Only eight city and town councils, and one mayor, have lined up so far to support some — but not all — of the budget articles proposed by Governor Carcieri to restructure rules and mandates that cost communities money.

The request for cities and towns to give their formal positions on the proposals came from the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns. As of Friday afternoon, only nine municipalities — the councils of Burrillville, East Greenwich, East Providence, Hopkinton, Little Compton, Narragansett, North Kingstown, and Pawtucket, and Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian — had sent recommendations to the House Finance Committee.

There may not have been more responses at this point because it can take time for a council to weigh the proposals, and some meet only once a month, said the league’s executive director, Daniel L. Beardsley Jr.

The strongest support is for recommendations to suspend rules on bus monitors, end the requirement that all school nurses be certified as teachers, limit the power of arbitrators to make rulings in labor disputes, remove minimum staffing requirements for police and fire departments and limit how much a city or town has to pay if it loses a civil suit.

The governor’s office has not been keeping track of the extent of community support for the proposals.

The degree of support for the various articles has varied widely, with Burrillville, East Greenwich and Pawtucket endorsing most, with others asking the legislature to embrace only a few.

“It varies. The responses are as diverse as the councils that have forwarded them to us,” said Beardsley.

Some have gotten very little support, such as Article 24, which would allow school committees to dismiss any teacher at any time of the year for any justifiable reason.

Also garnering few endorsements is the governor’s proposal, pushed by the state Department of Education, to outlaw “work to rule.” Passage would make it illegal for teacher unions to suggest that workers do only the minimum amount of work required by their contracts. The proposal would define such strict adherence to the contract as a strike.

In East Greenwich, the Town Council wondered how such a law would be enforced, but endorsed it anyway.

Beardsley said the letters received thus far probably underestimate the real community support for the articles.

“I think there are, for obvious reasons, a number of councils that are reluctant to take on such issues as school bus monitors and a statewide transportation system,” he said. “Minimum manning issues are a very touchy subject. In communities that have negotiated a mutual agreement on minimum manning, it doesn’t seem to be as much of issue.”

gemery@projo.com