Block: $1 Million Budget Line-Item for Chiropractor Is Why We Need a Line-Item Veto
Ken Block, Guest MINDSETTER™
Block: $1 Million Budget Line-Item for Chiropractor Is Why We Need a Line-Item Veto
It is simply outrageous that the state has already provided close to $2 million to this single person. $3 million is a lifetime of wages for a great many Rhode Islanders. Multiple governors have tried to stop these payments, but RI’s budget process makes that all but impossible.
It is important to understand that this proposed $1 million budget line-item was never discussed during House Finance hearings. This expenditure does not even exist in the budget articles that are about to be voted on this Friday by the House.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTWe only had the chance to learn about this million dollar giveaway to a politically connected person with a sketchy offering this week, less than a week prior to votes on the budget on the House floor.
I shudder to think about how many other line-items are in this budget with similar giveaways. It is impossible for us to know given the way our budget process works. A lot of these awful boondoggles could help explain why our state budget is so large.
Nearly every other state has a mechanism in place to protect taxpayers from this sort of wasteful spending. It is called a line-item veto, and 44 other states have it.
Of course, Speaker Mattiello doesn’t want it, because the line-item veto would put a stop to his ability to spend our money unaccountably, bestowing millions of dollars of gifts to his friends, cronies, and connected political insiders.
Now that the Speaker has been caught red-handed with a spending line-item that is precisely why a line-item veto is needed, it is time for other elected leaders to step up and address this problem.
I call on the RI Senate to bring the line-item veto bill to the floor for a vote. The Senate unanimously sponsored the bill last year, but has not held a hearing on the same bill this year. Polling shows a majority wants this reform and 44 other states do not have it wrong.
I also ask House Minority Leader Blake A. Filippi to draw a line in the sand and refuse to “suspend the rules” of the House until the Speaker relents and allows a floor vote for the line-item veto. It was always going to take a crisis of some sort to get the veto - here it is.
It is time for Gov. Raimondo to come out strongly for the line-item veto. Demagogue on it. Push for it. Use the resources of the Governor’s office to call out more of these awful spending items. Lead us to the line-item veto.
Reform comes hard in RI. We usually only get reform after someone goes to jail or advocates bang their heads against the wall for decades. It is time to get serious about how we construct and vet our state budget. This is no joke – it is a $10 billion annual ritual.
The entire budget process needs to change and become far more transparent and much less last minute. The passage of a line-item veto is an excellent start towards this goal. #lineitemveto