Happy Saturday! Here's another edition of my weekend column for WPRI.com -- as always, send your takes, tips and trial balloons to [email protected] and follow me on Twitter, Bluesky and Facebook. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Nesi's Notes SIGN UP NOW 1. Rhode Island's state budget is like a battleship -- big, and slow to change course. For all the ink being spilled about Governor McKee's newly unveiled $14.2 billion proposal, much of state spending runs on autopilot and is seen as too foundational to change. No governor is going to cut Medicaid from $4.5 billion to $3.5 billion in one fell swoop, or K-12 school aid from $1.5 billion to $1 billion, and there would be a public outcry if someone tried. On the flip side, there also appears to be little political appetite for broad-based tax increases that would materially increase the amount of revenue available. So administrations muddle through as best they can -- raising a fee here, adding a tax there, trimming a planned rate increase, shifting money between accounts, and leaving next year's deficit to the future. Considering the durability of the legislature's Democratic supermajorities, voters seem to be generally OK with that approach. Still, every dollar in the budget is coming from someone and going to somebody else, which means the changes McKee is proposing are sure to spark fights. Will Meta and Google try to kill the digital advertising tax? Will environmental groups be OK with fees on electric cars? Will hospital lobbyists reverse the cuts they're facing? Will lawmakers want to use scarce available dollars for municipal road projects and after-school programs, rather than shoring up RIPTA or increasing K-12 funding? And of course, the whole budget picture could change considerably in May, when revised revenue estimates come out. 2. Washington pundit Matt Yglesias had an interesting line in a recent Q&A about the Democratic Party's struggles: "I don’t see the Democratic governors of very housing-constraining states being hailed as heroes by anybody. They’re not progressive heroes, they’re not moderate heroes. They just mostly look like failures who are presiding over high taxes, strained public services, and lots of disputes about legacy pension obligations because running a low-growth state is a bummer." That's a stark way to phrase it -- I doubt aides to Dan McKee or Maura Healey would accept the idea that they "look like failures" -- but it does put the challenges both governors face in stark relief. As McKee himself has pointed out, state revenue is currently growing at a 2.5% annual rate, while expenses are growing at about 3.7%. If revenue growth caught up with expenditure growth, a host of problems would go away, and new possibilities would open up. Maybe, then, the entire budget discussion is focused on the wrong side of the equation. What if Rhode Island set a goal of achieving 3.7% annual revenue growth so that the economy was healthy enough to keep up with the state's spending commitments? What would need to be considered? What would need to change? 3. Really want to nerd out on the budget? My full breakdown (with Eli Sherman charts!) is on WPRI.com here. 4. If you felt like Governor McKee's State of the State address was unusually long Tuesday night, you were right. McKee spoke for just over an hour, making it easily the longest State of the State in recent memory; Gina Raimondo's seven State of the States averaged 41 minutes, and the four delivered by Lincoln Chafee averaged just 26 minutes. The upside of a long speech is the chance to include a large number of topics; the downside is that all those topics can drown each other out. One notable moment was McKee's outreach to Donald Trump supporters, a nod to the incoming president's relatively strong showing in Rhode Island. "In my office," McKee said, "I have a big round table where I bring people together to meet about the issues impacting our state. There are 10 chairs around the table. If those chairs were filled with Rhode Islanders based on the results of the presidential election, you’d have about six people at that table who are unhappy with the results and four who are pleased." However, McKee's aides spent the night dealing with the public fallout from two decisions to limit access inside the State House during the speech: blocking protestors from using the rotunda, and blocking independent TV cameras from shooting footage inside the House chamber. The governor's press office said the latter move was "a miscommunication," but defended closing the rotunda. "Safety is the top priority for me," McKee told my colleague Corey Welch on Wednesday. "I believe that the Capitol Police and the State Police handled it appropriately. And not only that, but they accommodated the protestors that wanted to have a rally, and they had it in the State House. ... [W]e made sure that the State of the State address did not get interrupted, and I think that was important because I'm talking to the people of the state of Rhode Island -- I love this state, right? -- and they have a right to hear what I'm talking about." 