On a busy legislature docket, where do iGaming, police reform, and other big issues stand?
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PROVIDENCE — With Gov. Dan McKee out of town on a week-long holiday – and legislative budget writers squirreled away in a bunker to craft their version of the governor's proposed $14-billion tax-and-spending plan – the Rhode Island legislature has entered a busy lull.
It's not that nothing is happening.
A lot is happening, just not the kind of action that indicates all the deals have been made, the thornier issues settled and that all the votes needed to pass a new state budget have been secured.
Where do some of the bigger issues stand?
House Democrats gathered behind closed doors for the first time since the start of the session to voice their top priorities for the session's few remaining weeks.
House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi said afterwards that much of the discussion centered on the budget, with "staffing" at "understaffed" state agencies being a top issue, along with the tax cuts McKee has proposed: "How valuable they are, how effective they will be."
While McKee has proposed dropping the 7% sales tax to 6.85%, delaying a scheduled gas tax hike and providing other dollops of relief, Rep. Teresa Tanzi handed The Journal her progressive wish list as she emerged from the caucus and it included: "Pension COLAs...School meals...Bridge funding...NO TAX Cuts!"
Asked the prospects for McKee's tax package, Shekarchi said: "Everything is on the table, literally."
And a pension boost for retired public employees? "I will say that they're very sympathetic...to the financial situation of the people who don't have COLAs anymore."
Meanwhile, in another corner of the State House, advocates gathered to press for action on their own priority – "child lead poisoning prevention" – and more specifically, a package that includes bills allowing tenants to pay their rent into an escrow account when there are unaddressed lead hazards in their homes, and recover treble damages from landlords.
"Tenants deserve to know the hazards that may exist in their homes … and to have those hazards addressed. Landlords must be held accountable," said Sen. Dawn Euer, in remarks prepared for delivery.
"We know that this is not just a health issue, but an equity issue … because urban areas like my city of Newport … and communities that have been historically marginalized and left behind … are the most affected."
As this busy Tuesday unfolded:
The Senate confirmed Richard Charest – the former Landmark Medical Center CEO who has run the state's own hospital agency the last two years – as the new head of the sprawling $3.6-billion super-agency known as the "Executive Office of Health & Human Services." The vote was 36-1, with Sen. Sam Bell casting the only dissenting vote.
(On the morning of his confirmation vote, the state agency he currently heads − the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals − announced that the stand-alone psychiatric wing created on his watch has just won accreditation. )
A Senate committee approved a bill championed by a top McKee aide, Matt Sheaff, to require insurance coverage for pre-exposure (PrEP) and post-exposure (PEP) medications to prevent HIV infection. The full House approved legislation to require health insurers cover the full cost of life-saving epinephrine injectors, commonly known by the brand name EpiPen.
The full Senate approved legislation to give McKee the power to raise the flat $130,503 salary paid the director of the state's long-troubled Department of Children, Youth & Families to some level he has been unwilling to disclose since withdrawing an earlier $162,500 proposal and hiring the newly confirmed Ashley Deckert as the state's new DCYF director.
More: RI state-covered abortion is signed into law by Gov. McKee, Here's what the bills will do
LEOBOR reform also on the docket
Senators will hold their own hearings on bills to repeal-or-reform the state's Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights (LEOBOR) that appear to have their best chance of passage, in some form, than they've had in years following two high-profile cases that rattled the public psyche.
Over on the House side, the teen driver shot and wounded by an off-duty Pawtucket police officer, his mother and his aunt begged the lawmakers to repeal the long-controversial law that enables police to fight efforts to fire them for years and, in this particular case, collect $123,934 in back pay.
During an earlier hearing at the State House, Vincent's mother pleaded with the lawmakers to "tell my son he matters – tell my son his life matters."
"We all agree that changes are coming and changes need to be done to LEOBOR," Michael Imondi, president of the Providence police union, told the lawmakers.
But, "to what degree is reasonable?" he asked.
"Keep in mind that ... most of our decisions are split second decisions made on the fly ... [You] may make a wrong decision ... but was the intent of the action malicious ... or was it done out of good faith, thinking you were doing the right thing at the time?"
The House has not been the obstacle to past efforts. "I support reforming LEOBOR and will continue to work with the House sponsors, the Senate and stakeholders to reach consensus on a bill that will pass both chambers and be signed by the Governor," Shekarchi said Tuesday.
Now it's the Senate's turn to hear the opposing sides.
iGaming, bioscience also get hearings
The House Finance Committee was poised to hold hearings on House versions of Senate President Dominick Ruggerio's bill to introduce iGaming to Rhode Island, which has already run up against concerns, and Shekarchi's bill to create a new quasi-state agency to promote and invest in the biotechnology industry.
Shekarchi's bill is so high on his own list of priorities he is expected to testify on it – in person.
His goal: to "facilitate the development of medical advances and scientific breakthroughs" by forming a new group that would "fund and incubate Rhode Island-based life science companies" with grants, loans and other incentives.
Funding for the new agency isn't specified in the legislation, but McKee included $45 million for life sciences investment in his state budget proposal for next year.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: iGaming, RI police reform, HIV prevention all heard by RI lawmakers
