With the start of Rhode Island’s legislative session now a few weeks in, we reached out, as we have these past few years, to the area’s legislative delegation with a brief survey looking at their initiatives in the past session, and what they hope to accomplish in the 2024 session. We also asked about their perceptions of the state’s greatest challenges and focused on affordable housing and healthcare.
Senator Dawn Euer, D-Dist. 13, Newport, Jamestown
How can constituents learn more about you and your proposals, and how best can constituents contact you?
Website: www.electdawneuer.com
Email: sen-euer@rilegislature.gov
Social media: https://www.facebook.com/ElectDawnEuer, https://twitter.com/DawnEuer
Phone: (401) 276-5589
What legislation do you hope to introduce in the 2024 legislative session? Please give a brief description, and why it’s one of your priorities.
- Nursing home financial transparency. Rhode Island’s population is aging and it’s incredibly important that we address the nursing home crisis. Billions of dollars of public funding (Medicare and Medicaid dollars) flow through nursing homes each year, and yet, the nursing home owners continue to claim that they can’t afford to pay their workers more or staff their facilities properly. I read a report over the fall detailing the use of “related party” transactions as standard practice in the nursing home industry and it raised concerns for me about fraud and abuse in the system. Without a more robust reporting structure and consolidated financial reports, regulators do not have a clear picture of how the money is flowing through these organizations. Private equity firms have been buying nursing homes for millions of dollars, so they obviously see value in these organizations, while many of the current owners are crying poverty.
- Utility Reform. Since the passage of Act on Climate, it’s become very apparent that many of the parallel laws that create the utility regulatory structure need to be updated as well. I’m currently working on finalizing legislation that will require utility procurements to go through a public RFP process as well as protect customer data as we transition to smart meters. Additionally, the legislation will prohibit the use of ratepayer dollars to cover lobbying expenses (this is already prohibited administratively but I believe it needs to be codified into state law) and give the public utilities commission additional authorities regarding to the oversight of the utility when they propose grid modernizations to control costs and priorities in system planning.
What legislation did you introduce in the last legislative session and what was the outcome?
- Environmental Justice Act. This legislation would give regulators the ability to consider cumulative impacts when they are issuing clean air or clean water permits. This is especially important to hold polluters responsible and empower the DEM to further limit pollution when they grant permits in industrial areas that abut residential areas – similar to what we see in parts of the north end. This bill would also give the affected communities additional opportunity for public input and create a mitigation fund. This bill has passed the Senate three times, but the House has refused to take it up. This legislation has importance throughout the state, and I will continue to have it at the top of my list of priorities this year.
- Protecting Victims of Domestic Violence. I passed successful legislation to prevent domestic abusers from using the courts as an extension of their abuse. The bill gives the courts definitions and tools to dismiss suits that lack merit early in the process, without requiring the victim to endure lengthy and expensive litigation.
- Requiring the Bridge & Turnpike Authority to give better and more frequent notice of toll violations and give additional time before assessing fines on unpaid tolls. With the move to automatic tolling and the limited hours at the EZ Pass office, I have heard more and more feedback from constituents who have gone over the bridge without realizing there was a problem with their transponder, only to find out because they received an avalanche of orange toll violation envelopes. To add insult to injury, it seems that the processing time of mailing out the violation means that the toll often has a fine added to it by the time they arrive in the mail. Legislation to address this passed the Senate and the House but in different forms so I will be working this year to make sure we can reconcile those differences and still protect drivers from unfair fines.
- Last year in coordination with Attorney General Neronha, we passed a slate of lead prevention bills. Childhood lead prevention is a preventable condition which can lead to developmental delay, learning disabilities, and behavioral issues. Unfortunately, the Governor’s budget as submitted undermines much of that effort and I will be working to preserve those programs. Lead paint hasn’t been manufactured since before I was born and it’s devastating that we’re both dealing with such high incidences of lead poisoning and also that there is any resistance to trying to address this problem.
What do you see as the state’s greatest challenges in 2024?
- Besides housing and healthcare that are discussed below, public education requires serious attention and focus. Public education is a critical service and is an equalizer. Also, it’s one of the most important issues that affects so many other critical issues, including workforce shortages across all sectors. We will not grow our economy without lifting up educational outcomes. Specifically, I believe we need to do more to help the school districts that will be seeing a phase out of the one-time federal dollars. Many districts, including Newport, used those funds for pilot programs to try to help our kids catch up after the pandemic. What was learned was those pilot programs were desperately needed and our kids are still struggling. Taking resources away is not going to help. There are also several school construction projects across the state that suffered the effects of runaway global inflation and supply chain issues that have created budget shortages.
Among the most critical issues in Rhode Island are affordable housing and healthcare.
What do you think the legislature and governor need to do to address affordable housing concerns?
- We need to allocate more funds to housing in a mix of programs – to provide mortgage and rent assistance and to help build more housing. Additionally, we need to continue to combat the expansion of short-term rentals that has been devastating to our housing supply.
Over the last few years, healthcare has been, to be kind, uncertain in Rhode Island. We’ve had a failed merger between Care New England and Lifespan, we’ve had revolving Directors of Health Care, we have a critical shortage of primary care physicians with reimbursements in Rhode Island well below neighboring states. How should the governor and legislature address our critical healthcare issues?
- We need a permanent Director for the Department of Health. We need to keep private equity out of the healthcare industry and make sure that people running hospitals are incentivized by providing high quality care, not beholden to delivering shareholder profits. Recently, the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner finished a plan to raise rates to be competitive with neighboring states. We need to implement that plan and also apply that process to primary care and other specialties. We also need to provide support for medical school graduates to get them to stay in RI after graduation, This issue also intersects with the need to lift up public education and address out of control housing costs. Young professionals need and want attainable housing, childcare, good schools, and public transportation infrastructure.
Finally, this is an election year. Are you planning on running for re-election, or some other position (if so, which position)?
I am planning on running for re-election to the State Senate.
