Kathleen Decker announced her candidacy for State Representative today in House District 25 – Coventry/West Warwick.
“I’m running for State Representative because our government is not working for us,” said Decker, who works as classroom support staff at the Community College of Rhode Island Campus in Providence. “Every year, our politicians keep getting arrested, our schools are a mess, and taxes for the rich continue to go down while our taxes keep going up. The way things are being run just isn’t working anymore.”
Decker, continued, “We need people in government who care. Who understand what the people of our state are going through. I know what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck, work hard every day, and feel like you’re never going to be able to get ahead and that’s why I’m running. I’m running to make sure that working people like us have a fair shot.”
“In order to make change, we need to bring someone in who puts the people first. Someone who won’t ignore our seniors and those with disabilities. That won’t neglect those suffering from mental illness”
Decker believes the current representative is apathetic at best, “He just doesn’t get it. He doesn’t understand what we’re going through, and hasn’t worked to help us. He focuses on making sure those that are already doing well just get more and more. He focuses on corporate welfare when we should be focused on how families can get food on their table. He focuses on insider politics and lobbyists when he should be focused on us.”
Kathleen lives on Riverdale Ave in West Warwick. Kathleen was raised in Warwick by her mother, Joanne. She graduated from Pilgrim High School in 2002 and the New England Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in Digital Recording Arts in 2011. Decker was also a dedicated Local 251 teamster member for almost nine years while working at Rhode Island Hospital as a Sterile Processing Technician.
[From a press release]
Republican Representatives Patricia Morgan and Dan Reilly have been making a major push to stop the truck tolls in the RhodeWorks proposal. With great vigor, they have branded their efforts as anti-toll, specifically making the argument that the truck tolls are a step on the way to car tolls. Yet despite their stated opposition to tolls, Morgan and Reilly have signed onto a bill that would drastically expand tolls in Rhode Island.
The bill, which is sponsored by conservative Democrat Jared Nunes, creates a special board with the power to privatize any transportation project, allowing private corporations to levy unrestricted tolls on Rhode Island road users. Under the proposal, private corporations could approach the privatization board, and the board could approve privatization with tolls without any required legislative approval. (The bill does provide for entirely optional legislative review.) The language in the legislation is extremely broad, allowing a wide array of potential tolling schemes, including tolls on passenger cars.
As part of the Republican Policy Group’s campaign against RhodeWorks, Morgan and Reilly supported an alternate proposal without tolls. Controversially, their plan did not specify where all the money would come from. At the heart of their proposal was redirecting DMV revenue, money that has already been spoken for in the state budget. (This redirecting revenue tactic is not unique to the GOP. During her campaign, Gina Raimondo proposed paying for school construction by redirecting sales tax revenue that was already being used in the budget.) Despite this, the Republican Policy Group’s anti-toll plan became a major initiative of Morgan, Reilly, and other Republican representatives.
Privatizing roads and bridges to let private corporations charge tolls is a popular policy idea among Republicans across the country. In Indiana, for instance, Republican Governor Mitch Daniels successfully championed a plan to sell off the right to toll Interstate 90 to a foreign corporation, saying, “You’re either for this bill, or you’re against our future.” (Later, the plan went bankrupt.)
]]>
How does bad legislation pass the General Assembly?
With laughter.
“I’m not going to say it’s a good bill, but I move passage,” said Representative Joseph Shekarchi about the Plumber’s Continuing Education Bill. The bill, which mandates continuing education for plumbers unless the plumber’s age and experience add up to 80 or more, went on to pass the House 59-10. On July 15 the bill became law without Governor Gina Raimondo‘s signature. She didn’t veto the legislation, but she wasn’t about to add her name to it.
Representative Jared Nunes rose to oppose the bill, calling it, “really poor public policy,” before adding, “you almost have to be a mathematician to figure out if you can be a plumber or not.”
Featuring Representatives Nicholas Mattiello, Joseph Shekarchi, Jared Nunes, Joseph Trillo and Stephen Ucci.
Here it is, no editing required: