General Assembly Notes

Senate Passes Raptakis Bill On Alcohol Sales; Newton Takes State House Job

News from the General Assembly as it relates to East Greenwich.

The state Senate approved legislation last Tuesday to amend a new reporting requirement on alcohol sales in the state. The bill was introduced by Sen. Leonidas Raptakis (D-Dist. 33, Coventry) and now goes to the House of Representatives for consideration. Raptakis represents part of western East Greenwich as well as part of West Greenwich. Raptakis decried the reporting requirement – which was passed last session. He said restaurant and bar owners received notification from the Division of Taxation early in January that they had until Feb. 1 to provide this new report, a detailed two-page form that requires businesses to compile their total alcoholic beverage sales for the previous year. Currently, restaurants and bars have to file a …

•  3 Comments
• Photos (1)

Sorry, Charlie – But Is It Your Own Fault?

Don't complain. Get involved instead.

Bob Houghtaling’s recent op/ed piece on EG Patch (“Sorry Charlie: Maybe it's time to look beyond resumes and good sound bites” - http://bit.ly/K6ovCo) is a largely accurate description of what bothers most of us about the current state of our political leadership. But the things to which he points may be more effect than cause. I would suggest that the fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves (with apologies to Will Shakespeare…). For all kinds of reasons, individual participation in the political process has been declining for years. Those of us involved with one or another of the parties struggle to convince really good people to run for office. We all struggle to get people to the polls to vote. And the party organizations – doesn’t…

•  7 Comments
• Photos (1)