PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo’s signature initiative this year – a proposal for two years of free tuition at the state’s public colleges — is off to a rocky start.
House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, a fellow Democrat, took to Twitter last month to call it “unsustainable and fiscally irresponsible.” Other lawmakers have also voiced doubts.
Raimondo said in an interview Thursday it is all “part of the normal give and take” of the legislative process in the Democratic-controlled General Assembly. In previous years, similar battles on competing priorities ended in compromise.
But even some supporters of Raimondo’s free tuition concept said other legislators are having a hard time endorsing a program perceived as a giveaway.
“This is truly middle-class relief,” said Rep. Gregg Amore, a Democrat and member of the House Finance Committee that will begin vetting the proposal Wednesday.
But “when it was rolled out as free, I think she lost a golden opportunity to sell this for what it really is,” Amore said. “I think the proposal has merit and the messaging stepped all over the merit.”
Raimondo’s program would cover tuition for the full two years at the Community College of Rhode Island or the final two years of a four-year-degree at the University of Rhode Island or Rhode Island College.
