On a mostly party-line 61-to-9 vote, the Rhode Island House of Representatives Thursday night approved a $13.6 billion budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
For the first time in decades, lawmakers did not face the task of wiping out a large deficit. Instead, federal COVID aid and better-than -expected revenue left the state brimming with cash.
The Democrats who control the General Assembly put some of that money into tax relief. They eliminated the car tax for most drivers a year ahead of schedule, introduced a one-time $250-per child tax credit for about 200,000 Rhode Islanders, and boosted a property tax cut for the elderly and disabled.
The new budget includes more money for education, housing and healthcare, including Medicaid, the program serving low-income individuals. State Rep. David Morales {D-Providence) said that shows Rhode Island is moving in the right direction.
“This budget truly attests and meets the healthcare needs of the people in our communities,” Morales said. “Gone are the days where we are struggling on whether or not there’s going to be Medicaid cuts in this respective budget. We are in a position and a step closer to achieving universal coverage for all working people, because healthcare is a human right.”
Rep. Marcia Ranglin-Vassell (D-Providence), who is not seeking re-election after three terms, said there were times when she felt like John the Baptist in the wilderness while advocating for the needy in budgets. This time around, she said, the needs of poor Rhode Islanders are being prominently addressed.
“I don’t take this for granted, because people that look like me don’t really take things for granted,” said Ranglin-Vassell, who is Black and still speaks with more than a hint of her native Jamaica. “And so Mr. Speaker and my worthy colleagues, I want to say thank you. Thank you on behalf of the children of our state. Thank you on behalf of the children, especially the children in the urban core.”
House Speaker Joe Shekarchi called the spending plan responsible and something that will help all Rhode Islanders.
“With this budget, we’re saying we hear Rhode Islanders when they say they can’t find housing they can afford and they are feeling the pinch of inflation,” he said. “We know that for a healthy, strong community, we need more funding for health care, mental health and social services. We understand that good education is the key to a strong future, and that kids need safe, healthy places to learn.”
The budget also includes $400 million in proposed borrowing that will be decided by voters in November: $250 million for school construction, $100 million for URI’s Narragansett Bay campus, and $50 million “green bond” to boost conservation, recreation and the education center at Roger Williams Park Zoo.
Republican lawmakers found a number of areas to criticize in the spending plan.
They attempted making a series of amendments, including one that would have taken money from a state film and TV tax credit to pay for a 90-day pause of the gas tax, but got outvoted every time.
“The notion that somehow we’re going to be broke if COVID comes back this year or next year, it’s folly,” GOP Leader Blake Filippi of New Shoreham said in arguing for the gas tax holiday. “It’s fiscal year ’25 monies we’re taking and we’re using it to put in people’s pockets who are suffering right now. Who’d ever thunk that we’d see $5 gallon of gas, and it all happened in a period of six months? People are suffering.”
Just one of 10 Republicans in the 75-member House, Rep. Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung of Cranston, voted for the budget.
Rep. Brian Newberry (R-North Smithfield) said the spending plan included a lot of things he likes. But he said he was voting no because the budget has gotten more opaque over time, with fewer articles and fewer specifics.
“I really don’t understand where a lot of this money is going,” Newberry said. “I know and I’m not saying this is improper, I know there’s a lot of negotiation that goes on between the House and the Senate, the Finance Committee and leadership. That’s part of politics. I’ve not been unprivy to that myself. But I think for public consumption we need to be better about how we’re spending money and explaining to people where it is.”
Democrats pushed back, saying spending is vetted by fiscal staff and through months of committee meetings.
Lawmakers made a series of changes to the $12.8 billion budget proposed by Gov. Dan McKee in January.
The budget moves to the state Senate next week, as lawmakers wind down the legislative session by passing hundreds of bills and head out in search of votes for re-election.
Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis@ripr.org. Follow him on Twitter @IanDon. Sign up here for his free weekly RI politics newsletter.
