Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee has a message to voters who might not be happy about all the new taxes and fees in the state budget for the new fiscal year starting next week: Don’t blame him.
“Talk to your General Assembly members,” he suggested at a roundtable with reporters on Smith Hill on Wednesday.
The version of the spending plan approved by the legislature includes a variety of new taxes and fees that the governor says are unnecessary.
Among them:
- A 2-cent-a-gallon hike in the gas tax
- New DMV registration fees for hybrid and electric cars
- A $48 surcharge on health insurance plans
- A higher conveyance tax when Rhode Islanders sell their homes
- Extending the hotel tax to include short-term rentals like Airbnb
- A new property tax on expensive second homes (unofficially dubbed the “Taylor Swift Tax”)
McKee said state lawmakers could have made up for expected cuts from the federal government without all those revenue proposals.
“We gave them a good budget (proposal), as we have every year, and they gave us a bad budget,” he said.“When we tax people unnecessarily and raise the cost of driving a car or owning a home, this is going to be money out of the hardworking people of Rhode Island’s pockets.”
Rhode Island House Speaker Joe Shekarchi and Senate President Val Lawson rejected McKee’s criticism.
“We were proud to again pass a balanced and responsible budget with bipartisan support that delivered for Rhode Islanders,” they said in a joint statement.
McKee said he won’t veto the bill. Lawmakers clearly have enough votes to override a veto, anyway.
So while the governor is refusing to sign the spending plan, it will become law anyway.
Shekarchi is seen as a possible challenger to McKee’s reelection bid, so by not signing the spending plan the governor is clearly hoping to dodge political fallout.
But, in their joint statement, McKee’s rivals suggested the spending plan he proposed in January was irresponsible “and included items that were simply unworkable or broke promises we made to retirees.”
