A. ENVIRONMENT
1. Global Warming
In 2001, the New England governors and eastern Canadian premiers voluntarily agreed to reduce global-warming pollution significantly: to 1990 levels by 2010 and 10 percent below those levels by 2020. Unfortunately this voluntary agreement is not on track to achieve those goals, which the scientific community insists are necessary to avoid the worst effects of global warming. Narragansett Bay and all of Rhode Island are particularly susceptible to global warming which leads to sea level rise, increased ozone pollution, and degradation of wildlife habitat. Our state government has a vital role to play protect the quality of life in Rhode Island. Economic studies show that the longer we wait to act on this issue, the more costly it will become to clean up in the future, while acting now will actually help RI usher in a new green economy and green jobs with it.
2. Clean, Affordable Transportation Choices
Rhode Island’s dependence on automobiles chokes our health, economy and environment. Increasing clean, affordable transportation choices like public transit, can protect the environment and the economy of the state. The State Guide Plan Element, Transportation 2025, calls for a “safe, robust, and convenient network of buses, trains, and ferries, with seamless, intermodal connections” which will increase transit ridership. It also calls for support for RIPTA “with a long term, dedicated and sustainable funded program to maintain and improve the bus, trolley, and ferry system.”
3. Trash Incineration
For 15 years Rhode Island has banned “waste-to-energy” trash incineration because it’s dirty, dangerous, and it burns resources that we can recycle. Over the last several years, several companies have unsuccessfully proposed legislation to overturn Rhode Island’s incinerator ban and to define trash burning as “renewable energy.” These proposals would jeopardize real, clean renewable energy projects and undermine the progress Rhode Island has made over the last decade to promote new green industries. Additionally, because incinerators require a steady stream of fuel to be economically feasible, building one would tie the hands of municipalities which need to meet improved goals for recycling and waste reduction.
B. HEALTH CARE
4. Medical Loss Ratio.
While Medicare has administrative costs of roughly three percent, private health insurance plans often dedicate 15 to 20 percent or more of their premium dollars to administration. Add to that the single-digit percentages that go to profits, or, for non-profit insurers, to reserves, and often more than 20 percent of the very high cost of consumers’ health care premiums goes to things other than actual health care. A medical loss ratio bill, like the legislation passed in New Jersey, would hold all insurers to a high standard to help keep insurance more affordable and ensure that health insurance is mostly paying for health care.
5. Health Care Facilities Staffing
It has been well documented that inadequate staff-to-patient ratios in health care facilities increase the risk of illness, injury, and even death to patients or residents. Nevertheless, Rhode Island has no law or regulation that requires minimum staffing ratios in health care facilities. In addition, the RI Department of Health currently has no authority to require hospitals to comply with their own staffing plans that they report annually to the Department of Health.
6. RIte Care
The RIte Care and RIte Share Programs have made Rhode Island a national leader in insuring the uninsured. RIte Care has provided quality care, with excellent health outcomes, using just a small percentage of the overall state Medicaid budget. Also, for every state dollar spent, we get slightly more than a dollar from the federal government.
Since January 2007, RIte Care has cut over 10,000 enrollees, including about 4,000 children. And the 2009 budget is scheduled to cut over 1,000 low-income parents from the program as well. Because of overall quality and cost-effectiveness of the program, and because it saves money in the long run to increase Rhode Island’s insured population, we oppose these cuts and support restoring eligibility for RIte Care program.
7. Direct Care Staff
Rhode Island has nationally-recognized community placement programs serving our citizens with mental retardation or developmental disabilities. However, our community programs currently experience high levels of staff turnover, compromising the quality of care that they can provide. To ensure a continuum of high-quality care, our state’s programs must have resources dedicated specifically to recruitment and retention of staff – in the form of funds earmarked to improve wages and benefits to ensure that they can be there for their consumers.
8. The Hospital Conversion Act (HCA)
The HCA requires a thorough review by the RI Department of Health and the Attorney General of any proposed sale or merger of a hospital in Rhode Island. This review provides a means to ensure that the proposed merger or sale of the hospital will benefit patients, communities, employees, and other health care providers, and that the hospital’s charitable assets will continue to be used for their intended purpose. Critics of the HCA argue that the review process is too time-consuming and burdensome, while proponents argue that it safeguards the interests of the public.
9. Restoring Eligibility for the Child Care Assistance Program
Quality child care is important both to the future educational outcomes of our children and the ability of parents to go to work with peace of mind. The 2007 legislative session saw a reduction in the eligibility levels for child care from 225% FPL to 180% FPL, the elimination of care for children above age 12, and a reduction in provider reimbursement for before- and after-school care. These changes have forced almost 1,500 families and over 2,300 children to lose their access to quality affordable child care as of September 1, 2007.
10. Family Independence Program (FIP) Time Limits
Current federal law sets a five year life-time limit for receiving cash benefits. Rhode Island’s General Assembly limits eligibility to two consecutive years, with a lifetime maximum of four years. FIP allows recipients time to receive necessary education and training, as well as financial support for those who need this assistance. The time current limit puts children and their parents at risk of hunger and homelessness while they are working to reach their goals of a decent job that can support their families.
