Projo Politics Blog

The 54 bills Governor Carcieri vetoed this year left some wondering whether he would be remembered as Governor Veto.

Carcieri vetoed more bills this year than he has in any year of his first term, but it turns out he’s not the most veto-happy governor in state history.

In 1988, then-Gov. Edward D. DiPrete vetoed 80 bills.

DiPrete generally made heavy use of his veto pen; he vetoed 54 bills in 1985, 56 in 1986, 55 in 1987 and 56 in 1989. The fewest bills he vetoed during any year of his administration was 35 in 1990, his final year in office.

It’s unclear whether any other governor vetoed more bills. The legislative data-systems office can provide information only since 1984, the first year such records were computerized.

Carcieri’s predecessor, Lincoln Almond, never vetoed more than 26 bills in a single year.

The governor between DiPrete and Almond, Bruce Sundlun, did not shy away from vetoes, either — he blocked, or sought to block, the enactment of 53 bills in 1991. (The General Assembly can override a governor’s veto with a vote by three fifths of members present and voting.)

Carcieri has made progressively wider use of the veto during his five years in office. In 2003, he vetoed just 11 bills. In each of the next two years, he vetoed 30 bills. And last year, he vetoed 37.

Carcieri’s vetoes represent less than 10 percent of the total number of bills the General Assembly passed this year — 644.

The number of bills vetoed can be misleadingly large because the House and Senate often pass identical versions of the same legislation. This year’s set of vetoes includes at least 15 House-Senate bill pairs.

Carcieri spokesman Michael Maynard said the vetoes do not indicate the governor has trouble getting along with the General Assembly.

“Let’s face it — there were a lot of bad bills that came to the governor’s desk this year,” Maynard said. “Some were vague in their language. Some imposed taxes. Some created new regulations that were duplicative of existing laws. Many of the bills he vetoed this year he also vetoed last year, or two years running.”

Maynard continued: “Governor Carcieri looks at every bill on its merits and that’s how he makes his determination.”

Carcieri vetoed some bills because he disagreed with the principles they embodied. For instance, he vetoed a ban on mandatory overtime for nurses, saying nurses and hospitals should work out the issue through collective bargaining. And he vetoed a bill to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences and decrease the maximum sentences for drug charges, saying he supported keeping those who commit more serious drug offenses behind bars for long periods.

With other bills, Carcieri disagreed with the way they were written. For instance, he vetoed a bill to create a state Department of Veterans Affairs in part because the bill was “carelessly crafted,” as he put it.

Among the requirements for residing in the Rhode Island Veterans Home, in Bristol, and getting veterans’ benefits, the bill set forth the inexplicable requirement that a veteran prove he or she “was an actual resident of the state of Rhode Island on April 23, 1889.”

As written, Carcieri said, the bill did “little of substance for veterans and may cause confusion in the delivery of services.”

As of Friday, the Assembly leadership had yet to commit to returning for a special summer session to override any of the vetoes.”

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