PROVIDENCE — Nearly 5,000 state workers — one-third of the state’s public employees — are out of Governor Carcieri’s grasp as he moves ahead with an unprecedented proposal to cut state jobs.

The governor on Monday announced a broad plan he said could save $100 million by laying off 414 state employees and trimming the state’s temporary employment rolls by another 115 workers.

The cuts, cited as the centerpiece of the governor’s plan to close a projected budget gap of between $200 million and $300 million for the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2008, would affect every state department, the governor said.

None of those reductions, however, will come from the state’s colleges, the court system, the General Assembly, or from the offices of any of the state’s general officers.

Those not in immediate danger of losing their jobs include the policy aides working for the Assembly, professors at the state’s colleges and legal staff at the attorney general’s office.

In the speech announcing the plan, Carcieri acknowledged that a major piece of the state’s work force was not under his direct control. Of about 15,000 state employees paid with tax dollars, only 10,072 are in a pool of workers targeted for layoffs.

“It is unfair to expect that the two-thirds of state workers I control and their affected programs bear the burden of reduction,” Carcieri said Monday. “I am calling on them to do their part in sharing the responsibility for reducing costs.”

Yesterday, representatives for those departments said they would strive to cut costs for the coming fiscal year. But they flatly rejected the governor’s suggestion that they follow his lead and lay off staff of their own.

The attorney general’s office employs 234 workers, barely enough staff to fill the current need, according to Christopher Cotta, director of administration and finance for the attorney general’s office.

“To say we could do it with less is almost an insult,” Cotta said, noting that his department has not asked for a staffing increase in the last two years. As it is, the attorney general’s staff will perform an estimated 25,000 hours of unpaid overtime this year because of staffing shortages, he said.

Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, in a letter to the governor last week, said that staffing was approaching dangerous levels: “Simply recognize that continued under-funding of critical operations hinder the office of the attorney general’s constitutionally-mandated mission, will definitely cost Rhode Island taxpayers more in the long run, and if not addressed, could risk the safety of the citizens of Rhode Island,” he wrote to the governor.

Cotta said that without adequate staffing to meet court deadlines, “There is the potential that something could fall through the cracks or get missed and somehow somebody ends up back on the streets who doesn’t belong on the streets.”

The governor’s office would not respond directly to Lynch’s concerns, but it issued a spreadsheet demonstrating a budgetary increase at the attorney general’s office of about 36 percent since 2003. Lynch’s spokesman Michael Healey countered by noting that overall state spending since 2003 has increased by more than 28 percent.

“It’s kind of like the cheetah calling the dalmatian spotty,” Healey said of the governor’s analysis.

Meanwhile, the head of the state’s Board of Governors for Higher Education, Commissioner Jack Warner, said there were no plans to cut the number of jobs at the state’s three colleges.

“I don’t believe that we’ll be engaged in layoffs per se, other than just keeping positions vacant,” Warner said, adding that there are 77 vacant positions at the Community College of Rhode Island and 33 at Rhode Island College that won’t be filled next year. Those jobs, he said, are not funded in his current budget.

Higher education, which employs 3,549 workers, may replace some “back room” administrative staff, Warner said, but the funding for those jobs would be shifted to new teaching positions needed for growing enrollments. He said the department would work to streamline some administrative services, but could not say how much those changes may save for the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2008.

The governor’s spokesman, Jeff Neal, would not comment specifically on other state departments’ refusal to cut staffing.

“Based on his conversations with the heads of the different areas of state government, Governor Carcieri remains hopeful that they will agree to make the same types of difficult choices that he is making in the areas he controls,” Neal said, declining to be more specific. “As he said yesterday, it is not fair for executive branch employees to be forced to bear that burden alone. This is a statewide problem that will require contributions from all areas of state government.”

The head of hiring for the General Assembly, House Speaker William J. Murphy, said in a statement that the legislative branch had no plans to lay off staff “at this time.”

The number of full-time employees working for the Assembly has fallen from 313 to 294 in the last four years, he said.

“While we will continue to administer the legislative budget with fiscal responsibility, the bigger concern is ensuring similar fiscal responsibility in the executive agencies, which Governor Carcieri controls, that comprise more than 90 percent of all statewide personnel costs,” Murphy said. “The legislative budget is less than one-half of one percent of the overall state budget.”

The state court system, which employs 733 workers, submitted a fiscal 2009 spending plan that includes no increase over the current year, although costs to provide existing services will grow by an estimated $4 million, according to judiciary spokesman Craig Berke. There are no layoffs planned, he said, although the department doesn’t plan to fill vacancies.

“We’re aware of the problem, and though the judiciary’s spending represents just 1.4 percent of the entire state budget, we will do our part to conserve taxpayers’ dollars without destroying our mission to serve the public,” Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank J. Williams said.

And the state treasurer’s office, without suggesting that it cut any of its 88 workers, has submitted a fiscal 2009 budget that includes projected savings of $250,000 over the next two years.

Layoff notices for those employees under Carcieri’s control will go to contractors on Nov. 1, and full-fledged state employees on Nov. 15.

speoples@projo.com