Monday, June 21, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
Common Cause: Assembly should reconvene on ethics reform
11:20 AM Fri, Jun 18, 2010
Amanda Milkovits
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- In the wake of a state senator's indictment, Common Cause Rhode Island called Friday for the General Assembly to reconvene immediately and pass a resolution to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot asking voters to restore the jurisdiction of the state's Ethics Commission.
Now, there's a loophole that gives state legislators immunity from civil prosecution for their "core legislative acts." The Rhode Island Supreme Court ruled 3 to 1 last June that members of the General Assembly were immune from prosecution by the Ethics Commission because of the state Constitution's "speech in debate" clause.
Sen. Christopher Maselli, D-Johnston, who was indicted on seven counts of bank fraud on Thursday, had proposed having the Senate police itself on ethics. The bill never made it out of the Senate Rules Committee, which Maselli chairs.
Sen. J. Michael Lenihan, D-East Greenwich, had sponsored legislation to put the ethics question to voters in November, asking whether legislators should have immunity.
The legislation overwhelmingly passed in the House, 67-5, but found no traction in the Senate.
John Marion, the executive director of Common Cause, said Maselli's indictment shows the need for ethics reform. "Without passing this now," Marion said in a news release, "Rhode Island will go until at least 2012 without oversight of the legislature by the state's main ethics watchdog."
Amanda Milkovits
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- In the wake of a state senator's indictment, Common Cause Rhode Island called Friday for the General Assembly to reconvene immediately and pass a resolution to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot asking voters to restore the jurisdiction of the state's Ethics Commission.
Now, there's a loophole that gives state legislators immunity from civil prosecution for their "core legislative acts." The Rhode Island Supreme Court ruled 3 to 1 last June that members of the General Assembly were immune from prosecution by the Ethics Commission because of the state Constitution's "speech in debate" clause.
Sen. Christopher Maselli, D-Johnston, who was indicted on seven counts of bank fraud on Thursday, had proposed having the Senate police itself on ethics. The bill never made it out of the Senate Rules Committee, which Maselli chairs.
Sen. J. Michael Lenihan, D-East Greenwich, had sponsored legislation to put the ethics question to voters in November, asking whether legislators should have immunity.
The legislation overwhelmingly passed in the House, 67-5, but found no traction in the Senate.
John Marion, the executive director of Common Cause, said Maselli's indictment shows the need for ethics reform. "Without passing this now," Marion said in a news release, "Rhode Island will go until at least 2012 without oversight of the legislature by the state's main ethics watchdog."
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Ethics wasn't Senate priority
Warwick Beacon
Jun 15, 2010
If there were ever a piece of legislation that could be considered a no-brainer, it would have to be the “ethics” bill submitted by House Speaker Gordon Fox (D-Providence).
The bill, which passed the House of Representatives by a 67-5 margin, would have asked Rhode Islanders to reinstate the power of the Ethics Commission to prosecute and investigate members of the General Assembly who use the public offices they hold to benefit themselves and their family members.
The State Supreme Court ruled in 2009 in the William Irons case that legislators could not be held responsible for their votes in the legislature thanks to the “speech and debate clause” of the state constitution. Irons, a former Senate president, had been accused of using public office to obtain financial gain for CVS and Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Fox’s bill would have created a ballot question that would have asked Rhode Island voters to change the constitution to restore that power to the Ethics Commission.
The Senate Leadership, however, had other ideas. The body’s leadership, Senate President Teresa Paiva-Weed (Jamestown, Newport) and Majority Leader Daniel Connors (Cumberland), refused to bring the measure up for a vote, and the rank-and-file members didn’t press them for a vote, which means the bill died.
The two argued that the bill might conflict with the 1st Amendment to the United States Constitution and that federal laws already outlaw bribery.
Both arguments are flimsy. First of all, those ethics rules already apply to other public officials such as mayors, governments, city workers, etc. Good government groups like Common Cause, Operation Clean Government, and the League of Women Voters argued that those same rules that apply to other government officials should also apply to the legislature.
We agree.
The issue isn’t about either speech or debate. The 1st Amendment allows for free speech, but it doesn’t mean that people can use free speech to commit fraud. It doesn’t mean that people can use free speech to commit bribery.
And while it is true that the federal government does have the ability to prosecute crimes like bribery, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have the Ethics Commission armed with the power to prosecute for that offense.
What does hurt, however, is that the Senate didn’t think it was a priority to affirm the highest possible standards for ethical behavior. Hopefully when the bill is reintroduced in the next session, there will be a different outcome.
Read more: Warwick Beacon - Ethics wasn t Senate priority
Jun 15, 2010
If there were ever a piece of legislation that could be considered a no-brainer, it would have to be the “ethics” bill submitted by House Speaker Gordon Fox (D-Providence).
The bill, which passed the House of Representatives by a 67-5 margin, would have asked Rhode Islanders to reinstate the power of the Ethics Commission to prosecute and investigate members of the General Assembly who use the public offices they hold to benefit themselves and their family members.
The State Supreme Court ruled in 2009 in the William Irons case that legislators could not be held responsible for their votes in the legislature thanks to the “speech and debate clause” of the state constitution. Irons, a former Senate president, had been accused of using public office to obtain financial gain for CVS and Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Fox’s bill would have created a ballot question that would have asked Rhode Island voters to change the constitution to restore that power to the Ethics Commission.
The Senate Leadership, however, had other ideas. The body’s leadership, Senate President Teresa Paiva-Weed (Jamestown, Newport) and Majority Leader Daniel Connors (Cumberland), refused to bring the measure up for a vote, and the rank-and-file members didn’t press them for a vote, which means the bill died.
The two argued that the bill might conflict with the 1st Amendment to the United States Constitution and that federal laws already outlaw bribery.
Both arguments are flimsy. First of all, those ethics rules already apply to other public officials such as mayors, governments, city workers, etc. Good government groups like Common Cause, Operation Clean Government, and the League of Women Voters argued that those same rules that apply to other government officials should also apply to the legislature.
We agree.
The issue isn’t about either speech or debate. The 1st Amendment allows for free speech, but it doesn’t mean that people can use free speech to commit fraud. It doesn’t mean that people can use free speech to commit bribery.
And while it is true that the federal government does have the ability to prosecute crimes like bribery, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have the Ethics Commission armed with the power to prosecute for that offense.
What does hurt, however, is that the Senate didn’t think it was a priority to affirm the highest possible standards for ethical behavior. Hopefully when the bill is reintroduced in the next session, there will be a different outcome.
Read more: Warwick Beacon - Ethics wasn t Senate priority
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Edward Achorn: Designed to keep you in the dark
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
By EDWARD ACHORN
In theory, we have something called representative democracy in Rhode Island. In practice, we have one of the most closed systems in America. It is run like an oligarchy — where very few people have access to information, the public is kept in the dark until it is too late for citizen pressure to make a difference, and decisions are made primarily to benefit leaders and the special interests that prop them up.
The cynicism of this system is on display every year, but it reached a kind of glorious efflorescence in recent weeks, culminating with last week’s mad dash to whip through scores of bills — on spending, taxes, gambling, energy, you name it — before citizens could weigh them and express their concerns.
The job of citizens, as far as our politicians are concerned, is to sit there without grumbling and pay through the nose. And to cast ballots every two years returning the same old crowd to office, many of them unopposed because the election system — with its master lever and dominance by special interests — is designed to make opposition difficult, if not futile.
The public’s growing desire to do something about illegal immigration, for example, was met this year with defiance by leaders of the General Assembly, who seem to side with businesses that want to exploit low-wage illegal labor and those who have a financial and political stake in making sure our duly enacted federal laws are not enforced.
House Speaker Gordon Fox (D.-Providence) stepped in before a bill based on the new Arizona law could even get a hearing. And Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed (D.-Newport) pulled a fast one on Sen. Marc Cote (D.-Woonsocket), who was pushing for implementation of an E-Verify system, aimed at reducing illegal hiring practices.
Senator Cote had followed Senate rules to obtain a floor vote on his bill, which enjoys strong public support and was co-sponsored by fully half of the chamber –– 19 senators.
But when the bill came up, President Paiva Weed did not call on the sponsor to make his case, the usual procedure. Instead, in a pre-arranged scheme, she recognized Majority Leader Daniel Connors (D.-Cumberland), who moved to recommit the bill (i.e., kill it). Refusing to recognize the objections of the thunderstruck proponents, the president immediately called for a voice vote, deemed that the “yeas” had it (though a recording suggested strongly that the “nays” were louder and perhaps in greater number), and that was that.
Any further objections were ruled out of order — the bill had been dealt with.
That seemed to suit most senators fine. But who represented the public, whose interest would be served by recorded votes on important issues (it would help them cast informed votes in November, for one thing)? Nobody, as far as I could tell — aside from Senator Cote, who seemed genuinely miffed.
Rhode Island leaders enjoy having the power to defy the public and render its representatives impotent.
But that power trip costs us dearly. An informed and active citizenry actually makes a state stronger and more vibrant. Citizens bring ideas to the table, help stop bad legislation, and form an important check against public corruption. That makes for a better-run state, with a stronger economy, less waste, lower taxes and fewer cozy deals for special interests.
Which is why well-run (and even not-so-well-run) states make an effort to bring the public into the loop.
John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, says that Rhode Island is the only state that does not post audio or video of its legislature on the Web. Nineteen states post even committee hearings. Last week, Mr. Marion was standing in a hearing room at 1 a.m., listening to a debate on an important bill no one had ever seen before, with no camera or reporter present.
Some 20 states employ a system that alerts citizens by e-mail when some action has been taken, or is about to be taken, on a bill they are following. Such systems pay for themselves in less corrupt and more just government.
Rhode Island, naturally, has nothing of the sort.
Indeed, here the public confronts a Herculean task finding out on a timely basis even how their legislators voted on issues. It can be weeks before floor votes are published in the legislative journal. Those votes, taken electronically, could and should be posted instantly on the Web.
We could easily save money, curtail corruption and create a better informed electorate by bringing such reforms here. But that will never happen until taxpayers and law-abiding citizens decide that enough is enough, and resolve to show their status-quo representatives and senators the door.
Edward Achorn is The Journal’s deputy editorial-pages editor ( eachorn@projo.com).
By EDWARD ACHORN
In theory, we have something called representative democracy in Rhode Island. In practice, we have one of the most closed systems in America. It is run like an oligarchy — where very few people have access to information, the public is kept in the dark until it is too late for citizen pressure to make a difference, and decisions are made primarily to benefit leaders and the special interests that prop them up.
The cynicism of this system is on display every year, but it reached a kind of glorious efflorescence in recent weeks, culminating with last week’s mad dash to whip through scores of bills — on spending, taxes, gambling, energy, you name it — before citizens could weigh them and express their concerns.
The job of citizens, as far as our politicians are concerned, is to sit there without grumbling and pay through the nose. And to cast ballots every two years returning the same old crowd to office, many of them unopposed because the election system — with its master lever and dominance by special interests — is designed to make opposition difficult, if not futile.
