Legislative Session Review: Rhode Island

The Rhode Island legislature closed out its legislative session on June 23 after Governor Gina Raimondo (D) signed a $9.6 billion budget, which included a late addition to allow sports betting in the state. Under the bill, the state will take 51 percent of sports betting profits, a larger share than fellow early adopters, Delaware and New Jersey. This projected revenue is earmarked to help fund a variety of measures that include raises for state employees and others in subsidized industries, such as home-care workers. The budget also provides for a November ballot measure that would allow the state to borrow $250 million to repair its aging public school buildings. The budget adds about $300 million in spending compared to last year’s plan.

Legislative Highlights

• Lawmakers failed to pass legislation aimed at punishing sexual harassment and reducing the wage gap, despite these issues being heavily scrutinized during the session.

• A spate of gun control bills met with mixed results. The legislature banned bump stock devices and provided for a “red flag” policy that allows law enforcement to request that certain people deemed dangerous be temporarily stripped of their guns. Conversely, legislation failed that would have banned assault weapons and high capacity magazines, banned guns in schools, and raised the required age to buy long guns.

• In January, Governor Raimondo proposed increasing the number of marijuana dispensaries in the state from three to 15. This plan did not come to fruition, but the assembly did approve a major increase in the medical marijuana dispensary licensing fee, raising the price from $5,000 to $250,000.

• Lawmakers strengthened the state’s film tax credit incentive in a late budget amendment. The move increases the percentage of production costs that film and TV producers can recoup and increases the maximum amount of funding that a production can receive.

Election Preview

Rhode Island voters will go to the election booths on November 6 to elect a governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor, all 38 state senate seats, and all 75 state house seats.

Governor Raimondo is favored to win reelection to her second term after taking office in 2015, but still must overcome major challenges. First, she faces a tough primary opponent in progressive former Secretary of State Matt Brown, who has attracted endorsements from former Governor Lincoln Chafee and famed feminist Gloria Steinem, among others. Brown has attacked Raimondo on issues ranging from state health plans to campaign donations and the state’s 2011 pensions overhaul, which she oversaw as the state treasurer at the time. The primary in Rhode Island is September 12.

On the Republican side, Cranston Mayor Allan Fung is expected to win the nomination over former State Senator Giovanni Feroce and State Representative Patricia Morgan. Raimondo narrowly defeated Fung in 2014, and polls released in March showed Fung running nearly even with Raimondo in a potential general election rematch, but a series of controversies in June has slowed his momentum.