In an op-ed in today’s Providence Journal, Ken Block does a very good job making the case for the line-item veto.

A line-item veto provides greater budget transparency by allowing a governor to strike out pieces of the budget, forcing the legislature to hold an override vote for each struck item. With the line-item veto, a more nuanced debate can be had in the legislature regarding the merits of each struck item, making it very difficult to override vetoes of particularly bad parts of the budget.

It sure seems like a no-brainer for Rhode Island to join forty four other states and give the line-item veto to its governor. Why is Governor Raimondo, who is unquestionably a numbers person and, accordingly, must see the value of this tool, not rallying public support or lobbying legislators to implement the line-item veto in Rhode Island?

Monique Chartier

Monique is a political gadfly, data junkie and contributor to the Ocean State Current and Anchor Rising.  Please consider supporting the terrific work of the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity here:

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