For Gov. Raimondo and Legislature - Is this RhodeWorks and Nothing Else Year?
Monday, April 25, 2016
It’s an election year. And though the Rhode Island legislative session began with a bang -- specifically the controversial passing of the RhodeWorks legislation that authorizes truck tolls on bridges across Rhode Island -- legislators interviewed, both on and off the record, say they’re expecting the session to end with a whimper.
For Governor Gina Raimondo and legislative leaders, this may be one of the least productive years in recent history. And for Raimondo, whose approval ratings mirror those of Lincoln Chafee's when he left office, a year with little productivity will do little to improve the only 6.5 percent of Rhode Islanders who think she is doing an "excellent" job.
The lack of action will make for an uneventful homestretch of the legislative session when the General Assembly reconvenes after its April vacation break.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“I think (legislative leadership) wants to go quietly into the night,” said Rhode Island State Senator Edward O’Neill, paraphrasing, and inverting, a famous Dylan Thomas poem.
Or, put another way, the legislative leaders want to focus on the campaign trail, he said.
Go Quietly
O’Neill, a non-partisan legislator (he doesn’t belong to either political party), who represents portions of Lincoln, North Providence, and North Smithfield, said there seems to be a tacit agreement between the Governor and legislative leaders to leave anything controversial for at least another year.
“There was a hearing on the line-item veto a week ago and the Governor didn’t even send anyone to testify in favor of it,” said O’Neill.
“They’re going to want to get the session over with and get out and on the campaign trail. They want to get out there and press the flesh because they’re concerned about RhodeWorks.”
Those points, coupled with the fact that the budget isn’t considered controversial, lead rank-and-file legislators, as well as some closer to leadership, to believe the leadership of both houses will take the more surefire way to avoid controversy: do nothing.
Leonidas “Lou” Raptakis, a Senate Democrat who represents Coventry, East Greenwich, and West Greenwich, agrees with his O'Neill.
The Big Stuff Won’t Happen
Raptakis lamented the fact that he fears important bills won’t be passed yet again this year.
“The big stuff that should happen, like the line-item veto, the bill to create an inspector general, and the ethics bill, probably won’t happen. But the stuff that shouldn’t happen, those are the things that will happen,” said Raptakis.
Like O’Neill, Raptakis said that isn’t any buzz about any significant bills in the legislative pipeline.
However, Raptakis said that he has heard murmurs that the state’s minimum wage will be hiked once again. Raptakis also said that he’ll keep his eye on the budget to make sure that it doesn’t somehow connect back to RhodeWorks. For instance, there’s an off-chance that the budget could codify toll gantry locations into law, he said.
No Appetite for Controversy
Representative Michael Marcello, the Scituate Democrat who challenged House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello for the gavel in 2014, said he isn't expecting much in significant legislation being adopted.
“I think that the RhodeWorks legislation has taken a lot of oxygen out of the room,” said Marcello. “There isn’t a big appetite for anything controversial at this point.”
Marcello, however, said he believes there’s a chance that the bill to ask voters to amend the state constitution to give the Rhode Island Ethics Commission the ability to police the General Assembly might pass this year. Rank-and-file legislators, he said, are asking for its passage.
Earlier this week, House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello told GoLocal that leadership is working on an ethics bill.
“The question is, will it be real ethics reform, or will it just be the veneer of ethics reform?” Marcello asked.
Legislate like it’s 2010?
Marcello pointed out that the legislature taking a pass on controversial pieces of legislation in an election year is nothing out of the ordinary. Yet while that’s the case more often than not, it hasn’t always held true.
The 2010 session stands out as a counterpoint. That year, when former House Speaker Gordon Fox was still in power, the state legislature passed several controversial pieces of legislation, despite the fact that the year not only featured legislative elections, but statewide races. Legislators passed the state’s most sweeping overhaul of the state income tax in its history that year—lowering the top rate from 9.9 percent to 5.9 percent but eliminating many deductions.
The legislature also passed a predictable school funding formula that year, the first in the state’s history, that year.
It has now been overshadowed by the monumental passage of 2011’s pension reform, but the state also passed pension reform that year—purportedly saving taxpayers an estimated $28 million. It shocked union leaders, and some legislators lost their seats as a result.
And who could forget the passage of the legislation, marketed to help small business, which paved the way for the fiasco that would become 38 studios?
Marijuana Referendum
Scott Slater, a Democratic State Representative from Providence, said that he couldn’t comment one way or the other on the issue of whether legislative leaders were planning major initiatives, like in 2010, or if they planned to avoid controversy. Slater, unlike O’Neill, Raptakis, and Marcello, is known as a supporter of legislative leadership. But since he’s not a member of leadership, he said he isn’t privy to that information. A Brown University poll released on Sunday found that the majority of Rhode Islanders believe marijuana should be legalized.
That being said, Slater said he is pushing hard for the passage of one highly controversial piece of legislation that he sponsors: the legalization of marijuana. Slater said that the state would be better off regulating marijuana and profiting from the sales tax revenue as opposed to the status quo. If state legislative leaders can’t support legalization, Slater said he would reluctantly support a non-binding referendum to ask state voters if they support legalization.
Slater, however, said he was disappointed recently because he heard Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed indicate that she isn’t in favor of marijuana legalization during a media interview. That issue, she said, can wait.
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