Pubdate: Sun, 03 Jul 2005
Source: Providence Journal, The ( RI )
Copyright: 2005 The Providence Journal Company
Contact:  http://www.projo.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/352
Author: Liz Anderson, Scott Mayerowitz, and Katherine Gregg, Journal 
State House Bureau
Bookmark: 
http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm ( 
Cannabis - Medicinal )

OFFICIALS PROUD OF 'PENSION REFORM'

The regular session is over.  But the General Assembly could be 
called back to vote on several gambling matters.

PROVIDENCE -- The General Assembly headed into the start of a summer 
recess just before 1:30 a.m.  yesterday, finishing a session that may 
well be known as the year officials agreed to overhaul the state's 
public-employee pension system.

Other notable votes this year by lawmakers included the approval of 
medical marijuana, new regulations to oversee the finances of nursing 
homes, and the resurrection of a planned phase-out of the state's 
much-hated car tax.

The year started out with questions over a divided House, split among 
Republicans, dissident Democrats, and those loyal to House Speaker 
William J.  Murphy, D-West Warwick.

But until its final, testy hours, there was little of the infighting 
that marked the previous year.  And there were frequent proclamations 
of harmony after the agreement between Republican Governor Carcieri, 
Murphy and Senate President Joseph A.  Montalbano, D-North 
Providence, on the state's $6.35-billion budget for the fiscal year 
that began Friday.

The centerpiece -- and most debated section -- of the budget was what 
Carcieri and lawmakers dubbed "pension reform."

Carcieri and General Treasurer Paul J.  Tavares both introduced plans 
to trim mounting costs.  In the end, the Assembly adopted most of 
Carcieri's plan, incorporating some of Tavares' ideas and adding some 
tweaks of its own.

The lawmakers instituted a minimum retirement age for the first time 
since 1984; placed new curbs on the 3-percent, compounded 
cost-of-living increases that state retirees get now; and reduced the 
dollar value of each year of work in such a way that the maximum 
benefit goes from 80 percent after 35 years, to 75 percent after 38.

The changes apply only to new teachers and state workers and those 
with fewer than the 10 years needed to be vested in the system, a 
group that includes about 4,300 state workers and about 7,000 
teachers.  The changes are estimated to save the state $25.5 million 
this year and local school districts another $18.5 million.

UNION LEADERS were deeply unhappy.  But Montalbano said legislative 
leaders took "painstaking efforts to blunt the effect of pension reform."

"Unfortunately there was pain in this budget, and it did fall on 
their members, and I did have sympathy for that," he said.

"But we all made a commitment -- the governor, the House and the 
Senate -- on serious pension reform, and I don't think there is 
anyone who will analyze it that won't say that was a serious 
addressing of the issue."

ANOTHER NOTEWORTHY piece of the budget raised the exemption on the 
state's motor vehicle excise tax from the first $4,500 of a vehicle's 
value to the first $5,000.

The change, the first in three years, will result in lower car-tax 
bills for residents around the state; the savings range from $4.88 
per car in New Shoreham to $38.39 per car in Providence.

Carcieri has wielded his veto pen against a number of high-profile 
measures, including the marijuana bill, which has already faced a 
successful veto override in the Senate and is expected to be taken up 
for an override vote in the House.

If the override succeeds there, Rhode Island would become the 11th 
state in the nation to enact protections for people who use the drug 
to treat symptoms of serious illness.

The governor also rejected a much-debated proposal to allow 
home-based childcare providers to unionize and force the state to 
negotiate with them over their work terms.  That bill, passed by a 
closer margin in both chambers, faces a more uncertain future.

Lawmakers must also decide whether to take an override vote on the 
governor's veto of a bill that would have raised the state's minimum 
wage, from $6.75 to $7.10.

And Carcieri has guaranteed he will reject at least one more bill: 
legislation to allow Beacon Mutual Insurance Co., the state's 
dominant workers' compensation provider, to expand beyond Rhode Island.

"I think that's a horrendous bill," the governor said Friday.

ABSENT FROM the forefront of legislative debate -- but still looming 
throughout the building last week -- was the proposal by Harrah's 
Entertainment and the Narragansett Indian tribe to build a casino in 
West Warwick.

In May, lawmakers sought an opinion from the state Supreme Court 
about the constitutionality of the latest casino bid.  The court set 
arguments for Aug.  15, forcing a delay of any legislative action.

House leaders were also still considering a plan, being pushed by 
Carcieri and Montalbano, to facilitate the planned sale of Lincoln 
Park to BLB Investors, a consortium of hotel and casino interests.

Carcieri and Montalbano agreed relatively early in the session on a 
proposal that would allow BLB to expand the number of video slot 
machines at the track from 3,002 to 4,752 and would lock in the 
track's take on the machines for the next 18 years.  In exchange, BLB 
would invest at least $125 million in the aging facility.

BLB also pushed for a "parity clause" guaranteeing that no other 
gambling company would be granted a more favorable tax rate.

The legislation cleared the Senate with ease, but the House delayed 
action on the measure.

The track's current owner, British company Wembley plc, has scheduled 
a shareholder vote for July 18 on the proposed sale.  BLB told 
lawmakers, during a rush of last-minute meetings last week, that it 
needs the legislation to pass by July 15.

