PAWTUCKET — Call it a preemptive strike.

Supporters of Rhode Island’s controversial historic tax credit program gathered yesterday to draw attention to what they described as the program’s chief benefits.

Armed with a fresh batch of statistics, the backers said at a news conference that the program generates jobs, additional housing and millions of dollars in state and local tax revenue, and will wind up spurring nearly $2.5 billion in overall economic activity.

To underscore the point, the group held the news conference at the former Hope Webbing plant, a historic former mill site which is in the process of being renovated as a result of the tax credit program.

Yesterday’s event was sponsored mainly by GrowSmartRI, a nonprofit policy group (also known as Grow Smart Rhode Island) which focuses on urban redevelopment and the conservation of open space in the state.

The timing of yesterday’s event was not a coincidence, acknowledged Scott Wolf, executive director of GrowSmartRI and the principal speaker at yesterday’s gathering.

It was held about four months from the start of the next General Assembly session, during which the tax credit program is expected to once again undergo scrutiny — and possible calls for curtailment — as state leaders continue to grapple with Rhode Island’s chronic budget problems.

The gathering was “an attempt to get information out before the hurly-burly of the legislative session,” Wolf said in an interview after the event.

The tax credit program, launched in 2002, will cost more this year than it ever has: the state is projected to distribute credits worth an estimated $82.5 million in tax revenue to encourage developers to revitalize abandoned mills and dilapidated buildings across Rhode Island.

The program emerged intact in the most recent session, despite a proposal for restrictions by Governor Carcieri. Wolf called on legislative leaders to again resist any efforts in the coming session to limit the program.

State budget officials have focused mainly on the program’s costs, he said. But they should also consider its benefits. Reports issued by the group at yesterday’s gathering included the following points:

•The program has already resulted in the creation of jobs, new businesses and affordable housing, and has led to the clean-up of dozens of environmentally contaminated sites, sometimes called brownfields.

•The program is responsible for investments — completed, under way or planned — in 23 Rhode Island cities and towns, representing about 75 percent of the state’s population.

•The state’s multi-year investment in the tax credit, estimated at $460.16 million through 2012, will wind up generating a total of $2.46 billion in economic activity. Put another way, each dollar of state tax credit investment is leveraging $5.35 in total economic output.

“The benefits of the program far outweigh its costs,” Wolf said.

Among those benefits, supporters said, is the Hope Webbing site — now known as the Hope Artiste Village — which, overall, covers 600,000 square feet.

Urban Smart Growth LLC of Los Angeles, a developer which specializes in urban renewal projects, is converting the site to include loft apartments, retail sites and space for artists, among other things.

Some of the units are already up and running, and more are planned, said Lance J. Robbins, manager of Urban Smart Growth. “What we’ve created is a village” at the former mill site, he said.

Robbins said that the project is a direct result of Rhode Island’s historic tax credit program, which he said is known throughout the nation. “Rhode Island’s resurgence is cocktail conversation” in Los Angeles, he said.

The program generally works this way: Developers can obtain a credit for up to 30 percent of their qualifying historical rehabilitation construction costs. In general, they sell the credits, at a discount, to individual taxpayers, who then use the credits to reduce their Rhode Island personal income taxes, dollar for dollar. For example, a $100,000 credit might be sold to a taxpayer for $90,000. The taxpayer can use the credit to reduce his or her state income tax liability by $100,000. Thus, the taxpayer saves $10,000 in state income tax, and the developer gets money for a credit it might not otherwise use. Figures from the state Division of Taxation show that the benefit of the credits goes overwhelmingly to high-income taxpayers.

Wolf said the tax credit program has generated additional benefits that are not necessarily reflected in the program’s costs. The benefits include additional state sales-tax and income-tax revenue, and additional property-tax revenue for Pawtucket, Providence and other cities and towns.

GrowSmartRI presented these and other findings yesterday on behalf of the Coalition for Neighborhood & Economic Renewal, whose 57 members include cities and towns, chambers of commerce, labor groups and business interests.

ndowning@projo.com