As
the French said years ago: The
more things change, the more
they stay the same. That applies
to the 2009-2010 Rhode Island
General Assembly. Even though
Senate President Montalbano left,
and Speaker Murphy stepped down,
the new leaders replacing them
gave OCG the same result: none
of OCG’s legislative priorities
passed.
The new leadership, just like
the old, also presided over a mad
rush to adjourn during the last
days of the session, amending and
passing many bills with minimal
opportunity for the public, or
even rank and file legislators,
to review or provide input.
The
biggest disappointment was the
Ethics reform bills (S2391
Lenihan, H7357 Fox) to allow voters
to re-establish Ethics Commission
conflict of interest oversight
over the General Assembly. Though
H7357 passed the House overwhelmingly,
67–5,
it, and S2391, both died in the
Senate Committee on Constitutional & Regulatory
Issues, chaired by Senator Goodwin.
Read more (place this full article
as a link)
The opposite happened with our
bills to put pro and con statements
in the Voter Handbook. The Senate
bill (S2456 O'Neill) passed the
Senate, but it, and the companion
House bill (H7815 Marcello) died
in the House Judiciary Committee,
chaired by Rep. Caprio.
Something similar happened to
our bills requiring posting Assembly
roll-call votes where (S2434 DiPalma)
passed the Senate, but died, along
with its companion bill (H7202
Ruggiero) in House Finance chaired
by Rep. Costantino.
Other bills OCG was interested
in never made it out of Committee.
They included:
• Bills for Inspector General (S2041
Raptakis, H7371 Ehrhardt);
•
Abolishing the Master "Lever" (S2310
Bates, H7482 Newberry);
•
Voter initiative and referendum
(S2097 & 2103 Cote, H7210 & 7212
Driver); and
• Campaign finance reform (S2454
Perry, H7446 Fierro)
We
also note that the "Deepwater" bills
(S2819 Sosnowski, H8083 O’Neill,P.)
to facilitate a demonstration off-shore
wind farm passed even though OCG
and many other good government
and environmental organizations
testified against it due to its
end-run around a decision by the
Public Utilities Commission (PUC),
an established regulatory agency.
As a result of many groups testifying
against the bill, a new bill was
introduced and passed that would
send it back to the PUC on an expedited
basis with a new set of guidelines
that pretty much guarantees passage
by the PUC; therefore, it is still
not acceptable to OCG.
OCG
thanks all the above sponsors.
We will try again, perhaps
with new leaders and committee
chairs
in the next Assembly. OCG members
with questions or concerns
about the legislative agenda
are welcome
to contact the OCG Legislative
Committee Chair Bev Clay at
info@ocrgi.org Link HERE for information about these
bills.
#
# #
