RI’s Biggest Legislation Passed in 2013
Monday, July 01, 2013
The 2013 Rhode Island legislative session has been one of the most controversial and longest. This session is now reaching into July and the budget, calamari, municipal bailouts, gay marriage were some of the most talked about pieces of legislation.
The budget itself carried many of the session's most contentious items, and with some surprises that appeared out of no where -- and some budget articles disappeared. GoLocalProv takes a look at the 2013 Legislative session which is scheduled to shut down on Tuesday, July 2.
Fox's Leadership
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThis year's session saw a milestone success for Speaker Gordon Fox with the passage of the legislation to legalize gay marriage, but also saw a key member of the Speaker's leadership spinoff and lead the opposition. Former leadership team member Rep. Patrick O'Neill not only quit Fox's leadership team, but has also taken up the mantle of holding the Speaker responsible for the approval and ultimate failure of 38 Studios.
The 38 Studios bond interest payments became a lightning rod of the session. Ultimately, the budget article making payments was included in the budget and was reported to be "horse traded" for a number of surprises.
Economy and Unemployment
In the most recent rankings of state-by-state unemployment by the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, Rhode Island ranked 48th in the U.S. The Assembly failed to adopt Governor Lincoln Chafee's effort to cut Rhode Island's Corporate Tax Rate to the lowest in New England. Chafee's effort was intended to be both a signal to the business community, as well as offering economic development professionals a competitive advantage in a critical area to help attract businesses to Rhode Island
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