Rhode Island
Bills to de-stigmatize language in state law on alcohol addiction progress in R.I. General Assembly • Rhode Island Current
What do you call someone who “who habitually lacks self-control as to the use of alcoholic beverages”?
They’re an “alcoholic,” according to Rhode Island General Law.
But the state’s statutory language surrounding alcohol use and treatment could soon change thanks to the recent passage of bills in both chambers of the General Assembly.
“We don’t talk that way anymore. We don’t think that way anymore. Yet it’s still codified into our statute,” said Rep. Jennifer Boylan, a Barrington Democrat, during a March 5 hearing of the House Committee on Health and Human Services.
The bill she introduced that night, H7736, saw successful passage May 7 during a House floor vote. On Thursday, May 9, the Senate unanimously passed Bill S2087 by Sen. Joshua Miller, a Cranston Democrat. The twin bills allow revision of how state law defines alcohol disorders and their treatment.
“These statutes have not been approached for revision in over 40 years,” Miller said on the Senate floor. “There are many flaws in it, including commitment to public hospitals where the actual commitment doesn’t exist, the beds do not exist. And the language is embarrassing to the departments and those involved as providers.”
Both bills direct the Rhode Island Department of Health and the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities (BHDDH) and Hospitals to coordinate proposed revisions that would align the state’s law books with best practices by Jan. 1, 2025.
Miller previously worked on the Governor’s Overdose Commission and has sponsored other bills relating to substance use in the past. This is Boylan’s first bill relating to substance use.
“I challenge you to find someone who doesn’t know anyone who has this problem (alcohol use disorder),” Boylan said in a recent phone interview. “It’s a problem that a lot of people struggle with, and I think our statutes should be updated to be more modernized.”
Person-first language
Many doctors and advocates consider terms like “alcoholic” stigmatizing and loaded. Both the National Institute on Drug Abuse and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest using “person with alcohol use disorder” in keeping with a person-first approach to language use.
The notion of self-control as the main motivating factor in one’s drinking is contrary to clinical understanding, which sees alcohol use disorder as a more complex pattern.
“Yes, there is an element of choice when a person first starts drinking. For some people, however, a mix of genetic and environmental factors facilitates a transition, often without full recognition, to increasingly heavier drinking,” according to a core resource document from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
It’s a problem that a lot of people struggle with, and I think our statutes should be updated to be more modernized.
– Rep. Jennifer Boylan, a Barrington Democrat
Now the bills have to pass in opposite chambers, said Larry Berman, a House spokesperson, in an email: “In other words, the House now has to pass Sen. Miller’s bill and the Senate now has to pass Rep. Boylan’s bill. Once each bill passes in both chambers, they will be transmitted to the Governor.”
Boylan said on the phone that she’s “very hopeful” the bill will land on the governor’s desk this year. And on the Senate floor, Miller said the simultaneous OK is an improvement over previous years. In the 2023 legislative session, Miller’s bill secured Senate approval. But its momentum ended when it was referred to the House Committee on Health and Human Services.
“I’ve had this bill for several years without any action on it on the House side,” Miller said. “The House passed it a few days ago, which will be a great relief to those involved in deciding in June what passes and doesn’t pass, [who] won’t have to hear from me about ‘Why didn’t this bill pass?’ Because it’s so simple and so important.”
The identical bills add only six sentences to existing statutes. Miller’s bill generated no discussion on the Senate floor. In the House, Minority Leader Mike Chippendale wondered if Boylan’s legislation would also change other instances of outdated language buried in state law.
“There are other sections in the law…where we use the term ‘habitual drunkard,’” Chippendale said. “I think obviously that sounds a little bit more offensive than ‘alcoholic.’”
Laws on taverns, cookshops and oyster houses, for example, lump together “Drunkards, wastrels, and minors” as prohibited from entry into these businesses. Business owners face possible fines if they count among their customers “any common drunkard or person addicted to the intemperate use of spirituous or intoxicating liquors.” The section was first written in 1896 and most recently updated a century later in 1996.
“Would this also change that or would that be something that we perhaps overlooked and will change later?” Chippendale asked Rep. Susan Donovan, who chairs the House Committee on Health and Human Services and presented Boylan’s bill.
“I’d have to refer to counsel. I would hope that it would change all of those terms,” Donovan said.
Last year, Gov. Dan McKee signed into law legislation sponsored by Sen. Jonathan Acosta that replaced terms like “mentally retarded,” “alcoholic,” and “drug abuser” with less stigmatizing language. That legislation targeted different sections of state law, however. Boylan said her bill hones in on a very specific section of state law.
Because circumstances can change
Beth Lamarre, executive director of the Rhode Island chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, wrote via email how stigmatizing words like “alcoholic” can hold “a negative connotation, because of how alcoholism/alcohol use disorder has been viewed throughout time.”
