Progressive News, Opinion, and Analysis
ALEC is back in Rhode Island. Republican legislator Pat Morgan confirmed she’s a member of the American Legislative Exchange Committee, a business-backed bill mill that pairs corporate donors with state legislators. “I found it to be a really good group,” she told RI Future. ALEC’s website lists Morgan as the state director in Rhode Island. …
Continue reading “Pat Morgan is RI’s representative to ALEC”
Before the ink was dry on the highlights of the conference Transforming and Democratizing Public Education: An Activist Summit, Rhode Islanders concerned about the survival of public education were confronted with a threat from the General Assembly. Senate bill 607, benignly titled THE BRIGHT TODAY SCHOLARSHIP AND OPEN ENROLLMENT EDUCATION ACT, was heard in the …
Continue reading “School voucher bill wording lifted from ALEC model legislation”
Rhode Island is now an ALEC-free zone. When the year 2014 expired on December 31, so did Warwick Senator William Walaska’s membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council, a once-controversial right-wing bill mill that partnered corporate interests with state lawmakers to draft conservative model legislation to be shopped to Statehouses across the country. Walaska, a …
House Finance Committee Chairman Ray Gallison’s new bill to remove local control of minimum wage laws is akin to a corporate-funded effort across the country to suppress living wage protections. The tactic is known as passing “preemption laws” and it’s been tied back to the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, the right wing bill …
Continue reading “Preemptive laws against municipal minimum wages: ALEC idea”
Rhode Island may be down to just five card-carrying ALEC members left in the legislature, but the Ocean State is still doing an exemplary job of implementing ALEC’s agenda. A new report that links the American Legislative Exchange Council with the State Policy Network (which funds the RI Center for the Freedom and Prosperity) cites …
Continue reading “ALEC, SPN are batting .600 in Rhode Island”
There’s an ideological battle going on in the Ocean State concerning the new toll bridge connecting Tiverton to Aquidneck Island. But it isn’t between the left and the right. It’s between the right and itself. The rest of Rhode Island has moved on; the state said it won’t even collect the toll. But the same …
Continue reading “John Galt vs. ALEC in East Bay toll debate”
ALEC is still alive in the Ocean State. According to legislative records, there are five members of the House and one senator. Similarly, there are five Democrats and one Republican. Reps Sam Azzinaro (D-Westerly), Lisa Baldelli-Hunt (D-Woonsocket), Doreen Costa (R-North Kingstown), Jay Edwards (D-Tiverton, Portsmouth), Lisa Tomaso (D-Coventry) and Sen. William Walaska (D-Warwick) are all …
The pro-big business bill mill known as ALEC released a report this week that not only praises Gina Raimondo and local legislators for what they did to retirees in 2011, but also uses Raimondo’s Rhode Island model for why and how to downsize public sector pension plans. The new ALEC overview even uses Raimondo’s emotionally …
Rhode Island Education Commissioner Deborah Gist has sought several reform-oriented grants through a group closely connected with ALEC, according to the Washington Post. The Post reported Wednesday on the connection between Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change, a conservative education group of which Gist is a member, and the Foundation for Excellence in Education, which has …
Continue reading “Washington Post: Deborah Gist, Jeb Bush and ALEC”
Last year, there was a lot of talk here about ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. This corporate-backed “research” group produces model legislation for the states and recruits and promotes legislators who are likely to introduce it. It’s a pretty slick outfit, well-funded, with lots of opportunities for travel, and lots of opportunities to make …
Is the era of ALEC in the Ocean State coming to an end? It certainly looks like it. It may have seemed for a short while that 2012 was going to be a banner year for American Legislative Exchange Council here. Rep. Jon Brien, a Democrat and a member of the House leadership team, was …
It’s amazing some of the things we’re willing to believe … Jesus was born to a virgin, Thomas Jefferson thought all men were created equal, Reaganomics works and, the perhaps the biggest doozie of them all, that Rhode Island did its due diligence in assessing the 38 Studios deal. For anyone still hanging onto that …
Jon Brien recently announced that he would be running a write-in campaign to retain his seat in Rhode Island’s House of Representatives. At a press conference to announce the egotistical continuation of his campaign on September 20, Brien was surrounded by owners of local business including Pepin Lumber, The Burrito Company, and American Beauty Signworks. …
Continue reading “RI Small Businesses: Beware of ALEC’s Minions”
After reading about how ALEC could enter the education debate in Rhode Island, I read this headline with particular interest: “U.S. mayors back parents seizing control of schools.” Hundreds of mayors from across the United States this weekend called for new laws letting parents seize control of low-performing public schools and fire the teachers, oust …
Now that the American Legislative Exchange Council is distancing itself from Stand your Ground voter ID laws, the next area of policy we are likely to see it rear its ugly head might well be what is alternatively described as either the education reform movement or the education privatization movement – pick whichever monicker suits …
Continue reading “Coming Soon: ALEC Enters the Ed Reform Debate”
It turns out, now that CVS has dropped its membership with the American Legislative Exchange Council, there are no more Rhode Island corporations involved with the far right wing bill mill. GTech, the other Rhode Island company that was once an ALEC member, hasn’t paid membership dues since 2009, said Bob Vincent, a senior vice …
The Providence Journal describes the conditions of a Middletown group home for children that caused the state to inspect all of its 76 facilities around the state: “broken glass littering the floor, trash strewn in different rooms, and a foul odor in the air, according to the police report.” It might not be a story …
CVS, Rhode Island’s biggest local corporation, has dropped its membership with American Legislative Exchange Council, the controversial “right wing bill mill.” The Woonsocket-based company put out this statement today: “Over the last few weeks, we have closely followed the issues surrounding the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and have heard from numerous stakeholders expressing their …
I have to hand it to Rep. Jon Brien – while I think his politics are repugnant, he’s always a good sport about answering my questions when I ask him about either his involvement with ALEC or his decision to bring his community to brink of bankruptcy. So last week, when he asked if he …
Continue reading “Me, Jon Brien Talk ALEC, Woonsocket on WPRO”
While Rhode Island debates if ALEC has its hand in our local politics, a new report indicates the right wing group is at least happy with the results. In its 2012 annual “Rich State, Poor State report,” the American Legislative Exchange Council praises Rhode Island for its efforts to pare back public sector pension benefits …
Continue reading “ALEC Praises Rhode Island’s 2011 Pension Cuts”