PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island voters passed all three ballot questions in Tuesday’s general election.
According to WPRI-TV CBS 12 Wednesday, Question 1, which asked for a $100 million bond issue approval to finance improvements at the University of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay Campus, was approved with 57.5% for approval and 42.5% against.
The approved bond will fund the construction of a new, 77,000-square-foot Ocean Frontiers Building; the replacement of two ocean engineering facilities; the renovation of the 30-year-old URI Coastal Institute headquarters; and a 9,000 square feet addition to the Marine Geological Samples Laboratory.
Question 2 asked voters to approve a $250 million bond “to provide funding for the construction, renovation and rehabilitation of the state’s public schools.” That question passed by with 72.3% approving and 26.7% against.
Like Question 1, the bond request is the next step in a multi-faceted improvement process, which school officials say started in 2017. Four years ago, voters approved $250 million bond for public school building improvements.
Many of the school’s buildings have gone decades without significant improvement, officials say, and some were built over a century ago — and these aging buildings can’t always support modern education needs.
Locally, seven municipalities are also requesting a combined total of $1.4 billion in additional school bonds, according to the Rhode Island Department of Education.
Question 3 asked voters to authorize a total of $50 million in bond issues to be distributed across nine uses intended to boost the state’s green economy. That question was approved with 66.7% approving and 32.3% against.
The largest of those nine allocations, at $16 million, would fund matching grants of up to 75% for municipal resiliency projects that restore or improve coastal habitats and river floodplains.
The proposal allocates another $12 million toward the Roger Williams Park Zoo, which would use the bond to fund a new education center and events pavilion, which Executive Director Stacey Johnson says will help the zoo to keep up with growing attendance and programming demands.
The rest of the green economy bond would go toward a $5 million small-business energy loan program; $3 million toward Narragansett Bay and watershed restoration; $3 million toward forest and habitat restoration; $4 million toward brownfield, or industrial-site, cleanups; and $7 million toward protecting open space, divided into $3 million for the State Land Conservation program and $4 million for local matching grants.
