving rape and the life of the mother. (H Corporations; Tue, Apr 7)

3. H5903: Salary controls for hospital administrative staff, limiting non-health care professionals to “a rate of compensation [not] 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, Apr 7)

4. S0620: Centralizes healthcare decision making in government in a new “office of health policy”, whose powers include the power to cap the amount of healthcare in RI paid for with commercial insurance. (S Health and Human Services; Tue, Apr 7)

5. H5374: Constitutional amendment (requiring voter approval) restoring Ethics Commission jurisdiction over the legislature. (H Judiciary; Tue, Apr 7)

4. H5631: Allows individuals who have property confiscated as part of a civil forfeiture proceeding to “seek a court determination as to whether the forfeiture is disproportionately excessive to the gravity of the offense giving rise to the forfeiture”. (H Judiciary; Tue, Mar 31)

5A. H5610: Mandates that the Department of Public Safety begin “to implement an electronic automobile and commercial vehicle liability insurance confirmation and compliance system” that includes “an automatic license plate recognition system to electronically capture license plate images in two seconds or less and noninvasively attempt verification of the insurance and when possible, the registration status of the vehicle”. (H Finance; Wed, Apr 1)

5B. H5606: Requires that applicants for operators and chauffeur licenses have a valid social security number. (H Finance; Wed, Apr 1) It will be interesting to see how many legislators end up taking the position that requiring social security numbers for operators and chauffeur’s licenses is unreasonable, while supporting an electronic system that is supposed to watch every automobile in the state.

6. H5495: Minimum-manning for social workers at public schools, one per 400 students. (H Health, Education and Welfare; Wed, Apr 1)

7. H5961: Unambiguously establishes that holding a seat on the Cumberland Fire District board is holding public office — and that “members shall hold no other public office”. (H Judiciary; Wed, Apr 1) I understand and agree with the spirit of this bill: it’s crazy that here in Rhode Island, we pretend that there’s ambiguity about whether Fire Districts are part of the government or not. However, 1) a bill like this shouldn’t be confined to one community and 2) the authors of the bill need to carefully review the law in this area, to make sure there aren’t potential problems (legal and ethical) with burdening Cumberland Fire District Board members more than other local officials.

1. H5621: Resolution calling for a Constitutional Convention to propose amendments to the Federal Constitution (requiring 2/3 of state legislatures to agree), with the initial scope of the Convention limited to narrowing First Amendment protections for political speech. (H Judiciary; Wed, Mar 25) Also, the article of describing the proposed make-up of the convention is grammatically awkward: “That this House hereby respectfully requests that the delegates to said convention be comprised equally of individuals currently elected to state and local office, or be selected by election, in each Congressional district for the purpose of serving as delegates”. Formally that could say we either get a split between state and local officials or a special election. Is that what’s meant?

2. Series of anti-Uber bills, H5808 prohibits non-taxicab rides from being arranged less than 2 hours in advance. H5809 requires non-taxicabs used for transporting passengers to obtain a “vehicle identification device” from the state. H5811 subjects “public motor vehicles” to the Public Utilities Commission. (H Corporations; Tue, Mar 24) A government that wants to tell people they can’t schedule rides with one another less than two hours in advance needs some deeper thought on the fundamental limits it should be allowed to place on its citizens, just because an activity is considered “commercial”.

3. S0488: Moratorium on opening new “licensed home care, home nursing care, inpatient hospice care, and outpatient hospice care agencies” in Rhode Island, and creates a “home healthcare system planning task force” that will lift the moratorium at some time in the future. Also, S0486 gives the Department of health new powers for shutting down unlicensed home healthcare agencies. (S Health and Human Services; Thu, Mar 26)

4. H5455: Anti patent trolling legislation. (H Judiciary; Tue, Mar 24) This seems to be as good a place as any for actual bi-partisan agreement in Rhode Island.

1. S0593: Eliminates the up-to six month prison sentence for instances of disorderly conduct — including for “obstruct[ing] a highway…to which the public or a substantial group of the public has access or any other place ordinarily used for the passage of persons, vehicles, or conveyances” — unless the case involves domestic violence. (S Judiciary; Tue, Mar 17)

2. H5589: Phases in a requirement that employers apply to participate in e-verify, with the last wave of employers,those with less than 50 employees, required to apply no later than January 1, 2017. (H Labor; Thu, Mar 19)

3. S0650: 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. (S Judiciary; Tue, Mar 17) 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.