The public’s growing desire to do something about illegal immigration, for example, was met this year with defiance by leaders of the General Assembly, who seem to side with businesses that want to exploit low-wage illegal labor and those who have a financial and political stake in making sure our duly enacted federal laws are not enforced.
House Speaker Gordon Fox (D.-Providence) stepped in before a bill based on the new Arizona law could even get a hearing. And Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed (D.-Newport) pulled a fast one on Sen. Marc Cote (D.-Woonsocket), who was pushing for implementation of an E-Verify system, aimed at reducing illegal hiring practices.
Senator Cote had followed Senate rules to obtain a floor vote on his bill, which enjoys strong public support and was co-sponsored by fully half of the chamber –– 19 senators.
But when the bill came up, President Paiva Weed did not call on the sponsor to make his case, the usual procedure. Instead, in a pre-arranged scheme, she recognized Majority Leader Daniel Connors (D.-Cumberland), who moved to recommit the bill (i.e., kill it). Refusing to recognize the objections of the thunderstruck proponents, the president immediately called for a voice vote, deemed that the “yeas” had it (though a recording suggested strongly that the “nays” were louder and perhaps in greater number), and that was that.
Any further objections were ruled out of order — the bill had been dealt with.
That seemed to suit most senators fine. But who represented the public, whose interest would be served by recorded votes on important issues (it would help them cast informed votes in November, for one thing)? Nobody, as far as I could tell — aside from Senator Cote, who seemed genuinely miffed.
Rhode Island leaders enjoy having the power to defy the public and render its representatives impotent.
But that power trip costs us dearly. An informed and active citizenry actually makes a state stronger and more vibrant. Citizens bring ideas to the table, help stop bad legislation, and form an important check against public corruption. That makes for a better-run state, with a stronger economy, less waste, lower taxes and fewer cozy deals for special interests.
Which is why well-run (and even not-so-well-run) states make an effort to bring the public into the loop.
John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, says that Rhode Island is the only state that does not post audio or video of its legislature on the Web. Nineteen states post even committee hearings. Last week, Mr. Marion was standing in a hearing room at 1 a.m., listening to a debate on an important bill no one had ever seen before, with no camera or reporter present.
Some 20 states employ a system that alerts citizens by e-mail when some action has been taken, or is about to be taken, on a bill they are following. Such systems pay for themselves in less corrupt and more just government.
Rhode Island, naturally, has nothing of the sort.
Indeed, here the public confronts a Herculean task finding out on a timely basis even how their legislators voted on issues. It can be weeks before floor votes are published in the legislative journal. Those votes, taken electronically, could and should be posted instantly on the Web.
We could easily save money, curtail corruption and create a better informed electorate by bringing such reforms here. But that will never happen until taxpayers and law-abiding citizens decide that enough is enough, and resolve to show their status-quo representatives and senators the door.
Edward Achorn is The Journal’s deputy editorial-pages editor ( eachorn@projo.com).
Lynch proposes single-chamber R.I. General Assembly
Mon, Jun 14, 2010
By Randal Edgar
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Saying that state government is "completely dysfunctional" in part because state lawmakers "just cannot get it right," gubernatorial candidate Patrick C. Lynch on Monday pitched a three-part solution that would revamp the budget cycle, give the governor a line-item veto and downsize the legislature.
The state attorney general, running behind lesser-known Republicans and a fellow Democrat he will face in a September primary, said Rhode Islanders would greatly benefit from the changes, which include replacing the Rhode Island House and Senate with a single-chamber legislature that he said would bring greater accountability.
"The responsibility of the elected officials is to work for the people, not the politicians at the State House," he said in a campaign release. "The culture of inside deals, budget gimmicks, quick fixes and a complete lack of long-term planning has left us in dire economic straits."
The proposals raised eyebrows among government-watchdog groups and political observers, including those at the General Assembly.
"Over the past eight years, Attorney General Lynch has introduced many pieces of legislation," said Larry Berman, spokesman for the House of Representatives. "I do not recall that his office ever proposed any bills on this subject, nor has his idea ever been discussed by his two staffers who spend a great deal of time lobbying the legislature."
John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, said there are pros and cons to a single-chamber, or unicameral, legislature. Currently, Nebraska is the only state with such a legislature.
"Advocates say it's great because it saves money it streamlines the legislative process, but those against it say we have two houses because they help balance different values in the legislature," he said.
He added: "I don't think it's a panacea for the problems of the legislature. In the end a lot of it comes down to who is in the office."
By Randal Edgar
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Saying that state government is "completely dysfunctional" in part because state lawmakers "just cannot get it right," gubernatorial candidate Patrick C. Lynch on Monday pitched a three-part solution that would revamp the budget cycle, give the governor a line-item veto and downsize the legislature.
The state attorney general, running behind lesser-known Republicans and a fellow Democrat he will face in a September primary, said Rhode Islanders would greatly benefit from the changes, which include replacing the Rhode Island House and Senate with a single-chamber legislature that he said would bring greater accountability.
"The responsibility of the elected officials is to work for the people, not the politicians at the State House," he said in a campaign release. "The culture of inside deals, budget gimmicks, quick fixes and a complete lack of long-term planning has left us in dire economic straits."
The proposals raised eyebrows among government-watchdog groups and political observers, including those at the General Assembly.
"Over the past eight years, Attorney General Lynch has introduced many pieces of legislation," said Larry Berman, spokesman for the House of Representatives. "I do not recall that his office ever proposed any bills on this subject, nor has his idea ever been discussed by his two staffers who spend a great deal of time lobbying the legislature."
John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, said there are pros and cons to a single-chamber, or unicameral, legislature. Currently, Nebraska is the only state with such a legislature.
"Advocates say it's great because it saves money it streamlines the legislative process, but those against it say we have two houses because they help balance different values in the legislature," he said.
He added: "I don't think it's a panacea for the problems of the legislature. In the end a lot of it comes down to who is in the office."
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Gambling, school aid top RI Statehouse agenda
June 11, 2010 4:33 PM ET
By ERIC TUCKER
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Gambling, wind energy, pension reform and education aid dominated the agenda of the Rhode Island General Assembly this year, as lawmakers in a state with a double-digit unemployment rate scrambled for ways to find extra revenue and cut costs.
Lawmakers wrapped up business early Friday, capping a busy election-year session and the first under new House Speaker Gordon Fox. It was a year when public policy issues, such as casino gambling and the decriminalization of marijuana, were debated with in the context of the state's economy.
In the frenetic final hours of the session, lawmakers approved a voter referendum on converting the state's licensed slot parlors into full-scale casinos and passed what they said was a predictable funding formula for school aid.
They also revived the prospects of a proposed wind farm off the coast of Block Island and overhauled the income tax structure.
The $7.8 billion budget for the fiscal year starting July 1, passed last week, limits cost-of-living increases for future retirees to the first $35,000 of their pension payments and also slashes aid to cities, towns and school districts. The budget depends on about $100 million in federal money that has yet to be passed by Congress, but allows the governor to make across-the-board cuts if the funds aren't approved.
Republican Gov. Don Carcieri said Friday he would let the budget become law without his signature.
Some of the economic changes were welcome but should have come sooner, given how long Rhode Island has been mired in a recession and its 12.5 percent unemployment rate, said University of Rhode Island economist Leonard Lardaro.
"We had every right to have things done sooner, and they should have been done sooner," he said.
A highlight of the session was the decision to seek voter approval for state-operated casino gambling at Twin River in Lincoln and Newport Grand in Newport. The slot parlors offer video lottery terminals but not table games. Supporters of the bill — which passed over the objections of Senate President M. Teresa Paiva-Weed — argued gambling was a critical source of revenue that needs to be protected, especially at a time when neighboring Massachusetts is mulling casinos.
That bill also heads to the governor.
Other measures that attracted considerable attention ultimately failed, including a bill that would have asked voters to restore the state Ethics Commission's power to investigate and fine state lawmakers for their votes at the Statehouse.
That measure died in the Senate. The commission's authority was hobbled by a state Supreme Court ruling last year that said lawmakers were shielded from ethics complaints based on their votes or other legislative acts. Critics of the ruling said it would weaken the commission's authority to police lawmakers who vote to advance their own financial interests.
"We were disappointed not only that it didn't get out but really disappointed that it didn't even get a fair shake in the Senate," said John Marion, executive director of the good government group Common Cause Rhode Island.
A bill to decriminalize possession of one ounce of marijuana or less — modeled after a similar measure in Massachusetts — also failed to get out of the Senate, where its sponsor, Sen. Joshua Miller, a Cranston Democrat, said he didn't see enough support to override an expected veto from Carcieri.
"With a veto threatening, it had to be wider than that," Miller said of the level of support.
Lawmakers also approved the creation of a funding formula for school districts, which supporters see as critical to the state's hopes of securing $75 million in federal grants in the national Race to the Top education funding competition.
And the state passed a new law aimed at cutting income tax rates for most residents. It also reduces the number of tax brackets and eliminates the flat-tax option for the state's highest earners.
"This is a day when Rhode Island can say it's opening its doors to do business," Rep. Steven Costantino, a Providence Democrat and chair of the House Finance Committee, said at a news conference announcing the changes.
Other bills approved would:
— Legalize the sale of sparklers and ground-based fireworks.
— Remove the word "Retardation" from the state Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals.
— Allow independent candidates for elective office to receive matching funds.
— Suspend for up to one year the license of any driver convicted of four different moving violations within an 18-month period.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
By ERIC TUCKER
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Gambling, wind energy, pension reform and education aid dominated the agenda of the Rhode Island General Assembly this year, as lawmakers in a state with a double-digit unemployment rate scrambled for ways to find extra revenue and cut costs.
Lawmakers wrapped up business early Friday, capping a busy election-year session and the first under new House Speaker Gordon Fox. It was a year when public policy issues, such as casino gambling and the decriminalization of marijuana, were debated with in the context of the state's economy.
In the frenetic final hours of the session, lawmakers approved a voter referendum on converting the state's licensed slot parlors into full-scale casinos and passed what they said was a predictable funding formula for school aid.
They also revived the prospects of a proposed wind farm off the coast of Block Island and overhauled the income tax structure.
The $7.8 billion budget for the fiscal year starting July 1, passed last week, limits cost-of-living increases for future retirees to the first $35,000 of their pension payments and also slashes aid to cities, towns and school districts. The budget depends on about $100 million in federal money that has yet to be passed by Congress, but allows the governor to make across-the-board cuts if the funds aren't approved.
Republican Gov. Don Carcieri said Friday he would let the budget become law without his signature.
Some of the economic changes were welcome but should have come sooner, given how long Rhode Island has been mired in a recession and its 12.5 percent unemployment rate, said University of Rhode Island economist Leonard Lardaro.
"We had every right to have things done sooner, and they should have been done sooner," he said.
A highlight of the session was the decision to seek voter approval for state-operated casino gambling at Twin River in Lincoln and Newport Grand in Newport. The slot parlors offer video lottery terminals but not table games. Supporters of the bill — which passed over the objections of Senate President M. Teresa Paiva-Weed — argued gambling was a critical source of revenue that needs to be protected, especially at a time when neighboring Massachusetts is mulling casinos.
That bill also heads to the governor.
