Sales tax elimination: intriguing idea but bogus economics
The RI Center for Freedom and Prosperity, whose funding sources I look into here, has a so-called “prosperity agenda” that calls for elimination of the sales tax. At first glance this would appear to be a reasonable direction to move our State. It is no secret the sales tax is one of the most regressive [...]
Bill sponsor Malik more unbiased than WPRO news
Here’s an interesting instance of media bias: a WPRO preview story on a proposal to eliminate the state sales tax was less balanced than an op/ed in the Fall River Herald News written by the bill’s sponsor, Jan Malik. The WPRO report uses an interview between conservative talk show host Matt Allen, a supporter of [...]
License plate legislation aids anti-choice efforts
In the battle over marriage equality in Rhode Island, one of the most vocal groups in opposition to full civil rights for the LGBTQ community was the Knights of Columbus (KoC), a Roman “Catholic fraternal service organization.” The KoC is one of the major, if not the major contributor to the National Organization for Marriage [...]
The Morning After
It seems fitting that the Providence Journal editorialized in support of making Plan B, the emergency contraceptive drug, over the counter the very morning after Rhode Island’s annual abortion restriction hearing in the State House. Over sixty supporters came out in waves of pink to support the work of the RI Coalition for Reproductive Justice and [...]
End the era of Citizens United in Rhode Island
Tonight, I will deliver this testimony to the House Judiciary Committee: . . . corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their ‘personhood’ often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members [...]
House Finance will hear tax equity bills today
The powerful House Finance Committee will hear two bills on income tax equity today. One sponsored by Rep. Maria Cimini of Providence would raise income taxes on the richest Rhode Islanders by 2 percent and would mean $60 million for the state. The other, sponsored by Rep. Larry Valencia, who represents Exeter, Hopkinton and Richmond, [...]
Keep abortion restrictions out of Rhode Island
The same radical anti-abortion agenda coming out of state legislatures from Arkansas to North Dakota is headed straight for Rhode Island. Today 5 dangerous abortion restriction bills will be heard at the State House that would work to insert politicians between a woman and her doctor – and would bring the same extreme legislation that [...]
Rep. Valencia continues push for tax equity
Rep. Larry Valencia is charging hard at injustice and promoting progressive values in the General Assembly. This Democrat serving Hopkinton, Exeter, and Richmond voted ‘Yea’ on marriage equality, is a cosponsor of the marijuana legalization bill, the lead sponsor of the repeal of Voter ID, cosponsors Rep. Maria Cimini’s Tax Equity bill, and has also [...]
Environmental advocates take to the State House
Each year, the Environment Council of Rhode Island (ECRI) holds a legislative lobby day allowing everyday folks who care about the environment to lobby their legislators to protect laws that protect our environment and voice opposition to bills that they see as detrimental to the first resort’s ecosystems. The Environment Council of Rhode Island was [...]
Marriage equality: this is it!
Thousands of letters, tens of thousands of phone calls to legislators, and countless hours of hard work have all led up to this moment. After yesterday’s 7-4 vote in the Judiciary Committee, S-38, the bill that finally extends the freedom to marry to all loving and committed couples, will be voted on today by the [...]
Rhode Island will win marriage equality today
Rhode Island will remove the last obstacle standing in the way of marriage equality today when the full Senate votes today at 4 p.m. If I’m right, we’ll become the 10th state in the nation – but the last in New England – to abolish same sex marriage discrimination. “We think that when the vote [...]
Cynicism warps view of Senate GOP’s SSM support
Last night a lengthy Twitter discussion erupted about the Senate Republican Caucus unanimously supporting marriage equality which is a first among legislative caucuses; according to the Human Rights Campaign. It was about as substantive as one can be with 140 characters, including people’s handles. Mainly, it sought to suss out the reason why the Senate [...]
Silent spending
Tax breaks, or expenditures, are the entitlement programs that nobody seems to complain about. Though maybe we should, given they cost Rhode Island more than $1.7 billion a year in 2009. That same year the state took in just over $3 billion. In other words, we gave away more than half as much as we [...]
Committee moves marriage equality to full Senate
The Senate Judiciary Committee made history today with the passage of two bills regarding same sex marriage, and the defeat of a bill that would have put the question of marriage equality to a ballot vote in 2014. In a vote of 7-to-4, the committee passed SB 38, which redefines marriage as a union of [...]
Also at the State House today: tax equity event
What’s an understaffed progressive news website to do? There’s marriage equality in the Senate Judiciary Committee, marijuana legalization at Brown and – rounding out the trifecta of local progressive issues – a briefing on a bill that would tax the rich in room 211 of the State House. Tax equity advocates, including labor leaders, municipal [...]
Labor Vision on marriage equality
To get ready for the big marriage vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday watch this great Labor Vision (for which I am a sometime contributor!) segment on why local labor unions are working so hard get same sex marriage passed this year. Jim Parisi, of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health [...]
What’s really wrong with the master lever
Bob Plain has spent a lot of time in a back and forth with Ken Block about the issue of eliminating the straight-party option (a.k.a. master lever), even bringing in Speaker Gordon Fox to defend its place on the ballot. I’d like to move the debate away from questions of political motivation and toward some [...]
State Bank Idea Is Back (As A Bill This Time)
Kim Kalunian writes that Rep. Charlene Lima has introduced legislation, at the request of Keven McKenna, to create a state-owned bank in Rhode Island – a movement that is gaining traction across the country. The bill states that the purpose of the bank would be “to protect the financial welfare and economic vitality of the [...]
Lima, MacBeth Suggest Not Paying 38 Studios Bonds
The House Finance Committee heard several bills yesterday concerning the operation of the RI Economic Development Corporation (EDC) in the wake of last years 38 Studios fiasco, including two bills that would prohibit the state or the EDC from making payments to the bondholders of the failed video game company. The bills, H5639 and H5888, [...]
Rhode Island Women Still Fighting For Equal Pay
When it comes to wages, there’s still a gender gap in Rhode Island. According to a new report from the Women’s Fund of RI, the median weekly income for a woman in Rhode Island in 2011 was $746, while men earned $917. The disparity happens in wage growth as well. Increase in median wage for [...]
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