R.I. House expected to vote on 2008 budget cuts

PROVIDENCE – A revised state budget plan approved Wednesday by the House Finance Committee, in a 12-0 vote with three abstentions, will go before the full House of Representatives today, in a special session slated to begin at 2 p.m.
The 2008 supplemental budget bill – 2008-H 7204A – makes widespread cuts to narrow the $168 million deficit projected for the current fiscal year. “This has been a very difficult process, one that involves sacrifices at every level,” Finance Committee Chairman Steven M. Costantino, D-Providence, said in a statement. “We have a responsibility to eliminate the deficit – and at this point, we can’t do that without making many painful cuts. We would never consider these types of reductions under better circumstances, but in light of the deficit, we don’t have much choice.”
The measure slashes $12.5 million from the state aid that cities and towns had been slated to receive between now and June. It also eliminates RIte Care health coverage for more than 2,800 non-citizen children; ends RIte Care Coverage for family-based child-care providers; eliminates subsidies for center-based child-care providers; and terminates welfare payments to children whose parents have exceeded the 60-month time limit that applies to all but domestic-violence victims, the homeless and the disabled; and.
But it saves the state’s Historic Preservation Investment Tax Credit Program – if only for this year – limiting funding to projects approved by Jan. 1, 2008, rather than scrapping the credit entirely. And it restores $5 million of the $7 million Gov. Donald L. Carcieri’s original proposal had cut from the Neighborhood Opportunities affordable housing program. In each case, the money will go to projects already promised state support.
“When I introduced my supplemental budget plan several months ago, I said that we needed to make difficult spending reduction decisions in a host of areas and that tax increases were out of the question,” Carcieri said earlier this week. “The House Finance Committee appears to agree.
“In particular, the House Finance Committee budget plan includes my proposals to reform the health care program for newly retired state employees, to reduce previously budgeted non-education aid to cities and towns, to eliminate RIte Care benefits for undocumented children and to save millions of dollars in personnel costs,” the governor said.
He urged the House and Senate to act quickly on the plan. “The outlook for next year is likely to worsen as our economy continues to weaken,” Carcieri said. “It will necessitate that both the executive and legislative branches continue to work closely on further spending reductions. Making the hard choices now will ensure we emerge from the downturn in an even stronger position.”
The House is expected to vote on the measure during the 2 p.m. special session, Larry Berman, a spokesman for Speaker William J. Murphy, D-West Warwick, Coventry and Warwick, told Providence Business News. The bill then will go before the Senate.
Most portions of the legislation would take effect immediately on its passage.
Additional information on the R.I. General Assembly, including the House and Senate calendars and listings of measures introduced each day, is available at www.rilin.state.ri.us.

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