Governor Dan McKee’s State of the State Address on Tuesday evening leaned on an everyman theme: running a state, McKee told the audience, is not so different from running a basketball team.

It just so happens that McKee is the former coach of the Rhode Island Shooting Stars, a youth team that, he told a packed House Chambers at the State House, won two Rhode Island titles and received four National Championship invites. The upshot of this being that even an underdog team, whether the Shooting Stars or Rhode Island can find success, given enough teamwork. However, as Governor McKee dived into the actual game plan, it became less youth sports metaphors, and more numbers, including a preview of his budget proposal, which is set to be revealed in full later this week.

Line Items

Governor McKee promised significant investments for the upcoming year “without raising any broad-based taxes.” The proposals include a $100 million bond to finance housing production, and a $135 million healthcare investment, specifically targeted at Medicare provider rates, behavioral health programs, and Early Intervention. The Governor also promised $5 million in funding to cities and towns for repairing roads and bridges, which he used as an opportunity to apologize for and reframe December’s Washington Bridge closure in a more positive light.

Life Sciences

In addition to more standard line items like housing, healthcare, and small business boosts, a surprisingly significant section of the address was dedicated to investments in the  life sciences industry. Governor McKee announced a new State Health Lab, which he said “will be essential to growing Rhode Island’s life sciences industry.” In addition, McKee announced a bond proposal for a new life science school at the University of Rhode Island. The life sciences effort has been championed this legislative term by Speaker Joseph Shekarchi, who Governor McKee thanked specifically for his leadership on the issue. Why life sciences of all things? On Tuesday night, Governor McKee has set a goal for a $20,000 per capita income increase by 2030, and he says that the life sciences effort, including the founding last year of a State Agency dedicated to the issue, will make Rhode Island more competitive with neighboring states for high paying jobs.

High paying jobs

This initiative towards generating high paying jobs also includes RIC’s State Institute for Cybersecurity & Emerging Technologies, which launched this past November. Former Congressman Jim Langevin, who heads the program, was in attendance, along with two students from the program. According to the address, an “Information Security Analyst” makes a median salary nationally of $112,000. Governor McKee says he wants 250 students graduating from the program per year by 2030. To achieve this, he says he will propose a “first-of-its-kind cybersecurity bond” two grow the RIC program. Unlike other bond proposals mentioned Tuesday night, this one did not have a specific dollar amount attached to it.

Education

At last year’s State of the State, Governor McKee named education the top priority for 2023. On Tuesday night, he cast the State’s education efforts in a hopeful light, even though this year’s RIDE accountability report showed public schools across the state stagnating and declining. McKee focused on his administration’s Learn365RI initiative, specifically on its success fundraising and fighting absenteeism. While data shows the State absenteeism rate still rising, McKee highlighted three students who were invited to attend the address, two of whom had improved their attendance records, and one of whom is a member of the State’s Chronic Absenteeism Working Group.

Finding Common Ground

Governor McKee says that in the upcoming year, he wants to find “common ground” on some controversial issues. Specifically, McKee called for reform on the Law Enforcement Officer’s Bill of Rights (LEOBOR), as well as an assault weapons ban.. McKee’s plea to “finally pass an assault weapons ban in Rhode Island” drew the biggest cheers of the night of any policy. A bill to do just that was introduced in February of last year, and was supported by all of Rhode Island’s General Officers, but has not advanced in either the Senate or the General Assembly.