Yes, really.
State Senator Samuel Bell (D) submitted the punitive bill last month, which orders all Rhode Island residents and taxpayers over 16 years old to receive the COVID-19 injection and boosters mandated by the state’s director of the department of health.
Anybody who violates that order “shall owe twice the amount of personal income taxes” to the state.
This act would mandate all residents sixteen (16) years or older to be vaccinated against COVID-19. If a resident is under sixteen (16) years of age the resident would be required to be immunized against COVID-19, with the responsibility for ensuring compliance falling on all parents or guardians with medical consent powers.
Additionally any person who violates this chapter would be required to pay a monthly civil penalty of fifty dollars ($50.00) and would owe twice the amount of personal income taxes.
In order for parents to receive an exemption for a minor, they will need to have three different doctors state on record that the child is “not fit for immunization” and the child themselves will have to sign the form.
Additionally, the state’s health department will have the power to investigate any petition for exemption.
Bell pointed to a survey conducted by Harvard, Northeastern, Northwestern and Rutgers Universities to justify the statewide vaccine mandate, claiming 65% of residents support it.
What Bell fails to mention is that the survey is conducted with “nonprobability sampling”, which is more unreliable than random sampling because it’s prone to selection bias, and therefore less likely to represent the larger population.
Additionally, the nonprobability sampling was drawn from participants in all 50 states rather than within Rhode Island itself.
Though this draconian bill clearly violates the bodily autonomy of Rhode Islanders, Democrats may still succeed in pushing the bill through given they have a 33-5 supermajority in the state senate and a 65-10 supermajority in the House.
Notably, all 38 state senate seats are up for reelection in the 2022 midterms, as well as all 75 seats in the House.
Read the bill:
Article: Rhode Island Dems Seek To Double State Income Tax For Parents Of Unvaccinated Minors