Rhode Island is “full of progress and promise,” Gov. Dan McKee said during his State of the State address Tuesday night, arguing that New England’s longtime economic laggard is flipping the script on old narratives while stepping into the future.
Whether Rhode Islanders agree will be decided next year when McKee, a 73-year-old Democrat, plans to seek re-election.
During an hour-long speech in the House of Representatives’ chamber at the Statehouse, the governor waxed optimistic, and he previewed a budget proposal with no broad-based tax increases and an envisioned ban on new sales of semiautomatic rifles.
While a mid-year poll last year showed Rhode Islanders in a pessimistic state, McKee said the state is moving in the right direction, pointing to various details: an all-time peak in the labor force last year; an eastern championship for Rhode Island FC, the state’s new soccer team, in its first season; a pioneering role in the offshore wind industry; a 12-spot improvement in a national infrastructure ranking, and so on.
As part of his refrain that Rhode Island is “flipping the script” from less favorable narratives in the past, the governor cited bright spots such as Regent Craft, a Quonset-based maker of electric ocean gliders, which is adding more than 300 jobs.
“Rhode Island is a top 10 state for children’s health, college students, and our natural environment,” the governor said in prepared remarks. “We are the third-best state for women’s health and reproductive care, and first in the nation for being a safe, welcoming place for our LGBTQ community. As governor – no matter what happens in Washington – I’m committed to protecting that progress.”
In the GOP response, however, Senate Republican Leader Jessica de la Cruz (R-North Smithfield) said that despite McKee’s good intentions, his administration has been marked by failure, including the loss of millions of dollars in the hospitality business due to the response on the Washington Bridge and the recent cyber-breach of the state’s online portal for health and human services.
Referring to the company that manages the portal, de la Cruz said, “To add insult to injury, Deloitte, the exact same company that was paid hundreds of millions of dollars to build this failed IT system, is now managing its own data breach. That’s an insult to the taxpayers checking their credit score every morning because the governor failed to have necessary cybersecurity measures in place. We should expect our government to do a good job the first time, but at the very least, our tax dollars should never reward failure.”
McKee pledged accountability on the cyber-breach.
He also attempted to turn the Washington Bridge, which was the top local story last year after being closed westbound on an emergency basis in December 2023, into something more positive, or less negative.
“As governor, I inherited a bridge that was in the midst of being repaired – even though it turned out that it was not repairable,” McKee said. “That’s frustrating for all of us.”
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McKee inherited the governor’s office in 2021 and won election to the job in 2022. He said his Rhode Island 2030 plan has been updated with the goal of improving public education, creating a healthier Rhode Island and making the state more prosperous.
McKee also noted how the cost of government continues to grow faster than state revenue, creating a long-term structural deficit.
“As we return to a pre-pandemic fiscal environment, we must take steps to right-size government while preserving programs that improve educational outcomes, raise incomes, and make our residents healthier – three pillars in the Rhode Island 2030 plan,” he said.
McKee said his budget plan for the fiscal year starting July 1 — due to be presented Thursday afternoon to the General Assembly — clears a $250 million deficit without any broad tax hikes.
The legislature has the last word on state spending and makes a series of changes to plans from the governor’s office before typically passing an amended version in June.
McKee said his spending plan “will call for an investment to create 1,000 new work-based learning opportunities in Rhode Island, and it will call for an enhancement of Real Jobs RI to train an additional 500 Rhode Islanders. I’ll direct funds to protect crucial high school dual enrollment programs where high school students earn transferable college credits that give them a head start, both academically and financially.”
The governor said his budget also includes a career and technical education program at the Community College of Rhode Island, called Ready to Build, to “create a pre-apprenticeship pathway to jobs in the building trades.”
McKee said his budget tries to address a shortage of primary care doctors by proposing “a strategic investment to provide further student loan forgiveness for primary care physicians who commit to staying and working in our state. In this budget, I’ll once again propose that the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner includes primary care providers in the rate review process.”
The governor noted a recent bankruptcy filing by Prospect Medical Holdings, the owner of Roger Williams Medical Center in Providence and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital in North Providence.
An Atlanta-based nonprofit, the Centurion Foundation, hopes to buy the two hospitals.
“It is our hope that Prospect is able to carve out its Rhode Island facilities from its restructuring plans and get this deal done,” McKee said. “We want Rhode Islanders and hospital staff to know that we are committed to ensuring that the hospitals get new ownership. In the meantime, Prospect does not anticipate any interruptions to patient services or care at their facilities, and that’s reassuring news.”
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McKee used the annual address to highlight a handful of people, including Chris Callahan, adjutant general of the Rhode Island National Guard, who announced his retirement last year.
Among the others praised by the governor: students Opal and Paul from the Melrose Elementary School in Jamestown. Their third-grade class scored 100% proficiency in math on a standardized test.
Homeless advocates, who have criticized McKee for not being willing to declare a public health emergency due to the number of unhoused people at risk due to winter weather, planned to rally inside the Statehouse before the governor’s address. Police closed off the rotunda before the protest could start.
During his address, McKee said the state “is filling the pipeline” to add more options for housing the homeless, with a proposed $4.4 million boost over the next fiscal year. He said the state is paying for almost 1,300 shelter beds paid for by the state — and called that a 60% increase from the start of his administration.
In a change from past practices, videographers from local television stations were prohibited from entering the House chamber.
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In her GOP response, Senate Republican Leader de la Cruz called the budget the wrong place for an initiative to restrict gun sales, since, she said, that should be debated as a separate issue by lawmakers.
De la Cruz also pointed to a Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council report which found that after spending more than $250 million, the state produced just 1,600 additional units of affordable housing.
“This is not an efficient use of taxpayer dollars,” she said. “Education is no better. Rhode Island spends among the highest per pupil in the nation, yet only 30% of students are proficient in English and math. That means 70% of our children cannot meet basic academic standards.”
Criticism also came from the left side of the political spectrum.
In a statement, Georgia Hollister Isman, regional director for the Working Families Party, a progressive group, said McKee should have taken a stronger stand against Donald Trump and Trumpism.
With President-elect Trump set to soon take power, Hollister Isman said, “Gov. McKee and Rhode Island lawmakers’ focus should be showing voters what it means to have a state government that’s really on your side.”
She added, “That means fighting the damage coming from the White House, and building a government that actually fights for working people. Leadership can signal they’re ready to take a stand by refusing to slash the services and programs that help the majority of working families. And like it or not, they’ll have to put up a fight when greedy multi-millionaires and billionaires say they can’t afford to get a little less rich each year by paying what they owe, just so kids don’t go hungry at school. That’s what we need to be thinking about this year – and we need to be clear-sighted about whose side we’re on.”
The Rhode Island Working Families Party has nudged the General Assembly to the left over a series of election cycles by promoting progressive candidates.
