The big items started coming up as soon as the General Assembly went into session: raising the minimum wage, reorganizing and privatizing The Beacon Mutual Insurance Co., banning eminent-domain takings.
Legislative leaders have said they want to target skyrocketing energy prices. And Health Insurance Commissioner Christopher F. Koller is expected to propose measures to try to make coverage more affordable for small employers, among other things.
Then, of course, there’s taxation. By the end of last year’s session, House Finance Chairman Steven M. Costantino, D-Providence, had embraced the tax-cutting cause, even if, after a drop in revenue projections, they didn’t cut broad-based taxes at all.
All this, and it’s an election year. Business lobbyists expect to work hard from now till July – both to fend off threats to their industries, and to seize opportunities to make headway.
“For the most part, it’s kind of watching out for what’s going to come at us,” said Dale J. Venturini, president and CEO of the R.I. Hospitality and Tourism Association. She said she expects to tackle “the whole gamut” of issues, from taxes to workers’ compensation, plus another round of the casino wars, and more anti-alcohol legislation.
Terrance S. Martiesian, state director for the National Federation of Independent Business and a lobbyist for several industry groups, noted that despite business opposition, a bill to raise the minimum wage from $6.75 to $7.10 as of March 1 and to $7.40 by next Jan. 1 quickly cleared the House Labor Committee last Monday, by a vote of 11 to 1.
Even Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, who vetoed a near-identical measure last year, is now talking about a “compromise,” Martiesian noted – a one-time hike to $7.10.
David R. Carlin III, vice president of government affairs for the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce and lobbyist for the Chamber of Commerce Coalition, which also includes seven smaller Chambers across the state, said he expects to be “primarily on the defensive” this year. But the coalition also has several goals for the session.
It wants to restore businesses’ right to buy health insurance collectively, for example, Carlin said – reforms in 2000 made that illegal – and it wants to get legislation passed that would require a thorough review of any proposed health insurance mandate (say, that plans must cover arthritis treatments) before it’s implemented. It also wants the state to provide incentives for workplaces that develop wellness programs.
The R.I. Business Group on Health, a new alliance that aims to make health insurance more affordable, is also looking at all three of those measures, and Martiesian’s group backs both mandate reform and wellness incentives. Venturini also wants to get mandates under control, but she’s not aiming to get rid of any existing ones.
“It’s hard to take away the candy when it’s already in the mouth, and we have to fight our battles where we can win,” she said.
The coalition is also pushing for tort reforms, as is Martiesian’s group. Rhode Island’s pre-judgment interest rate, for example, is the highest in the nation, 12 percent; both groups want to change that. Martiesian also wants to limit “joint and several liability” – a concept that allows plaintiffs to collect from the deepest pockets regardless of their share of the blame.
(For example, if General Motors were found to be 1 percent guilty in an auto fatality, while the driver was 99 percent responsible, but GM had to pay $2 million and the driver $50,000 because that’s how much money could be collected from each.)
Edward J. Quinlan, president of the Hospital Association of Rhode Island, said he’s optimistic about the outlook for another tort reform effort – the Patients First Coalition’s medical liability package, which wouldn’t cap jury awards but would reduce pre-judgment interest payouts and impose some new requirements on plaintiffs.
“We think the Assembly is poised to act,” he said.
Last year, the measure, which enjoys support from a wide range of medical and business groups, didn’t even get a hearing, because legislators wanted supporters to seek a compromise with trial lawyers and consumer groups pushing a competing bill.
Steve DeToy, lobbyist for the R.I. Medical Society, said the doctors are still open to a compromise, but “talk is cheap, and we haven’t seen a lot of action.” Nancy Striuli, executive director of the R.I. Trial Lawyers Association, spoke in similar terms, and said Fair Insurance Rhode Island, which had pushed for tighter controls on the medical malpractice insurance industry last year, plans to reintroduce its bill soon.
Other items on business groups’ agendas include easing regulatory restrictions on specific industries – sewer and water main contractors, for example, want to be able to get statewide licenses, instead of only town by town – and on developers, promoting energy affordability, and protecting prized tax incentives, such as those for historic properties redevelopment.
But the priorities boil down to what Bethany Costello, spokeswoman for the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, says is the heart of her group’s soon-to-be-approved legislative agenda: “health insurance premium relief for small businesses,” and reducing “Rhode Island’s uncompetitive personal income tax rates.”
