March is here, and lawmakers are digging deeper into RI Gov. Gina Raimondo’s budget $9.9 billion proposal. That’s part of what’s on tap this week, so thanks for stopping by for my weekly column. As usual, your tips and comments are welcome, and you can follow me through the week on the twitters. Here we go.
Is the growth in the number of jobs touted by Gov. Raimondo as her chief accomplishment overstated? URI economics professor Leonard Lardaro tweeted this week that revised data shows that the number of Rhode Islanders with jobs or who are actively seeking jobs has declined for most of the last decade. (“Can you imagine how bad this would be if we didn’t live next door to MA???,” Lardaro commented.) Asked about this during an interview at The Public’s Radio, Raimondo said the labor force trend line in Rhode Island mirrors national numbers. “It is something we have to grapple with,” she said, “however, the reality is there is no question that our economy is much stronger than it was when I began. By any metric, there’s more people working, wages are higher. For the 12 months of 2017, we had the highest wage growth in the country … having said that, we’re not done ‘cause there are still too many people who are working and poor. I was at Amos House [Wednesday] – they serve lunch. You know how many people who are there getting lunch at Amos House who came from work? That’s the challenge and that’s why I said in my State of the State we’re not done until everyone has a good job and is included in this comeback.”
1A. (Update) In a letter to Michael DiBiase, director of the state Department of Administration, House Finance Chairman Marvin Abney and Senate Finance Chairman William Conley cite concern about the state’s budget outlook. In particular, they say the budget picture could change for the worse if a number of assumptions don’t come to fruition.
1B (Update II) A revised bill that would codify Roe v Wade in Rhode Island while banning most late-term abortions is slated for a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday. A House spokesman said the revised bill has the support of groups including Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. The bill sponsored by Providence Representative Anastasia Williams would ban late-term abortions except when necessary for the life or health of the mother. The revised bill also adds new language confirming a federal statute that bans so-called partial birth abortions.
2. Gov. Raimondo chatted with President Trump during a White House visit last weekend and sat next to Vice President Mike Pence during a dinner with other governors. While Raimondo said she will avoid endorsing a Democratic rival to Trump in her role as chairwoman of the Democratic Governors Association, she said Democrats have to emphasize results over political labels. As far as possible Democratic splits paving the way for a second term for Trump, she said. “We need to have that fear. We cannot take this for granted. I do sometimes worry that Democrats may be underestimating him and his ability to get re-elected, and that would be very dangerous.”
3. Attorney General Peter Neronha picked an unsurprising target this week for his first major policy initiative – the opioid crisis that has exacted a harsh toll in countless states, and the larger war on drugs. Making the biggest impact with limited resources has been an early theme in Neronha’s tenure, and the opioid focus builds off his previous experience as U.S. attorney in Rhode Island. The initiative to reclassify simple drug possession from a felony to a misdemeanor also lines up with a broader shift from the drug war of recent decades. As Neronha said, “The world has changed. We’ve got to be smarter in a whole host of ways, as we rethink our criminal justice system. Justice demands it. Our limited resources demand it. I want the office’s prosecutors focused on the cases that matter the most, whether they be civil or criminal cases — cases that have the greatest impact on the people of this state.”
4. The definitive House response to Gov. Raimondo’s spending plan will emerge after the May revenue estimating conference offers a window on the amount of available cash. Yet the House Finance Committee is delving into the governor’s budget and some early indicators are clear: House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello isn’t a fan of Raimondo’s proposed hike of beach parking fees. “In 2016, we lowered the beach fees to the current rate, and I believe it is too soon to raise them,” Mattiello said this week in a statement about a bill from Rep. Grace Diaz (D-Providence) to freeze the fees for three years. Meanwhile, gun-rights supporters turned out in force for a Finance Committee meeting Thursday to oppose the governor’s proposed to tax guns and ammo. (If the justification is based on a public health argument, “Why not tax other things harmful to people, like soda and butter?” asked House Minority Leader Blake Filippi, R-New Shoreham, as the ProJo’s Katherine Gregg reported.) For her part, Raimondo maintains that increasing selected taxes and fees by about $56 million, in a $9.9 billion budget, is a drop in the bucket. Based on initial listening sessions, she said that Rhode Islanders are supportive of small cost increases to improve beach bathrooms and other public facilities. What about The Wall Street Journal’s editorial accusing Democrats like her of nickel and diming taxpayers “like budget airlines without the service”? “I don’t think that’s fair,” Raimondo said on The Public’s Radio’s Political Roundtable this week, pointing to how she cut a sales tax for businesses’ electricity consumption, backed two reductions to the corporate minimum tax, and (with Speaker Mattiello) has supported the car tax phaseout. Meanwhile, House Finance is set in the coming week to hold hearings on other contested elements of Raimondo’s budget, including her proposed legalization of recreational marijuana and the extension of the Rhode Island Promise program to Rhode Island College.
