Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

PROVIDENCE -- Within hours of the House Finance Committee's approval of their own deficit-avoidance plan for this year, Governor Carcieri slammed the lawmakers for ducking "the tough decisions while tying the hands of cities and towns and raising taxes.''

"Simply put, I cannot support a budget that increases the broad-based gasoline tax, provides no help to our cities and towns, avoids necessary pension reforms, and refuses to provide additional help to unemployed Rhode Islanders," said Carcieri, stopping just short of pledging a veto.

The bill is headed to a vote by the full House on Wednesday. It cleared the House Finance Committee on a 14-to-3 vote, with all of the Republicans present voting against it.

"I am gravely concerned,'' Carcieri said in a late-day statement.

"By eliminating the $55 million in general revenue sharing to cities and towns, without providing them with the tools they need to balance their budgets, they are left with no other choices but layoffs, severe cuts to municipal services, or large property tax increases."

He pegged his comments, in part, to the lawmakers' decision to add a 2-cent hike in the gasoline tax to the revenue-raising mix that he proposed, and to tax unemployment compensation benefits that the federal stimulus legislation sought to spare from taxation, while leaving until later any consideration of his pension-cutting proposals.

The House Democrats who crafted the bill also dropped Republican Carcieri's proposals for cutting city and town costs, such as requiring minimum contributions by municipal workers for their health-insurance benefits.

Of the gas tax hike, he said: "Rhode Islanders are struggling. Raising the gas tax hurts all Rhode Islanders, especially those who drive to and from work every day.''

He also questioned the need to raise the money so a big chunk of it an be given to the municipalities for a pothole-repair program when "DOT recently announced $20 million for local road repair for every city and town in Rhode Island, in addition to the $137 million in stimulus funds for infrastructure projects."

Of the lack of action on the pension front, he said: "The General Assembly has studied the pension system for more than a year. The actuarial reports are complete. The fiscal analysis has been vetted. We all know that the state can no longer sustain the current pension system. Deferring a vote on major changes to the pension system sweeps the real issue under the rug."

He also criticized their plan to defer up to $112 million in "employer contributions'' to the state pension fund for state workers and teachers. "Without making the necessary plan reforms, the General Assembly is increasing the unfunded liability. This is irresponsible when the pension plan is already $7 billion under-funded,'' he said.

He also took issue with their decision to tax the first $2,400 in unemployment benefits to raise an estimated $5.4 million to help plug the state's deficit, even though the federal stimulus bill exempts this amount from federal taxation.

And finally, he took issue with their decision to deny new car-buyers an exemption for the sales tax paid on their purchases "It is counter intuitive to penalize those individuals who are spending money and getting our economy moving."

In accusing the lawmakers of avoiding hard-decisions, Carcieri was tot some extend echoing the criticism they leveled at him after he unveiled his budget plans for this year and next earlier this month.

"There are very few hard decisions that have been made in this budget. They restore cuts with money they don't know they have," said House Finance Committee Chairman Steven Costantino at the time, referring to stimulus-related spending that might not be allowed.

"It doesn't appear there were major painful decisions," echoed Senate Finance Committee Chairman Daniel DaPonte.

 Tags  budget repair bill Carcieri House Finance Committee Rhode Island General Assembly RI state budget

Comments

Bill said:

What elese would you expect from the idiots that created the problem in the first place?

How can one expect anything different from people whose brains are saturated with booze and giant shrimp on a daily basis?

Next election these same idiots will win big again. Nothing ever changes.

Unfortunately I predicted that this would happen last January and they ran true to form.

Link | March 27, 2009 8:12 PM
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John Stark said:

Big surprise. Democrats in the general assembly avoid making tough decisions, or any decisions at all, on public sector pensions that are bankrupting the state. Lot of talk. No action. Typical.

Link | March 28, 2009 7:54 AM
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Rene Leveillee said:

GUTLESS !!!

Link | March 28, 2009 8:36 AM
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Alan Bonin said:

I wonder when Democrates in this state will get it. You can only tax someone so many times. Is that the only solution they ever have? Yup let's tax them more and see what happens.
I hope the people who keep voting for these geniuses finally do something right. Like vote them out of office for a change. The government has proven time and time again not to be the best handlers of money. That is why this state is in need of new ideas. Taxing an over taxed population isn't a solution it is the problem.

Link | March 28, 2009 3:26 PM
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