PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Rhode Island’s House of Representatives has passed a nearly $10 billion state budget.
The Democratic-controlled House approved the budget 64 to 9, voting along party lines, Saturday.
The $9.97 billion budget would expand the state’s pre-kindergarten program and add six new medical marijuana dispensaries, bringing the total to nine. It would create a board of trustees for the University of Rhode Island.
It doesn’t include the governor’s proposals for legalizing recreational marijuana, expanding the state’s free college tuition program, increasing the minimum wage or adding several new taxes.
The article making appropriations for fiscal 2020 was amended unanimously. A $200,000 grant for the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence was restored and $1 million for a controversial treatment for brain injuries pushed by a Cranston chiropractor was removed, among other changes.