Other measures that attracted considerable attention ultimately failed, including a bill that would have asked voters to restore the state Ethics Commission's power to investigate and fine state lawmakers for their votes at the Statehouse.
That measure died in the Senate. The commission's authority was hobbled by a state Supreme Court ruling last year that said lawmakers were shielded from ethics complaints based on their votes or other legislative acts. Critics of the ruling said it would weaken the commission's authority to police lawmakers who vote to advance their own financial interests.
"We were disappointed not only that it didn't get out but really disappointed that it didn't even get a fair shake in the Senate," said John Marion, executive director of the good government group Common Cause Rhode Island.
A bill to decriminalize possession of one ounce of marijuana or less — modeled after a similar measure in Massachusetts — also failed to get out of the Senate, where its sponsor, Sen. Joshua Miller, a Cranston Democrat, said he didn't see enough support to override an expected veto from Carcieri.
"With a veto threatening, it had to be wider than that," Miller said of the level of support.
Lawmakers also approved the creation of a funding formula for school districts, which supporters see as critical to the state's hopes of securing $75 million in federal grants in the national Race to the Top education funding competition.
And the state passed a new law aimed at cutting income tax rates for most residents. It also reduces the number of tax brackets and eliminates the flat-tax option for the state's highest earners.
"This is a day when Rhode Island can say it's opening its doors to do business," Rep. Steven Costantino, a Providence Democrat and chair of the House Finance Committee, said at a news conference announcing the changes.
Other bills approved would:
— Legalize the sale of sparklers and ground-based fireworks.
— Remove the word "Retardation" from the state Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals.
— Allow independent candidates for elective office to receive matching funds.
— Suspend for up to one year the license of any driver convicted of four different moving violations within an 18-month period.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Race to finish pulls along major bills
By steve peoples AND RANDAL EDGAR
Journal state house bureau
Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed talks with Senate Majority Leader Daniel Connors while the Senate was in recess for committee hearings Thursday.
The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch
PROVIDENCE — Having had little to show for its first five months of work, the General Assembly was poised to finish its 2010 session Thursday night after a 72-hour sprint to finalize high-profile laws on public education, gambling, a wind farm, taxes and dangerous drivers.
It was a frenzied pace at times for part-time lawmakers already looking toward their reelection fights this fall.
But officials from across the political spectrum praised the Democrat-dominated Assembly for a flurry of heavy lifting that began Tuesday afternoon as committees raced through hundreds of bills touching on everything from fireworks to municipal bankruptcy.
“I think that over the session they have dealt with a lot of issues,” said the Republican Governor Carcieri, citing the passage of an education-funding formula, an income-tax overhaul, a measure to help create a wind farm off Block Island, and another to ward off municipal bankruptcies. “They always get criticized because it all happens at the end. Unfortunately, that’s just the nature of the beast.”
Indeed, Thursday was the third consecutive day that lawmakers were expected to conclude their business after midnight. There was little public notice of votes, and agendas changed minute to minute, as top lawmakers brokered private deals to help shepherd bills to passage.
Government watchdog groups applauded the decision to end Wednesday’s business –– initially set as the Assembly’s last of the year — shortly after midnight, instead of forcing through dozens of new laws while most of Rhode Island was sleeping.
But they questioned the wisdom of continuing to rush to meet a self-imposed deadline to adjourn for the year.
“It’s only June 10. There’s plenty of time to keep working on these things,” said Common Cause Executive Director John Marion, noting that his organization’s two priorities — an ethics bill and another to improve access to public records — were likely dead for the year.
Senate leaders refused to allow a vote on legislation sponsored by House Speaker Gordon D. Fox to reinstate the state Ethics Commission’s authority, which was stripped by a recent Supreme Court decision.
Specifically, the proposal would have placed a question on the November ballot asking voters whether to allow the Ethics Commission’s to investigate and prosecute state legislators who use their positions to benefit themselves, their relatives or their business associates.
Without the change, “we’ve got a whole group of people exempt from ethics rules,” said a “disappointed” Carcieri.
Fox acknowledged earlier in the week that the ethics bill was not a priority, however. The governor had other priorities this year as well.
The term-limited Carcieri used what political leverage he had to ensure the passage of a bill — also backed by organized labor — to set the Deepwater Wind offshore-turbine project back on course.
The private company wants to spend $200 million to erect eight turbines off Block Island to serve the island. Deepwater describes its plan as a demonstration project that could lead to a $1.5-billion wind farm farther offshore.
But opponents, including Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, argued the legislation is a special-interest bill designed to benefit one company at great cost to many ratepayers.
Once signed into law by the governor, the new law would send the power-purchase agreement to the Public Utilities Commission for another review.
Carcieri referred to the deal as “huge for the state long-term,” and AFL-CIO President George Nee agreed.
“This may have been one of the more significant years for economic development in the history of the state,” said Nee, citing the Deepwater measure, in addition to the likely passage of a measure creating a November ballot question on whether to allow a full-scale casino in Rhode Island.
Carcieri personally called Fox when the House followed the Senate’s lead in approving the Deepwater bill late Wednesday.
The governor waited until after the vote to say whether he would veto the $7.8-billion state budget approved by the legislature last week. A veto would have inconvenienced lawmakers by forcing them to return next week for an override session.
“Nothing’s ever perfect,” Carcieri said of the budget, noting that he would “most likely not” veto the package, but that his office would issue a formal statement Friday.
Meanwhile, in the rush to adjourn Thursday night, lawmakers were also expected to approve a bill to increase penalties for “habitual traffic offenders.”
Drivers convicted of four moving violations within an 18-month period would have to attend 60 hours of driver training and perform 60 hours of community service. They would also face fines of up to $1,000 and the loss of their license for up to two years.
Rep. Donna Walsh, D-Charlestown, said the bill would help to prevent accidents like the one that killed 27-year-old Colin Foote. Foote, a Charlestown resident, was on his motorcycle when he was hit by a Westerly woman who had more two-dozen moving violations.
“He was struck by a repeat offender,” Walsh said. “His mother and his brother were in the car behind him, and it was a heartbreaking thing.”
The Assembly was also poised to help the financially ailing Landmark Hospital in its bid to merge with Caritas Christi Health Care, a hospital chain based in Massachusetts. The measure would exempt any for-profit corporation that acquires Landmark from sales taxes for 12 years.
Rep. Peter Kilmartin, D-Pawtucket, said the bill was not perfect but would help to maintain Landmark Hospital for people in northern Rhode Island.
“We need to preserve those jobs, we need to preserve that hospital,” he said. “This is not the best way to do it … but for the legislative system, this is the best that we have.”
Local officials were among the largest constituency left wanting.
The legislature largely refused to enact measures introduced by the governor to help cities and towns cut costs.
While the budget approved last week allows cities and towns to reduce school spending by 5 percent for the coming year, other proposals — such as mandatory minimum health co-pays for municipal employees — were considered dead.
The only good news, according to Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian, is that communities don’t have to fear future cuts because there’s almost nothing left to lose.
“We’re almost down to zero,” he said.
With reports
from Bruce Landis
redgar@projo.com
Journal state house bureau
Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed talks with Senate Majority Leader Daniel Connors while the Senate was in recess for committee hearings Thursday.
The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch
PROVIDENCE — Having had little to show for its first five months of work, the General Assembly was poised to finish its 2010 session Thursday night after a 72-hour sprint to finalize high-profile laws on public education, gambling, a wind farm, taxes and dangerous drivers.
It was a frenzied pace at times for part-time lawmakers already looking toward their reelection fights this fall.
But officials from across the political spectrum praised the Democrat-dominated Assembly for a flurry of heavy lifting that began Tuesday afternoon as committees raced through hundreds of bills touching on everything from fireworks to municipal bankruptcy.
“I think that over the session they have dealt with a lot of issues,” said the Republican Governor Carcieri, citing the passage of an education-funding formula, an income-tax overhaul, a measure to help create a wind farm off Block Island, and another to ward off municipal bankruptcies. “They always get criticized because it all happens at the end. Unfortunately, that’s just the nature of the beast.”
Indeed, Thursday was the third consecutive day that lawmakers were expected to conclude their business after midnight. There was little public notice of votes, and agendas changed minute to minute, as top lawmakers brokered private deals to help shepherd bills to passage.
Government watchdog groups applauded the decision to end Wednesday’s business –– initially set as the Assembly’s last of the year — shortly after midnight, instead of forcing through dozens of new laws while most of Rhode Island was sleeping.
But they questioned the wisdom of continuing to rush to meet a self-imposed deadline to adjourn for the year.
“It’s only June 10. There’s plenty of time to keep working on these things,” said Common Cause Executive Director John Marion, noting that his organization’s two priorities — an ethics bill and another to improve access to public records — were likely dead for the year.
Senate leaders refused to allow a vote on legislation sponsored by House Speaker Gordon D. Fox to reinstate the state Ethics Commission’s authority, which was stripped by a recent Supreme Court decision.
Specifically, the proposal would have placed a question on the November ballot asking voters whether to allow the Ethics Commission’s to investigate and prosecute state legislators who use their positions to benefit themselves, their relatives or their business associates.
Without the change, “we’ve got a whole group of people exempt from ethics rules,” said a “disappointed” Carcieri.
Fox acknowledged earlier in the week that the ethics bill was not a priority, however. The governor had other priorities this year as well.
The term-limited Carcieri used what political leverage he had to ensure the passage of a bill — also backed by organized labor — to set the Deepwater Wind offshore-turbine project back on course.
The private company wants to spend $200 million to erect eight turbines off Block Island to serve the island. Deepwater describes its plan as a demonstration project that could lead to a $1.5-billion wind farm farther offshore.
But opponents, including Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, argued the legislation is a special-interest bill designed to benefit one company at great cost to many ratepayers.
Once signed into law by the governor, the new law would send the power-purchase agreement to the Public Utilities Commission for another review.
Carcieri referred to the deal as “huge for the state long-term,” and AFL-CIO President George Nee agreed.
“This may have been one of the more significant years for economic development in the history of the state,” said Nee, citing the Deepwater measure, in addition to the likely passage of a measure creating a November ballot question on whether to allow a full-scale casino in Rhode Island.
Carcieri personally called Fox when the House followed the Senate’s lead in approving the Deepwater bill late Wednesday.
The governor waited until after the vote to say whether he would veto the $7.8-billion state budget approved by the legislature last week. A veto would have inconvenienced lawmakers by forcing them to return next week for an override session.
“Nothing’s ever perfect,” Carcieri said of the budget, noting that he would “most likely not” veto the package, but that his office would issue a formal statement Friday.
Meanwhile, in the rush to adjourn Thursday night, lawmakers were also expected to approve a bill to increase penalties for “habitual traffic offenders.”
Drivers convicted of four moving violations within an 18-month period would have to attend 60 hours of driver training and perform 60 hours of community service. They would also face fines of up to $1,000 and the loss of their license for up to two years.
Rep. Donna Walsh, D-Charlestown, said the bill would help to prevent accidents like the one that killed 27-year-old Colin Foote. Foote, a Charlestown resident, was on his motorcycle when he was hit by a Westerly woman who had more two-dozen moving violations.
