PROVIDENCE – The state may yet have a budget for fiscal 2021 by Christmas.
House Speaker-Nominee, Rep. Joe Shekarchi, said Thursday the fiscal leaders of the House, Senate and staff are continuing to speak with Gov. Gina M. Raimondo about a budget for the current year.
No hearing has been scheduled for the House Finance Committee, the first stop. “We’re all working collaboratively to get it done,” Shekarchi said. “We’re still not there yet. We’re continuing to work on it.”
The timeline? “Our goal is to get it done before Christmas.”
Shekarchi, a Democrat who represents a district in Warwick, is the current House Majority Leader. He is expected to become House Speaker in January, having assembled the support of Democratic colleagues in a caucus in November, after House Speaker Nicholas A. Mattiello lost his re-election bid.
The budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 has been pushed to December because the House and Senate leaders, and Raimondo, wanted to wait until after the state elections, and to see if the federal government was going to offer more stimulus to states to offset the fiscal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rhode Island still is facing an operating deficit this year, but the estimates have varied, trending sharply down from the $800 million hole initially projected in May.
The most recent figure cited by the House fiscal staff was in the neighborhood of $275 million, reflecting a slow recovery over the past six months.
Under state law, Rhode Island is operating under the fiscal 2020 budget until legislators adopt a new plan. Raimondo, who unveiled the $9.9 billion state budget in January 2020, initially had emphasized new programs in affordable housing creation, education and recreational marijuana.
Mary MacDonald is a staff writer for the PBN. Contact her at macdonald@pbn.com.
