Projo Politics Blog

House Republicans have promised to boycott all legislative grants in the coming year and have threatened to sue the General Assembly leadership to stop the disbursement of the modest checks to local libraries, senior centers and Little Leagues.

“Going forward we’re not doing grants,” House Minority Whip Nicholas Gorham, R-Coventry, told Political Scene. “The best way to prove you think something is wrong is not to do it. We’re refusing to participate in a process that we think is constitutionally deficient and fraught with potential for abuse.”

Gorham, a lawyer, said he has prepared a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the grants and would file it if the Assembly leadership doesn’t allow the entire legislature to vote on the specific requests for taxpayers’ dollars.

“You can’t leave it to the speaker’s discretion. … We all know the speaker uses it as a crowbar to get people to vote in certain ways,” Gorham said. “If we have to challenge it in court, we’re going to do it.”

House Speaker William J. Murphy has no plans to change the legislative grant process, according to his spokesman, Larry Berman, who declined to comment on the prospect of a lawsuit.

Murphy and Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano distributed $2.3 million last year in specific grants to community organizations at the request of specific legislators. Most of the checks ranged from $1,000 to $3,000 and went to such entities as the George Hail Free Public Library, in Warren, the Gaspee Days Parade Committee, in Warwick, or Bristol’s King Philip Little League.

All grants are individually reviewed and decided on by the House speaker or Senate president.

Every lawmaker received some funds, Murphy noted, including Gorham. “Since first being elected to the House in 1998, Representative Gorham has received well in excess of $50,000 in legislative grants for his district,” Murphy told Political Scene. “The issue he is raising about the grants is nothing more than petty politics.”

Gorham acknowledged receiving funds in prior years.

“Yes, I’ve been there for 10 years and cumulatively it’s fair to say I’ve participated in this process,” Gorham said. “My participation doesn’t make it right.”

The issue came up on the House floor last week when Gorham asked the full chamber to approve checks he had received recently as part of last year’s legislative grant disbursement. After House Majority Leader Gordon Fox objected, the speaker shut off Gorham, who had three checks in hand: $1,000 for the Tyler Free Library, $1,500 for the West Glocester Fire Department, and $1,000 for the Foster Ambulance Corps.

“These grants go to worthy causes,” Gorham later told Political Scene, adding that he would not pass the checks along to the organizations unless the Assembly voted to approve them.

“There are times when you have to take a stand and say this is just wrong,” he said.

--By Steve Peoples, Cynthia Needham and Daniel Barbarisi
Journal staff writers

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