“He was struck by a repeat offender,” Walsh said. “His mother and his brother were in the car behind him, and it was a heartbreaking thing.”
The Assembly was also poised to help the financially ailing Landmark Hospital in its bid to merge with Caritas Christi Health Care, a hospital chain based in Massachusetts. The measure would exempt any for-profit corporation that acquires Landmark from sales taxes for 12 years.
Rep. Peter Kilmartin, D-Pawtucket, said the bill was not perfect but would help to maintain Landmark Hospital for people in northern Rhode Island.
“We need to preserve those jobs, we need to preserve that hospital,” he said. “This is not the best way to do it … but for the legislative system, this is the best that we have.”
Local officials were among the largest constituency left wanting.
The legislature largely refused to enact measures introduced by the governor to help cities and towns cut costs.
While the budget approved last week allows cities and towns to reduce school spending by 5 percent for the coming year, other proposals — such as mandatory minimum health co-pays for municipal employees — were considered dead.
The only good news, according to Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian, is that communities don’t have to fear future cuts because there’s almost nothing left to lose.
“We’re almost down to zero,” he said.
With reports
from Bruce Landis
redgar@projo.com
Major issues left to last minute
Thursday, June 10, 2010
By Steve Peoples, Randal edgar and Katherine gregg
Journal State House Bureau
Sen. Louis DiPalma, D-Tiverton, waits in the Senate chamber for the session to begin Tuesday.
>
The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch
PROVIDENCE — A flood of legislation moved through the General Assembly Tuesday, but the fate of many high-profile bills was unclear just 24 hours before lawmakers hope to adjourn for the year.
Casinos, a wind farm, ethics, marijuana, education funding, criminal records and taxes are a small sampling of the issues still confronting Rhode Island’s part-time legislators. Some may simply be left to die.
Very few were decided Tuesday, despite a chaotic pace.
When the afternoon began, 18 legislative committees were set to review and perhaps vote on 206 pieces of legislation. Dozens were passed and sent directly to the House or Senate floors where rank-and-file lawmakers were asked to act on laws that some hadn’t read. A computer failure in the Senate prevented specific votes on 40 bills from being recorded.
Noticeably absent from any agenda was an ethics bill that some say is all but dead.
Senate leaders have refused to allow a vote on a provision overwhelmingly approved by the House last week that would allow voters this fall to reinstate the Ethics Commission’s power to investigate and prosecute state legislators who use their positions to benefit themselves, their relatives or their business associates.
That power was stripped by a state Supreme Court ruling last year.
Roughly 40 protesters gathered in the State House rotunda earlier in the day to push for Senate action.
“Inaction will only leave a cloud over the Senate,” said Larry Valencia, president of the rally’s organizer, Operation Clean Government.
A handful of elected officials joined the protest, including Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts, Sen. Edward J. O’Neill, I-Lincoln, and Sen. Michael J. Pinga, D-West Warwick.
“I have little faith that it will be heard,” Pinga said of the bill. “If leadership doesn’t want to hear it, it’s not going to be heard … They want to police themselves. What a joke.”
When asked later in the afternoon whether she would allow a vote, Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed said, “No comment,” and added that it was not her immediate focus.
The fate of the bill, like dozens more pending before the legislature, won’t become clear until lawmakers formally recess for the year. That’s expected late Wednesday, but could stretch to later in the week.
The chaotic pace has become commonplace in an Assembly that gives final approval to just a handful of bills in the first five months of the year and regularly approves hundreds of new laws in its final days.
But there is one difference this year, according to John Marion, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause.
“There are probably more issues of greater substance left hanging,” he said. And “they’re leaving earlier than they usually do. We’re not bumping up against the Fourth of July here. It’s June 8. It doesn’t seem like there’s good reason to be rushing.”
Should the Assembly adjourn for the year Wednesday, as currently planned, it would be its earliest departure since 1988.
Other highlights Tuesday included:
Fireworks
A proposal, approved by the full House and full Senate, would allow the sale, possession and transportation of “non-aerial fireworks” for anyone at least 16 years old.
Specifically, the bill would legalize such things as “fountains, illuminating torches, wheels, ground spinners, flitter sparklers, sparklers” and “party poppers, snappers, toy smoke devices, snakes, glow worms, wire sparklers and dipped sticks.”
The new measure could become law in the coming days, long before the July 4 holiday.
Municipal tools
A committee Tuesday completely ignored legislation that would help cities and towns cut costs.
Despite recent declarations that relief was on the way, and despite another reduction in state aid to cities and towns, lawmakers as of Tuesday night had not passed any of the so-called municipal tools — such as a minimum health-insurance co-pay for municipal workers — that local officials wanted. And there was no indication that legislation will pass before the session ends.
“We’re not sure yet,” said House Speaker Gordon D. Fox. “There’s a lot of stuff still percolating.”
Estate tax
The same day Governor Carcieri signed into law an Assembly proposal that makes Rhode Island’s income-tax structure more competitive, the Senate approved a measure long considered a priority for conservatives that goes even further.
The act would raise the exemption of Rhode Island’s estate tax, sometimes referred to as the “death tax,” from the current level of $850,000 to $1.5 million beginning Jan. 1, 2012.
Approximately 271 tax filers would benefit from the change, and state government would lose estimated revenue of $2.78 million should the House approve the measure, according to the state Department of Revenue.
Expungement
A bill to allow many more convicted criminals to legally tell their prospective employers and landlords they have never been convicted of a crime cleared the House and Senate.
Rhode Island judges are already allowed to permanently seal the records of nonviolent crimes by first offenders 5 years after completion of their sentences for misdemeanors, 10 years after the completion of sentences for felonies. Headed to the governor, who vetoed a similar measure in 2008, the bill calls for the automatic sealing of the record of any crime for which an admitted criminal has been given a deferred sentence, regardless of the nature of the crime, as long as he or she stays out of trouble for that five-year period.
This would apply only to those who have plead guilty or no contest.
Others
•While the Senate passed a bill last week that would require all roll-call committee votes to be posted on the General Assembly Web site, the House Finance Committee had not as of Tuesday night scheduled a hearing on the proposal. Separate legislation that would force all legislative votes to be posted online in a user-friendly format was ignored.
•Lawmakers gave final approval and sent to the governor’s desk a bill that would require the police to record confessions to crimes that carry a potential penalty of life in prison. The bill, which applies to confessions made when a suspect is in police custody, allows for some exceptions, including cases where a defendant refuses to be recorded and cases where the accused makes a spontaneous statement.
•While the subject of much discussion this session, legislation that would decriminalize marijuana possession is likely dead for the year.
“There’s some ideas still floating around on how to resurrect it,” said its sponsor, Sen. Joshua Miller, D-Cranston.
With reports from
Philip Marcelo
redgar@projo.com
By Steve Peoples, Randal edgar and Katherine gregg
Journal State House Bureau
Sen. Louis DiPalma, D-Tiverton, waits in the Senate chamber for the session to begin Tuesday.
>
The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch
PROVIDENCE — A flood of legislation moved through the General Assembly Tuesday, but the fate of many high-profile bills was unclear just 24 hours before lawmakers hope to adjourn for the year.
Casinos, a wind farm, ethics, marijuana, education funding, criminal records and taxes are a small sampling of the issues still confronting Rhode Island’s part-time legislators. Some may simply be left to die.
Very few were decided Tuesday, despite a chaotic pace.
When the afternoon began, 18 legislative committees were set to review and perhaps vote on 206 pieces of legislation. Dozens were passed and sent directly to the House or Senate floors where rank-and-file lawmakers were asked to act on laws that some hadn’t read. A computer failure in the Senate prevented specific votes on 40 bills from being recorded.
Noticeably absent from any agenda was an ethics bill that some say is all but dead.
Senate leaders have refused to allow a vote on a provision overwhelmingly approved by the House last week that would allow voters this fall to reinstate the Ethics Commission’s power to investigate and prosecute state legislators who use their positions to benefit themselves, their relatives or their business associates.
That power was stripped by a state Supreme Court ruling last year.
Roughly 40 protesters gathered in the State House rotunda earlier in the day to push for Senate action.
“Inaction will only leave a cloud over the Senate,” said Larry Valencia, president of the rally’s organizer, Operation Clean Government.
A handful of elected officials joined the protest, including Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts, Sen. Edward J. O’Neill, I-Lincoln, and Sen. Michael J. Pinga, D-West Warwick.
“I have little faith that it will be heard,” Pinga said of the bill. “If leadership doesn’t want to hear it, it’s not going to be heard … They want to police themselves. What a joke.”
When asked later in the afternoon whether she would allow a vote, Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed said, “No comment,” and added that it was not her immediate focus.
The fate of the bill, like dozens more pending before the legislature, won’t become clear until lawmakers formally recess for the year. That’s expected late Wednesday, but could stretch to later in the week.
The chaotic pace has become commonplace in an Assembly that gives final approval to just a handful of bills in the first five months of the year and regularly approves hundreds of new laws in its final days.
But there is one difference this year, according to John Marion, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause.
“There are probably more issues of greater substance left hanging,” he said. And “they’re leaving earlier than they usually do. We’re not bumping up against the Fourth of July here. It’s June 8. It doesn’t seem like there’s good reason to be rushing.”
Should the Assembly adjourn for the year Wednesday, as currently planned, it would be its earliest departure since 1988.
Other highlights Tuesday included:
Fireworks
A proposal, approved by the full House and full Senate, would allow the sale, possession and transportation of “non-aerial fireworks” for anyone at least 16 years old.
Specifically, the bill would legalize such things as “fountains, illuminating torches, wheels, ground spinners, flitter sparklers, sparklers” and “party poppers, snappers, toy smoke devices, snakes, glow worms, wire sparklers and dipped sticks.”
The new measure could become law in the coming days, long before the July 4 holiday.
Municipal tools
A committee Tuesday completely ignored legislation that would help cities and towns cut costs.
Despite recent declarations that relief was on the way, and despite another reduction in state aid to cities and towns, lawmakers as of Tuesday night had not passed any of the so-called municipal tools — such as a minimum health-insurance co-pay for municipal workers — that local officials wanted. And there was no indication that legislation will pass before the session ends.
“We’re not sure yet,” said House Speaker Gordon D. Fox. “There’s a lot of stuff still percolating.”
Estate tax
The same day Governor Carcieri signed into law an Assembly proposal that makes Rhode Island’s income-tax structure more competitive, the Senate approved a measure long considered a priority for conservatives that goes even further.
The act would raise the exemption of Rhode Island’s estate tax, sometimes referred to as the “death tax,” from the current level of $850,000 to $1.5 million beginning Jan. 1, 2012.
Approximately 271 tax filers would benefit from the change, and state government would lose estimated revenue of $2.78 million should the House approve the measure, according to the state Department of Revenue.
Expungement
A bill to allow many more convicted criminals to legally tell their prospective employers and landlords they have never been convicted of a crime cleared the House and Senate.
