Newport City Council and State Legislators Legislative Priorities Meeting - January 24, 2026
Newport City Council and State Legislators Legislative Priorities Meeting - January 24, 2026
On Saturday, January 24, 2026, the Newport City Council met with state legislators (Senator Dawn Oyer, Senator Lou DePalma, Representative Lauren Carson, Representative Marvin Havney) at city hall to discuss the city's legislative priorities for the upcoming session. Topics included school regionalization, state budget impacts, cruise ship fees, a proposed conveyance tax, the birthing center closure, housing, energy, transportation, water infrastructure, mental health, and workforce development. No formal votes were taken, but positions were expressed and next steps outlined.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Beth Cullen (School Committee): Urged moving forward on regionalization, noting that the Rhode Island Foundation's proposed funding formula could cost Newport $7 million due to high property wealth, but might also yield savings if the state picks up special education, transportation, and multilingual learner costs. She emphasized that consolidation would benefit students academically and extracurricularly.
Discussion Items
- School Regionalization: Councilors and legislators discussed the legislative path for a new regionalization ballot question. Senator Oyer warned that previous assumptions about codifying reimbursement rates (e.g., the 2% per grade bonus) could face pushback in the General Assembly. Senator DePalma clarified that the 2% per grade bonus is in statute and unlikely to change, but noted a new bill proposes raising it to 6%. The council confirmed that the language for regionalization can be sculpted as Newport and Middletown wish, within reason. Councilor Smith asked whether an 80% reimbursement is guaranteed; Senator Oyer explained that reimbursement rates must be framed within the statutory framework, not simply requested.
- State Budget & Federal Impacts (Senator DePalma): He highlighted the potential effects of the federal "HR1" bill, including $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts over 10 years, $200 billion in SNAP cuts, and impacts on the advanced premium tax credit affecting 40,000+ Rhode Islanders. He noted the state budget as proposed does not address these federal threats. He also mentioned ongoing work on primary care reimbursement rates, with a comprehensive review expected to affect future budgets.
- Cruise Ship Fee Increase (Governor's Proposal to Raise to $30): Councilors and legislators unanimously opposed the increase. Senator Oyer called it a "dangerous procedure" dipping into municipal revenue. Representative Carson said it was "absurd" and noted it would only raise $1 million. City Manager Colin Kennedy pointed out that the fee is tied to harbor operations, not general revenue, and that the city already set the rate at $20 after thoughtful market analysis. The mayor added that cruise ships are booked two years in advance, making the increase unworkable. Councilor Sweeney noted that a similar state action (the "Taylor Swift tax") discouraged local creativity.
- Conveyance Tax / Resiliency Fund (Chief Donley): Chief Donley presented a proposal for a conveyance fee (up to 5%) on commercial and non-owner-occupied residential property sales to fund a Resiliency and Sustainability Trust. The fee would not apply to year-round owner-occupants who commit to a 5-year residency. Based on $560+ million in 2025 sales, a 5% fee could generate ~$28 million annually. The fund would be used for coastal protection, stormwater management, and emergency resilience projects. Block Island and Little Compton have used similar fees for 40 years. Councilor Smith requested the proposal be tabled for further vetting, as the council had not had time to review it. Senator Oyer noted that Senator Gu has introduced legislation enabling all cities and towns to create such a fee.
- Birthing Center Closure (Representative Carson): She introduced two bills: one requiring extensive public review and equity analysis before a hospital can close a birthing center, and another to make permanent a federal grant program for maternal and infant health monitoring. She described ongoing community organizing efforts and meetings with Brown University Health. Senator DePalma emphasized that the closure is a "dollars and cents" issue driven by low Medicaid reimbursement rates relative to Massachusetts. Councilor Sweeney stressed that the birthing center is foundational to Newport Hospital's mission and urged legislators to pressure Brown Health to keep it open.
- Housing & Eviction Prevention: Councilor Napolitano asked about state efforts to increase affordable housing and prevent displacement. Senator Oyer noted that right-to-counsel legislation for eviction has been reintroduced but faces landlord opposition. She encouraged the council to pass supportive resolutions and provide testimony.
- Energy Costs: Councilor Segley asked about bringing more energy options to the island. Senator Oyer criticized the governor's budget for gutting the renewable energy standard and described her bill to cap utility infrastructure budgets, forcing smarter investments. Representative Carson said energy policy will be a major focus in the House.
- North End Transportation & Admiral Calfus Road: Councilors and the mayor discussed the State Traffic Commission's (STC) recent 2-2 vote against placing weight restrictions on Admiral Calfus Road for class 7+ trucks. Senator DePalma clarified that his letter to the STC asked for facts and data behind DOT's claim that Admiral Calfus and Coddington Highway have "similar risk factors," not opposition. The city's public safety officials voted in favor of restrictions. The mayor and council requested that Senator DePalma ask the STC to reconsider. Councilor Segley noted 37-38 driveways and frequent accidents. The mayor also raised the delayed landscaping plan for the north end gateway, with a meeting scheduled for Monday with RIDOT.
