(Updated, 3:45 p.m.)
PROVIDENCE – The House Finance Committee has approved a plan to close Rhode Island’s $220 million budget shortfall for the fiscal year that ends June 30 by reducing state aid to cities and towns, cutting public-employee pensions and borrowing from the rainy day fund.
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The committee signed off on the supplemental budget for fiscal 2010 late Thursday after a day of hectic negotiations between House and Senate Democrats. The full House will vote on the budget next Tuesday, The Associated Press reported. Senate approval is also required.
Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, a Republican, released an alternative plan for closing the deficit earlier this year. The governor’s proposal would have made large cuts to local aid and pensions. Although Carcieri could veto lawmakers’ budget, Democrats have enough votes in both houses of the General Assembly to override him.
In a statement released in the afternoon, Carcieri characterized the plan as a “half measure.”
“Just as the General Assembly did last year, they have not gone far enough to reform pension benefits.”
Key provisions of House Democrats’ supplemental budget include:
The governor added that the “the General Assembly has, for the most part, refused to tackle the issue of local aid. The state can no longer sustain the level of funding it provides to the cities and towns.”
Once they finish closing the hole in this year’s budget, lawmakers will have to turn to eliminating the shortfall in next year’s.
In February, Carcieri released a $7.5 billion state budget blueprint for 2010-11 that would continue drastic cuts in local aid, eliminate the film tax credit and use more federal stimulus dollars to close a shortfall estimated at $427 million.
Additional information is available at rilin.state.ri.us.
