General (Dis)Assembly: RI House and Senate to open session in remote locations
PROVIDENCE -- The 2021 Rhode Island legislative session opens Tuesday with COVID-19 still raging, vaccinations months away for much of the population and disruption still dominating almost every facet of life.
In a sign of the times:
They will instead meet, take their socially distanced oaths of office, and elect their leaders at
Temperatures will be taken at the door.
Among the first orders of business for the
Shekarchi will face a challenge from
Should he win, as expected, Shekarchi has asked newly retired
Among the issues this year:
Marijuana legalization, with once-resistant
Minimum nursing home staffing requirements, with a big push from the
The long-sought legislative signoff on a proposed 20-year, no-bid,
Education will also be a big issue. At this point, key lawmakers are more focused on the "diversion" of public dollars from traditional public schools to independently run charter schools than they are on the reasons behind the state takeover of
Then there's the big push from the left, and the state's powerful public employee unions, to raise income taxes on top earners in order to generate
Resistance is high in many circles to any tax hike to plug holes in a state budget that has grown from
But Senate Majority Leader
Gov.
Among State House leaders, Shekarchi alone is warning that could "scare [off] high net-worth people."
"One thing that the pandemic and COVID has taught us: It is very easy to work remotely," he said recently. "Are people going to take up residence in a [more] tax-friendly state?"
The looming fight has prompted the leader of
"I am not ready to say where or to what extent," said Senate Minority Leader
"Programs that work, let's continue to fund them ... especially programs that help the needy, help children, help the disabled, help the mentally ill.
"But there's programs that don't work,'' he said in a recent interview. "Do we continue to fund them?"
Nearly one out of every five legislators, 22 of 113, was not there last year, though a few are returning to seats they had held previously.
There will be eight new senators, all
In the House, there will be 12 new
Logistics for the 2021 legislative session remain a question mark.
How does a senator with more than one committee assignment race back and forth between the State House and the RIC campus? How does the public testify? How do lobbyists lobby?
"It's the new world we live in," mused veteran lobbyist
"Going up to the State House to [track] down the six legislators you may need to speak to ... has potentially been replaced with hanging out in the
"I say that half-joking, because that is where everybody will be ... [until] people start to feel a little bit more comfortable having cups of coffee."
Then, "cups of coffee. Phone calls. And Zoom. That's what lobbying looks like this year,'' he said.
The
The tab covers RIC security officers, "housekeeping," installation of audio-visual equipment and an air-filtration system, and
The state can cancel the lease with only 24 hours' notice. Until then, the projected monthly tab ranges from
The lease was still a work in progress on Thursday.
The leftward shift of the Assembly has placed organized labor's agenda at the heart of many anticipated 2021 debates.
For example, the
Raising the rate on earnings above
The
"This would put us in line with our neighbors," Nee said. "It is a fair way to do it, and people would know what's coming. I think it is time to make the move."
Among those working behind the scenes to make the case: the
The institute is also advocating an expansion of the taxpayer-subsidized
All take money, and the institute is among those backing a tax hike for the rich.
The state's business community will be running defense on several fronts.
"We will strongly oppose any changes to the personal income tax reforms" of a decade ago, said
The reforms were aimed, she said, at making sure
"The possibility that we could lose a congressional seat as a result of the
The chamber will also fight any attempt to expand the legal liability of businesses for workplace bullying, for example, or impose "unfair or unnecessary mandates,'' especially those that increase health-care costs or restrict data usage (so-called "data privacy" bills).
On the minimum-wage front, she said, the chamber will be arguing, as it has before, "for continued predictability ... in conjunction with phasing out the statutory requirement for Sunday and holiday premium pay."
A new item on the chamber's long action-list: "Support legislation that would make
Budget and taxes
State lawmakers were able to piece together a
Aside from the pandemic-specific expenses, it was a "status quo" budget in a year when revenues plummeted.
The prospects for the new budget year that begins on
Against this backdrop, Raimondo has said she can't rule anything out. She has until
Among the obvious options: raise a tax, stop the graduated elimination of another, or create a new source of revenue.
Car tax
With the defeat of then-Speaker Mattiello at the polls in November, the car-tax phaseout lost its biggest champion.
Does Shekarchi have the same determination to eliminate the tax, by reimbursing cities and towns for the lost local revenue?
"It's not a top, top priority for me, but I will tell you it is very popular among our caucus and my constituents in
The next scheduled cut in the car tax, for the fiscal year starting
Marijuana
The pandemic forestalled any serious debate over Raimondo's proposal last January to sell marijuana for recreational use at state-controlled stores.
She intends to try again in 2021.
"My view: it is only a matter of time," Raimondo told The Journal in mid-December. "I think we should do it. Yes, I support the state-run model because from all the work we have done it is the most controlled way to do it, arguably the safest, and the way to maximize state revenue."
What changed from
"Obviously, we have had another year to review the issue," McCaffrey said. "We are getting a lot of the sins from the legalizing of marijuana in
The sins he cited: addiction, people driving while high, and people becoming hospitalized on marijuana.
Shekarchi, yet to be convinced, has said he will create a marijuana task force.
The business community, meanwhile, is gearing up to defend the "rights of employers" and their ability to "set appropriate workplace guidelines."
Their ask: "Language that employers are not required to permit or accommodate the use, sale or possession of marijuana in the workplace and [have the right] to enforce policies restricting the use of marijuana by employees."
-- With reports from
This article originally appeared on
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