R.I. faces tough budget choices as Raimondo looks ahead to second term - Katherine Gregg, Providence Journal

In a wide-ranging end-of-year interview, Democrat Raimondo said she was uncertain whether the state would find enough money in this next budget to expand her signature “Rhode Island Promise” free-tuition program beyond community college into the state’s four-year public colleges, as she has promised. The combined deficit in this year and next is projected to be around $200 million. (At this time last year, the projected budget gap was around $260 million.) “Are we going to do the Promise program for [Rhode Island College] exactly the way we did it for [the Community College of Rhode Island]?” Raimondo said. “I don’t know, because I don’t know if we will have the money.” Extending free tuition to University of Rhode Island students appears unlikely next year, though Raimondo spokesman Josh Block later told The Journal: “The governor has not taken anything off the table. She is committed to expanding Promise to RIC and URI in her second term. Her policy and budget teams are developing a number of options for the upcoming budget year.” https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20181215/ri-faces-tough-budget-choices-as-raimondo-looks-ahead-to-second-term