Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

By Katherine Gregg and Cynthia Needham
Journal State House Bureau

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The House has voted to reinstate $25 million of the $55 million in local revenue-sharing money that had been headed for the chopping block, as part of a controversial deficit-avoidance plan for this year.

The vote on the leadership-backed amendment was 74-to-1. After rejecting several bids to further reduce the state aid cut, the House approved this section of the proposed $7.2-billion budget repair bill on a 41-to-33 vote. Rep. Stephen Ucci, D-Johnston, argued that the vote fell short of the two-thirds required to change the current-year aid package. House Speaker William J.Murphy disagreed.

Asked during the long debate where the money came from to reduce the size of this mid-year cut in local aid, House Finance Chairman Steven Costantino pointed to an across-the-board cut, a potential end-of-year surplus and federal stimulus dollars that otherwise would have been spent next year. As to why the communities aren't getting more, Costantino, D-Providence, noted the communities are also getting $35 million in new and previously unbudgeted federal stimulus dollars to help blunt the cut.

The decision to restore a chunk of the money was attributed to strong objections from rank-and-file lawmakers to the total elimination of a major local aid program for the home communities. "A lot of the freshman had spoken,'' acknowledged freshman Rep. John Carnevale, D-Providence. "I think this is a class of freshman that's going to speak up. That's what we were put here for. We weren't put here by the voters to sit down and not take an active role.''

Not everyone was satisfied, however. Rep. Al Gemma, D-Warwick, told colleagues the situation was akin to breast-feeding: "What happens when you keep depending on Momma?'' He said the lawmakers would have done the cities and towns a favor by giving them some of "the tools'' Governor Carcieri proposed as a way to help the communities reduce their spending.

Rep. John Loughlin, R-Tiverton, proposed full restoration of the revenue-sharing, saying that in many cases, this is money that has been budgeted, obligated and already spent. But House Majority Whip Peter Kilmartin, D-Pawtucket, warned that whatever local aid is reinstated this year means "a harder hit'' in the budget for the year that begins July 1: "That monsoon is coming.''

He also took issue with the idea of taking minimum-manning requirements out of negotiations for police and firefighter contract, which was one of the "management tools'' Republican Carcieri proposed. Warning that such moves could "cost lives,'' Kilmartin, a lawyer and long-time Pawtucket police officer, said: "Give me a break.''

The Loughlin proposal was defeated on a 45 to 28 vote.

Several Democrats tried to further reduce the state aid cut, or spare their own communities.

For example, Rep. Jon Brien, D-Woonsocket, sought to reinstate 100 percent of the reduced state aid for financially "distressed communities,'' such as his own.

But his proposed amendment met defeat, after Costantino said: "This is not the time to pit communities'' against one another,

Added Rep. Charlene Lima, D-Cranston: "I can make a case that all the communities in this state are distressed the way this economy has been going,'' but "the people of our districts and the people of this state have said loud and clear: trim things down and cut costs.'' She said some cities and towns have, but others have not and she fretted "that if we give back more money today, the cities and towns are going to lose that incentive to make those cuts and that will come back, trust me, to haunt us.''

"So the message is clear,'' she said. 'Make the cuts, trim some of your government stuff. We're going to try and help you as best we can. We have a problem, the county has a problem, the globe has a problem.''

The Brien amendment was defeated on a 58-to-13 vote.

Other concessions appear to be in the works.

Emerging from a closed-door Democratic caucus earlier in the day, Rep. Joseph McNamara, D-Warwick, said he had been led to believe the leadership had decided to drop, for now, a proposed 2-cent hike in the gasoline tax, which stands at 30-cents a gallon though consumers already pay an additional one-cent "environmental protection regulatory fee" at the pump.

The 2-cent increase would have raised an estimated $9 million more annually. Between April and October for the next two years, the added revenue would go the cities and towns to help maintain local roads and fix potholes. In the months and years after that, it would go to the cash-strapped Rhode Island Public Transit Authority.

But just in case the gas tax hike remains intact, the six-member House Republican bloc came armed for battle.

As the debate over the $7.2 billion budget-repair bill for this year unfolds this afternoon at the State House, they may decide against introducing all of their amendments. But one of the readied amendments would have eliminated the 2-cent hike.

Another proposal, introduced by Rep. Laurence Ehrhardt, R-North Kingstown, would roll back the gas tax by a penny, for each penny the price at the pump exceeds $2.10.

 Tags  budget Providence R.I. State House

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