PROVIDENCE — Lawmakers yesterday demanded answers from Rhode Island’s Economic Development Corporation about why the agency has not done more to curtail job losses and bolster the state’s flagging economy.

“Your feet are to the fire … things are looking pretty bad,” Rep. Elizabeth Dennigan, D-East Providence, told EDC officials at a hearing targeting the agency’s economic growth plan.

Dennigan, chairwoman of the legislature’s Joint Committee on Economic Development, chastised the organization for allowing the state to slip into what economists earlier this week called the Northeast’s only recession.

The lawmakers’ position was clear yesterday: the agency must commit itself to more daily hands-on work to try and reverse the state’s economic forecast.

EDC President Saul Kaplan, the state’s top economic adviser, has been under increasing pressure as of late to create high-paying jobs to boost state tax receipts and help communities that have lost manufacturing jobs. But yesterday’s hearing marked the first time that lawmakers facing a multimillion-dollar state deficit put the agency on the hot seat.

Kaplan said he anticipated the onslaught. “This is a very difficult economy and Rhode Islanders are struggling,” he said. “This is the kind of dialogue that we need to have and we should expect tough questions.”

“…I think we’re making progress. It wasn’t fast enough to overcome the job losses we saw recently, but … we need to position ourselves to have momentum coming out of this,” he added.

EDC officials defend their efforts pointing to their long-term economic growth plan, unveiled this spring ( www.riedc.com/about/mission-and-strategy).

In general terms, the plan calls for creating a more business-friendly environment in Rhode Island by increasing the number of high-wage jobs, improving infrastructure, cultivating a more skilled work force and decreasing the state’s tax burden so as to compete with neighborhood states whose economic health is less dire. EDC officials say they’ve already begun implementing their plan and are working closely with businesses.

But committee members said they wanted to see more focused efforts to spark job growth in cities and towns and ensure smart development.

They praised the EDC for its recent work as an impromptu mediator in the long-stalled dispute over whether to expand the runway at T.F. Green Airport. Agency officials have met with the Rhode Island Airport Corporation and Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian to try to broker a compromise –– the airport and the business community are eager to lengthen the runway while city officials worry about practical effects on the community.

Dennigan and Co-chairman Walter S. Felag Jr., D-Warren, say they’d like to see the EDC take more of that kind of leadership role, bettering communications and relationships around the state.

Yesterday’s hearing came three months after Steven M. Costantino, D-Providence, chairman of the powerful House Finance Committee, published an op-ed in The Providence Journal saying the state should “redesign the mission” of the EDC to make it “a more effective conduit for the policies and investments that promote job growth.”

He went on to propose the creation of a bipartisan group of business people, tax experts and others “to tackle the big solutions that job growth demands.”

Since then Rhode Island has endured steep declines. In March, the state lost 3,100 jobs, plunging the state’s employment level to its lowest point in nearly five years, a government report shows.

Costantino — who does not sit on the joint committee –– said yesterday that the worsening forecast means there is little time to waste. He’d like to see the group convened as soon as possible and is working out details with leaders from a variety of business backgrounds.

But Kaplan played down the chairman’s concerns and those from the committee.

“Finger pointing does none of us any good,” he said. “We have to be focused on what kind of economy we’re trying to create and get on with creating it with a laser-like focus. So we have to stay the course on our tax structure … we have to get our state budget in order and we at EDC need to aggressively implement our economic growth plan.”

cneedham@projo.com