Headlined by two bills (H7515 & H7634) that would impose new collective-bargaining-type mandates on non-union private businesses, the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity today published a list of the BEST and WORST bills of the 2016 General Assembly session, including legislation that has and has not yet received a floor vote. On a broader level, once again General Assembly lawmakers in 2016 are on track to continue a multi-year, negative trend of public policy that will reduce economic justice for Rhode Islanders. This according to the 2016 General Assembly Freedom Index, an interactive, live tool published by the nonpartisan RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity. Although not all 2016 bills have received final ratings, the few positive pieces of legislation are massively outweighed by the much greater number of negative bills, resulting in a net negative impact, as has occurred in prior years.
Lawmakers and the public are encouraged to visit the "Legislation" tab on the 2016 Freedom Index to determine the bill rankings for the majority of bills that have been rated, but not yet voted on. The "Summary" tab displays individual lawmaker scores. As of March 4, among the 136 bills that are preliminary listed on the Index, and with only a minority of bills receiving votes, early results in the 2016 session include:
The Center notes that not all bills have received final reviews and that the public should check back regularly for updated bill ratings and legislator rankings. Additional resources are available on the main RI Freedom Index page, including a number of online and interactive tools and information for users, with links to scores from prior years:
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