PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Senate yesterday approved a $7.3 billion supplemental budget plan that would raise the state cigarette tax by $1 per pack and slash municipal aid already pledged for the current fiscal year.
The measure – “Making Revised Appropriations for the Support of the State for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2009” (2009-H 5019Aaa) – aims to eliminate a fiscal 2009 budget deficit now estimated at about $370 million. The legislation won Senate approval in a 32-to-6 vote less than 24 hours after it had cleared the House. (READ MORE)
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Recent amendments to the bill eliminated a proposed 2 cent-per-gallon hike in the state gasoline tax and restored $25 million in aid to cities and towns that previously had been cut from the budget. But the final measure still makes $50 million in cuts to the state’s municipal aid budget for the fiscal year that ends June 30.
“The way things are going, we don’t need a rainy day fund, we need a typhoon fund,” declared Senate Finance Chairman Daniel DaPonte, D-East Providence and Pawtucket, according to the Associated Press. He and other lawmakers predicted that further cuts may be needed.
The next stop for the General Assembly’s budget-gap plan will be the desk of Gov. Donald L. Carcieiri.
“The governor still has concerns on the budget that has now been passed out of the House and the Senate,” spokeswoman Amy Kempe told Providence Business News in an e-mail today. “Most notably, while the budget restores some aid to local communities, it fails to address the underlying issue of unfunded mandates. In addition, by not passing pension reform, the General Assembly is not taking up one of the most important issues facing this state. … Further, the governor is concerned with the article that taxes the first $2,400 [of] unemployment benefits. This directly hurts the Rhode Islanders that are struggling and flies in the face of one of the goals of the Recovery Act” – the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).
Carcieri’s recent budget plan for fiscal 2010, which relies heavily on ARRA stimulus aid, proposes eliminating municipal aid entirely and imposing sharp changes in the state pension plan. (READ MORE)
News and information from the R.I. General Assembly are available at www.rilin.state.ri.us. Information from the Governor’s Office is available at www.governor.ri.gov.
