Dear Neighbors:
As part of the General Assembly’s first week of the 2026 session, I attended a press conference sponsored by the Save RIPTA Coalition. In this week’s letter, I will discuss the impact of budget cuts and service reductions at the Rhode Island Public Transity Authority (RIPTA), legislation to (1) commission an efficiency study of RIDOT and (2) increase RIPTA’s share of the RIDOT budget.
A. The Impact of RIPTA’s Service Cuts
The General Assembly required that RIPTA complete an efficiency study as a condition to receiving additional funding. RIPTA completed its Efficiency Study this past summer. It revealed that RIPTA operates at comparable cost-efficiency to its peers in other jurisdictions. Because the study was not complete when the General Assembly session concluded in June, RIPTA had to close a $10 million budget gap by reducing essential services, harming thousands of Rhode Islanders every day.
At Thursday’s press conference, the Save RIPTA Coalition presented an Impact Report documenting how the budget cuts triggered by inadequate State funding have affected Rhode Islanders’ lives. We also heard first hand accounts of passengers, including one high school student who depends upon the bus to get to school. She related that service reductions affected her attendance at early classes, causing her grades to fall. This year, the Coalition is looking to close its funding gap through a greater share of the State’s overall transportation budget funded with various existing fees for licenses, registration and the like.
B. Efficiency Questions At RIDOT
While increasing RIPTA’s share of these fees will reduce those available for other operations at the RIDOT, I believe it is possible that a study of the efficiency of RIDOT’s operations will reveal areas for savings to that, at a minimum, will mitigate this funding loss.
1. RIDOT’s Limited Understanding Of Its Contractors’ Work
A Providence Journal Report provided an example of the opportunities for greater efficiency at RIDOT. At a joint oversight hearing in November, the RIDOT Director was asked if any of the bridge inspection contractors whom the State was suing for the Washington bridge failure were still performing work for RIDOT. The Director answered that “I’m not aware or unaware of them.” When asked at the hearing whether it was wise to engage engineers whom the State claimed were responsible for a major failure, the Director stated that “”We do business with literally hundreds of contractors, a billion dollars a year in construction activities that we do at DOT… I don’t hold any opinions on any of them.”
Based on its research, the Providence Journal Report revealed that the contractors in question had conducted 886 inspections over the past two years. Putting aside the linguistic conundrum of what it means for someone to be “not aware or unaware” of a particular circumstance, the situation at RIDOT raises the questions of (1) whether it is efficient to hire inspectors to do work when their previous work is claimed to be defective and (2) whether RIDOT is spending its “billion dollars a year in construction activities” efficiently.
2. Comparing RIDOT’s Efficiency To Other New England States
I found one data source that suggests room to improve RIDOT’s efficiency. The Reason Foundation prepares an annual report comparing the 50 states’ highway programs. The most recent Report (from March, 2025) lists Rhode Island as 31st nationally in cost efficiency per lane-mile of highway, less efficient than the rest of New England, including Connecticut (18th) and Massachusetts (12th).
C. A Legislative Response
Given the stresses on our general revenue budget I described in my December 7 letter, I believe that the best way to fund RIPTA adequately will be to transfer funding from RIDOT, while also commissioning an efficiency study at RIDOT to find ways to make up for the funds that RIPTA will receive. In the coming weeks, I will introduce legislation to commission such a study and to enact that transfer.