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.

5. S2221: Bans certain types of health insurance policies from “vary[ing] the premium rate for a health coverage plan based on the gender of the individual policy holders”. The types of policies excluded are “hospital confinement indemnity, disability income, accident only, long-term care, medicare supplement, limited benefit health, specified diseased indemnity, sickness of bodily injury or death by accident or both; and/or other limited benefit policies” (S Health and Human Services; Thu, Mar 20) But is there a reason automobile insurance isn’t being considered by the General Assembly for inclusion into this kind of regulation?

6. S2637: Requires a mortgagee who is foreclosing on a property to maintain it up to the level of state or local housing code, should the property become vacant during the foreclosure process. (S Judiciary; Tue, Mar 18)

7. H7178: Beginning in 2014, retailers with $5M in annual sales “are prohibited from making available any plastic checkout bag, not including plastic barrier bags or double-opening plastic bags”. In 2015, the ban is extended to all retailers. (H Environment and Natural Resources; Thu, Mar 20)

8. S2659: Requires 1) just cause, 2) specific circumstances related to the sale of a rental property, or 3) lack of objection from the Department of Housing and Urban Development in cases of housing insured by the Federal Housing Administration, in order to evict a tenant. (S Judiciary; Tue, Mar 18)

9. On Thursday, March 20, the Senate Finance Committee will hold its hearing on the departmental budget of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, which is the single largest major category of expense in the state budget (about $2 billion, including state and Federal funds).

10. H7630: Adds an exception to the prohibition in RI law against local breed-specific animal control ordinances, to allow the city of Warwick to pass ordinances “pertain[ing] to spaying or neutering of pit bulls and staffordshire bull terriers”. (H Municipal Government; Thu, Mar 20) I know some hyper-local bills, e.g. very specific zoning changes, skate through the General Assembly on a regular basis. However, under any reasonable reading of section 4 of Article XIII of the Rhode Island Constitution: “The general assembly shall also have the power to act in relation to the property, affairs and government of a particular city or town provided that such legislative action shall become effective only upon approval by a majority of the qualified electors of the said city or town voting at a general or special election”, shouldn’t a bill giving one city special ordinance powers rise to the level of requiring voter approval?

11. H7771/S2229: Pin-pricking Rhode Island with the needle: Allows the town of Richmond to set a maximum $10 fee to operate a business there. (H Municipal Government; Thu, Mar 20 & S Housing and Municipal Government; Thu, Mar 20) S2749 turns the one-time $5 fee for operating a business in Smithfield into an annual fee. (S Housing and Municipal Government; Thu, Mar 20) Same editorial note as above.

12. H7620: Removes the civil forfeiture penalty for direct acts of prostitution, while adding civil forfeiture penalties to “pandering or permitting prostitution”. (H Judiciary; Wed, Mar 19)

13. By RI General Assembly standards, a relatively light first entry for the year in the ongoing battle of body shops versus automobile insurers: H7404: would extend regulations on aftermarket auto body replacement parts to any automobile replacement part; H7405 prohibits insurance companies from mandating use of used or remanufactered airbags or suspension parts; H7796 establishes a two-tiered licensing system for body shops. (H Corporations; Tue, Mar 18)

Ranking Indeterminate: H7507: “No ordinance or regulation, made by a city or town council, shall be established which exceeds the authority imposed by any statutory law of the state, and any ordinance or regulation made by a city or town council must be consistent with the statutory laws of the state”. (H Judiciary; Wed, Mar 19)

Inobvious Priorities: H7600 >> Excludes “the property of any agency or public body” from the Rhode Island Museum Property Act; H7622 >> Bans the sale of hearing aids through the internet or direct mail.

Local Impact: North Kingstown 2, North Smithfield, Providence, Tiverton, West Greenwich.