07:48 AM EDT on Wednesday, September 17, 2003

BY ANDREA L. STAPE
Journal Staff Writer

It won't be easy for Rhode Island to get straight A's on its economic report card -- but the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council is pushing the state to rise to the top of the class.

The RIEPC, the state-funded nonprofit focused on grading the state's job creation efforts, last week rolled out its goals for the state's economy over the next seven years.

The council wants the median income in Rhode Island to be even with the median income in Massachusetts. It also would like the state to grow high-wage jobs faster. And it wants the state to do both, while reducing land consumption and improving the educational level of Rhode Island students. And it wants it done by 2010.

In all, the council approved 17 economic goals for the state -- goals the council will use to grade the state's attempts to improve its economy.

And the EPC also held up a vision of what Rhode Island can be if the state manages to get straight A's and reach all 17 of its goals.

Rhode Island will not only have created 20,000 new jobs, but it will "be a beacon of economic vibrancy . . . a center for business and government innovation; an important hub of design, technology and finance, a talent magnet, and a dynamic engine of upward mobility," according to the EPC's newly adopted vision statement. And it can be all this, while at the same time preserving the beaches and towns that make Rhode Island a nice place to live, according to the EPC.

"This vision is what we ought to have in our minds as we move forward with our day-to-day activities," said Paul Choquette, co-chairman of the policy council and chief executive officer of Gilbane Building Co., during the EPC meeting at Raytheon Co.'s facility in Portsmouth.

Governor Carcieri, co-chairman of the council, agreed, "The attempt here is to try to create a framework . . . . What are some of the metrics that we want to look at in terms of where we're planning to go? What is it we're trying to achieve [economically]? To me this body is the body that sets that framework . . ."

These "metrics" are new for the EPC, which since 1995 has served more as a think-tank for longterm economic strategy than a scoring organization. The 25-person council is made up of local business, academic and political leaders.

But Carcieri charged the organization at the beginning of the year with not only developing a long-term vision for the state, but also setting goals for getting there.

"This body is a policy body sitting on top of our whole economic plan," said Carcieri.

The governor rolled out his economic plan last Friday, which focuses on expanding large and small businesses, increasing the number of businesses in the state without creating urban sprawl, and building the state's reputation as a friendly place for businesses to present new ideas.

The EPC is not charged with carrying out that plan, only with monitoring its effectiveness -- and setting concrete goals the plan should achieve along the way.

"We've got an implementation part which is the EDC piece, which is the nuts and bolts of how we're going to actually get to this better Rhode Island that [the EPC] might be describing 10 or 15 years out," said Carcieri at Friday's council meeting.

Some of EPC's 17 goals for the state approved on Friday include:

Improving Rhode Island's score on the "brain drain" index to 1.0 by 2010. Brain drain is the loss of educated workers to other states. Currently Rhode Island's score is 0.645.

Increasing employment in fast-growth companies, so the percentage of Rhode Island workers at these "gazelle" companies is on par with "gazelle" employment in leading technology states.

Increasing voter participation in the gubernatorial race to 50 percent by 2008.

Achieving a public spending rate that matches the state's personal-income growth rate. This is one way to measure whether the state budget is in line with the economic situation of its residents, according to the EPC.

Increasing the number of people reaching college in Rhode Island to 40 percent of the population.

Improving the water-quality index of Narragansett Bay to 6.0 by 2010, from the current 4.5

Although the metrics and the vision statement have been in the works since March, it was still met with some mixed reviews last week.

One came from University of Rhode Island President Robert Carothers, who said some of the goals -- such as 40-percent college attainment -- were a little too aggressive.

Another came from Senate President William V. Irons, who said he did not think the EPC's vision statement for the state reflected all the economic progress Rhode Island has made in the past 10 years.

But for the most part, the council readily approved its new mission statement and accepted its new score-keeping role.

"The other thing this vision clearly says is we can do this, that this is not an impossible task," said Choquette.