5. Thanks to the RI State Society for highlighting this trenchant 2003 story from Slate – “How Big Is Rhode Island? Plus, why the state is the nation’s yardstick.”
6. President George W. Bush was in the White House and Lincoln Chafee was still a Republican U.S. senator when advocates of campaign finance reform began their last push to change how candidates pay for elections in Rhode Island. (After a multi-year push, that effort became a non-starter due to a U.S. Supreme Court decision.) Now, almost 15 years later, state Rep. Rebecca Kislak (D-Providence) and state Sen. James Sheehan (D-North Kingstown) introduced legislation this week that would do two things: 1) extend the state’s limited voluntary publicly financed campaign system to include primaries as well as general elections; 2) try to make legislative elections more competitive through a voucher-based system. (For more details, read my story.) While some citizens might not like the idea of directing more tax dollars to elections, Common Cause of RI executive director John Marion argues that the money would be well spent: “The idea is to crowd out the big money donations that typically come from lobbyists and powerful interests with small donations coming from average people who now could have a voucher to participate.” Legislative leaders generally oppose changes to the status quo when it comes to this type of proposal. But Republican lawmakers might want to sign on, considering how their counterparts in Connecticut (which has a public matching fund program) have about three times the GOP representation (almost 40 percent of legislative seats) as in Rhode Island.
7. Is the Superman Building obsolete? Gov. Raimondo said she still has hope that a new use can be found for the iconic downtown building. Some observers suspect the structure may eventually deteriorate to the point where it becomes a safety hazard and an inviting prospect for demolition. But, Raimondo said, “I am not giving up. I have four years left. Working with the mayor, working with other businesses in Providence and we’re going to stay at it until we get it filled.” With Infosys having moved downtown and Wexford set to open later this year, Raimondo hopes those moves will spark momentum for a tenant or tenants at the Superman Building. “I wouldn’t say we have a live prospect, but we have a robust pipeline,” she said. “We have a stronger pipeline than at any time in terms of companies we’re talking to continuously.”
8. The brief drama in the House this week, when Deputy Speaker Charlene Lima (D-Cranston) threatened to eject Rep. Ray Hull (D-Providence), can be interpreted in various ways. Lima said it was a matter of enforcing decorum. Critics of leadership say leadership makes up the rules as it goes. Meanwhile, following a House Judiciary hearing this week on Rep. Carol McEntee’s statute of limitations bill, Rep. Kathleen Fogarty (D-South Kingstown) offered her own critique of the powers that be (via Steve Ahlquist): “One of the reasons I voted against the Speaker, and why I’m sitting here now, is because of what happened on that last day of session last year. I want everybody to know, I want people to know at home what happens up here.”
9. A bill introduced this week by House Majority Leader Joseph Shekarchi (D-Warwick) is described as a fix for many small business owners facing higher federal taxes under changes backed by President Trump. Shekarchi said the legislation is revenue-neutral and would assist owners of “pass-through” entities whose state and local taxes exceed the new $10,000 cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction on their federal tax returns. “This is a way to help Rhode Island small businesses at no cost to the state,” the lawmaker said in a statement. “Our small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and face enough challenges without being saddled with new tax burdens by President Trump’s tax plan. We’ve found a viable method to help their owners get credit for the taxes they already pay, so their businesses are not disrupted, forced to make cuts to their workforce or worse, to close. My goal here is to prevent the Trump tax plan from hurting small businesses, so they can thrive here in Rhode Island.”
10. During her interview with us this week, Gov. Raimondo pushed back against the idea that her proposed use of almost $24 million in budget scoops from quasi-public agencies, at a time of low unemployment, is a sign of underlying fiscal weakness. “I wouldn’t assume that scoops are necessarily a bad thing,” she said. “There are some quasi state agencies that have tens of millions of dollars on their balance sheet – why? Do they need that? So what I’m trying to do as the governor is – it’s a balance. We need to make investments. You cannot grow just by cutting. We need to invest in job training. The most important thing that we can do, period, is invest in job training and education.” Raimondo added that she would never recommend a scoop if she thought it would impact an agency’s ability do to do its job. “But the reality is, we have a big deficit, we have to find money, I wanted to fully fund Medicaid, so people have healthcare. I wanted to fully fund education and job training. I wanted to fully fund important investments and so you have to make difficult decisions, and these were the best decisions.”
