- Ted, welcome back.

Governor Dan McKee has proposed offering pay raises to several cabinet members, which has been met with criticism by both Republicans and Democrats.

Even though we're not talking about a lot of money at the end of the day, they're saying it's really about the optics.

- Yes, I mean, it's, Michelle, it's less than $100,000 in a $14 billion budget.

So we should always be clear about that.

It is in that sense, a rounding error.

But what you hear from House Speaker Shekarchi, Senate minority leader Jessica De La Cruz, people like that, it's just the optics aren't good at a time when the state's facing a roughly $250 million budget cap looking at cuts, or at least you know, belt tightening in government.

This isn't the time for this.

- And one of the cabinet members who stands to get a raise is Peter Alviti, the state's transportation director.

As we've seen play out over the last 15 months, he has faced a lot of heat over the handling of the closure of the Westbound Bridge.

And frankly, a lot of people are still wondering how he has a job.

So of course, the fact that he stands to get a 2% bump bringing him to $192,000 is being met with controversy.

We should point out, other cabinet members, most stand to get a 5% raise.

Now, your colleagues at Channel 12 recently spoke with House Speaker Joe Shekarchi at the State House about these proposed raises.

Let's hear what he had to say.

- I understand the governor's position that it's about retention and recruitment of top level talent, and I can understand that, but our concerns are this particular year is not a good year.

This particular year that we are dealing with a great number of uncertainties regarding the state budget and even more uncertainties regarding the federal budget.

And there's a strong possibility that we'll have a significant cut in federal aid, and we don't know how we're gonna make up that cut.

- And Ted, we've seen this before where governors propose pay raises and then you have lawmakers saying we don't have the money.

- Right, in this case, once again, the Providence Journal's Katherine Gregg was the one who saw this unannounced hearing had been posted, where these raises have to be formally proposed and vetted, give the public a chance to weigh in.

This has happened before, and when that's happened, McKee and his predecessors have at times tweaked these proposals.

Maybe they spread it out, maybe they changed some of the numbers.

But then of course, Michelle, you can't get away from the political context here, which is that Speaker Shekarchi is contemplating a run for governor himself, even though Governor McKee says he wants to run again in 2026 next year.

And so it's interesting to me to see Shekarchi out front and kind of directly criticizing one of the governor's initiatives, which he hasn't always done.

He's often given the governor some wide latitude.

That's interesting too.

- Speaking of leaders at the State House, I wanted to talk to you about Senate President Dominick Ruggerio.

We've talked here on "Weekly Insight" in the past about his health.

He recently returned to the State House.

So how is he doing?

- Well, just to remind viewers who probably remember at this point, Ruggerio was diagnosed with cancer over a year ago now, and his health has certainly been in question all throughout that time.

He's frequently been out of sight.

And then earlier this year, he was there for the early parts of session, didn't look himself necessarily, but he was there.

But then after February 4th, he was gone again, and it emerged he'd been hospitalized for pneumonia.

He got outta the hospital, but then he was recovering at home.

His aide said he might come back.

He didn't.

Then he finally did March 25th preside over the Senate session again.

That was the first time since February 4th.

He says he's taking it day by day.

And really the question everyone has is, is his health really improving?

And will he be able by the end of the session to exercise his old authority in negotiations with the House?

- And his return to the State House is interesting because we have been hearing these, there have been hearings play out about a proposed assault weapons ban.

In the past, he has been a roadblock preventing the assault weapons ban from passing.

So it'll be interesting to see ultimately can he move the needle forward on this?

- Yes, Ruggerio had an A rating in the past from the NRA, which wasn't super unusual at the General Assembly.

There've always been Democrats on both sides of the legislature who were in favor of gun rights, had a good rating from the NRA, but then late last year in interviews, Ruggerio signaled he might be changing his opposition to this, or at least his opposition to allowing a vote on the floor for the bill, which would be a big change.

- We should clarify.

Just because he allows a vote on the floor does not mean that he would endorse this legislation.

- [Ted] Exactly.

- But he has, he can say, I want this to be voted on.

But he can also prevent it from being voted on.

- Yes, and he can vote no even if he allows a vote.

That's what his predecessor Teresa Paiva-Weed did on same-sex marriage over a decade ago.

You already have Governor McKee and Speaker Shekarchi in favor of this.

You have lots of rank and file Democrats who favor it, but I still find it a little hard to judge where it's going, Michelle, because both sides on this argument are so well organized and so fervent.

We saw competing rallies at the State House for the hearings, the red shirts and the yellow shirts.

And then I think that level of passion from the public sometimes makes rank and file lawmakers nervous about taking a vote.

So it's gonna be very interesting how this plays out through June, the end of session.

- Good to see you, Ted, thank you.

- Good to be here.