PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Members of Occupy Providence and other opponents of the state's failed investment in the now-bankrupt video game company 38 Studios were at the State House on Monday to deliver a petition to General Assembly leaders and Governor Chafee.
The protesters called on lawmakers to strip from the budget the first taxpayer payment of $2.5 million towards the debt, which will cost more than $100 million when interest is factored.
"We had no vote, why should we pay?" said Elaine Heebner, of Providence, as about a dozen people held up protest signs in front of the Capitol building entrance. "Remember the slogan? No taxation without representation."
The group stressed that they are not calling for Rhode Island to become the first state in the nation to default on a so-called "moral obligation" debt since the Great Depression.
They say the state is not obligated to pay the debt in the first place because it was not party to the original loan agreement : Rhode Island's quasi-public Economic Development Corporation is.
"As the Rhode Island Constitution states, deals like the 38 Studios bonds which lack voter approval are not 'state debts,' and politicians are constitutionally forbidden to 'pledge the faith of the state for the payment of the obligations of others' without voter approval," the group said in a statement. "So the 38 Studios bonds are not state debts."