Official State of Rhode Island website

State of Rhode Island Office of the Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Office of the Rhode Island Lieutenant Governor

Who is the Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island?

The current Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island is Sabina Matos. Lieutenant Governor Matos works to lower the price of groceries, help small businesses, and protect tenant’s rights.

What does the Rhode Island Lieutenant Governor do?

Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos uses her office to:

  • Lower the cost of groceries: Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos has passed laws as part of her “Fair Price Grocery Agenda” to lower grocery prices in Rhode Island through increasing competition. You can read more about that at the Providence Journal or EcoRI News.
  • Help Rhode Islanders start employee-owned businesses: Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos wants to make it easier for retiring business owners to sell the business to their employees, rather than letting it close. You can read more about that at Providence Business News or Harvard Business School.
  • Protect the rights of renters and tenants: Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos has pushed to protect renters against bad corporate landlords by increasing renters’ legal protections and supporting tenant unions. You can read more about that at the Boston Globe or the Rhode Island Current. 

Why does Rhode Island have a Lieutenant Governor?

The Office of the Lieutenant Governor is established by the Rhode Island Constitution as one of the five General Officers elected by a statewide vote. Although the power of the office was limited in 2003 when a constitutional change removed the office’s duty of presiding over the Rhode Island Senate, current Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos believes that the office can be used to advocate for consumer protection. 

For example, Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos has used her office to conduct deep research into the practice of “scorched-earth” deed covenants in Rhode Island, which are a secretive legal loophole that large chain supermarkets use to block competition and prohibit new small businesses from opening.

How much money does the Lieutenant Governor’s office have?

The Office of the Lieutenant Governor has an annual operating budget of $1.5 million and has seven employees in addition to the Lieutenant Governor. In total, it comprises one percent of one percent of the annual budget of the State of Rhode Island, or approximately 0.01%. This makes it one of the smallest offices in Rhode Island state government, even smaller than obscure offices such as the Atomic Energy Commission. Despite this, the office can be used to affect state policy. For example, Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos uses the office to focus on lowering the cost of groceries.

What are Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos’s signature issues?

Because of the limited scope of the office, many Rhode Island Lieutenant Governors choose signature issues to address. Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos’s signatures issues are the cost of groceries, worker ownership, and tenant rights.

  • Sabina Matos Signature Issue #1: Lowering Grocery Prices
  • Sabina Matos Signature Issue #2: Employee Ownership and Small Business
  • Sabina Matos Signature Issue #3: Tenants Rights

How do I contact the Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island?

You can contact Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos and her office using the following link: https://ltgov.ri.gov/contact.

Policy

Why are groceries so expensive?

Groceries have become expensive because the retail market has become less competitive, allowing retailers to increase their markups and their profits. 

  • Higher Markups: The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City found that 50% of all pandemic-era price increases were attributable to retailer markups instead of inflation. 
  • Higher Profits: A staff report from the Federal Trade Commission in 2024 found that supermarkets’ profits grew to 6% in 2021 and 7% in 2023, both of which were significantly higher than their most recent peak of 5.6% in 2015. 
  • Worse Consumer Outcomes: This evidence led FTC Chair Lina Khan to remark that “dominant firms used [the pandemic] to come out ahead at the expense of their competitors and the communities they serve.”

Rhode Island has a significantly higher food retail concentration than other states, according to RAFI’s Grocery Gap Atlas. This is has led Rhode Island Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos to propose legislation to promote greater competition and lower food prices, called the Fair Price Grocery Agenda.

How can the government lower grocery prices?

To lower grocery prices, the government must protect consumers and make it easier for small and independent businesses to compete with dominant chain supermarkets. We can do this by: 

  • Ending “scorched-earth:” Closing unfair legal loopholes that superstores use to block new development;
  • Clear-cut pricing: Protecting shoppers from deceptive pricing schemes;
  • State level enforcement: Giving state law enforcement authorities the ability to pursue price discrimination cases. 

Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos has offered a legislative package, the Fair Price Grocery Agenda, which does all these things.

What stops new grocery stores from opening?

One of the most significant barriers to new grocery stores opening in Rhode Island are restrictive deed covenants and other landbanking tactics from existing, dominant superstore chains, as detailed by legal scholars such as Karissa Kang. 

Landbanking, and especially “scorched-earth” covenants, is a tactic that superstores use to limit the availability of buildable, grocery-ready lots. In some cases, superstores are able to sell land with a covenant that prohibits a new grocery store from opening there for up to 30 years. This hurts consumers and local businesses while helping giant corporations profit. Rhode Island Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos introduced the first-ever statewide ban on this practice in 2025, and it passed in 2026.