From the Rhode Island Republican perspective, the state of the state is “bleak” to start 2025.
In her rebuttal to Gov. Dan McKee’s State of the State speech on Tuesday night, Senate GOP leader Jessica de la Cruz said “despite the governor’s best of intentions, some of the outcomes under his administration have been abject failures.”
Those failures, according to de la Cruz, include the deterioration of the now mostly demolished westbound Washington Bridge, the data breach of the RIBridges public benefits computer system and “reckless overspending of taxpayer dollars.”
“While the gridlock is bad. Even worse is the closing of small businesses whose owners have sacrificed weekends, vacations, and holidays to keep the doors open during hard times,” de la Cruz said about the Washington Bridge.
“This program went massively over budget, with computer errors denying families their health benefits and has been burdened by crashes, glitches and lawsuits,” she said about the hacking of the RIBridges system. “And now, over seven hundred thousand people have their entire lives for sale on the dark web.”
Criticisms on ‘assault weapons’ ban, housing, education
Giving the GOP rebuttal for the second time, de la Cruz, of North Smithfield, then turned to a particularly sensitive subject for her caucus, McKee’s plan to include an “assault weapons” ban in his budget for next year.
“If the governor wants to push gun control, perhaps he needs a civics lesson: legislation is crafted and debated by the General Assembly, by senators and representatives, not hidden in the state’s budget,” de la Cruz said. “He should either run for legislative office or collaborate with lawmakers rather than sidestepping the legislative process and using the budget as a tool for activism.”
State of the State address: Guns, homelessness, deficit: 5 key takeaways from McKee’s speech
De la Cruz also took on housing and pointed to a recent report from the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council questioning whether the state is getting good value for the hundreds of millions it has spent to create around 1,600 units of affordable housing.
And, she went on, “education is no better. Rhode Island spends among the highest per pupil in the nation, yet only 30% of students are proficient in English and math.”
GOP’s solutions: More oversight, less spending
What solutions does the GOP offer to these long-running and complex problems?
“It starts with effectiveness, efficiency and accountability,” she said, returning to a perennial Republican priority. “We need an independent Office of Inspector General. It would provide independent oversight, ensuring accountability and efficiency in state government.”
And it includes cutting state spending.
“Our state’s budget is bloated and needs to be put on a diet,” she said. “But this fiscal diet will bring about a healthier, more efficient, and stronger state government.”
She didn’t specify where cuts should occur.
But at the end of the day, the GOP position is that some major change is needed.
“The honest state of our state is bleak,” de la Cruz said. “But our state motto is still hope. And I hope that our governor and state leaders will see that Rhode Island is at a critical crossroads to determine the overall health of our state for decades to come.”
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: GOP response to State of the State speech: RI, governor on wrong track