Budget recap, ethics, and baseball
After last week’s budget battle, it is good to see some positive coverage. Jim Baron, who many forget writes not just for the Pawtucket Times, but also for the Woonsocket Call, has a wrap up:
I, and, I believe, many supporters of good and open government would call it a good start.
Rank and file House members, many of them Democrats and a significant number of freshmen stood up and said “No” to the supplemental budget as proposed, and made the leadership change it to allocate more money for cities and towns. For that they should be congratulated and rewarded.
The dissidents not only did something that isn’t done very often — challenging a budget once it has left House Finance — they did something even rarer: they won.
Scott MacKay, former political writer for the Providence Journal, also dishes it in his blog for WRNI Radio:
Just when you thought nothing much ever changes at the Rhode Island State House, along comes a group of Democratic legislators flexing their muscles and defying the House leadership. This group of pragmatic liberals may have more influence as the state struggles to fashion a spending and taxing plan for then next year.
I’ll be the first to admit that my role in the budget debate was a minor one, but I am proud to have weighed in and helped to shift the agenda away from cutting aid to the City of Woonsocket, as well as nursing homes and Landmark Medical Center.
And finally, for those of you following the potential gutting of the RI Ethics Board, I am happy that today’s ProJo Political Scene blog covers the work that is going on towards bolstering the ethics board:
In the interim, Representatives David Segal and Edith Ajello, both Providence Democrats; and Rodney Driver, D-Richmond, Christopher Fierro, D-Woonsocket, and Brian Newberry, R-North Smithfield, have introduced a bill to give voters a chance to amend the state Constitution to remove any doubt the state Ethics Code applies to “all elected and appointed officials and employees of state and local government.”
That’s it for now. I’m a little disappointed in the weather and the delay of opening day, but am happy to report that my son, Vincenzo, is ready:
Vincenzo, Ready for Opening Day