Rhode Island judges are already allowed to permanently seal the records of nonviolent crimes by first offenders 5 years after completion of their sentences for misdemeanors, 10 years after the completion of sentences for felonies. Headed to the governor, who vetoed a similar measure in 2008, the bill calls for the automatic sealing of the record of any crime for which an admitted criminal has been given a deferred sentence, regardless of the nature of the crime, as long as he or she stays out of trouble for that five-year period.
This would apply only to those who have plead guilty or no contest.
Others
•While the Senate passed a bill last week that would require all roll-call committee votes to be posted on the General Assembly Web site, the House Finance Committee had not as of Tuesday night scheduled a hearing on the proposal. Separate legislation that would force all legislative votes to be posted online in a user-friendly format was ignored.
•Lawmakers gave final approval and sent to the governor’s desk a bill that would require the police to record confessions to crimes that carry a potential penalty of life in prison. The bill, which applies to confessions made when a suspect is in police custody, allows for some exceptions, including cases where a defendant refuses to be recorded and cases where the accused makes a spontaneous statement.
•While the subject of much discussion this session, legislation that would decriminalize marijuana possession is likely dead for the year.
“There’s some ideas still floating around on how to resurrect it,” said its sponsor, Sen. Joshua Miller, D-Cranston.
With reports from
Philip Marcelo
redgar@projo.com
Bill flood misses some issues
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
By Steve Peoples, Randal edgar and Katherine gregg
Journal State House Bureau
Sen. Louis DiPalma, D-Tiverton, waits in the Senate chamber for the session to begin Tuesday.
The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch
PROVIDENCE — A flood of legislation moved through the General Assembly Tuesday, but the fate of many high-profile bills was unclear just 24 hours before lawmakers hope to adjourn for the year.
Casinos, a wind farm, ethics, marijuana, education funding, criminal records and taxes are a small sampling of the issues still confronting Rhode Island’s part-time legislators. Some may simply be left to die.
Very few were decided Tuesday, despite a chaotic pace.
When the afternoon began, 18 legislative committees were set to review and perhaps vote on 206 pieces of legislation. Dozens were passed and sent directly to the House or Senate floors where rank-and-file lawmakers were asked to act on laws that some hadn’t read. A computer failure in the Senate prevented specific votes on 40 bills from being recorded.
Noticeably absent from any agenda was an ethics bill that some say is all but dead.
Senate leaders have refused to allow a vote on a provision overwhelmingly approved by the House last week that would allow voters this fall to reinstate the Ethics Commission’s power to investigate and prosecute state legislators who use their positions to benefit themselves, their relatives or their business associates.
That power was stripped by a state Supreme Court ruling last year.
Roughly 40 protesters gathered in the State House rotunda earlier in the day to push for Senate action.
“Inaction will only leave a cloud over the Senate,” said Larry Valencia, president of the rally’s organizer, Operation Clean Government.
A handful of elected officials joined the protest, including Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts, Sen. Edward J. O’Neill, I-Lincoln, and Sen. Michael J. Pinga, D-West Warwick.
“I have little faith that it will be heard,” Pinga said of the bill. “If leadership doesn’t want to hear it, it’s not going to be heard … They want to police themselves. What a joke.”
When asked later in the afternoon whether she would allow a vote, Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed said, “No comment,” and added that it was not her immediate focus.
The fate of the bill, like dozens more pending before the legislature, won’t become clear until lawmakers formally recess for the year. That’s expected late Wednesday, but could stretch to later in the week.
The chaotic pace has become commonplace in an Assembly that gives final approval to just a handful of bills in the first five months of the year and regularly approves hundreds of new laws in its final days.
But there is one difference this year, according to John Marion, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause.
“There are probably more issues of greater substance left hanging,” he said. And “they’re leaving earlier than they usually do. We’re not bumping up against the Fourth of July here. It’s June 8. It doesn’t seem like there’s good reason to be rushing.”
Should the Assembly adjourn for the year Wednesday, as currently planned, it would be its earliest departure since 1988.
Other highlights Tuesday included:
Fireworks
A proposal, approved by the full House and full Senate, would allow the sale, possession and transportation of “non-aerial fireworks” for anyone at least 16 years old.
Specifically, the bill would legalize such things as “fountains, illuminating torches, wheels, ground spinners, flitter sparklers, sparklers” and “party poppers, snappers, toy smoke devices, snakes, glow worms, wire sparklers and dipped sticks.”
The new measure could become law in the coming days, long before the July 4 holiday.
Municipal tools
A committee Tuesday completely ignored legislation that would help cities and towns cut costs.
Despite recent declarations that relief was on the way, and despite another reduction in state aid to cities and towns, lawmakers as of Tuesday night had not passed any of the so-called municipal tools — such as a minimum health-insurance co-pay for municipal workers — that local officials wanted. And there was no indication that legislation will pass before the session ends.
“We’re not sure yet,” said House Speaker Gordon D. Fox. “There’s a lot of stuff still percolating.”
Estate tax
The same day Governor Carcieri signed into law an Assembly proposal that makes Rhode Island’s income-tax structure more competitive, the Senate approved a measure long considered a priority for conservatives that goes even further.
The act would raise the exemption of Rhode Island’s estate tax, sometimes referred to as the “death tax,” from the current level of $850,000 to $1.5 million beginning Jan. 1, 2012.
Approximately 271 tax filers would benefit from the change, and state government would lose estimated revenue of $2.78 million should the House approve the measure, according to the state Department of Revenue.
Expungement
A bill to allow many more convicted criminals to legally tell their prospective employers and landlords they have never been convicted of a crime cleared the House and Senate.
Rhode Island judges are already allowed to permanently seal the records of nonviolent crimes by first offenders 5 years after completion of their sentences for misdemeanors, 10 years after the completion of sentences for felonies. Headed to the governor, who vetoed a similar measure in 2008, the bill calls for the automatic sealing of the record of any crime for which an admitted criminal has been given a deferred sentence, regardless of the nature of the crime, as long as he or she stays out of trouble for that five-year period.
This would apply only to those who have plead guilty or no contest.
Others
•While the Senate passed a bill last week that would require all roll-call committee votes to be posted on the General Assembly Web site, the House Finance Committee had not as of Tuesday night scheduled a hearing on the proposal. Separate legislation that would force all legislative votes to be posted online in a user-friendly format was ignored.
•Lawmakers gave final approval and sent to the governor’s desk a bill that would require the police to record confessions to crimes that carry a potential penalty of life in prison. The bill, which applies to confessions made when a suspect is in police custody, allows for some exceptions, including cases where a defendant refuses to be recorded and cases where the accused makes a spontaneous statement.
•While the subject of much discussion this session, legislation that would decriminalize marijuana possession is likely dead for the year.
“There’s some ideas still floating around on how to resurrect it,” said its sponsor, Sen. Joshua Miller, D-Cranston.
With reports from
Philip Marcelo
redgar@projo.com
By Steve Peoples, Randal edgar and Katherine gregg
Journal State House Bureau
Sen. Louis DiPalma, D-Tiverton, waits in the Senate chamber for the session to begin Tuesday.
The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch
PROVIDENCE — A flood of legislation moved through the General Assembly Tuesday, but the fate of many high-profile bills was unclear just 24 hours before lawmakers hope to adjourn for the year.
Casinos, a wind farm, ethics, marijuana, education funding, criminal records and taxes are a small sampling of the issues still confronting Rhode Island’s part-time legislators. Some may simply be left to die.
Very few were decided Tuesday, despite a chaotic pace.
When the afternoon began, 18 legislative committees were set to review and perhaps vote on 206 pieces of legislation. Dozens were passed and sent directly to the House or Senate floors where rank-and-file lawmakers were asked to act on laws that some hadn’t read. A computer failure in the Senate prevented specific votes on 40 bills from being recorded.
Noticeably absent from any agenda was an ethics bill that some say is all but dead.
Senate leaders have refused to allow a vote on a provision overwhelmingly approved by the House last week that would allow voters this fall to reinstate the Ethics Commission’s power to investigate and prosecute state legislators who use their positions to benefit themselves, their relatives or their business associates.
That power was stripped by a state Supreme Court ruling last year.
Roughly 40 protesters gathered in the State House rotunda earlier in the day to push for Senate action.
“Inaction will only leave a cloud over the Senate,” said Larry Valencia, president of the rally’s organizer, Operation Clean Government.
A handful of elected officials joined the protest, including Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts, Sen. Edward J. O’Neill, I-Lincoln, and Sen. Michael J. Pinga, D-West Warwick.
“I have little faith that it will be heard,” Pinga said of the bill. “If leadership doesn’t want to hear it, it’s not going to be heard … They want to police themselves. What a joke.”
When asked later in the afternoon whether she would allow a vote, Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed said, “No comment,” and added that it was not her immediate focus.
The fate of the bill, like dozens more pending before the legislature, won’t become clear until lawmakers formally recess for the year. That’s expected late Wednesday, but could stretch to later in the week.
The chaotic pace has become commonplace in an Assembly that gives final approval to just a handful of bills in the first five months of the year and regularly approves hundreds of new laws in its final days.
But there is one difference this year, according to John Marion, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause.
“There are probably more issues of greater substance left hanging,” he said. And “they’re leaving earlier than they usually do. We’re not bumping up against the Fourth of July here. It’s June 8. It doesn’t seem like there’s good reason to be rushing.”
Should the Assembly adjourn for the year Wednesday, as currently planned, it would be its earliest departure since 1988.
Other highlights Tuesday included:
Fireworks
A proposal, approved by the full House and full Senate, would allow the sale, possession and transportation of “non-aerial fireworks” for anyone at least 16 years old.
Specifically, the bill would legalize such things as “fountains, illuminating torches, wheels, ground spinners, flitter sparklers, sparklers” and “party poppers, snappers, toy smoke devices, snakes, glow worms, wire sparklers and dipped sticks.”
The new measure could become law in the coming days, long before the July 4 holiday.
Municipal tools
A committee Tuesday completely ignored legislation that would help cities and towns cut costs.
Despite recent declarations that relief was on the way, and despite another reduction in state aid to cities and towns, lawmakers as of Tuesday night had not passed any of the so-called municipal tools — such as a minimum health-insurance co-pay for municipal workers — that local officials wanted. And there was no indication that legislation will pass before the session ends.
“We’re not sure yet,” said House Speaker Gordon D. Fox. “There’s a lot of stuff still percolating.”
Estate tax
The same day Governor Carcieri signed into law an Assembly proposal that makes Rhode Island’s income-tax structure more competitive, the Senate approved a measure long considered a priority for conservatives that goes even further.
The act would raise the exemption of Rhode Island’s estate tax, sometimes referred to as the “death tax,” from the current level of $850,000 to $1.5 million beginning Jan. 1, 2012.
Approximately 271 tax filers would benefit from the change, and state government would lose estimated revenue of $2.78 million should the House approve the measure, according to the state Department of Revenue.
Expungement
A bill to allow many more convicted criminals to legally tell their prospective employers and landlords they have never been convicted of a crime cleared the House and Senate.
Rhode Island judges are already allowed to permanently seal the records of nonviolent crimes by first offenders 5 years after completion of their sentences for misdemeanors, 10 years after the completion of sentences for felonies. Headed to the governor, who vetoed a similar measure in 2008, the bill calls for the automatic sealing of the record of any crime for which an admitted criminal has been given a deferred sentence, regardless of the nature of the crime, as long as he or she stays out of trouble for that five-year period.
