Hot Button Issues Remain At End of Legislative Session
Monday, June 07, 2010
The $7.8 billion budget and a major tax cut are out of the way—but there are still plenty of controversial, hot-button issues that remain to be addressed by the Rhode Island House and Senate as they wrap up their legislative session this week.
School Funding
Arguably the biggest issue with the broadest impact is the new education funding formula, which would base funding on a per-pupil rate of $8,295—or $11,600 in low-income communities. The decision would affect how much the state distributes in education funding every year—about $860 million in the current year. Some districts will get less, while others will get more. (Read our extended report. Read the House bill here.)
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The House has passed a bill that expands the reach of the state Ethics Commission, allowing it to investigate state lawmakers for alleged violations of the state ethics code. Greg Pare, a spokesman for Senate President M. Teresa Pavia-Weed, was not sure what action the Senate would take on the bill this week. House and Senate members were exempted through a 2009 state Supreme Court decision.
Sex Offender Loophole
Under the existing law, sex offenders who appeal a ranking of how dangerous they are do not have to register as a sex offender—until their appeal is decided. As a result, an estimated 200 sex offenders have fallen through the cracks, according to Rep. Peter Palumbo, the Cranston Democrat who sponsored the bill. Pare expects that the Senate will take action on the measure this week.
Wind Farm
Though it has been much debated, the Legislature hasn’t made a final decision on bills that would allow four state agencies to approve a contract between Deepwater Wind, the developer of a small wind farm off Block Island, and National Grid. The Public Utilities Commission turned it down in March.
Pare said allowing the project to move forward would allow Rhode Island to be the first in the nation with an off-shore wind farm, bringing a whole new industry to the state, including more jobs. But critics have berated the project because National Grid would be purchasing energy at a rate of 24.4 cents per kilowatt hour, nearly three times the current retail rate of 9.2 cents per kilowatt. That would translate to about one dollar more on homeowner electricity bills. Opponents have also questioned how effective it will be in creating new jobs. (Read the House version here and the Senate version here.)
More Gambling
The House is set to vote on a bill that would expand gambling at Twin River Casino in Lincoln and Newport Grand. Both facilities currently have slot machines and video lottery terminals.
The state gets $300 million a year in gambling revenues a year, according to Larry Berman, a spokesman for House Speaker Gordon Fox. Because there are plans to expand gambling in Massachusetts, Berman said Rhode Island needed to act quickly to hold onto its customer base—about half of the patrons at Twin River are from Massachusetts, according to Berman. Pare said there is currently no Senate version of the bill.
Hundreds of Bills in Two Days….
There are potentially hundreds of bills that the House and Senate have to go through in this, the final week of their legislative session. In order to get through it all, both the House and Senate have suspended a rule that requires a 48-hour public notice that a bill is coming up for a vote, according to Berman and Pare.
Berman said the rule suspension was a routine practice at the end of the legislative session. He noted that many bills have already been passed either the House and Senate and are just awaiting a vote in the other chamber. Plus most of them have been vetted through committee hearings earlier in the spring.
The House and Senate will meet on Tuesday. Both chambers are trying to wrap up all their business by Wednesday, Berman and Pare said.
