Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Governor Carcieri will either have to veto or sign the state budget once it hits his desk.

A delay in the Senate -- the state spending plan still isn't posted for a vote on today's Senate calendar -- has forced the governor's hand.

Under normal circumstances, Carcieri could allow the $7.81-billion budget bill -- which boosts the gasoline tax by 2 cents per gallon and repeals preferential tax treatment of capital gains -- to become law without his signature.

That's exactly what he did with the supplemental budget in April, a symbolic protest to a handful of concerns that didn't rise to the level of a veto.

But allowing a budget to become law without a signature takes five days. And the State of Rhode Island doesn't have five days.

State officials have warned that an estimated $47 million in pension savings expected for the current year could be in "substantial jeopardy" if the budget doesn't become law by Tuesday, the end of the fiscal year, which is now four days away.

When asked this morning, the governor's office refused to say what its plans were.

"We still don't have a budget," Carcieri spokeswoman Amy Kempe said.

Senate Majority Leader Daniel P. Connors, meanwhile, suggested in a brief interview late Thursday night that the Senate would approve the budget Friday.

What was the holdup?

He denied widespread rumors that the delay was related to the fate of a bill working its way through the House regarding dog racing at Twin River.

Instead, Connors said some senators were concerned that District Court judges had been spared from pension changes in the budget adopted by the House in the wee hours of Thursday morning.

Stay tuned.

 Tags  General Assembly

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