2025 Was Supposed to Be a Big Year for RI Progressives at State House. It Is a Bust.
GoLocalProv News Team
2025 Was Supposed to Be a Big Year for RI Progressives at State House. It Is a Bust.
The three biggest initiatives — the millionaires tax, the bottle bill, and the ban on assault weapons — were supported by significant coalitions and had early momentum.
Now, as the session comes to a close, all of these bills have functionally gone down or have been watered down to the point that their supporters are voicing disgust.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTGoLocal asked legislative leaders and top advocates about this session’s machinations. Here is what they said:
Gun Control Took the Biggest Hit
After years of fighting for passage, it looked like 2025 would be the year for passage of a ban on assault weapons. But things unraveled.
The new President of the Senate, Valerie Lawson, rolled over for more conservative Democrats in the chamber, said advocates.
Lawson said in a statement to GoLocal before the watered-down bill was considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, “And strong legislation to prohibit the purchase, sale, transfer, or manufacture of military style weapons is scheduled for a committee vote this afternoon. This very strong legislation is one of the most significant gun safety measures ever to come before the committee, and I look forward to voting for it.”
Despite every member of the federal delegation, all of the general officers, and both chambers controlled by Democrats, the ban supported by advocates failed — a colossal failure for gun control champions.
“In a state where all of our general officers and the majority of legislators in both the House and Senate, including the Speaker and Senate President, are gun safety champions, it makes absolutely no sense that we have to accept this severely weakened version of the assault weapons ban in the ocean state,” said RICAGV Executive Director Melissa Carden. “Our advocates continue to work hard on passing Representative Knight's version of this bill.”
Advocates for the bottle bill spent on advertising, hired pollsters, and worked to pass a bill that would create Rhode Island's first bottle bill collection program. A bottle bill has been under consideration in the Rhode Island General Assembly for four decades.
There are ten states in the U.S. with bottle bills: California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon, and Vermont. Rhode Island was to be the 11th.
The man who functionally killed the bill, Speaker of the House Joe Shekarchi, had little to say about the failure of the legislation. "We continue to work to develop a bottle redemption and recycling plan.”
Lawson told GoLocal, "We are taking an appropriate next step by following the approach taken in other states with regards to requiring a needs assessment on the bottle bill."
Save the Bay's Jed Thorp told GoLocal in an email, "Obviously, we're disappointed that the bottle bill will not become law this year. We had a good bill this year that reflected the work and recommendations of the study commission that spent 18 months doing a deep dive on this issue. Furthermore, based on responses to candidate questionnaires, a majority of both House and Senate members had indicated their support."
"If the sub A of the bill passes as is, it would effectively kill the bill, not just this session, but potentially next session as well. We are currently working with House and Senate leaders to hopefully amend the sub A into something that would actually further the effort to pass a bottle bill, and not just be a repeat of previous studies," added Thorp, the Director of Advocacy for the non-profit.
The so-called Millionaires Tax legislation also failed.
It started a year ago when the "Revenue for Rhode Islanders Coalition" kicked off their 2024 campaign to raise revenue for the state by creating a separate surtax – at a marginal rate of 8.99% (in place of the current top rate of 5.99%) on income above $1,000,000, "ensuring those making more than $1,000,000 per year are contributing their fair share."
But as the effort moved forward over the past year, the income level decreased. This year's bill had lowered the threshold from $1 million down to a proposed $635,000 income level.
The initiative failed.
Michael J. Healey, spokesperson for the Economic Progress Institute, said, "Although the budget has very good points, we wish it did more to increase tax fairness by, among other improvements, including a tax on the top 1%. However, depending on what happens at the federal level, there could be a special legislative session in the fall at which time taxing the top 1% could again be on the table. Along with taxing the rich, EPI supported the tax on non-owner occupied second homes, which was included in the budget and will raise revenue and increase tax fairness."
Shekarchi did not comment, but Lawson said, "We continue to discuss the tax increase on high-income earners, and are taking steps in the budget now before us including increasing the real estate transfer tax on high-end property and taxing high-end second homes. It is important that an income tax on high earners remain a viable option to utilize in the future should additional resources be required to address a deficit caused by federal funding cuts to the state."
The One Success Was Not an Overnight One
Not one of the big three, but legislation that should slow predatory lending is the reform of payday lending. However, advocates have been fighting for reforms for upwards of 15 years.
Lawson and Healey pointed to the legislation as an important success. "By the end of this week, I expect that the payday lending legislation will be headed to the Governor’s desk," said Lawson.
“For 15 years, EPI has advocated for the Rhode Island General Assembly to close the statutory carve-out that, in effect, endorses the payday lending industry to capture vulnerable consumers in crippling debt,” said EPI Executive Director Weayonnoh Nelson-Davies earlier this session. “Our questions are, ‘Why do we allow low-income Rhode Islanders to be treated this way?’ and ‘When is it going to stop?’”
"We're seeing the prospect of ending predatory payday lending in Rhode Island," said Healey told GoLocal this week.