C. LABOR
11. Right to Organize and Card-Check Neutrality
In the private sector, when workers try to organize into a union, most employers respond in a hostile manner – with threats, intimidation, and terminations. When the union files complaints with the National Labor Relations Board, it often takes years for the issues to be resolved, frustrating workers’ efforts to organize into unions. A card-count neutrality agreement is a legal way for workers to demonstrate their collective will to join a union without fear of reprisal. This method was used by the workers at the Westin Hotel and the workers at the RI Convention Center to join Local 217 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees’ Union.
Strikes and boycotts are tactics used historically by unions when their demands are reasonable and management will not respond. These tactics are most effective when they have community members participating, and the voices of public officials are important in these situations.
12. Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)
A state-equivalent of EFCA would extend basic organizing rights to those not covered by Federal labor law. It would require the state to recognize union representation for its employees when 50% plus one sign a card stating their desire to join a union. It would then require that employers negotiate a contract with the newly formed union within a reasonable timeframe. (The U.S. Congress is currently considering national legislation that would do the same for private employers.)
13. Privatization
The concept of “privatization” of public sector activities is once again in the public dialogue. Since the private sector operates on a profit motive, the only savings that are generated by these maneuvers come either from an overall reduction in services or directly out of the pay and benefits of the workforce, neither of which is acceptable or productive in the long-term. The Lima Law, passed in the 2008 legislature, would require that the state give 6-month notice to state employees when considering privatizing their jobs, while requiring the state and private companies to submit a report proving that privatizing would result in the cost-savings claimed.
14. Public-Sector Pensions
Pensions for public sector workers have been heavily scrutinized. Currently, Rhode Island teachers and state employees make among the highest payment in the country towards their benefits for pensions that are generally comparable to those in other states. A property right provision would give public employees the assurance that, once they become vested in their pension, they would be guaranteed to any benefits they had earned up to that point. ERISA, the federal law governing private-sector pensions, already makes this guarantee to private-sector workers.
15. Employment Standards at Publicly-Funded Facilities
Advocates believe it is fair to have higher employment standards for employees at Rhode Island’s state-regulated gambling facilities and facilities that benefit from a connection to the state-run hospitality and convention facilities. Right now middle class hospitality jobs are in jeopardy at the Twin River Casino and at hotels connected to the Rhode Island public hospitality and convention centers. This legislation would keep hundreds of workers employed in good jobs that they can raise families on. It would help to keep people off of unemployment and prevent these jobs from becoming poverty-wage jobs.
16. Mayoral Academies
The General Assembly approved legislation this year allowing the creation of “mayoral academies,” that are exempt from prevailing wage and retirement laws, thus denying important worker rights that the rest of the public school employees are assured. The “mayoral academies” would also result in reduced funding to the rest of the public school system, reducing the quality of education for our children in our towns’ public schools.
D. EDUCATION
17. Vouchers
There have been many schemes proposed around the country to undermine support for public funding of public education. These include proposals for tuition tax credits, vouchers, and for other direct or indirect mechanisms to channel public funds to private schools. Any such proposal is an inherent threat to public education.
18. Public Education Funding
In the late 1980s, Rhode Island’s stated goal was to provide 60% of public education funding from state dollars, and the actual level was over 50%. A significant decline has occurred since then, shifting greater responsibility to cities and towns, and placing Rhode Island 43rd in the country in this type of support, at a level of 37.5%.
19. Access to Education for All
In 1994, several communities and states across the country saw ballot questions that sought to deny legal immigrants their historical rights to social services such as health care and immunization, and to public education. Proposition 187 in California is the most notorious example. Allowing all residents in Rhode Island to access higher education through in-state tuition rates is fair, and is necessary to meet the state’s needs for a more highly-educated workforce to achieve the knowledge-based economy desired in Rhode Island. This legislation is supported by the University of Rhode Island and other institutions of higher education in the state.
20. Binding Arbitration
Binding arbitration would be a method to solve contract disputes when the two sides cannot reach a final agreement. While arbitration is proceeding, the current contract would remain in place. The remaining issues not agreed to would be submitted to a neutral arbitrator and would decide last best offer, issue by issue. Binding arbitration has worked in Rhode Island for police and firefighters and for two decades for Connecticut teachers.
E. CIVIL RIGHTS
21. Same Gender Marriage
The creation of marriage for same gender couples would confer 1400 state and federal rights to these couples. By contrast, civil unions, which were a creation of the Vermont legislature, would confer only 300 state rights and no guarantee of protection outside of the state that granted the union. A poll conducted in April 2006 by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research found that 45% of Rhode Island voters support same-sex marriage while only 39% oppose.
22. Safe Schools
Nationally, violence and harassment of lesbian, gay, and bisexual teens has increased greatly in recent years. In Rhode Island, statewide hearings have found widespread reports of harassment of and discrimination against lesbian, gay, and bisexual students in our schools.
23. Abortion Rights
In Roe v. Wade (1973), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Constitution creates a right of privacy which “is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.” This right to choose an abortion has been under persistent attack in Rhode Island and throughout the country ever since.
