PROVIDENCE — After months of unproductive talks with emissaries of the state, the owners of the Twin River greyhound track and slot parlor have tried and apparently failed in their effort to enlist Governor Carcieri’s help in averting a bankruptcy filing.

No longer talking about anything as dramatic as a state takeover or a reduction in the state’s anticipated $246-million cut of the gambling revenue, they instead laid out a financial recovery plan aimed at plugging a $30-million operating hole that would include:

•A previously disclosed plan to suspend live greyhound racing on Aug. 8.

•A request that the state take up to $28 million off the top — before the state, the owners or anyone else gets their share — to help cover the cost of marketing the Lincoln gambling hall, up to $12 million for capital expenditures and $16 million for a player-rewards program.

•An arrangement whereby Twin River would buy out the state Lottery’s leases for the 4,751 video-slot machines in play now, with Twin River’s owners getting most of the revenue the state is currently paying GTECH and the other machine suppliers. This alone would bump Twin River’s share of the video-slot revenue up by $18.4 million over the next year, from a projected $107.2 million (27.8 percent) to $125.6 million (31.8 percent).

The measures were contained in a June 2 proposal obtained by The Journal that was presented to the top officials in the Carcieri administration last week under the title: “Integrated Proposal to Restructure Twin River and Avoid Contested Bankruptcy.”

According to the document, the proposal would not only set the stage for a resolution of Twin River’s standoff with its lenders, it would also provide “a solution that adheres to the principles provided by the governor and legislative leadership,” including: “no reduction in state tax rate, no state takeover of facility… [and] no adjustment to town of Lincoln rate.”

It also serves notice that failure to reach an agreement will precipitate a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing as early as next week by the partnership known as BLB Investors that owns Twin River, a move that will likely cut the state’s anticipated share of the slot revenue by “10-20 percent,” and result in a “protracted, highly publicized and contested proceeding.”

But the proposal was a non-starter.

Asked why the governor objected, his spokeswoman Amy Kempe said: “In a nutshell, under the proposal by BLB, there is a very real chance the state could lose money. It’s backdoor tax relief.”

She did not elaborate. But she provided an internal administration analysis that said the proposal is “under-capitalized with an anticipated $10 [million] cash infusion from an as yet unidentified participant which will only add more debt to the already too highly leveraged facility … The only real concessions in the proposed transaction come from the state in the form of a marketing fund ($20 million) and [from] the dogs via the cancellation/buy-out out of their contract.”

Owned by a consortium that includes Kerzner International Limited, Starwood Capital Group and Waterford Group LLC, Twin River has been in default on close to a half-billion dollars in loans since March 2008 after buying the former Lincoln Park and spending more than $200 million on renovations.

In a telephone interview from France where he is vacationing, Starwood Capital chairman and CEO Barry Sternlicht said the renovations went over budget in part because of the “shocking” cost of construction in Rhode Island; then came the worst recession in a lifetime. But he questioned why the governor and his aides would thumb their noses at businessmen who invested $200 million in bettering the decaying facility.

“To say we over-leveraged it, that might be true,” he said, “but that’s not exactly fair [because] we weren’t like raiders who came in, ripped apart the facility and fired a lot of people. Quite the opposite. We’ve done everything we could to help the state, and help the town and help the employees and create jobs.”

This latest breakdown in negotiations surfaced on the day before the House Finance Committee votes on a new $7-billion state budget, amid rumors that Senate leaders are trying to append a requirement that Twin River keep the dog races.

The Senate has already passed such a bill, but its chances in the House are uncertain with Twin River’s lobbyists working hard to dissuade the lawmakers from forcing the owners to continue a line of business that the lobbyists say “operated at a $10.6 million loss in 2007 and a $10.4 million loss in 2008… This unfortunately is little more than an attempt by several out-of-state dog owners to hold on to a dying livelihood.”

Twin River’s restructuring plan would require legislation, bondholder consent and the consent of GTECH “to waive rights” and take a reduced share of the VLT revenue in return for a potentially longer state contract.

kgregg@projo.com