April 24, 2012 – RI Future

April 24, 2012March 21, 2014

More than 20% of General Assembly Involved with ALEC

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More than 20 percent of Rhode Island’s General Assembly is affiliated with ALEC, the right-wing group sponsored by corporate America that drafts model legislation for use at state houses across the country, according to a list provided by Rep. Jon Brien, the state chairman and a member of the group’s board of directors.

There are 24 legislators, half of whom are Democrats, associated with the conservative group that has come under fire as of late for sponsoring the Stand Your Ground law in Florida, voter ID efforts and other conservative initiatives. 11 of the members are from the Senate

Additionally, according to Brien, there are 14 former members of ALEC in the General Assembly, all of whom are Democrats, including some of the state’s most liberal legislators, such as Harold Metts, Josh Miller and Rhoda Perry. All of the former members are Senate Democrats

Here’s the list:

Current members

Sen. Dennis Algiere, R – Westerly (12/31/12)
Rep. Samuel Azzinaro, D – Westerly (12/31/13)
Rep. Lisa Baldelli-Hunt, D – Woonsocket (12/31/13)
Rep. Jon Brien, D – Woonsocket (12/31/12)
Rep. Doreen Costa, R – North Kingstown (12/31/13)
Rep. John Edwards, D – Tiverton (12/31/13)
Rep. Laurence Ehrhardt, R – North Kingstown (12/31/10)
Rep. Michael Marcello, D – Scituate (12/31/13)
Rep. Peter Martin, D – Newport (12/31/13)
Rep. Brian Newberry, R – North Smithfield (12/31/12)
Rep. Daniel Reilly, R – Portsmouth (12/31/13)
Rep. John Savage, R – East Providence (12/31/12)
Rep. Lisa Tomasso, D – Coventry (12/31/13)
Rep. Robert Watson, R – East Greenwich (12/31/12)
Sen. David Bates, R – Barrington (12/31/12)
Sen. Marc Cote, D – Woonsocket (12/31/12)
Sen. Walter Felag, D – Bristol (12/31/12)
Sen. Dawson Hodgson, R – North Kingstown (12/31/12)
Sen. Frank Lombardo, D – Johnston (12/31/12)
Sen. Francis Maher, R – Exeter (12/31/12)
Sen. Christopher Ottiano, R – Portsmouth (12/31/12)
Sen. Glenford Shibley, R – Coventry (12/31/12)
Sen. John Tassoni, D – Smithfield (12/31/12)
Sen. William Walaska, D – Warwick (12/31/12)

Past members

Sen. Daniel DaPonte, D – East Providence (12/31/10)
Sen. Louis DiPalma, D – Newport (12/31/10)
Sen. James Doyle, D – Pawtucket (12/31/10)
Sen. Paul Fogarty, D – Burrillville ( 12/31/10)
Sen. Hanna Gallo, D – Cranston (12/31/10)
Sen. Maryellen Goodwin, D – Providence (12/31/10)
Sen. Paul Jabour, D – Providence (12/31/10)
Sen. Beatrice Lanzi, D – Cranston (12/31/10)
Sen. Michael McCaffrey, D – Warwick (12/31/10)
Sen. Harold Metts, D – Providence (12/31/10)
Sen. Joshua Miller, D – Cranston (12/31/10)
Sen. Rhoda Perry, D – Providence (12/31/10)
Sen. Roger Picard, D – Woonsocket (12/31/10)
Sen. V. Susan Sosnowski, D – South Kingstown (12/31/10)

April 24, 2012April 24, 2012

ACLU Sues Over Wrongful Detention of US Citizen

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Ada Morales, of North Providence, is a US citizen. But twice she has been detained by law enforcement officials who didn’t realize she she had become naturalized in 1995.

In an effort to ensure the same thing doesn’t happen to her a third time – or someone else for the first time – the RI ACLU is suing state and federal officials saying they violated her constitutional rights.

Here’s the press release from the ACLU:

The ACLU today filed a lawsuit in federal district court on behalf of a North Providence resident who has twice been detained as a deportable “alien” even though she is a U.S. citizen. The lawsuit alleges that federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and Rhode Island officials often bypass Constitutional requirements and safeguards when they detain individuals on immigration grounds.