24. 24-Hour Waiting Period
In recent legislative sessions, anti-choice proponents in the General Assembly have introduced bills to force women to undergo a 24-hour delay between their first clinic visit and their abortion. Under the bill, women would then undergo state mandated anti-choice counseling in addition to the informed consent counseling that already occurs. In states where this law is in effect, women have been subjected to harassment from anti-choice activists who get women’s license plate numbers, find their phone numbers, and call them or visit their homes. In addition, having to go to the abortion clinic twice requires them to walk through anti-choice picketers twice, increasing their safety risks and emotional trauma.
25. E-Verify
Some states are now requiring that businesses, contractors, and state agencies check immigration status with a federal program, known as “E-Verify,” before hiring new employees. This proposal is problematic for many reasons. First, it encourages racial profiling by employers and other misuses of the system. Furthermore the program has faced many problems since its inception in 1997 – specifically the database is riddled with millions of errors from the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration, which would affect even those who are citizens. Finally, there are not adequate privacy protections to ensure that sensitive personal information cannot be leaked or stolen.
26. Discrimination
In the midst of the anti-immigrant sentiment pervasive in the U.S. right now, some are advocating that workers, such as those in public education, inform federal and state agencies of the immigration status of students and students’ family members. Such measures would distract from the mission of providing quality education in our public schools by forcing upon teachers and administrators the role of federal immigration agents. There has also been legislation introduced in Rhode Island that would make landlords liable for renting to undocumented immigrants, which would result in discriminatory renting practices, as attested to by the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights.
27. Racial Profiling
In Rhode Island, black drivers are stopped by police twice as frequently as white drivers, yet they are less likely to be found with contraband. This statistic comes from the analysis of three years worth of data that we have in Rhode Island – more than any other state in the nation. On the whole, police departments continue to deny that racial profiling exists and have yet to take any meaningful action or examination of current police policies and practices as a way of working to ameliorate racial profiling in the state. Comprehensive racial profiling legislation would be an important step forward in reaching that end.
F. FAIR TAXATION
28. The “Alternative Flat Tax”
Contrary to popular belief, it is not the wealthy that pay the greatest proportion of their income in total taxes, but working- and middle-class Rhode Islanders. And the “trickle-down economics” behind the “alternative flat tax” enacted in 2006 has shifted even more of Rhode Island’s tax responsibility onto working- and middle-class families.
The flat tax will cost Rhode Island about $35 million this year and when fully phased in, about $80 million each year—yet it benefits less than 1% of the very wealthiest Rhode Islanders—contributing significantly to our structural fiscal deficit in recent years. This prevents adequate help from being given to towns and cities for education funding and leads to difficulty in investing in needed social programs. Two-thirds of flat tax beneficiaries don’t even live in Rhode Island. To make up for this lost revenue, the state has been slashing funding to our cities and towns, forcing our municipalities to raise property taxes to make up for the lost funding. Rhode Island now asks our cities and towns to shoulder more of the responsibility of local government than all but three states.
29. Property Tax Fairness
In the face of declining state aid over the past fifteen years, towns have very naturally made up the difference by raising property taxes, often to finance their obligations under state and federal laws, like the provision of special education services. The state has responded by imposing caps on municipal tax levies that in many cases won’t allow towns to meet their legal obligations. By delaying the imposition of simple property tax caps on our towns until the state provides funding to allow cities and towns to meet their obligations, we can also take the time we need to develop a sensible tax structure that cuts property taxes and invests in critical state programs through the more progressive income tax.
30. Combined Reporting
Currently, large parent corporations use loopholes that allow them to file separate returns for subsidiary companies. This practice is used by large multi-state corporations to evade taxation on real income through a variety of tax evasion strategies. This practice gives an unfair advantage to large, multi-state and multi-national corporations over Rhode Island’s locally-owned small businesses. Twenty-five states already have enacted combined reporting legislation to close this tax loophole.
G. DEMOCRACY & JUSTICE
31. Civil Justice
The right of individuals to take on large corporations and powerful interests is a vital principle of our democratic judicial system. If someone has been hurt by a powerful institution – a big corporation, an insurance company, or a member of the medical system – he or she should have the ability to go to court to get justice. For example, large corporations have been fighting the civil justice system so that they retain more control over their ability to be sued. This puts more power in the hands of corporations and less in the hands of the “little guy.”
32. Breaking Down Barriers to Voting
Our democracy is founded on the idea that every individual has a right to vote and have that vote counted. Sometimes barriers are put in place that make it more difficult for individuals to vote, resulting in the under representation of some constituencies. One example of a barrier is a photo identification requirement. This is a tremendous barrier to voting as large numbers of individuals in already under-represented communities do not have photo identification, and the requirement of one involves financial, logistical, and other unnecessary burdens to voting that will result in a drop in voter turnout.
33. Voter Initiative
Voter initiative may sound appealing at face value, or at least harmless. In reality, voter initiative has been used across the county to circumvent the legislative process on a wide range of issues. This procedure has been used to promulgate ballot initiatives opposed to a women’s right to choose, against civil rights for gays and lesbians, and to restrict government spending with the effect of limiting needed funds for public education, to cite just a few examples.