11. On a related note, Gov. Raimondo — who didn’t mention housing in her State of the State address in January — said she is trying to figure out how to do something bold on housing, possibly through a ballot question in November 2020. By contrast, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker this week filed legislation to continue his Housing Choice Initiative, “a bold plan to support the production of 135,000 new housing units by 2025,” according to Baker’s office. “This bill builds on efforts undertaken last legislative session to deliver necessary, targeted zoning reform to benefit communities pursuing new housing production.”
12. Media notes: Give a follow to Shane McKeon, who is covering healthcare for The Public’s Radio while Lynn Arditi works on project with ProPublica …. As PBN reports, the parent company of the ProJo has posted an $18M profit amid layoffs …. A look at how fake news spreads.
13. With Christopher Maher on the way out as school superintendent in Providence, Gov. Raimondo said she doesn’t have a timeline for recommending a successor to state Education Commissioner Ken Wagner, but she said it will be “soon.”
14. The Raimondo administration has fined MTM $1 million after the company faced criticism for doing a poor job in transporting elderly and disabled Rhode Islanders.
15. Opponents of abortion rights filled the Statehouse for a day of action earlier this week. Meanwhile, Speaker Mattiello made this comment in his local newspaper column (whose appearance was first reported in a recent TGIF): “A few of you wanted to know my position on the bills that would codify Roe v. Wade into law. I am personally pro-life. I have previously indicated publicly I will collaborate with my colleagues and collectively the House will come up with a decision on the issue. A majority of my colleagues, and an overwhelming majority of the public, do not support a deceptive provision in Rep. Ajello’s bill that would allow late-term abortions up until the day before a birth. You can rest assured the House would not pass such a horrific bill. I am collaborating with my colleagues who seem to favor a strict codification of Roe v. Wade.”
16. While the merits of raising the minimum wage provide grist for regular debate at the Statehouse, Rep. Evan Shanley (D-Warwick) and Sen. Louis DiPalma (D-Middletown) are sponsoring legislation to create a $15 minimum wage for direct support professionals caring for Rhode Islanders with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The House version has attracted 48 cosponsors. According to DiPalma (whose Senate version has not yet been introduced), “The selfless and dedicated care and work that is delivered by our state’s caregivers is a vital service to some of Rhode Island’s most vulnerable citizens. Yet while these individuals care for our friends and loved ones, they are experiencing tremendous financial hardship resulting from less than adequate wages. It is time that we recognize the valuable contributions they make to our society and give these caregivers the living wage that they deserve.”
17. Providence culinary all-star Derek Wagner is bringing an outpost of his Nick’s On Broadway to 100 Westminster Street, a property owned by Joseph R. Paolino Jr. “I have so much pride in Providence and I knew that when the time came to open a second location, it would be right here,” Wagner said in a statement. “This is the community that I love and that has supported me, and I am excited to capture the energy of nicks on broadway and bring it to a new audience. I’m looking forward to creating new quick-service and cafe options while keeping true to our mission of providing fresh, local, delicious food to everyone who stops in.”
18. How climate change is affecting Alaska’s military radar stations: “When the radar sites were selected in the 1950s, along Alaska’s coastlines and deep in the interior, melting permafrost and coastal erosion were not yet long-term strategic concerns for Defense Department planners. Now, they are a matter of statute. As of 2016, the Pentagon is required to incorporate climate considerations in its planning for operations and infrastructure. A report released this January by DoD found that of the 79 major military installations in the U.S. that were examined, the majority were at a worsening risk of flooding, drought, wildfires and other hazards driven by climate change.”
19. Baseball gets off to an early start this year, with the Red Sox opening in Seattle on March 28. In the mean time, get ready to enjoy St. Patrick’s Day. RI House Clerk Frank McCabe will get the ball rolling at the grand marshal of Pawtucket’s St. Patrick’s Day parade on Saturday, March 2 (it starts at noon, rain or shine). McCabe is the former owner of the Irish Social Club of Rhode Island and the son of the late Pat McCabe, the very first grand marshal of the Pawtucket St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
