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Political scene: Lawmakers paying up

12:10 AM EST on Monday, February 19, 2007

By Scott Mayerowitz, Katherine Gregg and Elizabeth Gudrais

Journal State House Bureau

After reading the other day in The Providence Journal about one lawmaker’s proposal to force lawmakers and general officers to pay 10 percent of their health care premiums, several lawmakers have come forward and decided to pony up voluntarily.

All of the state’s general officers either had already voluntarily contributed or get their health insurance through other means. (More on that in a bit.)

So far, it has been mostly Republicans who have come forward.

“It would be unfair for us to ask other people to pay part of their insurance but not be paying ourselves,” said Sen. June N. Gibbs, R-Middletown, who has floated legislation in the past to require such contributions.Most union and nonunion state workers already pay part of their health care costs.

“I’ve been meaning to do this for some time, but after reading the article it reminded me I wanted to do it,” said Senate Minority Leader Dennis L. Algiere, R-Westerly.

Also kicking in money in recent days: Senators David E. Bates, R-Barrington, and Kevin A. Breene, R-West Greenwich.

The legislators all paid 10 percent of the premiums for the first six months of this year. That payment was $770.22 for the family plan and $275.69 for the individual plan.

Over in the House, Rep. John J. Loughlin II, R-Tiverton, has paid 10 percent during his two years in the State House. He has not yet made a payment for this year, but said he plans to. Political Scene was unable to find any other current lawmakers who previously contributed to their health care.

“Lead by example. It’s a military thing,” Loughlin said.

So what about Sen. Paul W. Fogarty, D-Glocester, who has led the latest push for health care sharing?

Fogarty, a master plumber, obtains his health insurance through the pipefitters union. Because he doesn’t take state health insurance, Fogarty gets back $2,002 a year, the same amount as any state employee who opts out of coverage. Fogarty said he plans to pay back 10 percent of that money.

“It only makes sense,” Fogarty said. “We should lead by example.”

That’s what the state’s general officers say they are doing. Although the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, general treasurer and secretary of state are entitled by law to fully paid health insurance, each voluntarily pays 11 percent of the cost of the premium — the same percentage other nonunion state employees in the same salary bracket would be required to pay.

The exception is Governor Carcieri, who never has accepted state-paid health insurance, according to his spokesman, Jeff Neal. Carcieri, the former chief executive of Cookson America, does receive the $2,002-a-year buyback and donates the after-tax amount — $1,592.31 last year, his office said — to the State Employees’ Charitable Appeal, a vehicle through which state employees can contribute to charitable organizations.

The 11 percent premium share computes to $32.59 a week for a family plan, which all four other general officers — Lt. Gov. Elizabeth H. Roberts, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, General Treasurer Frank T. Caprio and Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis — receive, their spokespersons said last week.

Shorter Assembly sessions?

Well, here’s a novel idea.

Limit General Assembly sessions to 125 calendar days each year.

The sessions, which begin on the first Tuesday in January, habitually dribble on late into June — and in some years, weeks beyond that — with little of importance happening until the final weeks when committees jam their calendars with dozens of bills and lawmakers, lobbyists and advocates alike bemoan the frenetic rush, rush, rush.A bill introduced in the Senate last week, without any fanfare, by President Joseph A. Montalbano and John C. Revens Jr., a former Senate majority leader, would give voters a chance — at the next general election — to change the state Constitution to limit future sessions to 125 days from whatever day they start.

Were such a rule in place now, lawmakers — who have just gone off on their first week-long winter break — would have to skedaddle to finish this year’s session, which began Jan. 2 by the end of the first week in May. (The Senate’s bill-introduction deadline was Thursday.)

Asked last week what prompted his co-sponsorship of the bill and how he rates its chances for passage this year, Montalbano, D-North Providence, issued this statement: “Limiting legislative sessions to 125 calendar days would promote efficiency” and “encourage submission of legislation and commencement of committee hearings in earnest earlier in the year.

“Ultimately, it is a decision that only the voters of Rhode Island can make, in that it requires an amendment to the Constitution. As with any constitutional amendment, it often takes more than one year of public dialogue to hear and carefully consider all of the benefits and drawbacks of the proposal. That is a discussion that I support having.”

House leaders neither embraced nor rejected the idea.

Said House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox, D-Providence: “This legislation raises several interesting questions and it highlights the need for us to meet earlier in the sessions to get our work accomplished. One of the many questions is how this would affect the budget process as we close the fiscal year each June 30.”

But consider this: the legislative press bureau, which churns out mountains of press releases on bills big and small, did not rush one out in this instance. Why not? “We’re just behind,” said Greg Pare, spokesman for the Senate leadership.

“You know,” he said of last week’s bill deadline, “there were a couple of hundred bills introduced in the last couple of days.”

Murphy event draws 500

At the West Valley Inn on Feb. 1, about 500 people attended a fundraiser for House Speaker William J. Murphy, noshing on farfalle with shrimp, ziti with red sauce and steamship round of beef, between getting drinks from the open bar.

