1A. On Tuesday, May 13, SJ Advisors presents their report on payment of the 38 Studios moral obligation bonds to the House Finance Committee.

1B. S2694: “…neither the general assembly nor any governmental or quasi-governmental entity created by it shall issue any bonds, commonly called ‘moral obligation’ bonds in excess of fifty thousand dollars…” (S Finance; Tue, May 13) While the purpose of this bill makes sense, “moral obligation” bonds were themselves created to make a practice clearly prohibited (issuing bonds without voter approval) appear to be legal by renaming it. How would a law like this guarantee that a future legislature wouldn’t get around it, simply by coming up with yet another name for issuing debt without voter consent?

2. S2345: 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. (S Finance; Tue, May 13)

3. S2332: Establishes a floor for the Central Falls pension settlement such that, for 2016, “no retiree shall receive less than” 75.6% of their pre-bankruptcy pension amount, and raising that floor to 100% over the following 20 years. (The bankruptcy settlement initially cut a number of pensions to 55% of their original amount, though the state authorized “transition” funds to raise that to 75% for five years). Unlike the version submitted to the House, this bill does not expressly make the state responsible for the pension. (S Finance; Thu, May 15)  So where will the difference between the 55% and the rising scale that starts at 75% come from? The bill doesn’t say.

4. S2074: Sets the threshold for the RI estate tax at $2M (annually adjusting it upwards for inflation) and assesses the tax only on the amount over the threshold. (S Finance; Tue, May 13)

5. S2077/S2148: Bases car-tax assessments on trade-in instead of retail value. (S Finance; Tue, May 13)

6. H8159: Removes the subcategory of “home care providers” from the list of healthcare facilities prohibited from “develop[ing] or offer[ing] new health care equipment or new institutional health services in Rhode Island, the magnitude of which exceeds the limits defined by this chapter, without prior review by the health services council and approval by the state agency”. (H Health, Education and Welfare; Wed, May 14) This bill is a reminder of how, in Rhode Island, even before Obamacare became law, healthcare was being treated less as unbridled capitalism than as a government subsidiary.

7. S2738: Teachers who receive a “highly effective” evaluation “shall, subsequent to such evaluation, be evaluated not more than once every four years thereafter”; teachers who receive an “effective” evaluation “shall, subsequent to such evaluation, be evaluated not more than once every three (3) years thereafter”. (S Education; Wed, May 14) This language in this bill could be interpreted as meaning that once a teacher receives a highly-effective evaluation one time, that teacher can only be evaluated once every four years for the rest of his or her career regardless of any future evaluation. Is that the intent?

8. S2191: From the official description: “This act would exempt social security benefits from the state income tax”. (S Finance; Tue, May 13)

9A. H8051: $30M dollar performing-arts bond to be placed on the November ballot, with the money to go to: Trinity Repertory Company ($5,271,000), Rhode Island Philharmonic ($5,271,000), Newport Performing Arts Center ($4,216,800), United Theater/Westerly Land Trust ($2,369,440), The Chorus of Westerly ($1,054,200), The Stadium Theater Conservatory ($2,108,400), 2nd Story Theater ($1,054,200), AS220 ($2,108,400), WaterFire Providence ($3,162,600) and Other funds to be allocated by RISCA for 1:1 matching grants to be allocated by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts ($3,383,960). (H Finance; Wed, May 14)

9B. S2462: $50M affordable housing bond, to be submitted to the voters. (S Finance; Thu, May 15) A $25M housing bond was passed in 2012. The bill itself contains no details on either matching funds, or the number of housing units to be provided via this bond.

10. S2937: A change at the statutory level, i.e. not a constitutional amendment requiring voter approval, to have Governor and Lieutenant Governor run as a single ticket. (S Special Legislation and Veterans Affairs; Wed, May 14) If you accept that this change can be carried out by a change in statute, you also have to accept that the legislature could require all 5 officers to run together as a single-slate of candidates. It is a major stretch to assume the General Assembly has the power to restructure government to this large of a degree by statute alone, and possibly contrary to language in the state constitution that says the General Officers “shall severally hold their offices”.

11. H8175: To paraphrase the country song: how can I start to miss the Mineshaft Gap bill if it won’t go away? This is the bill that prohibits building schools anywhere in Rhode Island on the sites of former mines, but that is really intended to prevent construction of the new Blackstone Prep elementary school. A new section prevents a school from being built within 300 ft of a former mine, “until the ground area is proven stable” and requires a specific test for providing proof of stability.  This bill already came before the committee earlier in the session, minus the new 300 ft section; a one-house study commission was substituted in its place, which passed the House floor. The version getting a hearing this week was resubmitted just last Thursday, and I’m not sure what’s changed at the statehouse to cause the issue to be taken up again. (H Health, Education and Welfare; Wed, May 14)

12. H8034: Adds the seizure of any weapon that is “is alleged to have been used, or threatened to be used, by the alleged abuser in the commission of alleged domestic abuse, or in the alleged abuser’s control, ownership, or possession if said weapon is in plain view, or was found pursuant to consent to search” to the list of duties of police officers who respond to a domestic violence situation. (H Judiciary; Tue, May 13)

13. H8129: Adds “the real property of any person having debts secured by casino-issued lines of credit” to the list of property “exempt from attachment on any warrant of distress or on any other writ”. (H Judiciary; Wed, May 14)