5. Senate GOP Leader Jessica de la Cruz shared a different view in the Republican response to Governor McKee's address. "Unfortunately, the state of our state under Governor McKee is deeply troubled," she argued. "In just over a year, many long-neglected and avoidable problems have led to critical failures." You can see her rebuttal here. 6. You'd never know Rhode Island's gubernatorial primary is still over a year and a half away, with the Dan McKee and Helena Foulkes campaigns already exchanging fire in statements to the news media. They had another skirmish on Friday, when new polling from Morning Consult pegged McKee's job approval rating at 44%. That placed him in positive territory, since his disapproval rating was only 40%, though it also made him the least popular governor in the United States. "It turns out that speculation that Dan McKee has suffered decline in approval ratings is far from the case at hand," said McKee campaign spokesperson Mike Trainor. He contrasted McKee's polling favorably with Gina Raimondo, who he said was at a net minus-4 job approval at the same point in her term. "And this December poll was taken amidst continued focus on the 195 bridge and the RI Bridges data breach," Trainor added. "Even more encouraging, this result for the governor implies an even stronger level of support for him among Democrat primary voters." Foulkes responded with her own statement hours later. "The only number Governor McKee should be focused on is 7 -- that's how cold it will be next week as Rhode Islanders continue to sleep on our streets," she said. "We have unhoused neighbors suffering through winter and the promised pallet shelter still isn't open. Governor McKee needs to declare homelessness a state of emergency and find immediate solutions." Meantime, Morning Consult ranked Maura Healey among the country's most popular governors, with a 60% approval rating. Connecticut's Ned Lamont polled even better, at 63%. 7. Speaking of those pallet shelters, when are they finally going to open? My colleague Alexandra Leslie checked in Friday with the R.I. Department of Housing, and got this response from a spokesperson: "Remaining work at Echo Village consists of final electrification, testing of systems and final inspections. The electrification and testing include collaboration with RI Energy to energize the transformer and connect to existing utility infrastructure. Each of the units on site will be energized to test power systems, heating, suppression systems and fire alarms, and once this work is complete, the team will request final inspection. We anticipate this work to be completed in the coming weeks." 8. The actuaries' latest report on the state pension fund shows continued improvement in its funding level, with the partial COLA freeze still on track to end by 2030. But a number of state retirees emailed me in response to make clear they don't accept the reductions enacted in 2011. A study by the treasurer's office last year indicated the pension shortfall would increase by $1.9 billion if the original benefit structure s restored with lost benefits paid retroactively. 9. A rare sight: banking crisis figure Joe Mollicone was briefly in public for a court date. 10. Jack Reed has made national headlines a number of times during his Senate career -- to take one example, he gave the nationally televised rebuttal to President George W. Bush over the Iraq War in September 2007. Reed's opening statement at Tuesday's confirmation hearing for Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary nominee, is likely to go down as another memorable moment. Using all the authority built up from his years of expertise on the military, as well as his own Army service, Reed offered a scathing verdict about the nominee. "Mr. Hegseth, I do not believe that you are qualified to meet the overwhelming demands of this job," Reed said, pointing out he has voted for every previous nominee to the post. Beyond Hegseth's much-discussed private behavior, Reed expressed grave concern about his ability to manage the sprawling Pentagon bureaucracy and handle the country's foreign rivals. Reed's comments led news coverage from coast to coast, partly because it startled the D.C. press corps, which invariably describes Reed as "taciturn" or "mild-mannered." Reed is both of those things, of course. But he's also always been willing to take a divisive position on Pentagon matters if he thinks national defense is at risk. (Recall that Reed voted against the original Iraq authorization in 2002, when the war was a popular cause and its supporters included both Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer, among many others.) Reed's position as the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, as well as his long relationships in Washington, ensure he will retain some degree of influence under the second Trump administration. But his relationship with the new Pentagon leadership, assuming Hegseth gets confirmed, will be something to watch. 11. The Economist is bullish on Gina Raimondo's tenure as commerce secretary. As for Raimondo herself, she said Friday, "Over the last four years, my mission at the Department of Commerce has been to unite our tools in an effective way to enhance U.S. competitiveness and protect U.S. national security. Because of the incredible work of our public servants at the department, I believe we achieved that goal and are leaving Commerce a more muscular and influential agency." 12. An ambitious millennial Democrat representing Massachusetts' 4th Congressional District wants a promotion to the U.S. Senate, and decides his best chance to get there is unseating Ed Markey in a primary. Six years ago that Democrat was Joe Kennedy III; he wound up out of office. Will Jake Auchincloss try the same move in 2026? Chatter about that possibility is picking up, with the ambitious 36-year-old congressman sitting on a roughly $5 million war chest -- more than twice as much as Markey -- and drawing a clear contrast on issues like banning TikTok. Plus, Markey is facing some disadvantages compared with 2020. At a time when Democrats are increasingly questioning their leaders' advanced ages, Markey will be an octogenarian candidate who's been in Congress for 50 years. He won't have the counsel and sharp instincts of the late John Walsh, who was pivotal to his win last time. Auchincloss may not look quite as presumptuous as a Kennedy (though he is a very distant Jackie Kennedy relation himself), and he could also get a boost from the state Democratic Party's new delegate rules. The political mood is different, too. Nevertheless, it would be quite a risk for Auchincloss to give up a safe House seat to run the exact same play that already came up short for someone else six years ago. Not that Auchincloss is even willing to dignify the premise. When I asked about a potential run against Markey on Friday, his spokesperson Georgina Barros would only say: "The congressman is running for reelection in 2026." We'll see if WCVB gets more out of him when he appears on tomorrow's edition of "On the Record." 