This would apply only to those who have plead guilty or no contest.
Others
•While the Senate passed a bill last week that would require all roll-call committee votes to be posted on the General Assembly Web site, the House Finance Committee had not as of Tuesday night scheduled a hearing on the proposal. Separate legislation that would force all legislative votes to be posted online in a user-friendly format was ignored.
•Lawmakers gave final approval and sent to the governor’s desk a bill that would require the police to record confessions to crimes that carry a potential penalty of life in prison. The bill, which applies to confessions made when a suspect is in police custody, allows for some exceptions, including cases where a defendant refuses to be recorded and cases where the accused makes a spontaneous statement.
•While the subject of much discussion this session, legislation that would decriminalize marijuana possession is likely dead for the year.
“There’s some ideas still floating around on how to resurrect it,” said its sponsor, Sen. Joshua Miller, D-Cranston.
With reports from
Philip Marcelo
redgar@projo.com
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Major issues left to last minute
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
By Steve Peoples, Randal edgar and Katherine gregg
Journal State House Bureau
PROVIDENCE — A flood of legislation moved through the General Assembly Tuesday, but the fate of many high-profile bills was unclear just 24 hours before lawmakers hope to adjourn for the year.
Casinos, a wind farm, ethics, marijuana, education funding, criminal records and taxes are a small sampling of the issues still confronting Rhode Island’s part-time legislators. Some may simply be left to die.
Very few were decided Tuesday, despite a chaotic pace.
When the afternoon began, 18 legislative committees were set to review and perhaps vote on 206 pieces of legislation. Dozens were passed and sent directly to the House or Senate floors where rank-and-file lawmakers were asked to act on laws that some hadn’t read. A computer failure in the Senate prevented specific votes on 40 bills from being recorded.
Noticeably absent from any agenda was an ethics bill that some say is all but dead.
Senate leaders have refused to allow a vote on a provision overwhelmingly approved by the House last week that would allow voters this fall to reinstate the Ethics Commission’s power to investigate and prosecute state legislators who use their positions to benefit themselves, their relatives or their business associates.
That power was stripped by a state Supreme Court ruling last year.
Roughly 40 protesters gathered in the State House rotunda earlier in the day to push for Senate action.
“Inaction will only leave a cloud over the Senate,” said Larry Valencia, president of the rally’s organizer, Operation Clean Government.
A handful of elected officials joined the protest, including Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts, Sen. Edward J. O’Neill, I-Lincoln, and Sen. Michael J. Pinga, D-West Warwick.
“I have little faith that it will be heard,” Pinga said of the bill. “If leadership doesn’t want to hear it, it’s not going to be heard … They want to police themselves. What a joke.”
When asked later in the afternoon whether she would allow a vote, Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed said, “No comment,” and added that it was not her immediate focus.
The fate of the bill, like dozens more pending before the legislature, won’t become clear until lawmakers formally recess for the year. That’s expected late Wednesday, but could stretch to later in the week.
The chaotic pace has become commonplace in an Assembly that gives final approval to just a handful of bills in the first five months of the year and regularly approves hundreds of new laws in its final days.
But there is one difference this year, according to John Marion, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause.
“There are probably more issues of greater substance left hanging,” he said. And “they’re leaving earlier than they usually do. We’re not bumping up against the Fourth of July here. It’s June 8. It doesn’t seem like there’s good reason to be rushing.”
Should the Assembly adjourn for the year Wednesday, as currently planned, it would be its earliest departure since 1988.
Other highlights Tuesday included:
Fireworks
A proposal, approved by the full House and full Senate, would allow the sale, possession and transportation of “non-aerial fireworks” for anyone at least 16 years old.
Specifically, the bill would legalize such things as “fountains, illuminating torches, wheels, ground spinners, flitter sparklers, sparklers” and “party poppers, snappers, toy smoke devices, snakes, glow worms, wire sparklers and dipped sticks.”
The new measure could become law in the coming days, long before the July 4 holiday.
Municipal tools
A committee Tuesday completely ignored legislation that would help cities and towns cut costs.
Despite recent declarations that relief was on the way, and despite another reduction in state aid to cities and towns, lawmakers as of Tuesday night had not passed any of the so-called municipal tools — such as a minimum health-insurance co-pay for municipal workers — that local officials wanted. And there was no indication that legislation will pass before the session ends.
“We’re not sure yet,” said House Speaker Gordon D. Fox. “There’s a lot of stuff still percolating.”
Estate tax
The same day Governor Carcieri signed into law an Assembly proposal that makes Rhode Island’s income-tax structure more competitive, the Senate approved a measure long considered a priority for conservatives that goes even further.
The act would raise the exemption of Rhode Island’s estate tax, sometimes referred to as the “death tax,” from the current level of $850,000 to $1.5 million beginning Jan. 1, 2012.
Approximately 271 tax filers would benefit from the change, and state government would lose estimated revenue of $2.78 million should the House approve the measure, according to the state Department of Revenue.
Expungement
A bill to allow many more convicted criminals to legally tell their prospective employers and landlords they have never been convicted of a crime cleared the House and Senate.
Rhode Island judges are already allowed to permanently seal the records of nonviolent crimes by first offenders 5 years after completion of their sentences for misdemeanors, 10 years after the completion of sentences for felonies. Headed to the governor, who vetoed a similar measure in 2008, the bill calls for the automatic sealing of the record of any crime for which an admitted criminal has been given a deferred sentence, regardless of the nature of the crime, as long as he or she stays out of trouble for that five-year period.
This would apply only to those who have plead guilty or no contest.
Others
•While the Senate passed a bill last week that would require all roll-call committee votes to be posted on the General Assembly Web site, the House Finance Committee had not as of Tuesday night scheduled a hearing on the proposal. Separate legislation that would force all legislative votes to be posted online in a user-friendly format was ignored.
•Lawmakers gave final approval and sent to the governor’s desk a bill that would require the police to record confessions to crimes that carry a potential penalty of life in prison. The bill, which applies to confessions made when a suspect is in police custody, allows for some exceptions, including cases where a defendant refuses to be recorded and cases where the accused makes a spontaneous statement.
•While the subject of much discussion this session, legislation that would decriminalize marijuana possession is likely dead for the year.
“There’s some ideas still floating around on how to resurrect it,” said its sponsor, Sen. Joshua Miller, D-Cranston.
With reports from
Philip Marcelo
By Steve Peoples, Randal edgar and Katherine gregg
Journal State House Bureau
PROVIDENCE — A flood of legislation moved through the General Assembly Tuesday, but the fate of many high-profile bills was unclear just 24 hours before lawmakers hope to adjourn for the year.
Casinos, a wind farm, ethics, marijuana, education funding, criminal records and taxes are a small sampling of the issues still confronting Rhode Island’s part-time legislators. Some may simply be left to die.
Very few were decided Tuesday, despite a chaotic pace.
When the afternoon began, 18 legislative committees were set to review and perhaps vote on 206 pieces of legislation. Dozens were passed and sent directly to the House or Senate floors where rank-and-file lawmakers were asked to act on laws that some hadn’t read. A computer failure in the Senate prevented specific votes on 40 bills from being recorded.
Noticeably absent from any agenda was an ethics bill that some say is all but dead.
Senate leaders have refused to allow a vote on a provision overwhelmingly approved by the House last week that would allow voters this fall to reinstate the Ethics Commission’s power to investigate and prosecute state legislators who use their positions to benefit themselves, their relatives or their business associates.
That power was stripped by a state Supreme Court ruling last year.
Roughly 40 protesters gathered in the State House rotunda earlier in the day to push for Senate action.
“Inaction will only leave a cloud over the Senate,” said Larry Valencia, president of the rally’s organizer, Operation Clean Government.
A handful of elected officials joined the protest, including Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts, Sen. Edward J. O’Neill, I-Lincoln, and Sen. Michael J. Pinga, D-West Warwick.
“I have little faith that it will be heard,” Pinga said of the bill. “If leadership doesn’t want to hear it, it’s not going to be heard … They want to police themselves. What a joke.”
When asked later in the afternoon whether she would allow a vote, Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed said, “No comment,” and added that it was not her immediate focus.
The fate of the bill, like dozens more pending before the legislature, won’t become clear until lawmakers formally recess for the year. That’s expected late Wednesday, but could stretch to later in the week.
The chaotic pace has become commonplace in an Assembly that gives final approval to just a handful of bills in the first five months of the year and regularly approves hundreds of new laws in its final days.
But there is one difference this year, according to John Marion, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause.
“There are probably more issues of greater substance left hanging,” he said. And “they’re leaving earlier than they usually do. We’re not bumping up against the Fourth of July here. It’s June 8. It doesn’t seem like there’s good reason to be rushing.”
Should the Assembly adjourn for the year Wednesday, as currently planned, it would be its earliest departure since 1988.
Other highlights Tuesday included:
Fireworks
A proposal, approved by the full House and full Senate, would allow the sale, possession and transportation of “non-aerial fireworks” for anyone at least 16 years old.
Specifically, the bill would legalize such things as “fountains, illuminating torches, wheels, ground spinners, flitter sparklers, sparklers” and “party poppers, snappers, toy smoke devices, snakes, glow worms, wire sparklers and dipped sticks.”
The new measure could become law in the coming days, long before the July 4 holiday.
Municipal tools
A committee Tuesday completely ignored legislation that would help cities and towns cut costs.
Despite recent declarations that relief was on the way, and despite another reduction in state aid to cities and towns, lawmakers as of Tuesday night had not passed any of the so-called municipal tools — such as a minimum health-insurance co-pay for municipal workers — that local officials wanted. And there was no indication that legislation will pass before the session ends.
“We’re not sure yet,” said House Speaker Gordon D. Fox. “There’s a lot of stuff still percolating.”
Estate tax
The same day Governor Carcieri signed into law an Assembly proposal that makes Rhode Island’s income-tax structure more competitive, the Senate approved a measure long considered a priority for conservatives that goes even further.
The act would raise the exemption of Rhode Island’s estate tax, sometimes referred to as the “death tax,” from the current level of $850,000 to $1.5 million beginning Jan. 1, 2012.
Approximately 271 tax filers would benefit from the change, and state government would lose estimated revenue of $2.78 million should the House approve the measure, according to the state Department of Revenue.
Expungement
A bill to allow many more convicted criminals to legally tell their prospective employers and landlords they have never been convicted of a crime cleared the House and Senate.
Rhode Island judges are already allowed to permanently seal the records of nonviolent crimes by first offenders 5 years after completion of their sentences for misdemeanors, 10 years after the completion of sentences for felonies. Headed to the governor, who vetoed a similar measure in 2008, the bill calls for the automatic sealing of the record of any crime for which an admitted criminal has been given a deferred sentence, regardless of the nature of the crime, as long as he or she stays out of trouble for that five-year period.
This would apply only to those who have plead guilty or no contest.