- Water/Sewer Infrastructure Funding: Councilor Napolitano asked for state help with the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank's affordability criteria, noting that Newport's high median income disqualifies it from grant/loan forgiveness programs despite significant low-income populations. The lead service line replacement mandate will disproportionately burden low-income households if rates rise. Senator Oyer offered to work on identifying legislative fixes.
- K-12 Mental Health: Councilor Sweeney asked about state funding for school mental health. Senator DePalma mentioned the Mobile Response Stabilization Services (MRSS) program (98% effectiveness) and Certified Community Behavioral Health Centers, but noted a disconnect between state agencies and local schools. He agreed to follow up on connectivity.
- Workforce Development: Councilor Sweeney reported that the Newport School Committee voted unanimously to form a workforce development advisory committee. She highlighted Electric Boat's need for apprentices, with 700 out-of-state recruits last year, and urged earlier career-tech exposure.
- Fort Adams Funding: Representative Carson noted that the $5 million green bond allocation for Fort Adams was cut from the governor's budget to zero. She encouraged the council to pass a resolution supporting $5 million for DEM to distribute between maintenance and security.
Key Outcomes
- Request for STC Reconsideration: Council will ask Senator DePalma to formally request the State Traffic Commission to reconsider its vote on Admiral Calfus Road truck restrictions, citing misuse of his letter.
- Support for Birthing Center Bills: Council will consider resolutions in support of Representative Carson's bills requiring public review before birthing center closures and making maternal health monitoring permanent.
- Opposition to Cruise Ship Fee Increase: Council will consider a resolution opposing the governor's proposal to raise the cruise ship disembarkation fee to $30.
- Conveyance Tax Tabled: The council tabled further discussion of the conveyance fee/resiliency fund pending community input and review.
- Infrastructure Affordability: Senator Oyer will work with the city to identify legislative fixes to the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank's eligibility formulas.
- North End Landscaping: Mayor and council will attend Monday's meeting with RIDOT to press for the long-delayed landscaping plan.
Meeting Transcript
Freshman, coffee, tea, snack. Uh help yourself over on the table to the left or your right, depending on how you're looking. That was so generous of you, Charlie. So that was generous of you. Uh that's the end of our budget. So early I'm not gonna find that. And I bought a couple lottery tickets. That's fine. All righty. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Uh thank you so much for joining us uh today on Saturday, pre-storm Saturday. Um this has always been a uh uh a really good uh get together and discussion with our state legislators uh where we can kind of set out what we are what we plan and hope to hope to garner from the upcoming legislative uh session. Uh so before we get started, I just want to go around and introduce uh who we have here today. Um I'll start at our table over here. We have uh Senator Dawn Oyer representing District 13, uh Senator Lou De Palmer, representing District 12, Representative Lauren Carson on the fighting 75th, and Marvin Havney representing the district 73. So thank you all so much for being here this morning. Um and look forward to have a great discussion. Um we do have our council up here today. Yeah, we didn't. Yeah. Uh unfortunately, uh Council Carlin could not be here today due to family commitments, uh, but we have the rest. We have Stephanie Sweith, uh Alan Pinock, Csy Comps of Ourobong, Gina Politano, Lynn Segley, uh, and myself, and we also have our city manager, Colin Kennedy, uh way over in the back, Mike Carulot, deputy city manager, city solicitor crispy in. Uh our wonderful city clerk, Laura Swistack. Thanks for coming here this morning, Laura. And then we have uh Peter Batista, who's uh representing from our lobbying firm. So um we will get some public uh input as we go along as well, um, but we want to kind of get through some of these topics first. Uh we have a a general outline of some of the things we want to hit today. Um in these outlines. Um I didn't get too specific into many of the questions that were put forward by the council, uh counselors, um, because we would be here till four o'clock or so. But um it's uh we do have a lot of robust uh conversations and questions to hit and a lot of topics to hit. Um so if there is something that does come up, you know as to the counselors, feel free to ask any questions. Same with the uh with our uh legislative team um in case there's something that might not be on here that we want to hit. Um there are a couple things that are uh very um kind of just gaining speed right now. I know that we're gonna start off with uh legislation. Uh for instance, the the bill that Senator uh I'm sorry, uh Representative Carson uh just put through uh recently about the birthing center, so we'll we'll be hitting on that as well. Um but um what I'd like to start off with is uh start off with uh school regionalization since that's been a uh a major topic in Newport and Middletown as well. And um during our conversations with Middletown, uh one of the things is is is how are we are we gonna attack it from a legislative standpoint? Um if we do end up going through um the whole process. So I'd like to start off uh uh on that note and then we can kind of go off on any any kind of education or youth um directives that that uh anyone wants to talk about as well. Um let's see where did my notes go here. So um one one quick question um and I'll I'll start with and anyone other reps can in answer. For when we get to a legislative the legislation part of regionalization. Um I know it back in 2022 we had the uh one of the original forms. Where do we stand on on that as far as what is still um what is still active on that regionalization? I mean on the uh regionalization legislation, or do we have to do a completely new legislative ask? Is that to put the question on the ballot? Correct. Yeah, we have to do it again.
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