- Ted, it's good to have you back.

Governor Dan McKee recently shared his $13.7 billion budget proposal with state lawmakers, and there were several things that caught my attention.

One is the increased funding that he wants to set aside for multilingual learners.

As you and I have talked about in recent weeks, we've seen a really big increase in the number of students in Rhode Island schools who are learning English.

So the governor is proposing setting aside $16.6 million for these students which is still short of what the Education Commissioner is requesting, which is roughly $20 million.

- Yeah, Michelle, the money for the multilingual learners is, I think, one of multiple moving parts.

We're gonna see a lot of discussion and scrutiny over the coming months because the governor also put in a sort of arcane tweak to the inflation adjustment for how much they give the school districts per pupil.

It's obscure, it hasn't gotten a lot of attention but it leads to almost an over $20 million cut for the districts.

School committees are worried about that, so I think there's gonna be a lot of focus on the education funding and the hearings.

- Speaking of education, let's talk about early intervention.

The governor is proposing nearly $4 million in addition for early intervention.

Rhode Island PBS Weekly contributor, Steph Machado, of course, the Boston Globe reporter has been covering this extensively and she found there are hundreds of children, three and younger who have developmental disabilities and delays who have not been given the services they need in a timely manner.

We should note this is mandated for states to do this by federal law.

- Well, and it's telling to me, Michelle, that this is the only one of a bunch of Medicaid rate increases that are being talked about, where the governor's budget puts in the full amount of money this year.

And I think that's a credit to Steph's reporting.

Advocates say the same thing, it put a real spotlight on this program and these children not getting the services they need, which need to be provided in a timely way.

So I think it does show the importance of that kind of reporting that scrutinizes these individual programs.

- Absolutely.

As you were looking at the budget, what stood out to you?

- Well, being a nerd, I always like to flip to the back where they project the deficit in the future years 'cause it really gives you a sense of the kind of the fiscal health, the financial health of Rhode Island.

And you know, I had thought maybe with the federal money that's come in huge amounts in recent years as we've talked about, the state might be getting to a more sustainable budget path post-COVID but the deficit they're projecting for a year from now, the budget that'll come out next January is $0.25 billion, almost.

And so I think, once again, Rhode Island is stuck where tax revenue is just not rising as quickly as the spending commitments lawmakers are making.

And so, it looks like the state's gonna be continuing down that same kinda challenging path in the future years.

- A lot of people are also talking about these questions that the governor wants to put before voters in November, bond measures.

Let's talk about two of them, there are a total of four.

One would ask voters to approve borrowing $100 million to increase affordable and middle income housing and infrastructure.

Another proposal, a $60 million bond for a state archive and history center.

At this point, it's not clear if general assembly leaders would support all or even some of these bond measures.

- Yeah, what's interesting is each one has a problem with a different assembly leader.

So Speaker Shekarchi, House Speaker Joe Shekarchi, is not sure that $60 million of bond money should go into this new state archive center that Secretary of State, Amore, wants.

He suggested looking for other sources of funding.

And then Senate President Ruggerio has suggested maybe another $100 million for housing isn't needed right now when so much money is already put into that, much of it unspent.

So very curious to see where those two come down on this.

- A few days before the governor released this proposal, he gave the state of the state address, let's take a listen to one of the things he wants to be a priority.

- This year we're gonna set a goal to raise per capita income by a minimum of $20,000 by the year 2030.

(audience applauding) Just think how much housing insecurity and food insecurity we could address as a state if we doubled down and worked to raise per capita income across Rhode Island, helping every family in our state.

- Ted, I know that statement really caught your attention and you've had questions about what the governor actually meant.

What have you found out?

- Well, because $20,000 is the gap in income between Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

It's driving part of why the state struggles to keep up on education, on hospital funding, things like that.

And so when I first heard it, I thought, "Oh, he's setting a goal to match Massachusetts by 2030."

But then when we asked the governor's office, is this adjusted for inflation?

What does the goal really mean?

They couldn't answer those questions, not just to me, but other reporters as well.

So right now, it's unclear what the governor's goal is.

They say they're gonna have a plan in 100 days that'll put more details on it but unclear right now exactly how ambitious he's really being with that.

- And that's a pretty quick turnaround, by 2030.

- The state has been losing ground to Massachusetts since World War II, so it would be a quick catch up, yeah.

- Yeah, Ted, thank you so much for joining me.

- Good to be here.

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