Others
•While the Senate passed a bill last week that would require all roll-call committee votes to be posted on the General Assembly Web site, the House Finance Committee had not as of Tuesday night scheduled a hearing on the proposal. Separate legislation that would force all legislative votes to be posted online in a user-friendly format was ignored.
•Lawmakers gave final approval and sent to the governor’s desk a bill that would require the police to record confessions to crimes that carry a potential penalty of life in prison. The bill, which applies to confessions made when a suspect is in police custody, allows for some exceptions, including cases where a defendant refuses to be recorded and cases where the accused makes a spontaneous statement.
•While the subject of much discussion this session, legislation that would decriminalize marijuana possession is likely dead for the year.
“There’s some ideas still floating around on how to resurrect it,” said its sponsor, Sen. Joshua Miller, D-Cranston.
With reports from
Philip Marcelo
Monday, June 7, 2010
Political Scene: Redrawing Rhode Island’s political map will cost $1.5 million
Monday, June 7, 2010
By Katherine Gregg and By RANDAL EDGAR
Journal State House Bureau
Deep within the new $7.8-billion state budget is a reminder that the next General Assembly will have the once-a-decade job of redrawing Rhode Island’s political map.
The tax-and-spending plan that cleared the Assembly last week included $1.5 million for lawmakers to find and hire a consultant to help them determine how population changes over the last decade might change the state’s legislative and congressional districts.
House spokesman Larry Berman said the General Assembly intends to begin by issuing a request for proposals this summer.
The money helps account for the legislature’s own record-high new budget: a proposed $39,049,144, compared with the $37.4 million the lawmakers appropriated for themselves at this point last year.
But “given the fact that the software to draw districts is now free and available on the Internet, $1.5 million seems like a pretty steep price,” said John Marion, executive director of the citizens’ advocacy group Common Cause, when he learned of this budget set-aside.
Elaborating, he said: “The ground has shifted because of the changes in computing power and I believe the advocates (and in R.I. that means us) will be on a much more level playing field with those trying to gerrymander.”
Marion said Common Cause has “already begun to assemble the resources and expertise to launch a citizens model redistricting commission that will allow us to offer an alternative set of districts to those the legislature will draw. The commission will take public input to establish a set of criteria for redistricting and then we (probably Common Cause) will draw the districts to their specifications and make them public.
“We hope this will put sufficient pressure on those who make the official districts and they will then resist the temptation to gerrymander,” he said.
To hear Marion, it is not that hard “to program a computer to perform redistricting,” as long as you know computer-speak.
He explains: “Two professors, Micah Altman at Harvard University and Michael McDonald at George Mason University created an open-source program, in the R statistical programming language, that allows the computer to draw the districts.”And so it begins.
By Katherine Gregg and By RANDAL EDGAR
Journal State House Bureau
Deep within the new $7.8-billion state budget is a reminder that the next General Assembly will have the once-a-decade job of redrawing Rhode Island’s political map.
The tax-and-spending plan that cleared the Assembly last week included $1.5 million for lawmakers to find and hire a consultant to help them determine how population changes over the last decade might change the state’s legislative and congressional districts.
House spokesman Larry Berman said the General Assembly intends to begin by issuing a request for proposals this summer.
The money helps account for the legislature’s own record-high new budget: a proposed $39,049,144, compared with the $37.4 million the lawmakers appropriated for themselves at this point last year.
But “given the fact that the software to draw districts is now free and available on the Internet, $1.5 million seems like a pretty steep price,” said John Marion, executive director of the citizens’ advocacy group Common Cause, when he learned of this budget set-aside.
Elaborating, he said: “The ground has shifted because of the changes in computing power and I believe the advocates (and in R.I. that means us) will be on a much more level playing field with those trying to gerrymander.”
Marion said Common Cause has “already begun to assemble the resources and expertise to launch a citizens model redistricting commission that will allow us to offer an alternative set of districts to those the legislature will draw. The commission will take public input to establish a set of criteria for redistricting and then we (probably Common Cause) will draw the districts to their specifications and make them public.
“We hope this will put sufficient pressure on those who make the official districts and they will then resist the temptation to gerrymander,” he said.
To hear Marion, it is not that hard “to program a computer to perform redistricting,” as long as you know computer-speak.
He explains: “Two professors, Micah Altman at Harvard University and Michael McDonald at George Mason University created an open-source program, in the R statistical programming language, that allows the computer to draw the districts.”And so it begins.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Special immunity for legislators shouldn't exist
Warwick Beacon
by John Marion
Jun 03, 2010
As the end of the 2010 session of the Rhode Island General Assembly speeds to a quick and early conclusion, a number of important issues have been left waiting. One of those issues involves the jurisdiction (or lack thereof) of the state’s Ethics Commission over the General Assembly itself. Currently state legislators, and only state legislators, are immune from prosecution by the state’s ethics watchdog for their “core legislative acts.” This is a result of the Rhode Island Supreme Court’s 2009 decision in the case of William V. Irons vs. The Rhode Island Ethics Commission.
Common Cause sincerely believes that this special immunity for legislators should not exist and we, along with Operation Clean Government, have proposed an amendment to the Constitution to make sure it no longer does. Furthermore, we believe that when an overwhelming majority of voters in 1986 approved the Ethics Amendment to our Constitution—one that says “all elected and appointed officials . . . shall be subject to the code of ethics”—they meant the General Assembly too. The Supreme Court believes the voters did not make that clear 24 years ago, and that is why a ballot question is needed now. We are asking the General Assembly to put this issue on the November ballot before it is too late.
Unfortunately, the people of the state of Rhode Island may never get a chance to clarify what they meant back in 1986 because the Rhode Island Senate is denying them that opportunity. In the House, Speaker Gordon Fox has sponsored the resolution to put the question on the ballot. By contrast, in the Senate the resolution (sponsored by Senator J. Michael Lenihan of East Greenwich) only got a hearing when the sponsor specifically requested one. After that perfunctory hearing, the Senate resolution was “held for further study,” a designation that is a sort of legislative purgatory.
Why should they do this now? Since the June 2009 Supreme Court decision, there has been no mechanism for enforcing the state’s code of ethics for most of the official actions of our legislators. That means a legislator cannot be prosecuted by the Ethics Commission for voting on a bill that benefits them financially. If we do not put this on the ballot now, then this immunity will extend until at least 2012, and possibly forever.
Why is this important? Building public confidence in the legislative process is a critical ingredient to a successful democracy. People need to believe that their representatives are serving the public interest, and not their personal or special interests. Trust is the glue that binds voters to their representatives, and our amendment seeks to strengthen that bond.
Common Cause calls on the Rhode Island Senate to allow the people to decide this issue. The Senate has known about this problem since the first week in January, and yet five months later the problem persists. Their solution, a system of self-policing, is unwieldy and potentially costly. In the closing days of the session—before rushing out to campaign for re-election—the Senate needs to take up this issue and let the people decide.
John Marion is the executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island.
by John Marion
Jun 03, 2010
As the end of the 2010 session of the Rhode Island General Assembly speeds to a quick and early conclusion, a number of important issues have been left waiting. One of those issues involves the jurisdiction (or lack thereof) of the state’s Ethics Commission over the General Assembly itself. Currently state legislators, and only state legislators, are immune from prosecution by the state’s ethics watchdog for their “core legislative acts.” This is a result of the Rhode Island Supreme Court’s 2009 decision in the case of William V. Irons vs. The Rhode Island Ethics Commission.
Common Cause sincerely believes that this special immunity for legislators should not exist and we, along with Operation Clean Government, have proposed an amendment to the Constitution to make sure it no longer does. Furthermore, we believe that when an overwhelming majority of voters in 1986 approved the Ethics Amendment to our Constitution—one that says “all elected and appointed officials . . . shall be subject to the code of ethics”—they meant the General Assembly too. The Supreme Court believes the voters did not make that clear 24 years ago, and that is why a ballot question is needed now. We are asking the General Assembly to put this issue on the November ballot before it is too late.
Unfortunately, the people of the state of Rhode Island may never get a chance to clarify what they meant back in 1986 because the Rhode Island Senate is denying them that opportunity. In the House, Speaker Gordon Fox has sponsored the resolution to put the question on the ballot. By contrast, in the Senate the resolution (sponsored by Senator J. Michael Lenihan of East Greenwich) only got a hearing when the sponsor specifically requested one. After that perfunctory hearing, the Senate resolution was “held for further study,” a designation that is a sort of legislative purgatory.
Why should they do this now? Since the June 2009 Supreme Court decision, there has been no mechanism for enforcing the state’s code of ethics for most of the official actions of our legislators. That means a legislator cannot be prosecuted by the Ethics Commission for voting on a bill that benefits them financially. If we do not put this on the ballot now, then this immunity will extend until at least 2012, and possibly forever.
Why is this important? Building public confidence in the legislative process is a critical ingredient to a successful democracy. People need to believe that their representatives are serving the public interest, and not their personal or special interests. Trust is the glue that binds voters to their representatives, and our amendment seeks to strengthen that bond.
Common Cause calls on the Rhode Island Senate to allow the people to decide this issue. The Senate has known about this problem since the first week in January, and yet five months later the problem persists. Their solution, a system of self-policing, is unwieldy and potentially costly. In the closing days of the session—before rushing out to campaign for re-election—the Senate needs to take up this issue and let the people decide.
John Marion is the executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Update: RI House OKs ballot item to tighten ethics rules
Wed, Jun 02, 2010
Katherine Gregg
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- One after another, Rhode Island's state lawmakers rose from their seats on the House floor to defend their right to speak without having an "unelected'' Ethics Commission peering over their shoulders.
Then, the House approved - and sent to the Senate - a bill that would give voters a chance, in November, to reinstate the state Ethics Commission's power to investigate and prosecute state legislators.
The vote was 67-5 in favor of the bill introduced by new House Speaker Gordon D. Fox, early in the 2010 election-year session when he was still the House majority leader, vying for the top leadership post in the House.
The vote marked a victory for Fox, who had to win votes from a phalanx of dubious colleagues.
Before the bill passed, the House members voted 37-33 to defeat an amendment that would have excluded all of their speech from Ethics Commission jurisdiction.
The measure now goes to the full Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Daniel Connors has repeatedly questioned the need for any action, and said again recently: "If a member of the Assembly were doing something illegal, they could be prosecuted right now in the U.S. District Court by the U.S. Attorney and be subject to penalties for violating the law like any other citizen."
Fox's legislation was prompted by a June decision by the Rhode Island Supreme Court that dismissed ethics charges pending against former Senate President William V. Irons based on a novel reading of the "speech in debate clause" in the state Constitution.
The clause states: "For any speech in debate in either House, no member shall be questioned in any other place."
High profile lawmakers had argued for years that this clause placed them beyond the reach of the Ethics Commission or its predecessor, including former House Speakers Matthew J. Smith, when he was accused of personally benefiting from a bill he supported to allow state workers to buy state pension credit for private school teaching, and John B. Harwood, when he rebuffed a subpoena to testify in a case involving the dismissal of a former Lottery director.
In 1984, the Rhode Island Supreme Court said the clause does more than immunize legislators against civil lawsuits for their utterances on the Senate and House floors. Supporting the refusal of House leaders to answer allegations of gerrymandering, the court said the privilege protects behind-the-scenes legislative deliberations, whether they take place at the State House or elsewhere.