1A. H5350: Binding arbitration for municipal employees. (H Labor; Thu, Mar 5)

1B. H5475: Abolishes expiration dates from RI public-school teacher and municipal employee contracts, making their terms permanent until a new contract is agreed upon. (H Labor; Thu, Mar 5)

1C. H5473: Subjects fire-department “platoon structure and/or shift schedule” to collective bargaining. (H Labor; Thu, Mar 5)

2. H5317: Reduces the allowed difference in municipal property tax rates for different property classifications from 50% to 25%. (H Municipal Government; Thu, Mar 5)

3A. S0023/S0311/S0313: Mandates that for car-tax purposes, automobiles be assessed at trade-in rather than their retail value. (S Finance; Tue, Mar 3)

3B. S0043 raises the car-tax exemption for “distressed communities” to $6,000 (this is an automatic raise, not a local option). S0227 raises the car-tax exemption for “distressed communities” to $6,000 and compensates said distressed communities for the reduced revenue with state money. (S Finance; Tue, Mar 3) In present Rhode Island context, this means certain communities can receive a state subsidy for their financial mismanagement.

1. At present, the definition of disorderly conduct includes obstructing a “highway…to which the public or a substantial group 12 of the public has access”, punishable by imprisonment of up to 6 months, and a fine up to $500.

H5193 makes it a misdemeanor to “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly, alone or with others, [restrict] traffic flow of a freeway”, punishable by a prison sentence of up to one year and a fine of up to $500. H5192 creates a crime of “unlawful interference with traffic” with reference to “any federal or state highway”, with a minimum prison sentence of 1 year for a first offense, 60 days of which cannot be suspended or deferred. (H Judiciary; Wed, Feb 4)

3. H5077: Charges the RI Board of Education with establishing “state-wide goals that are school specific for increasing the number of graduates who 10 earn certificates and degrees at both two and four year post-secondary public institutions of higher education” and requires the Board to develop and make available data on “college access and completion data…that includes data on students’ educational experiences and outcomes from early childhood through higher education in Rhode Island public institutions of higher education and into the workforce”. The bill then lists four specific metrics related to post-secondary enrollment, and also includes a reporting requirement on “excess credits” defined as “credits which the student earned and which were not required for the degree or certificate”. (H Health, Education and Welfare; Wed, Feb 4)

4. H5074: Raises the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour starting in January 2016 (up from $9.00 per hour currently). (H Labor; Thu, Feb 5)

5. H5013: Requires that transportation be provided for students residing further than two miles away from their school. (H Health, Education and Welfare; Wed, Feb 4)

6. H5174: An extensive set of new laws regarding the relationship between health insurers and pharmacy providers.

1A. H5099: Limits electric rate increases that can be approved by the public utilities commission to “no greater than five and 5 one-half percent (5.5%) or the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index…unless the increase shall have been previously approved by affirmative action of the general assembly”. The issue of the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of price controls aside, it is a very basic violation of the principle of separation of powers for the General Assembly to make itself into a standalone board-of-appeals for other state agencies. A basic check on the power of the legislature is that it is not allowed to ignore the requirement (with a few expressed exemptions like proposing constitutional amendments) that its actions be submitted to the governor for approval or veto.

1B. H5079: Phases-in a requirement that, by 2035, 40% of the electricity sold at retail by large electric distribution entities be obtained from “eligible renewable energy resources”. The bill states that delays in the implementation schedule due to inadequate supply may not be for more than 3 years. Is this either technically or economically feasible?

1C. H5131: Prohibits electric distribution companies from charging “an interconnecting renewable energy customer for any upgrades to its electric power system that can and should be funded through rates assessed pursuant to its electric infrastructure, safety and reliability provision and plan, including specifically any maintenance, repair or upgrade of any component of the electric power system that has been deferred for more than thirty years.”

1D. H5175: Requires all public utilities in Rhode Island to “maintain a customer service operation physically located within the state which is reasonably staffed to meet the expectations of the public”. (H Corporations; Tue, Jan 27 postponed)

1. H5054: Creates a Joint Committee of the Repealer within the legislature, composed of six members from both houses, to “compile suggestions for repeal of statutes, regulations, and executive orders received from citizens, businesses, and government agencies”. (H Judiciary; Tue, Jan 20)

2. H5051: “Neither the state of Rhode Island, nor its political subdivisions, shall engage in surveillance on any public ways of the state or its political subdivisions”. The bill then adds a list of six exceptions, the first of which is that the prohibition doesn’t apply where surveillance “is specifically authorized by statute”. (H Judiciary; Tue, Jan 20)