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More than eight months after she began her labor-backed campaign to toll 18-wheelers traveling Rhode Island’s highways to finance a massive bridge-repair effort, Governor Raimondo on Thursday signed the legislation into law.

Gov. Gina Raimondo got it right in her inaugural address when she said we “must foster an environment where businesses want to add jobs and where we support our workers. If we do that, if we rebuild this economy, everything is possible. And if we don’t, nothing else will matter.”

Gov. Gina Raimondo has spent the weeks since her election analyzing the scale of the problem Rhode Island confronts. Last week, she spoke out honestly about the state’s dire situation — and the nightmares we will confront, as surely as hollowed-out Detroit did, unless we can summon the will to turn things around.

With the New Year comes a new slate of officeholders whose careers warrant close attention and whose fates could have broader political implications. Put Gina Raimondo near the top of that list.