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Governor Dan McKee unveiled his $14.9 billion budget proposal on Thursday, and my colleagues Ed Fitzpatrick and Steph Machado have a full breakdown of the key details here. 

One of the most intriguing ideas from McKee doesn’t have a direct cost, but it’s likely to get the most debate in the coming months. McKee is asking legislators to give him a line-item veto over the budget, which allows a governor to veto certain parts of the state budget without having to veto the entire tax-and-spending plan.

It’s a reform that is already in place in 44 states, and one that previous governors, advocates, and The Providence Journal editorial board have supported for decades.

In 1986, a Constitutional Convention committee that was considering putting the line-item veto question to voters was deadlocked 8-8, and so the question failed, according to a Providence Journal story at the time.

One more line-item veto fun fact from the 1986 Constitutional Convention: A young man from Warwick who was the president of the Rhode Island College student government ran for, and ultimately won, a position as a delegate. But he opposed giving the governor line-item veto power. That man was James Langevin, the future congressman. 

There is one large community in Rhode Island where the chief executive does already have a line-item veto, but that power is rarely used: Providence.

The mayor of Providence had a line-item veto until 1975, when Republican Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci Jr. was sworn in for his first time. At the time, Democrats on the City Council convinced the General Assembly to remove that power. But Cianci got the last laugh, and the voters ultimately added the provision to the home-rule charter.

The line-item veto hasn’t been used in Providence since Cianci was the mayor, and even he used it sparingly. 

In 1991, for example, Cianci used a line-item veto to restore a deputy director of building safety, a position that was eliminated by the council, according to City Council minutes from the time.