In May 2009, Ms. Ada Morales, who was born in Guatemala and who naturalized as a United States citizen in 1995, was taken into custody on unrelated criminal charges. While she was being held at the ACI, an ICE “immigration detainer” was lodged against her. Even though a judge ordered Ms. Morales released, the R.I. Department of Corrections held her in custody for an additional 24 hours because of the ICE detainer. “When I found out that I was being detained for immigration reasons, I was shocked,” said Ms. Morales. “I told the Rhode Island officials that I’m a U.S. citizen, and I offered to show them my naturalization certificate and passport, but no one would listen. They just assumed they could hold me because of my Guatemalan background and the color of my skin.” An ICE official later apologized to Ms. Morales for her wrongful detention, but acknowledged that it could happen again. In fact, she had been unlawfully detained in virtually identical circumstances once before, in 2004.

“Ms. Morales’s ordeal is another example of how ICE’s detainer practices lead to wrongful detention,” said Kate Desormeau, staff attorney at the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. “ICE has no business detaining U.S. citizens. Yet because of ICE’s practice of issuing detainers first and asking questions later, we’ve seen U.S. citizens unlawfully detained all across the country.” Rhode Island ACLU executive director Steven Brown added: “This case is an important reminder of the collateral damage that harsh immigration policies can cause, and provides a compelling reason why Rhode Island should not be in the business of assisting with federal immigration enforcement.”

An ICE detainer is a document that advises law enforcement officials that ICE may seek to take an individual into custody for deportation purposes once state or local custody ends. The suit alleges that ICE officials issue detainers “without a sufficient investigation to determine whether arrestees who are perceived to be ‘foreign’ (based on their place of birth, race or ethnicity, foreign-sounding last names, and/or English language ability) are in fact U.S. citizens.”

The suit also claims that ICE has been deliberately misleading about the legal effect of immigration detainers, prompting local and state officials to believe that they are required to continue holding individuals on the basis of detainers even though detainers are only requests that a person be held.

ICE agents and state and local officials typically treat a detainer as authorizing continued imprisonment, even if no state or federal charges are pending and no deportation proceedings have been brought. Unlike a criminal warrant, immigration detainers are issued by ICE itself, and are not based upon a probable cause determination by a neutral judicial officer.

The lawsuit claims that federal and state officials violated Ms. Morales’s constitutional rights to due process, equal protection of the laws, and freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, and seeks injunctive relief and damages for violation of her rights.

The suit is being handled by RI ACLU volunteer attorneys Mark Freel and Erika Lindberg from the law firm of Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP, and National ACLU attorneys Omar Jadwat and Kate Desormeau.

April 24, 2012February 19, 2015

Brien Joins ALEC Board as Group Comes Under Fire

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Conservative House Democrat Jon Brien of Woonsocket is not only a card carrying member of ALEC, the right wing group backed by some of America’s most powerful corporations that writes model legislation for use in statehouses around the country, but he’s also the lone Democrat on the group’s 17 member board of directors.

“I don’t feel it’s largely Republican but I think it’s a conservative group,” he said, noting that ALEC stands up for low taxes and free market policies which are also core values of his. “I’m a conservative, I make no bones about that.”

He added, “It’s a collaboration between business and legislators. It’s no different than a U.S. senator getting a donation from a corporation.”

Brien said he was just named to the group’s “governing body” in the past month. He said he was introduced to ALEC by former Woonsocket lawmaker and majority leader Jerry Martineau, a past state chair of ALEC who served jail time for political corruption for using his position in the General Assembly to curry business favors with CVS and Blue Cross.

“Jerry and I have always been friends,” Brien said. “I wanted to pick up that mantle.”

Brien will be attending ALEC’s spring task force meeting in Charlotte this May where, he said, “we’ll probably be talking about everything that is going on in the court of public opinion.”

ALEC, which has for years flown below the mainstream media’s radar, has been in the news of late for authoring the Stand Your Ground law in Florida that came under fire when it almost allowed George Zimmerman to go un-prosecuted for the killing of Trayvon Martin. Brien said last week ALEC decided to no longer work on non-economic policy after several large corporations dropped their membership

More recently, Common Cause has accused ALEC of tax evasion because the group is registered as an educational non-profit when it engages in lobbying efforts.

