Gov. Raimondo submits $9.4B budget proposal

By: Samantha Fenlon

Email: sfenlon@abc6.com

Twitter @SFenlonABC6

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Governor Gina Raimondo’s $9.4 billion budget was officially submitted to the House late Thursday afternoon.

The budget tackles a projected deficit of $260 million for the current and next fiscal year.

One notable proposal is an initiative to invest $1 billion dollars in school reconstruction over the next five years.

"Every city and town in the state can get more funding from the state under this plan,” said General Treasurer Seth Magaziner.

Specifically, voters would be asked to approve a $250 million dollar bond. If passed, that money would come in addition to $80 million already in the budget.

"There’s a whole list of different priorities that could lead to a school district getting extra state funding for their project and the purpose of this is that we want to incentivize the cities and towns to fix their schools more quickly,” said Magaziner.

Another headline proposal, supports gambling at Twin River’s two locations in Tiverton and Lincoln. The hope of the administration would be to start that by October 1st.

The plan which is contingent on a Supreme Court ruling is estimated to bring in $23 million.

"It would be as currently contemplated professional sports and collegiate sports,” said Director of Revenue Mark Furcolo.

It’s worth mentioning, any games involving college teams from rhode island would be excluded from the sports betting at Twin River.

There are no broad based tax increases, but there is another increase to the cigarette tax 25 cents a pack.

Budget cuts are the most significant in the Health and Human Services where than 100 million dollars is proposed to be slashed.

A majority of that is coming from Medicaid in cost savings.

“We were able to come up with proposals to save money in the Medicaid program without cutting any benefits,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Eric Beane.

One big change, that could be controversial co-pays ranging from $2.50 to $8 applying to the some 300 thousand people who rely on state benefits.

The addition of co-pays projected to bring in $3.2 million.

Important to note, children and those with disabilities are exempt from the co-pays.

"This is bringing us in line with a lot of other states that do something similar,” said Beane.

This proposed budget is for the fiscal year beginning in July.

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