Few cuts in last year’s state budget have gotten more attention than the $24 million reduction in funding for programs that assist developmentally disabled Rhode Islanders.

The latest salvo is the mailer at right from the Have a Heart Coalition, which attacks House Speaker Gordon Fox, House Majority Leader Nick Mattiello and two of the men tipped as potential Fox successors – Helio Melo and J. Patrick O’Neill – for having “trampled on the dignity” of the disabled.

The mailing does not say who funded it, but the address given for the Have a Heart Coalition is that of the United Nurses & Allied Professionals union on Branch Avenue in Providence. Jim Parisi of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals union and Jeanne Jose of UNAP are the contact people on the coalition’s website.

The Have a Heart Coalition has not registered as a lobbying organization with the secretary of state’s office, according to its online directory.

Update: Looks like that’s not the only mailer from the Have a Heart Coalition floating around. Here’s another one passed along by a reader:

What’s ironic is Chafee’s original 2011-12 budget proposal didn’t even call for those cuts, as he reminded me in an interview last year. But he did sign the revised budget lawmakers crafted that included them.

Members of the Rhode Island House of Representatives celebrated the holidays and feasted on Italian fare at their annual Christmas party (or should that be “holiday” party?) over the weekend.

House Speaker Gordon Fox and House Majority Leader Nicholas Mattiello hosted the shindig from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday at Camille’s, the venerable Federal Hill restaurant, spokesman Larry Berman told WPRI.com. The gathering was organized as an open house with a buffet for all 75 of the chamber’s lawmakers.

“It’s their annual get-together,” Berman said. Last year’s party was held at the Alpine Country Club in Cranston.

Fox and Mattiello paid for the Christmas party out of their campaign accounts, Berman said. The speaker’s campaign war chest totaled $157,531 as of Sept. 30 while the majority leader’s totaled $52,764, according to the R.I. Board of Elections.

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