“It’s a corporate front group that is cheating the tax payers,” said John Marion, the executive director of Common Cause RI. Marion and Brien exchanged tweets on the issue yesterday afternoon. “They should own up to the fact that they are lobbyists and register as every other group has to do.”

Brien denied the allegations, saying ALEC has done nothing wrong with its taxes. He said Common Cause has targeted ALEC not because the group is flouting its tax obligation but because ALEC, like Brien, support Voter ID laws, which Common Cause works against.

“They can’t beat us legislatively, so they are coming after us in another way,” Brien said.”Do you think Common Cause is mad about taxes or because we are beating them on Voter ID?”

While he referred to himself as the “godfather of Voter ID in Rhode Island,” he said he did not use the ALEC model bill for Voter ID. He said he has never proposed an ALEC model bill in the House but he often proposes legislative issues that are also near and dear to ALEC such as anti-tax bills, education reform efforts and others.

Brien said since becoming the state co-chair of ALEC he has signed up some 10 new members from the legislature. He named Reps. Lisa Baldelli-Hunt, Dan Reilly, Doreen Costa, Lisa Tomasso, and Samuel Azzinaro. He said he hopes many of them join him at the annual meeting this August in Salt Lake City.

At that meeting, he will appoint Rhode Island legislators to ALEC task forces. The task forces, he said, pairs legislative members with corporate sponsors to hammer out new model legislation.

April 24, 2012April 24, 2012

RI Progress Report: Primary, Busy Day at State House

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Polls are open today in Rhode Island, and even though it’s still not yet 6 a.m. we’re going to go out on a limb and call the primary for Obama. If you need a hand figuring out which delegates to support for the Democratic Convention, see our endorsements here. But it’s also a hugely busy day at the State House.

The House Finance Committee will take up the controversial tax equity bill that would raise income taxes for Rhode Island’s richest residents. And Rhode Island’s environmental coalition will hear from Gov. Chafee in the rotunda this afternoon before it unveils its 2012 legislative agenda, expected to include transportation funding, voter referendums for open space and clean water and a better way to discard of garbage.

Additionally, two House members from very different sides of the aisle will have their very different bills on in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants heard in committee at 1 p.m. Rep. Grace Diaz’ bill will codify into legislation the decision made by the Board of Governors for Higher Education last year allowing anyone who finished three years of high school in RI to qualify for in-state tuition “regardless of immigration status.” And Rep. Doreen Costa’s bill would “prohibit anyone who cannot prove U.S. citizenship or permanent residency from receiving in-state tuition rates and fees at public higher education institutions.”

Providence Mayor Angel Taveras unveiled his budget proposal last night, which could help right the fiscal ship in the Capital City. But it’s contingent on some factors beyond the city’s control, such as the outcome of the inevitable lawsuit over his pension reform efforts. Here’s the brief that appears in today’s New York Times.

Conservatives like to defend Citizens United by claiming that it gives liberal groups the right to raise unlimited campaign money as well, which is true but irrelevant since the majority of big time donors support the GOP. In fact, 8 of the ten biggest Super PACS support Republicans.

California will vote on banning the death penalty this November. Too bad a plurality of executions in the US take place in Texas.

Had Rhode Island partnered with instead of fighting the Narragansett Indian Tribe, the state would have been well ahead of the regional casino trend rather than well behind it. Can’t blame the Narragansetts for suing us.

This page may be updated throughout the day. Click HERE for an archive of the RI Progress Report.

April 24, 2012April 24, 2012

Tax Equity Bill Before House Finance Commitee

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rite rally — Sen. Josh Miller and Rep. Maria Cimini, sponsors of a bill that would raise taxes on the richest 2 percent of Rhode Islanders.

The tax equity legislation will get a public debate at the State House today as Rep. Maria Cimini’s bill that would raise income taxes on Rhode Island’s richest until the unemployment rate drops will be heard by the House Finance Committee tonight after the regular session.

