6 takeaways from RI Gov. Dan McKee's State of the State address Tuesday night

Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee gave his third State of the State speech Tuesday. It clocked in at around 45 minutes. Here are the top six things we noticed:

No fiscal storm clouds, unlike Mass.

While General Assembly leaders, spending watchdogs and leaders in other states warn of budget belt-tightening ahead, McKee painted a sunny picture of Rhode Island's finances Tuesday and highlighted all the areas he wants to invest in.

From new spending on housing and health care to a tax cut for retirees and a push to build a new state archives building, McKee's speech didn't include any talk of pulling back, even in areas like pandemic-era aid for school districts that have lost students or payments to health care providers.

His message was a world apart from the outlook across the border in Massachusetts, where Gov. Maura Healey recently identified a $1-billion revenue gap and said budget cuts would be "the new normal."

In fact, McKee appeared to lob a gentle dig at Rhode Island's richer neighbor to the north, noting that "we won't be forced to revise our budget like other states are and make midyear cuts."

You had to focus on what wasn't mentioned to see some of the tough choices ahead.

There was no mention of his signature proposal from last year to cut the state sales tax.

No mention of funding to replace the Garrahy Judicial Center in Providence.

No mention of what to do with the vacant Cranston Street Armory.

No mention of the cash-strapped Rhode Island Public Transit Authority.

Biggest applause lines

Who says you can't be famous just for showing up.

The loudest cheers of the night were directed at three Rhode Island students recognized by McKee for turning around poor attendance records: Alejandro Uz, a second-grader at Webster Elementary School in Providence, Bella Vasquez, a junior at Nowell Academy, and Alondra Santos Godinez, a senior at Central Falls High School. (Combatting chronic school absenteeism is one of McKee's top priorities.)

The second loudest applause in the chamber probably went to a group of workers who helped take down the Independent Man statue for repairs.

As far as issues are concerned, the crowd dominated by Democratic General Assembly members was enthusiastic, although not uniformly so, about McKee's call for an assault-weapons ban.

Not clear – yet – what will drive plan to boost residents' wealth

McKee on Tuesday promised to do for Rhode Islanders' paychecks what he vowed to do for student test scores last year: raise them.

Specifically, McKee promised to raise per-capita income in Rhode Island by $20,000 by 2030. (That would be his last year in office if he wins reelection in 2026.)

Rhode Island's per-capita personal income was $63,557 in 2022, compared with $84,561 in Massachusetts and $82,938 in Connecticut.

Details on how McKee intends to raise incomes will come within 100 days, he said; there were only hints in the speech.

McKee clearly sees the new biotech hub being established in Providence as a driver of income growth, and building a new life sciences school at the University of Rhode Island and a cybersecurity center at Rhode Island College helping that effort.

Whether there is more to McKee's plan is unknown.

A lack of specificity around how he planned to improve Rhode Island schools was the loudest criticism of his education plan, which in many ways remains aspirational.

Rhode Islanders will be watching to see if his income-raising plan is similar.

Get ready for more housing money

A big chunk of the $321 million budgeted for housing programs over the last two years has yet to be spent, but McKee is calling for more to help solve the state's ongoing affordability crisis.

McKee had already said he intends to ask voters to approve more borrowing for housing programs in November, but on Tuesday he confirmed that he wants to make it the largest housing bond ever at $100 million.

$100 million was the amount state Housing Secretary Stefan Pryor recommended based on what fiscal analysts estimated could fit within the state's borrowing capacity.

If it passes, expect the bond to include funding for first-time homebuyer down-payment assistance, more money to help finance privately owned low-income housing and, maybe, seed money for a publicly owned state housing developer.

The speaker's view

Keeping with the basketball theme he laid out by comparing Rhode Island to an underdog youth team he once coached, McKee gave House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi a copy of the late UCLA coach John Wooden's biography as left the rostrum.

Does Shekarchi, who has warned of a more difficult budget picture, think the state can afford everything in McKee's speech?

"I think it is certainly within an affordable range," he told reporters after the speech. "Look, that's his job is to be optimistic. That's what a governor does in a State of the State. You highlight all the achievements that we've had in the past and you look forward. It's a very forward, forward-looking statement."

'Do the work' does a lot of work

McKee's basketball background makes it no surprise when his speeches grab the spirit of a good locker room pep talk.

But the themes of elevating the downcast and uplifting the underappreciated in McKee's speech went beyond the sports analogies.

He used some variation on the phrase "do the work," a phrase that has become associated with self help and therapy, nine times in the speech, according to prepared remarks.

Among those credited with doing the work: all 39 cities and towns, the state's education bureaucracy, a still-to-be-formed health care working group, the Department of Transportation, offshore wind workers, State Film Office chief Steve Feinberg, state facilities managers who worked on the Independent Man and "people across Rhode Island."

A few years ago, the phrase "do the work" carried social-justice overtones, but has more recently been described as "therapy-speak" exported from the psychologist's couch into popular culture.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI's State of the State: Here's you should know about McKee's plan