RI House passes $8.67 billion budget in record time

ABC6 News

By Samantha Lavien 
slavien@abc6.com 

Rhode Island‘s State budget passed in record time Tuesday Night. Lawmakers unanimously approved the revised $8.67 billion dollar version of Governor Gina Raimondo’s budget in about 3 hours. We’re told it was the quickest approval in at least three decades.

“We always fully vet issues before the house so I’m very pleased that we did it as quickly as we did. It just is indication of how good of a budget it is,” said Speaker of the House, Nick Mattiello. 

The quick passage was quite the change from the all–night sessions many are used to.

“I think the big difference was that we looked at what was important to the people of the State of Rhode Island and those important things were jobs and the economy,” said Finance Committee Chair, Rep. Ray Gallison Jr.

Included in the House approved budget: the removal of sales taxes on energy for businesses, a tax exemption for social security benefits, a settlement on the longtime pension lawsuit, a reduction in Medicaid spending, and a new insurance fee for HealthSource RI.

One of the most debated articles of the night was number 11 which deals with taxes and revenues. There was quite a bit of discussion when it came to the proposed vacation home rental tax, which was ultimately approved.

Deputy minority leader, Rep. Patricia Morgan said, “People come to Rhode Island because it is inexpensive and when they are here they spend a lot of money and pay a lot of sales tax. I don’t think we needed to grab another eight percent from them.”

Governor Gina Raimondo released a statement Tuesday regarding the approval of the budget.

    “I am grateful for the hard work of Speaker Mattiello and his leadership team that led to tonight’s unanimous vote. Our focus is on creating jobs and expanding opportunity, and the budget approved by the House is a great start. This is a plan intended to rebuild our schools, attract and grow companies in Rhode Island, make it easier to do business here, and put people back to work. The budget also includes important reforms to Medicaid to improve the quality and coordination of care and achieve significant savings.”

The budget is for the fiscal year beginning July 1st. It will now go to the Senate and then to the Governor for approval.

(C) WLNE-TV 2015 

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