PROVIDENCE – A budget nearly a year in the making and delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to be approved on Wednesday by the full R.I. House of Representatives, meeting as a body in a larger venue than their chamber.
The fiscal 2021 budget, shaped over the past month by House Speaker-elect Joseph Shekarchi, D-Warwick, as well as other legislative leaders, has been described as a transitional plan. It will carry the state through the next six months, distributing millions in federal coronavirus aid and state revenue to state programs and services.
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The budget expected to be voted on on Wednesday provides for $12.7 billion in state spending, although much of that revenue is provided by the federal government, in the form of pandemic relief.
The budget also will allow Gov. Gina M. Raimondo to delay the release of her fiscal 2022 budget until March 11, an extra six weeks to accommodate the possibility of additional federal aid under a new Biden administration.
The budget, as recommended by the House Finance Committee Dec. 9, includes a total of $120 million in federal substitutions for what would normally be general fund-covered state expenses.
Shekarchi, in outlining the budget for reporters last week, said it was “skinny” on new proposals, because he wanted newly elected House members to have a chance to discuss any significant policy changes, such as allowing the sale of recreational marijuana in the state. The plan extends a sunset on the R.I. Commerce Corp. incentive programs, deployed by Raimondo to attract new companies to the state. And it provides another year of funds for the Rhode Island Promise tuition program for young graduates.
The budget proposal restores state aid to economically distressed cities and towns, removing the temporary reductions put in place by the Raimondo administration after the pandemic descended. In a release after the House Finance committee approved the plan, the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns cheered the decision.
The fiscal 2021 budget bill will ask the General Assembly to establish March 2 as the date for a statewide bond referendum, including a slate of $400 million in capital investments that had originally been planned to be put before voters in the November general election.
The House will meet at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Providence, instead of at the Statehouse, to vote on the fiscal 2021 budget. The session begins at 2 p.m. and will be broadcast live over Capitol Television. It also will be live-streamed on the legislature’s website.
Larry Berman, a spokesman for the House Speaker’s office, explained that the chambers are too small given the number of representatives, to comply with social distance requirements of the pandemic.
In June, when the body voted on an amended fiscal 2020 budget, it did so in shifts, at desks separated by plexiglass panels. “We had the members separated in three other rooms watching the broadcast on Capitol TV,” Berman said. “They had to enter the chamber just to vote.”
Moving the proceedings to the Veterans auditorium “allows all members to safely social distance and remain in one room,” he said.
On Thursday, the budget moves to the state Senate, where the Finance Committee will meet virtually at 3 p.m. to discuss the plan, anticipating it would have been passed by the House the night before.
The full Senate would then receive the budget Friday. The Senate has scheduled a meeting at 2 pm. Friday at Sapinsley Hall At Rhode Island College for its deliberations. Initially it had expected to meet Thursday night, but the meeting has been rescheduled due to an impending snow storm.
The session, like the House one, is closed to the public due to the pandemic. The discussion and vote will be carried live on Capitol TV and on the General Assembly website.
Mary MacDonald is a staff writer for the PBN. Contact her at macdonald@pbn.com.