14. S2796: Creates a state contracting preference for “business enterprises whose highest paid executive receives compensation and/or salary equal to thirty-two (32) times or less than the compensation and/or salary paid to its lowest paid full-time employee”. (S Finance; Tue, May 13)

15. S2476: Eliminates the six-month limit on “adult education in an intensive work readiness program” counting towards the work requirement for welfare assistance. (S Finance; Thu, May 15)

16. H8130: Repeals a law, the would probably be declared unconstitutional if challenged, prohibiting campaign literature “designed or tending to injure or defeat any candidate for nomination or election to any public office, by criticizing the candidate’s personal character or political action, or designed or tending to aid, injure, or defeat any question submitted to the voters, unless there appears upon the circular, flier, or poster in a conspicuous place the name of the author and either the names of the chairperson and secretary, or of two (2) officers, of the political or other organization issuing the poster, flier, or circular, or of some voter who is responsible for it, with the voter’s name and residence, and the street and numbers, if any”. (H Judiciary; Wed, May 14)

17. S2584: Mandates that the RI Director of Human Services create a pilot program for providing childcare subsidies to working families currently receiving them, until their income surpasses 225% of the federal poverty level. (The current eligibility level is 180%; household income would still need to be below that to start into the program, but once in the program, the subsidy wouldn’t be lost until hitting the higher threshold). (S Health and Human Services; Tue, May 13)

18A. H7304: Extends the current requirement that persons convicted of sexual and violent offenses provide DNA to be logged in a database, to a requirement that persons arrested for “murder, manslaughter, first degree arson, kidnapping with intent to extort, robbery, larceny from the person, first degree sexual assault, second degree sexual assault, first and second degree child molestation, assault with intent to murder, assault with intent to rob, assault with intent to commit first degree sexual assault, burglary, and entering a dwelling house with intent to commit murder, robbery, sexual assault, or larceny” or convicted of any felony do so. (H Judiciary; Wed, May 14)

18B. H8106: “In making a determination as to whether a person is a danger to the community and/or to grant or deny bail to a person charged with a sexual offense, the court may consider past indictments and/or arrests of the person for similar sexual offenses”. (H Judiciary; Tue, May 13)

19. H8181: Creates an unlimited penalty for a zoning-ordinance violation “causing permanent damage to property or to the public health, safety and/or welfare” that is “equivalent to the actual value of the property, and damage caused by the violation”. (H Municipal Government; Thu, May 15)

20. H7258: Makes it a misdemeanor “to knowingly install, conceal or otherwise place an electronic tracking device in or on a motor vehicle without the consent of all owners of the vehicle” punishable by “up to one year in prison, or up to a one thousand dollar fine, or both”. (H Judiciary; Wed, May 14)

21. H8179: Remnant of old separation-of-powers problems in Rhode Island. This bill adds the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the president of the Rhode Island Brotherhood of Correctional Officers to an “oversight committee for the purpose of maintaining the secure facilities at the adult correctional institutions”. (H Judiciary; Tue, May 13) The two new members would join, amongst others, 4 direct legislative appointments on board that appears to be more than advisory.  This practice was supposed to have been eliminated with the addition of the separation of powers provision of the state constitution stating that the governor shall appoint “all members of any board, commission or other state or quasi-public entity which exercises executive power under the laws of this state”.

22. H8105: Makes an open-meetings act fine against a school committee and/or its chairperson the “personal responsibility” of the committee chair. (H Judiciary; Tue, May 13)

23. S2820: Removes the civil forfeiture penalty for direct acts of prostitution, while adding civil forfeiture penalties to “pandering or permitting prostitution”. (H Judiciary; Wed, May 14)

24. H8139: Permits “manicuring, esthetics, barbering and/or hairdressing and cosmetic therapy” to be provided “outside a licensed shop as part of a special occasion event, such as a wedding or prom, so long as those services are limited to hair styling and makeup, and the health and sanitation standards expected of licensees in licensed shops are followed”. (H Corporations; Wed, May 14)

25. H8125: Exempts “individually identifiable evaluations of public school superintendents, administrators, principals, and all other school employees” from the access to public records act (teachers are already exempt). (H Judiciary; Wed, May 14)

26. S2235: Requires candidates, political parties and political action committees to report their expenditures over $100 “in furtherance of the nomination, election, or defeat of any candidate or the approval or rejection of any question submitted to the voters, or at any financial town meeting, financial town referendum, or other election at which amendments to a city or town charter are proposed”. (Reporting of contributions for any of the reasons cited above is already required). (H Judiciary; Wed, May 14)

27. S2082 eliminates the sales tax on taxicabs; S2083 eliminates the sales tax on pet care; S2460 raises taxes on cigarettes and funds a “the tobacco control program and for programs and activities aimed at reducing tobacco use in Rhode Island”. (S Finance; Thu, May 15)

Ranking Indeterminate: S2876: “Any managed long-term care arrangement shall offer beneficiaries the option to decline participation and remain in traditional Medicaid and, if a duals demonstration project, traditional Medicare”. (S Health and Human Services; Tue, May 13)

S2137: Creates a department of agriculture within the department of environment management, and without a cabinet-level or other high ranking administrator of agriculture. (S Environment and Agriculture; Wed, May 14)

S2692: Creates a new “Renewable Energy Contractor” certificate within the body of Rhode Island contracting law. (S Environment and Agriculture; Wed, May 14)

Inobvious Priorities: H8015 >> Allowing Providence arson investigators to carry firearms statewide.

Local Impact: Barrington, Charlestown, Cranston, Narrgansett, North Smithfield 2.