“It also spotlights the issue, as though it is that person’s only characteristic,” Lamarre said. “Describing someone as having an alcohol use disorder, on the other hand, describes a circumstance or a situation, one that can be changed.”
Other states have also begun to read the fine print surrounding spirits. “It’s hard to say how many states have replaced their language entirely, but we have noticed more states using AUD (alcohol use disorder) in current legislation,” said Karmen Hanson, a senior fellow in the National Conference of State Legislatures’ health program, via email.
Legislatures where similar legislation has been introduced include Connecticut, Maryland, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey and the Virgin Islands, but Hanson noted “that’s not a reflection of everything that may be out there.”
Global opinions differ on people-first language, although what words are used also owes much to the disability being described. England’s national health agency, for example, prefers “disabled people” to “people with a disability” — a choice underlined by an argument that society makes barriers for people with disabilities, rather than the disabilities themselves. This alternative, known as identity-first language, is also common among autistic and deaf people in the United States, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Regardless of what language one uses, disability advocates seem to agree that the overall idea is ensuring people feel comfortable speaking up about their struggles.
“Words matter, and how we talk about someone’s health (including and especially behavioral health) can make the difference in whether they feel supported in getting the treatment and help they need,” Lamarre said.
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Rhode Island
R.I. House Finance budget phases in millionaires tax over three years – The Boston Globe
In January, Governor Daniel J. McKee touched off a debate about a millionaires tax by proposing a state budget that would impose a 8.99 percent tax rate on personal income of more than $1 million — a 3 percentage point increase over the current top bracket that would have generated $67 million in fiscal year 2027.
The House Finance budget would phase in that millionaires tax by raising that top rate by 1 percentage point per year over three years — 6.99 percent for tax year 2027, 7.99 percent in 2028, and 8.99 percent for 2029. The move would generate an estimated $22 million in 2027, $68 million in 2028, $115 million in 2029, and $142 million in 2030.
Blazejewski said phasing in the millionaires tax will help Rhode Island deal with federal funding cuts as they take effect in the years ahead. Advocates see that tax as a crucial source of funding for essential programs amid federal cuts, he noted, while opponents predict it will hurt small businesses and drive away rich residents.
“We thought this strikes the right balance here for our state, given the situation we’re in with the federal government,” Blazejewski said. “We think this is a prudent way of increasing revenue over time, and then phasing it in, so it has less shock, it has more time to be absorbed, and then also comes online exactly when we need it.”
Rhode Island is pursuing a millionaires tax three years after Massachusetts imposed a 4 percent millionaires tax on top of its 5 percent income tax, raising billions in revenue. On May 25, the Globe reported that the Massachusetts surtax on that state’s highest earners has already generated more than $3.1 billion in revenue this fiscal year, with two months remaining — surpassing the $2.4 billion projected.
Inspector general
The House Finance budget includes $1.3 million to fund an independent inspector general’s office staffed with 12 full-time employees who will investigate waste, fraud, and abuse in state government.
Blazejewski called for creating an inspector general’s office soon after becoming House speaker on May 7. The move by the state’s most progressive House speaker came as a surprise to some because Republicans have long made the inspector general’s office a top legislative priority.
But Blazejewski noted he introduced inspector general legislation in 2015. On Friday, he said the federal government is cutting funding at the same time the state has seen “high-profile state failures” such as the closure of the Washington Bridge westbound and the botched rollout of a $99 million state payroll system.
McKee and Republican lieutenant governor candidate John J. Loughlin II questioned why Blazejewski wants the inspector general to oversee the executive branch — but not the Legislature.
On Friday, Blazejewski noted that voters approved a separation of powers amendment to the state Constitution in 2004 to ensure the three branches of government are separate and distinct, and that the inspector general’s office would be an administrative agency of the executive branch.
“If you allow the executive office to run roughshod over the Legislature, the judiciary, you no longer have three branches of government,” Blazejewski said. “It’s not original to Rhode Island. It’s a fundamental principle of government.“
RIDOT audit
The budget includes an audit of maintenance work by the state Department of Transportation. “We just have had too many high-profile failures, and we need to conduct an audit as to the maintenance program,” Blazejewski said.
The budget also removes the Department of Transportation director as chairman of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority. Former DOT director Peter Alviti Jr. began serving as chairman of the bus agency’s board in 2023. But Blazejewski said, “We just think it’s a conflict of interest.” The DOT director can continue to serve on the board, but not as chairman, he said.
No line-item veto
The House Finance budget rejects McKee’s call for placing a constitutional amendment on the November ballot asking voters to give the governor line-item veto power, which would allow him to strike specific items from the budget without having to approve or veto the entire bill.
Last year, McKee refused to sign the state budget approved by the General Assembly because it raised taxes and fees, but he did not veto the bill. And McKee noted that 43 other states have some form of line-item veto authority.
