Legislation introduced in the RI House would offer a broad school choice opportunity for Rhode Island families and may indicate that the state’s dire circumstances might finally be opening fissures for big ideas and bold policies.
No Feeding at the State Trough, Except For…
The Reputation of the EDC
Coventry’s Latest Crisis and “Fiscal Stabilization”
Legislative Budget Increase and the Mid-Year Shortfall
Legislation submitted last week would allow people to gamble their assets (such as houses and investment accounts) at the new state-run casino.
How would the removal of competitive bidding for state projects benefit the state?
1. S0266: Creates an “inspector general” position for the state of Rhode Island. I’ve been lukewarm to this kind of proposal in the past, but given how an Inspector General was critical in uncovering the political targeting done by the IRS, I am reconsidering. I do remain skeptical of the provisions that lay out specific qualifications for an IG, as there is a strong case to be made that top government positions should be open to everyone in a democratic republic. (S Finance; Tue, May 21)
2. H6098: Requires General Assembly ratification of rules promulgated by any state agency. Pre-ratification, regulations have “immediate effect”, but “permanent effect” does not occur until post-ratification. If this doesn’t mean that the legislature wants to reserve for itself the right to change administrative rules in special cases, without having to pass a law via the regular lawmaking process, then what does it mean? (H Judiciary; Tue, May 21)
3. S0312: Requires the school committee and town/city council of every community that would send students to a proposed mayoral academy to approve the mayoral academy’s charter school application. (S Education; Wed, May 22)
4. H6101:/H6111: Bills to allow Coventry fire districts (but really just the Central Coventry Fire District) to adopt a four-part property tax classification scheme, and to impose the previous year’s budget on taxpayers if the current year budget referendum fails. (H Municipal Government; Thu, May 23)
5. S0826: Authorizes cities and towns to enact separate tax rates for owner versus non-owner occupied residential properties. (S Finance; Tue, May 21)
Rep. Larry Valencia’s question on the relative morality of different taxes points to the question of how tax policy decisions should be made.
1. H5365: Eliminates the sales, meals and beverage, and use tax in Rhode Island, beginning on October 1, 2013. (H Finance; Wed, May 15)
2. H6060: Tax-credits for the “qualified rehabilitation expenditures for the substantial rehabilitation of a certified historic structure”, with at least two notable limitations: “the credit allowed pursuant to this chapter shall not exceed five million dollars ($5,000,000) for any certified rehabilitation project under this chapter” and “the aggregate credits authorized to be reserved pursuant to this chapter shall not exceed thirty million dollars ($30,000,000) annually”. (H Finance; Tue, May 14)
3. H5019: Repeals the banking laws that allow pay-day lending. Also, H5128 reduces the maximum “deferred deposit transaction” fee from 10% to 5% “of the funds advanced” (probably as an alternative to the full repeal of payday lending) (H Finance; Wed, May 15)
4. H6059: The General Treasurer’s plan (sponsored by Speaker Fox) to use the Rhode Island Clean Water Finance Agency to create and administer a state-funded “revolving loan” program “to make and enter into binding commitments to provide financial assistance to local cities and towns from amounts on deposit in the revolving fund” and “to enter into binding commitments to provide subsidy assistance for loans and city and town obligations from amounts on deposit in the revolving fund”, amongst other objectives. (H Finance; Tue, May 14)
5. S0826: Authorizes cities and towns to enact separate tax rates for owner versus non-owner occupied residential properties. (S Finance; Wed, May 15)
A proposed new quasi-public authority with powers of trespassing and eminent domain bring into question legislators’ beliefs about rights, particularly in contrast with another bill to make it more difficult to restrain potentially dangerous patients and students.
Notes from testimony on tax-the-rich legislation raise interesting points about what happened with tax policy and the economy over the past five years and what would be likely to happen under other policies moving forward.
1. Different ways to reorganize government, with the goal of improving the business climate in Rhode Island. (H Finance; Tue, May 7) However, the best bill for actually improving the business climate here in RI may actually be…
2. H5207: Creates a “Joint Committee of the Repealer” within the legislature, to recommend laws & regulations to be repealed. (H Judiciary; Thu, May 9)
3. A series of pro-life bills concerning abortion, banning abortions as a means of sex-selection, requiring the “voluntary and informed consent” of a woman seeking an abortion, requiring that an obstetric ultrasound be performed before informed consent can be given, and the addition of some specificity to the partial-birth abortion law. (H Judiciary; Wed, May 8)
4. S0768: The title of the bill is “Drivers license for foreign nationals”. The text of the bill makes no reference to illegal or legal immigration status, though it’s hard to see why a legal immigrant to Rhode Island would want the second-class driver’s license created by this bill, if he or she is eligible for a regular one… (S Judiciary; Tue, May 7)
A sudden end to Sovereign Bank’s relationship with Bullseye Shooting Supplies in Woonsocket may be part of a politically motivated national push to make the sale of firearms more difficult.
