Paid-leave mandate may have been source of friction in R.I. Assembly
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A behind-the-scenes tussle over a temporary exclusion for the state’s construction industry from a proposed new paid-leave mandate may have contributed to the Assembly breakdown.
No one in the top ranks of the General Assembly is saying that this short-lived kerfuffle led new Senate President Dominick Ruggerio to do what few Senate leaders before him have done: tinker with the House-passed budget.
At the Rhode Island State House, it has long been accepted that the Senate approves judges and the House crafts the budget.
And yet, Ruggerio — recently retired from a decades-long career as the administrator of an arm of the Laborers’ International Union of North America — had a budget amendment drafted that took direct aim at Mattiello’s signature proposal: a phased-in car tax repeal.
Read more: http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20170706/paid-leave-mandate-may-have-been-source-of-friction-in-ri-assembly