The business community is keeping a watchful eye on what’s in store after the changing of the guard for what many consider the most powerful position in state politics.
And No. 1 on the list of concerns is proposals to hike taxes on the wealthy.
House Speaker Christopher R. Blazejewski, D-Providence, elected to replace K. Joseph Shekarchi, who resigned his speakership to pursue the R.I. Supreme Court vacancy, isn’t providing many clues.
Viewed as more politically progressive, Blazejewski was elected majority leader in 2020, the same year Shekarchi became speaker, and he has backed legislation including the Act on Climate, the Reproductive Privacy Act and the Equality in Abortion Coverage Act. He also co-sponsored and led the passage of laws prohibiting high-capacity firearms magazines, banning firearms from school grounds, and banning untraceable firearms.
Where does he stand on the controversial “millionaires tax,” Gov. Daniel J. McKee’s proposal to add a new income tax bracket, taxing income over $1 million at 8.99%?
Blazejewski has supported some form of a millionaires tax in the past, but in a statement to Providence Business News, he did not say what his stance is now.
“The House Finance Committee is currently reviewing all the information gathered recently at the Revenue Estimating Conference and all options are on the table," Blazejewski said. "I have been meeting with various stakeholders and will continue to do so in the coming weeks as the budget comes together.”
But groups such as the newly created League of Rhode Island Businesses, consisting of 40 political action committees funding primary challengers seeking to create a more business-friendly environment, see the writing on the wall.
League spokesperson David J. Levesque said the league was “disappointed for many reasons by the change in leadership,” calling Shekarchi “a moderating force within the chamber.”
“He held back or slowed many extreme proposals and spoke openly about pushing out the ‘crazies’ and governing from a more moderate position,” Levesque said. “His chosen successor represents the opposite direction.”
Levesque said he believes there is little question that Blazejewski and his new leadership team “will attempt to move Rhode Island even further left, if given the opportunity.”
Indeed, new Majority Leader Katherine Kazarian, D-East Providence, is co-sponsoring separate legislation imposing a personal income surtax of 3% on taxable income over $1 million.
A business owner himself, Levesque said that given the lagging economy, high energy costs, and an “unsustainable” budget, what those against more taxes on the wealthy have working in their favor is “a growing appetite for change across Rhode Island.”
“Proposals such as a ‘wealth tax,’ in any form, risk pushing even more residents, entrepreneurs and businesses out of the state at a time when Rhode Island can least afford it,” he said. “Rhode Island has the equation backwards.”
Levesque said the question now is whether millionaire tax advocates will push harder to pass progressive legislation before the election.
Other opponents include the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, which has been lobbying against the millionaires tax and has called on its members to contact the speaker’s office and protest the proposal.
Chamber President Laurie White said they look forward to having conversations with Blazejewski and his leadership team “about ways to make Rhode Island a better place to live, work, and do business.”
But White acknowledged that “with this change in leadership, many things may reset and be looked at anew.”
On the other side of the aisle, House Minority Leader Michael Chippendale, R-Foster, said “it is too early to know” what’s on Blazejewski's agenda.
“I believe he should be judged by how he chooses to lead,” he said. “But based on his stated positions, voting record and political priorities over the last 16 years, Rhode Island’s business community has every reason to expect a significant lurch to the left in the House.”
While rebuffed several times in the past, Chippendale said policies such as the millionaires tax and other anti-growth tax proposals are never “imaginary concerns” but rather “natural priorities of the progressive and socialist wings of the Democratic Party.”
“House Republicans will work constructively where we can, but if this new leadership team moves Rhode Island further toward destructive progressive economic policies, we will oppose that agenda forcefully and without apology,” Chippendale said.