Rep. Larry Valencia wants to tax “the rich” at 10% in the name of equity and “shared sacrifice,” but dynamic policy modeling suggests that the sacrifice will mainly be Rhode Island’s.
At the House Judiciary Committee meeting on Wednesday, May 1, fourteen bills on gun control and the right to bear arms will be heard. Nine of them are part of the Governor’s/Attorney General’s/General Assembly Leadership’s “gun safety package”, another would create a $100 registration fee for firearms, three bills (with Republican lead sponsors) would limit the maintenance and release of information related to background checks, and a fourth Republican-sponsored bill would look into why Rhode Island doesn’t provide data to the national criminal background check system. A bill-by-bill breakdown is in the main body of the post.
2. On Tuesday, April 30, the House Judiciary Committee will hear the same-sex marriage bill with improved (but not perfect) “protections for freedom of religion in marriage”.
3. S0029: Mandates state use of “data verification and provider screening technology solutions” and “state-of-the-art predictive modeling and analytics technologies in a pre-payment position within the healthcare claim workflow” to reduce Medicaid, RIte Care and RIte Share fraud and waste. (S Health and Human Services; Tue, Apr 30)
4. S0562: Establishes an electronic registry of previously uninsured motorists AND has the division of motor vehicle randomly pick names from the registry and require those selected to provide proof that they are now insured. (S Judiciary; Thu, May 2)
Also: Why progressives will favor big business over small businesses (#5), the latest plans for funding the I-195 commission (#12A) and maintenance of Rhode Island’s roads and bridges (#14), and a bill where some input from bona fide legal practitioners would be greatly appreciated (#21).
Video (and one-paragraph summary) of Justin’s appearance on WPRI 12’s Newsmakers show about same-sex marriage.
Writing live from a House Finance committee hearing on the Sakonnet River Bridge toll.
The language added to the RI Senate’s same-sex marriage legislation, which passed out of committee today, is far from a “technical fix,” and it may present unexpected challenges for advancing the bill the final few steps to being law.
1. On Thursday, April 25, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hear the Rhode Island “gun safety agenda“.
2. On Tuesday, April 23, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hear the same-sex marriage bills (that have been amended to add meaningful religious freedom protections).
3. On Thursday, April 25, the House Oversight Committee and the Senate Finance Committee will hold simultaneous hearings (not joint but simultaneous, i.e. two separate hearings, meaning any one individual can only be at one hearing at any one time) on the Economic Development Corporation’s “Job Creation Guaranty program” aka the 38 Studios deal.
4. H5236: Requires Rhode Island employers with 3 or more employees to “apply to participate” in E-Verify by 2015. (H Labor; Wed, Apr 24)
5. S0117: Bans “standardized testing program[s] or assessment[s]” from being used as a high-school graduation requirement. (S Education; Wed, Apr 24)
The RI General Assembly will be taking up same-sex marriage legislation this week, and the bills on the table vary substantially with regard to the religious protections afforded those who disagree with the move
The way property taxes work, in Rhode Island, revaluations are little more than a way of redistributing the tax burden, and in Providence, a shift from taxing buildings to taxing land has repercussions for a number of recent issues, from the Superman Building to legislation affecting the entire state.
The argument that House leadership’s lawyers are offering for “nullifying” an appropriate and legal vote of the House judiciary committee, concerning government ethics, is specious and indicative of a huge problem in Rhode Island’s civic culture.
Economic freedom as the best approach to economic development; what Rhode Island chooses to penalize; the root cause of education decline.
In the midst of wall-to-wall storm coverage, two bills have entered the legislative chute that ought to attract more attention than a local run on milk and crackers.
Taxing sweet drinks; collectively bargained legislation; equal pay for unequal merit; Projo promotes the economy; civil rights from heroism to handouts.
Legislation to prevent the use of standardized testing for high school diplomas and legislation to prevent electrical maintenance workers from plying their trade freely give a sense of RI’s governance problems.
Justin liveblogs from the Senate’s “Moving the Needle” Summit.
Justin writes live from a five-hour, four-panel economic conference put on by the RI House of Representatives.
Legislation just submitted would not only compound irresponsible taxation and spending, but the fine print would create a new source of revenue for the government’s pet projects.
Legislation described as making a minor technical change to its name would actually put Bryant University on a path to paying full property taxes in Smithfield.
Feeling hopeful, RI?; “top priority” is shown, not stated; RI gets fatherless children first; surviving sans regulation; surviving sans net income; and surviving sans a documented framework for working together.