RI Environmental Agencies Avoid Cuts in McKee’s 2026 Budget
PROVIDENCE — Many of the state’s climate and environmental programs are avoiding the chopping block — for now. That’s the main takeaway from Gov. Dan McKee’s $14.2 billion spending plan released on Jan 16. In the months leading up to its release, state budget officials have been keen to stress that the years of post-pandemic plenty were over; all of the federal money received as part of the COVID-19 relief bills has been spent or obligated.
Entering 2025, budget officials estimate the state’s deficit to be around $223.2 million, and the chief aim of the governor’s proposal is to present a balanced budget. “We were trying to offset an over $200 million deficit,” said Jonathan Wormer, director of the state Department of Administration. “It forces us to take a hard look at our recurring expenses in this year and for future years.”
Budget officials said the governor’s proposal closed the deficit while charging no new broad-based taxes or adding excessive government spending. Agencies like the state Department of Environmental Management (DEM) and the state Coastal Resources Management Council are broadly level-funded, and level-staffed.
RIPTA Is Facing a Budget Deficit of $32.6 Million
PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority faces a $32.6 million deficit in Gov. Dan McKee’s newly released spending plan for fiscal year 2026. The quasi-public agency had submitted its own budget proposal to the governor with a shortfall of about $31.5 million. RIPTA’s proposal noted that it no longer had federal COVID money to spend — the funding source had kept the agency afloat during the pandemic — and also requested adding new staff.
The governor’s fiscal year 2026 budget marks the second year in a row that McKee has proposed a spending plan that leaves the transit agency with a deficit. When the governor released his proposal for fiscal year 2025, he offered $10 million in federal funds to help cover the then-$18 million shortfall the agency faced. By the end of the legislative session, the General Assembly voted to offset the rest.
This time around, RIPTA’s budget shortfall is significantly larger, and the state is generally in a more difficult financial position.
Public Meetings Held on Plan to Buy Flood-Prone Properties in Johnston, Cranston
CRANSTON — A series of public meetings held in January started a new phase in a plan to buy up homes along the flood-prone Pocasset River and restore parts of the river’s flood plain. The Pocasset River Watershed Plan targets specific neighborhoods in Johnston and Cranston where flooding frequently damages property. The meetings held in both communities offered more information to residents who may be eligible and willing to sell their homes as a part of the federally funded program.
At a Jan 15 meeting in Cranston, Gina DeMarco, special projects manager at the Northern Rhode Island Conservation District, explained that the plan is funded by a federal law called the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act.
The overall project is large and will likely cost about $60 million in total. As of now, following an allocation from Sen. Jack Reed (D), there’s about $5 million allotted for home purchases in each community. “We have enough to get started on in the River Drive neighborhood of Johnston and the Riverview neighborhood of the city of Cranston,” DeMarco said. To prevent damage in the area, the plan involves flood-proofing some properties and purchasing others so that the floodplain can be restored to a more natural and resilient state. Shawna Little of Fuss & O’Neill, the engineering firm hired to oversee the project, said homes that are purchased will be torn down, and depending on where and how many homes the program acquires, there will be greenery planted or wetlands restored on the properties to bring the areas back to what they were probably like “pre-development.”
Resignation Reduces Coastal Regulation Agency to Six Members from 10
PROVIDENCE — The state’s coastal regulating agency is already starting the new year on the wrong foot. In December, The Coastal Resources Management Council quietly announced that long-time council member and Little Compton resident Donald Gomez was resigning. Gomez, who prior to retirement worked as an electric engineer for the Navy in Newport, had been serving in some capacity on CRMC’s executive panel since 2007.
Gomez’s resignation represents problems for the coastal agency. Unlike other state departments, where final decision-making power rests with an appointed executive director, CRMC has an all-volunteer, politically appointed 10-member executive council fulfilling the same function, voting on permits, and overseeing agency staff. CRMC’s executive director, Jeff Willis, and other agency staff report to the council — chosen by the governor and approved by the Senate — whose members aren’t required to have expertise in coastal issues. It makes RI somewhat of an outlier; California is the only other state that runs its coastal management program with a politically appointed council.
Coastal regulation is a job that’s going to become harder in the next few months. Gomez’s resignation brings the total number of council members down to just six, the bare minimum required for the council to meet quorum. In layman’s terms, if any council member is absent from a meeting going forward, the council can take no legal action, delaying decisions on permits submitted to the agency. •
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