Because Murphy extended complimentary admission to some attendees, including his House colleagues, it won’t be known publicly how many people sprang for a $200 ticket until the next round of campaign finance filings comes due at the end of April. (House spokesman Larry Berman said Murphy wouldn’t refuse donations from lawmakers if they offered.)

But Political Scene can at least tell you who came to the fundraiser, which Murphy, D-West Warwick, holds each year in his hometown.

At least 28 of Murphy’s fellow House Democrats — a group that totals 62 in all — showed up. There were also two former representatives, Norman L. Landroche Jr., of West Warwick, and Fausto C. Anguilla, of Bristol. Both men declined to run again last fall; like Murphy, they are attorneys.

All four Democratic general officers — two of whom were lawmakers as recently as December — made appearances. (The Republican governor did not attend.)

There were also a few people from the group formerly known as dissident Democrats — those who voted against Murphy two years ago. That category included Rep. John J. DeSimone, D-Providence, who sought the speaker’s post himself in 2005 but voted for Murphy this year, and Rep. Robert E. Flaherty, D-Warwick, whom Murphy ousted as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee in 2005 and who was simply absent from the November caucus that sealed Murphy’s third term as speaker for all practical purposes.

The crowd also included the House’s newest Democrat, Rep. Joseph H. Scott, who announced in December he was defecting from the Republican Party.

A few Republicans showed up, including House Minority Leader Robert A. Watson, R-East Greewich, and Rep. Joseph A. Trillo, R-Warwick. Allan W. Fung, who ran for mayor of Cranston as a Republican last fall, explained that he was wearing a different hat and one that brings him to the State House regularly: He lobbies for MetLife Home and Auto Insurance.

Besides Fung, there were, of course, lobbyists aplenty. To name a few: George H. Nee, of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO; Henry Boeniger and Robert A. Walsh Jr., of the National Education Association-Rhode Island; Scott A. Fraser and Brian K. Jordan, of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, and Frank McMahon, whose firm, Advocacy Solutions, has a long list of clients.

Good eats, indeed

When House Democrats weren’t dining at the West Valley Inn, you might have found them at the Capital Grille, Capriccio, Mill’s Tavern or Citron.

Those are the venues where Murphy held meetings or dinners, paid for out of his campaign account, in December.

Favored locations for Senate dinners, paid for with campaign funds from Montalbano, included McCormick & Schmick’s, Pinelli’s North End Café and Twin Oaks.

Other tidbits from the campaign finance reports just filed:

•Carcieri repaid himself $78,500 from his campaign fund during December, leaving the fund with a cash balance of just $441.52. The amount he repaid still pales in comparison with the outstanding loan — $1.4 million — which represents personal funds Carcieri deposited into the account to pay campaign expenses.

Carcieri held another fundraiser Jan. 31 at the Crowne Plaza to replenish the account. Does the future hold more loan repayments for the governor? “There is no specific plan to do so,” spokesman Neal said. “If money accumulates, we’ll have to see at that time how it will be spent.”

•Carcieri’s campaign finance report was 69 pages. The report from former Lt. Gov. Charles J. Fogarty, who tried unsuccessfully to unseat Carcieri, for the same 27-day time period: 7 pages.

•Carcieri’s highest-profile donor for the month: Ann Romney, wife of the former governor of Massachusetts and Republican presidential contender, gave $1,000, the legal maximum for a calendar year. (Mitt Romney gave Carcieri $1,000 in July.)

•Secretary of State Mollis donated a pair of Patriots tickets valued at $178 to his parish, the Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in North Providence. Mollis, who was still mayor of North Providence in December — he assumed his new office last month — said he has donated to the raffle “for years now” and will be “more than happy to continue doing it as secretary of state.”

Mollis said the one-month report doesn’t represent the full range of charitable organizations to which he gives through his campaign fund. Such donations are “part of the responsibility that comes with the office,” Mollis said. “I think it’s something that all elected officials should do.”

Mollis allowed that if he plans to receive public matching funds for his next race, as he did last time, he’ll need to be “more frugal” because spending during his entire four-year term of office will count toward the limit of how much he can spend on the campaign.

•Speaking of spending limits, Lieutenant Governor Roberts’ campaign account returned nearly $10,000 in donations during December. The reason: The state Board of Elections ruled she had raised too much money during her campaign.

Because Roberts used public matching funds, state law limited how much she could raise and spend, and Roberts’ campaign was keeping track. However, Roberts started the campaign season with money already in the bank, left over from her time as a state senator. The Board of Elections said the Roberts campaign should have included that money in her fundraising total. (Roberts’ campaign said she did not come close to surpassing the spending limit because the law allows candidates to exclude certain spending that’s directly related to fundraising.)

Paul Tencher, Roberts’ campaign manager and now her chief of staff, said the campaign did not agree with the decision but chose to refund the money rather than fight it. In all, the campaign refunded $14,089 in donations, and accordingly, canceled $15,878 in services for which it had paid but not yet received.

•Drinks for the Senate holiday party came from Malik’s Liquors, the Warren liquor store owned by state Rep. Jan Malik. The beverage bill: $622.28.

egudrais@projo.com