13. The Sheldon Whitehouse beat was a busy one yet again this week. The senator went viral for posting a candid response to President Biden's farewell address on social media: "Now he tells us. Biden speaks out against dark money, for climate action, and for SCOTUS term limits. I pressed four years for this speech. ... Had that speech launched the reelection campaign, we’d have won. Had that speech launched his presidency, we’d have saved America." Suffice to say not everyone agrees with Whitehouse's analysis; Politico's Jonathan Martin quipped, "I'm not sure the class realignment of American politics coulda been stopped in its tracks had Biden only run on Scotus term limits." (Speaking of Biden, Whitehouse and Jack Reed also got mentioned in another New York Times postmortem on how he got pushed out of the race.) Meanwhile, Whitehouse managed to draw fire from both left and right at this week's confirmation hearings, with Trump's campaign criticizing how he questioned AG nominee Pam Bondi, and some progressives criticizing his friendly welcome to the environment committee's new GOP chair, Shelley Moore Capito. More substantively, Whitehouse's office has been pointing to the home-insurance crisis in the wake of the California wildfires as further evidence that he's been correct to highlight that risk in hearings, reports and events over the years. 14. Both of Rhode Island's U.S. senators remain popular with voters. The new Morning Consult poll pegs Jack Reed's job approval rating at 56% and Sheldon Whitehouse's at 53%, putting both Democrats in the top half of senators nationwide. Massachusetts voters like their senators even more, giving both Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey a 57% approval rating. 15. Rhode Island's two congressman continue settling in as their new terms begin. Seth Magaziner held a news conference with Chip Roy, the conservative Texas Republican, to tout their formal introduction of a bill to ban congressional stock trading. (They think it might actually happen this time.) And Gabe Amo announced he's been named vice ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. 16. City Councilor Justin Roias wants to limit Providence's cooperation with ICE. 17. Mayor Picozzi wants a budget commission to deal with Warwick's schools deficit. 18. Dan McKee wasn't the only governor giving a big annual address this week -- here's what Maura Healey had to say in her State of the Commonwealth speech. (And a Wrentham lawmaker, state Rep. Marcus Vaughn, gave the Republican response.) 19. The Globe's Alexa Gagosz has been providing exceptional coverage of Prospect Medical's bankruptcy filing and what it means for the company's two Rhode Island safety-net hospitals, Roger Williams and Fatima. Alexa joined Kim Kalunian on Thursday's 12 News at 4 to discuss the situation, as did AG Neronha two days earlier. 20. People in the news ... James Kwon has departed as Congressman Magaziner's communications director to fill the same role for the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus ... Michelle Moreno Silva has departed as Treasurer Diossa's communications director ... top Senate Democrats just laid off two staffers, Jordan Day and Allison Plunkett, as fallout from the chamber's internal turmoil continues ... R.I. Republican Party Chairman Joe Powers is running for a second term ... attorney Amy Moses will be Rhode Island's new federal magistrate judge ... Rhody political veteran J.R. Pagliarini is joining Machado Consulting, a cybersecurity and IT company, to expand the company into the Ocean State ... former Congressman Joe Kennedy III has joined the board of MassINC, an influential think tank ... congrats to my friend and former colleague Michelle Muscatello, who will be honored next weekend by the state chapter of the National Organization of Italian American Women. 21. To fluoridate or not to fluoridate? That is the question for Swansea and Somerset. 22. My deep condolences to the family and many friends of Ed Quinlan, who died this month at age 75 after a brief illness. Ed wore a number of hats in Rhode Island public life over the years -- press secretary to John Chafee, president of the Hospital Association of Rhode Island -- and he had a savvy understanding of how the state really works, always willing to share his insights with reporters. As Tim White pointed out in his own reminisce, Ed was the sort of communications pro who had a real respect for the role of the press, despite being well aware of our industry's many foibles. I'll miss chatting with him about hospital C-suite drama or having him join us in studio to watch his wife, Lisa Pelosi, when she'd appear on Newsmakers as a panelist. Rest in peace, Ed. 23. Heads up: Tony Petrarca says we are getting a shovel-worthy snow on Sunday night. 24. Set your DVRs: This week on Newsmakers — a reporters' roundtable on the State of the State. Watch Sunday at 5:30 a.m. on WPRI 12 and 10 a.m. on Fox Providence, or listen on the radio Sunday at 6 p.m. on WPRO. You can also subscribe to Newsmakers as a podcast via Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you back here next Saturday. Ted Nesi ([email protected]) is a Target 12 investigative reporter and 12 News politics/business editor. He co-hosts Newsmakers and writes Nesi's Notes on Saturdays. Connect with him on Twitter, Bluesky and Facebook.