PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Economic Development Corporation and the quasi-public Slater Technology Fund would both see their funding drastically reduced under the 2009-2010 state budget approved on Wednesday by the House Finance Committee.
Under the House budget plan, the agency’s general budget would be slashed by 42 percent compared with the governor’s recommendation. The House would give the EDC $3.5 million, while Gov. Donald L. Carcieri’s had proposed slightly more than $6 million.
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The EDC’s budget already was cut by 15 percent to $5.3 million in this year’s budget, down from $6.2 million in 2007-2008. The governor’s proposal would have restored nearly all of the funding the EDC lost this year.
The EDC was created by the General Assembly in 1995, replacing the old Department of Economic Development. The agency has become a whipping post for state officials in recent months as Rhode Island’s unemployment rate has surged into double digits.
Saul Kaplan, who resigned as the EDC’s executive director last December, questioned the decision on the messaging service Twitter. “House Finance whacked 40 percent off Rhode Island’s economic development budget,” he wrote. “Talk about cutting off your nose ….”
A separate EDC appropriation in the House budget for the R.I. Airport Corporation was kept at the governor’s funding level of $1.025 million, up from $1 million in the current year budget.
In addition, the House budget cuts the state’s annual contribution to the Slater Technology Fund, a quasi-public agency that provides venture capital for startup firms, from this year’s $3 million appropriation down to $2 million, a 33 percent reduction.
The governor had recommended level-funding the Slater Fund at $3 million, which is what the General Assembly chose to do for the current budget year.
The House budget does include $1.5 million in state matching funds to continue the Rhode Island Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (RI EPSCoR), which is partly funded by the federal government through the National Science Foundation.
The House budget is for the 2010 fiscal year, which starts July 1. The full House is expected to vote on the budget next Wednesday. From there it would move to the Senate. Although the governor has criticized the budget, he has not threatened to veto it.