“I’m looking forward to making a the case for a fair ways to raise revenue,” Cimini said. “We are at a crossroads. Either we are a state that fulfills its public needs or we are not.”

The bill would raise the income tax rate on those who earn more than $250,000 a year from 5.9 to 9.9 percent and for each percentage point the state unemployment rate fell that tax bracket would reduce by one percent until it reaches 5.9 again. The tax rate for those who earned more than $100,000 was 9.9 until it began gradually being reduced over the past several years. The bill would add $131 million in new revenue.

Also testifying tomorrow will be economist Chuck Collins, a “senior scholar” with the Institute for Policy Studies, as well as several others.

Rhode Islanders for Tax Equity, a coalition of unions and other grassroots activists formed to support the bill, “plan to ask legislators whose side they are on–the side of hard-working, middle class Rhode Islanders or the side of political insiders and wealthy Rhode Islanders? Citing a stubbornly high unemployment rate that coincides with the lowering of tax rates on the rich,” according to a statement.

Earlier this session, the group released this chart that shows that as the tax rate for the richest Rhode Islanders has dropped the unemployment rat has gone up:

And this video showing how decreased top income tax rates have contributed to Rhode Island’s economic slowdown:

Cimini said she doesn’t think the bill will pass as is, but remains “cautiously optimistic” that parts of it will make this year’s budget proposal. She plans to meet with Speaker Gordon Fox about the bill in the near future, she said.

Occupy Providence plans to rally outside the State House to help bring attention to the bill. According to a press release, “The march will show how Rhode Islanders are fed up with politicians damaging our economy by giving tax breaks to the rich.”

April 24, 2012April 24, 2012

Budgeting for Disaster: Taxing History

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Is it really too soon to modify our tax code?

In the discussions of taxes at the State House, one line you hear a lot this year is that our state’s new income tax code is new and we should give it time to see how it works out. That’s what House Speaker Gordon Fox has said, and I’m hearing that it’s the line of the day on Smith Hill, available from any of the House or Senate leadership.

This is, of course, a silly point to make. The tax changes made last year basically just baked in the low taxes on rich people offered by the “flat tax” alternative. It used to be that a rich person could choose whether to pay tax under the tax code everyone else uses or using the flat tax limit, and now the flat tax limit is part of the code everyone else uses. This part may be new, but the overall “strategy” at issue — lower taxes on rich people, expect economy to get better — has been the order of the day in Rhode Island for a long time. To illustrate what’s really been going on in Rhode Island tax policy, I put together the following graph.

The blue line is the effective RI income tax rate on a fairly typical taxpayer in the top 1% over the last 16 years, with the various cuts that taxpayer has received indicated. These cuts don’t count tax credits like the film production or historic structures credits, which are typically only available to high-income individuals and which make the effective rate even lower. The black line indicates the effective tax rate on the median taxpayer (the 50th percentile). You can see a slight decline in the 1997-2002 period, but the other changes didn’t do much of anything for them.

The unemployment rate, of course, has nothing to do with the tax rate, except as a rhetorical club used to beat people about the head and neck. There is no evidence that it has any causal relationship with the state tax rate (in either direction), but the relationship between taxes and “job creators” is commonly invoked to persuade lawmakers to support lower taxes. I’ve included the unemployment rate on the graph as a service, so you can see how little is has to do with the movement of taxes.

One more thing you should know about this graph. There is some evidence available that the 2012 tax changes raised taxes substantially on the middle percentiles of taxpayers. Unfortunately, it’s premature to say more than that, since the data won’t be available until later this year, at the earliest.

The House Finance Committee is holding a hearing on several bills designed to raise taxes on the top 1% Tuesday afternoon at 4:30pm in State House room 35. Rep. Maria Cimini (D-Providence) is the prime sponsor (with 36 co-sponsors) of a bill to raise the taxes on people earning more than $250,000 per year by four percentage points, with that top rate coming down as the unemployment rate also goes down. Think of it as a “pay for performance” clause for rich people. There are also bills by Rep. Larry Valencia (D-Charlestown, Exeter, Richmond) and Scott Guthrie (D-Coventry) that will have more or less the same effect, though the income limits and tax changes are slightly different (neither of those bills have the unemployment clause).