But the high court's ruling in the Irons' case blasted opened the current hole in state Ethics Code enforcement; following the ruling, the commission took the position that it was no longer even allowed to issue advisory opinions to lawmakers.
Irons had been accused of using his public office to obtain financial gain for pharmacy giant CVS - a "business associate" - while collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance commissions from Blue Cross on a health-insurance policy for CVS employees in Rhode Island.
Irons' lawyer argued, and the Supreme Court agreed, that the "speech in debate clause" insulates lawmakers from Ethics Commission scrutiny for any "core legislative act," including "proposing, passing or voting upon a particular piece of legislation."
In his dissent, Chief Justice Paul Suttell, a former member of the House of Representatives, cited the litany of scandals that led to the 1986 voter-mandated creation of the Ethics Commission, and said "a page of history is worth a volume of logic."
The Fox bill - and a matching Senate version sponsored by J. Michael Lenihan, D-East Greenwich - have an army of supporters.
A parade of candidates for high office joined the citizens' advocacy groups Common Cause, Operation Clean Government and the League of Women Voters in arguing that state lawmakers should be subject to the same Ethics Commission scrutiny that applies to every other elected official in Rhode Island, from the governor to the members of each local school board, zoning board and town council.
Common Cause Executive Director John Marion told the lawmakers the proposal is not aimed at giving the nine-member Ethics Commission any more power than it had during its first two decades. He said 37 other states allow ethics oversight of their legislators.
But the Fox bill faced opposition at every step along the way, with freshman Rep. Scott Pollard, D-Foster, declaring at the initial hearing in march: "There aren't any corrupt people in the building ... And if you do know them to be corrupt, then I suggest that you call the attorney general's office and seek [to have] them prosecuted."
Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, voiced concerns about giving the Ethics Commission "virtually limitless authority to decide what constitutes a conflict of interest or ethical misconduct when it comes to both legislators' votes and their participation in the legislative process."
He repeated those concerns during a recent hearing on the matching Senate bill, at which Sen. John Tassoni, D-Smithfield, deplored the way the Ethics Commission is currently constructed as "a judge, jury and executioner."
Here is how the House members voted:
Voting yes
Ajello, D-Providence
Almeida, D-Providence
Brien, D-Woonsocket
Caprio, D-Narragansett
Carnevale, D-Providence
Carter, D-North Kingstown
Coderre, D-Pawtucket
Corvese, D-North Providence
Costantino, D-Providence
DeSimone, D-Providence
Diaz, D-Providence
Driver, D-Richmond
Edwards, D-Tiverton
Ehrhardt, R-North Kingstown
Fellela, D-Johnston
Ferri, D-Warwick
Fierro, D-Woonsocket
Flaherty, D-Warwick
Fox, D-Providence
Gablinske, D-Bristol
Gallison, D-Bristol
Gemma, D-Warwick
Giannini, D-Providence
Guthrie, D-Coventry
Handy, D-Cranston
Hearn, D-Barrington
Jackson, D-Newport
Jacquard, D-Cranston
Kennedy, D-Hopkinton
Kilmartin, D-Pawtucket
Lally, D-South Kingstown
Loughlin, R-Tiverton
MacBeth, D-Cumberland
Malik, D-Warren
Marcello, D-Scituate
Martin, D-Newport
Mattiello, D-Cranston
McCauley, D-Providence
McNamara, D-Warwick
Melo, D-East Providence
Menard, D-Lincoln
Naughton, D-Warwick
O'Neill, D-Pawtucket
Pacheco, D-Burrillville
Palumbo, D-Cranston
Petrarca, D-Lincoln
A. Rice, D-Portsmouth
M. Rice, D-South Kingstown
Ruggiero, D-Jamestown
San Bento, D-Pawtucket
Savage, R-East Providence
Schadone, D-North Providence
Segal, D-Providence
Serpa, D-West Warwick
Shallcross Smith, D-Lincoln
Silva, D-Central Falls
Sullivan, D-Coventry
Trillo, R-Warwick
Ucci, D-Johnston
Vaudreuil, D-Cumberland
Walsh, D-Charlestown
Wasylyk, D-Providence
Williams, D-Providence
Williamson, D-Coventry
Winfield, D-Smithfield
Voting no
Baldelli-Hunt, D-Woonsocket
DaSilva, D-East Providence
Newberry, R-N. Smithfield
Pollard, D-Foster
Watson, R-East Greenwich
Did not vote
Azzinaro, D-Westerly
Lima, D-CranstonMurphy, D-West Warwick
SOURCE: House roll call
(The original version of this story was published at 5:35 pm. Wednesday.)
Katherine Gregg
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- One after another, Rhode Island's state lawmakers rose from their seats on the House floor to defend their right to speak without having an "unelected'' Ethics Commission peering over their shoulders.
Then, the House approved - and sent to the Senate - a bill that would give voters a chance, in November, to reinstate the state Ethics Commission's power to investigate and prosecute state legislators.
The vote was 67-5 in favor of the bill introduced by new House Speaker Gordon D. Fox, early in the 2010 election-year session when he was still the House majority leader, vying for the top leadership post in the House.
The vote marked a victory for Fox, who had to win votes from a phalanx of dubious colleagues.
Before the bill passed, the House members voted 37-33 to defeat an amendment that would have excluded all of their speech from Ethics Commission jurisdiction.
The measure now goes to the full Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Daniel Connors has repeatedly questioned the need for any action, and said again recently: "If a member of the Assembly were doing something illegal, they could be prosecuted right now in the U.S. District Court by the U.S. Attorney and be subject to penalties for violating the law like any other citizen."
Fox's legislation was prompted by a June decision by the Rhode Island Supreme Court that dismissed ethics charges pending against former Senate President William V. Irons based on a novel reading of the "speech in debate clause" in the state Constitution.
The clause states: "For any speech in debate in either House, no member shall be questioned in any other place."
High profile lawmakers had argued for years that this clause placed them beyond the reach of the Ethics Commission or its predecessor, including former House Speakers Matthew J. Smith, when he was accused of personally benefiting from a bill he supported to allow state workers to buy state pension credit for private school teaching, and John B. Harwood, when he rebuffed a subpoena to testify in a case involving the dismissal of a former Lottery director.
In 1984, the Rhode Island Supreme Court said the clause does more than immunize legislators against civil lawsuits for their utterances on the Senate and House floors. Supporting the refusal of House leaders to answer allegations of gerrymandering, the court said the privilege protects behind-the-scenes legislative deliberations, whether they take place at the State House or elsewhere.
But the high court's ruling in the Irons' case blasted opened the current hole in state Ethics Code enforcement; following the ruling, the commission took the position that it was no longer even allowed to issue advisory opinions to lawmakers.
Irons had been accused of using his public office to obtain financial gain for pharmacy giant CVS - a "business associate" - while collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance commissions from Blue Cross on a health-insurance policy for CVS employees in Rhode Island.
Irons' lawyer argued, and the Supreme Court agreed, that the "speech in debate clause" insulates lawmakers from Ethics Commission scrutiny for any "core legislative act," including "proposing, passing or voting upon a particular piece of legislation."
In his dissent, Chief Justice Paul Suttell, a former member of the House of Representatives, cited the litany of scandals that led to the 1986 voter-mandated creation of the Ethics Commission, and said "a page of history is worth a volume of logic."
The Fox bill - and a matching Senate version sponsored by J. Michael Lenihan, D-East Greenwich - have an army of supporters.
A parade of candidates for high office joined the citizens' advocacy groups Common Cause, Operation Clean Government and the League of Women Voters in arguing that state lawmakers should be subject to the same Ethics Commission scrutiny that applies to every other elected official in Rhode Island, from the governor to the members of each local school board, zoning board and town council.
Common Cause Executive Director John Marion told the lawmakers the proposal is not aimed at giving the nine-member Ethics Commission any more power than it had during its first two decades. He said 37 other states allow ethics oversight of their legislators.
But the Fox bill faced opposition at every step along the way, with freshman Rep. Scott Pollard, D-Foster, declaring at the initial hearing in march: "There aren't any corrupt people in the building ... And if you do know them to be corrupt, then I suggest that you call the attorney general's office and seek [to have] them prosecuted."
Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, voiced concerns about giving the Ethics Commission "virtually limitless authority to decide what constitutes a conflict of interest or ethical misconduct when it comes to both legislators' votes and their participation in the legislative process."
He repeated those concerns during a recent hearing on the matching Senate bill, at which Sen. John Tassoni, D-Smithfield, deplored the way the Ethics Commission is currently constructed as "a judge, jury and executioner."
Here is how the House members voted:
Voting yes
Ajello, D-Providence
Almeida, D-Providence
Brien, D-Woonsocket
Caprio, D-Narragansett
Carnevale, D-Providence
Carter, D-North Kingstown
Coderre, D-Pawtucket
Corvese, D-North Providence
Costantino, D-Providence
DeSimone, D-Providence
Diaz, D-Providence
Driver, D-Richmond
Edwards, D-Tiverton
Ehrhardt, R-North Kingstown
Fellela, D-Johnston
Ferri, D-Warwick
Fierro, D-Woonsocket
Flaherty, D-Warwick
Fox, D-Providence
Gablinske, D-Bristol
Gallison, D-Bristol
Gemma, D-Warwick
Giannini, D-Providence
Guthrie, D-Coventry
Handy, D-Cranston
Hearn, D-Barrington
Jackson, D-Newport
Jacquard, D-Cranston
Kennedy, D-Hopkinton
Kilmartin, D-Pawtucket
Lally, D-South Kingstown
Loughlin, R-Tiverton
MacBeth, D-Cumberland
Malik, D-Warren
Marcello, D-Scituate
Martin, D-Newport
Mattiello, D-Cranston
McCauley, D-Providence
McNamara, D-Warwick
Melo, D-East Providence
Menard, D-Lincoln
Naughton, D-Warwick
O'Neill, D-Pawtucket
Pacheco, D-Burrillville
Palumbo, D-Cranston
Petrarca, D-Lincoln
A. Rice, D-Portsmouth
M. Rice, D-South Kingstown
Ruggiero, D-Jamestown
San Bento, D-Pawtucket
Savage, R-East Providence
Schadone, D-North Providence
Segal, D-Providence
Serpa, D-West Warwick
Shallcross Smith, D-Lincoln
Silva, D-Central Falls
Sullivan, D-Coventry
Trillo, R-Warwick
Ucci, D-Johnston
Vaudreuil, D-Cumberland
Walsh, D-Charlestown
Wasylyk, D-Providence
Williams, D-Providence
Williamson, D-Coventry
Winfield, D-Smithfield
Voting no
Baldelli-Hunt, D-Woonsocket
DaSilva, D-East Providence
Newberry, R-N. Smithfield
Pollard, D-Foster
Watson, R-East Greenwich
Did not vote
Azzinaro, D-Westerly
Lima, D-CranstonMurphy, D-West Warwick
SOURCE: House roll call
(The original version of this story was published at 5:35 pm. Wednesday.)
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