But Blazejewski said, “That line item veto is about changing the power structure between the governor and the General Assembly,” and the current process works with the governor proposing a budget and legislators passing a budget. Other states have had “issues” with the line item veto, he said, noting Wisconsin’s governor used that power to delete words, numbers, and punctuation from a bill to change its meaning.
Budget exceeds $15 billion
The budget totals a record $15.2 billion for the fiscal year that starts July 1, marking an increase over the $14.859 billion proposed by McKee.
In August, the business-backed Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council warned that the state’s rate of spending was not sustainable. And in the Republican response to McKee’s State of the State, House Minority Leader Michael W. Chippendale said the state budget has grown by 200 percent since 2000, when it was about $4.5 billion.
URI medical school funding
The House Finance budget includes $5 million as an initial investment in creating a medical school at the University of Rhode Island.
The Senate had included that proposal in a 17-bill package aimed at strengthening the state’s strained health care system. Blazejewski said the medical school will help alleviate the state’s severe shortage of primary care doctors in the future.
Tax on Social Security
The House Finance budget includes the first year of McKee’s proposal to eliminate state personal income taxes on Social Security benefits over three years.
Under current law, taxpayers who have reached full Social Security retirement age (67 or older) and have incomes of less than $107,000 for single filers, or $133,750 for joint filers, are exempt from state income tax on Social Security income. The House agreed to eliminate the current minimum age threshold.
Child tax credit
The House Finance budget does not adopt McKee’s proposal to replace an existing tax deduction for dependents with a new child tax credit that would refund families $325 on their taxes per child, per year.
But it does build on the existing tax deduction structure and adds a $330 child tax credit to help lower income families. Blazejewski said the new system “costs a little bit more but gives even more of a benefit to families in Rhode Island.”
Bond questions
The budget includes a record $600 million in bond questions on the November ballot, but it modifies some of the proposals in McKee’s budget.
- Blazejewski said McKee’s budget “underfunded” an integrated health building at URI. So the budget provides $275 million (rather than $215 million) for the state’s three colleges, including $165 million (rather than $105 million) for the URI building, $50 million to renovate Rhode Island College’s Adams Library; and $60 million for a workforce innovation center at the Community College of Rhode Island.
- $120 million for housing, including $25 million for producing housing units for homeownership.
- $100 million (rather than $115 million) for economic development, including $55 million (rather than $70 million) for site development at the Quonset Business Park and I-195 District.
- $50 million for the “cultural economy,” including $45 million for a State History Center that would display the state’s founding documents.
- $55 million for “green economy bonds.” Blazejewski said, “Our caucus spoke over and over about making the green bond greener, and we’ve done just that.“
- The House budget eliminated the $50 million McKee proposed for Career and Technical Education. Blazejewski said testimony indicated the proposal was underfunded even at $50 million, “so we’re going to go back to the drawing board.”
Energy proposals
The House Finance budget adopts some, but not all, of McKee’s proposals for lowering energy bills.
House Majority Whip Katherine S. Kazarian, an East Providence Democrat, said the budget expands the renewable energy standard to including hydro and nuclear energy, which will result in savings.
But she said the budget would reject McKee’s plan to push back the 2033 deadline to reach 100 percent renewable energy sources for state electricity until 2050. “We’re going to continue to keep that 2033 deadline, which is really important to our caucus and, frankly, to the renewable energy investments that have come to the state,” she said.
Central Falls schools
The budget returns the Central Falls school district to local control after 35 years of state control. Blazejewski said this was a priority of Central Falls Mayor Maria Rivera.
Domestic violence calendar
The House budget includes $600,000 to hire three full-time employees and create a domestic violence calendar in state Superior Court to address a backlog of 1,200 felony domestic violence cases.
The House Finance Committee voted 11 to 2 to send the budget to the House floor for a vote next Friday, June 5.
Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him @FitzProv.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WJAR) — Health professionals are warning Rhode Islanders to look out for a fast-moving threat in the brush this summer: the Lone star tick.
NBC 10’s Martha Konstandinidis went out to see the increase in ticks firsthand and has some simple steps to protect your family.
(WJAR) — The Rhode Island House has passed a Bill that offers a rare alternative when considering end-of-life options: water cremation and human composting.
These processes are actually considered better for the environment.
Instead of being rooted in flames during cremation, remains are placed in water and no greenhouse gases are released.
Tom Harries, CEO of Earth Funeral – Green Funeral Home, explains the natural organic reduction also known as human composting, process while standing in front of an actual vessel in the warehouse during a tour at their new location, which will open in Elkridge. Eventually it will house 126 vessels. Jeffrey F. Bill/Baltimore Sun)
Last year NBC 10 was able to get a first-hand look into how it works.
The John F. Tierney Funeral Home in Connecticut became one of the first in Southern New England to offer water cremation or “Aquamation” for humans.
Remains are placed into a machine, and water begins to circulate, leaving bone material behind.
Human composting uses fertile soil to break down remains.
Lawmakers on both sides spoke before the vote.
It passed 47-17.
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It now heads to the Senate.
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