Murphy said that the House fiscal staff would start reviewing some 
new financial data from BLB after the long weekend, and the House 
Finance Committee would take the bill back up after that.

Montalbano said the House might shorten the length of the contract to 
"about 15 years." He said he was also willing to bring the Senate 
back to deal with the issue -- "hopefully before July 15; whenever 
the House is ready to go."

AMONG THE MORE notable measures lawmakers did approve this session 
were new tax breaks for movie- and television-production companies 
that bring their business to the state, and a special income-tax 
break for certain high-income workers -- a proposal backed by 
Fidelity Investments.

They agreed to allow municipalities to install cameras at 
intersections to catch people running red lights, and gave the 
attorney general new powers to oversee the sale of any Rhode Island 
public radio station, a proposal that resulted from an aborted plan 
by Boston University to sell WRNI.

After years of fighting, advocates for domestic abuse victims won 
passage of legislation that expressly gives judges in the state's 
District and Family courts the power to order people subject to 
restraining orders to surrender their guns.

And more information will be able to be distributed -- both online 
and by police departments -- about the whereabouts of sex offenders 
considered a moderate risk to the community.

Lawmakers delayed, until November, the implementation of a 
much-debated lead-paint safety law, which would have taken effect Friday.

IN THEIR CLOSING hours, lawmakers fought several fierce battles over 
firefighter contracts and a late-breaking bill to grant death 
benefits to the "domestic partners" of police and firefighters.

Rep.  Nicholas Gorham, R-Coventry, said he wasn't surprised the bill 
would pop up, quite literally at midnight because "it's such a 
terrible piece of legislation."

A former House labor chairman, Rep.  Arthur Corvese, D-North 
Providence, agreed the bill would hamstring cities and towns in 
contract negotiations.  Rep.  Joseph Trillo, R-Warwick, denounced it 
as an "an attempt by the public sector unions to get one more thing 
out of this building."

But the former and current police officers and firefighters in the 
House defended the legislation.

The "domestic partners bill" had been reintroduced and passed in the 
Senate on Wednesday, after the House Judiciary Committee killed an 
identical bill a day earlier.  The new version went to the more 
sympathetic House Finance Committee where it was approved 24 hours later.

Its emergence, after midnight, in the final hour of the session drew 
angry rebukes from House Minority Leader Robert A.  Watson, R-East 
Greenwich, who shouted: "Have we decided our committee process is 
defective? .  .  .  Have we lost confidence in the chairman of House 
Judiciary?"

"Hush," retorted House Majority Leader Gordon D.  Fox, D-Providence.

But the cries of outrage coming from several others of the 48 or so 
lawmakers who remained at that hour continued.

"This is a serious issue .  .  .  that should be dealt with in the 
light of day," said Rep.  Laurence Ehrhardt, R-North Kingstown.

Facing this barrage, Fox reluctantly agreed to put off a vote 
yesterday morning, with the understanding the debate would resume 
when and if the lawmakers return in a few weeks for a veto-override session.

EARLIER, lawmakers settled on a way to make it easier for poor people 
who have had their utilities shut off to get them turned back on by 
making smaller monthly payments than currently required, after a 
20-percent upfront payment.

And they gave final passage to a bill requiring people seeking 
massage licenses to undergo criminal background checks and 
fingerprinting.  Anyone who has been convicted of sex offenses would 
be denied a license, and businesses with unlicensed employees could 
immediately be closed by the state.

The measure makes it easier to crack down on brothels calling 
themselves massage parlors in order to take advantage of a 
25-year-old loophole in state law that doesn't criminalize indoor prostitution.

But even as they headed home, for at least the next week, the House 
and Senate left many issues undone, including legislation to remake a 
series of state boards and commissions to remove lawmakers from their 
ranks, in keeping with a separation-of-powers constitutional 
amendment passed by voters in November.  Scores of boards had been 
addressed, including the state Lottery Commission, which would be 
dissolved, but more work remained to go.

Carcieri said Friday he was still hopeful lawmakers would give him 
the "secretariat" he has been trying to create to tie in and 
streamline the operations of all of the state's major human-services 
agencies.  But Fox said the matter would have to wait until lawmakers returned.

"It's not over until it's over," the governor said.  "I'm an optimist."

Carcieri was also continuing to push for the confirmation of Kathleen 
Spangler, acting director of the Department of Mental Health, 
Retardation and Hospitals, as the agency's permanent head.

Carcieri said a Senate hearing on Spangler, where she was blasted by 
representatives of agencies serving Rhode Islanders with 
developmentally disabilities, was unfair.

"You had a provider group come in on Kathy Spangler -- one of them 
we're actually in suit on, to remove their license -- so for them to 
come in to say she's not fit I think is completely inappropriate," he 
said.  The governor said, of the suggestion he intended to dismantle 
MHRH: "Nothing could be further from the truth."

Montalbano said the Senate could still deal with the nomination when 
it returns to vote on any veto overrides, the BLB legislation and 
possibly the nomination of a traffic court judge to replace Aurendina 
"Dina" Veiga, who resigned last week amid ethics and disciplinary inquiries.

He said the chief judge would like to see a replacement as soon as possible.