Holding a copy of the Governor’s budget bill in the House chamber, House Minority Leader Robert Watson talks to the media yesterday. “I am disappointed that this budget apparently is reliant upon raising taxes in order to balance it,” he said.

The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch

PROVIDENCE — Legislative leaders on both sides of the aisle yesterday slammed Governor Carcieri’s budget as wasteful and shortsighted.

It was a reaction one might expect from Democrats, frequent critics of the Republican governor.

But Republicans, too, publicly distanced themselves from Carcieri and his plan. In an unprecedented move, House GOP leaders, outraged by potential tax hikes within the budget, refused to submit the document to the Assembly.

Traditionally, the House minority leader attaches his name to the budget and presents it to the legislature in the form of a bill to be debated. But Minority Leader Robert A. Watson, of East Greenwich, declined to do so yesterday, saying he could not support a plan that might hurt middle-class Rhode Islanders. “I am disappointed that this budget apparently is reliant upon raising taxes in order to balance it,” Watson said.

Deputy Minority Leader John Loughlin, of Tiverton, also refused to submit it. And Joseph Trillo, R-Warwick, a third member of the five-person House caucus, said he had no plans to attach his name either.

“I’ve never seen anything like this, and I’ve been here 17 years,” House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox, D-Providence, said.

Carcieri on Tuesday proposed a $7.6-billion budget that would increase overall state spending by 10 percent in the coming fiscal year, when millions in federal stimulus dollars are factored in.

If ultimately approved by the legislature, the budget would cut taxes for many Rhode Island businesses and individuals, but it would also result in income tax increases for about 110,000 middle-class Rhode Islanders. And it would raise the state’s cigarette tax by $1, to $3.46 a pack, the highest state level in the nation.

Faced with public embarrassment, the governor’s staff ultimately hand-delivered the proposal to House Speaker William J. Murphy’s office late yesterday, even without a sponsor.

According to a Carcieri spokeswoman, the Rhode Island Constitution only requires the governor to submit the plan to the legislature, which the delivery technically accomplished.

It is unclear what Murphy plans to do with the document.

“Dropping off a photocopy of the governor’s proposed budget in the Speaker’s office after session is not the proper way to introduce legislation,” House spokesman Larry Berman said last night. “The House leadership will rectify this situation tomorrow.”

With the budget in a kind of limbo, legislators and State House observers spent yesterday struggling to understand the particulars of the proposal and how the infusion of federal stimulus dollars will affect spending. It was a task made more difficult by the fact that the General Assembly Web site was inoperable for three days and copies of the full proposal were tough to come by. (A few savvy insiders found the document uploaded on the governor’s Web site.).

But technology problems did not dissuade Democrats from sharply criticizing the plan, albeit for different reasons than their GOP counterparts.

Several Democrats lambasted it for leaning heavily on federal stimulus money.

“It doesn’t appear there were major painful decisions,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Daniel DaPonte, D-East Providence. The chairman said he was shocked that the governor increased overall spending for the coming year. “I find it amazing in the fiscal climate we’re in. It’s a complete debacle,” DaPonte said.

The federal portion of the proposed 2009-10 budget is $4.47 billion, while the state portion totals $3.15 billion. Carcieri notes that the state portion would drop by about 4 percent from current-year levels.

DaPonte was also furious the governor’s budget office didn’t provide “out-year forecasts,” which detail the projected deficits for the coming years.

“The worst part of it I think is there’s no out-year forecasting,” DaPonte said. “The real issue is once two years have passed and the stimulus funds are gone.”

The governor’s budget officer, Rosemary Booth Gallogly, said the forecasts weren’t ready for Tuesday’s official budget release but would be available “early next week.”

“It’s very much a concern,” she said. “We know that it will look bad.”

Lt. Governor Elizabeth H. Roberts, a Democrat, also weighed in yesterday, warning that Rhode Island’s overdependence on federal stimulus dollars would create major problems in coming years.

“The failure to address our structural deficits puts the long-term viability of our state budget and our economy very much at risk. That kind of instability creates uncertainty for business and is not the way to create a climate for economic growth,” she said in a statement. “We must do better.”Understanding the numbers

•Governor Carcieri Tuesday proposed a $7.62-billion state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

 The spending plan, which requires General Assembly approval, is based on two major funding sources: federal dollars and state dollars.

 Federal dollars include the economic stimulus package and hundreds of millions more for unemployment compensation and Medicaid funding.

 State dollars include Rhode Island’s revenue sources such as sales, income and business taxes.

 Overall, the governor’s 2009-10 budget plan increases spending by 10 percent over the current-year enacted budget, which is $6.92 billion.

 The federal portion of the budget is $4.47 billion, while the state portion totals $3.15 billion. The state portion would be about 4 percent lower than the current-year portion of state spending, which is $3.28 billion.

 Additionally, the governor has proposed a $7.27-billion revised budget for the fiscal year that ends June 30. That draws heavily on federal funds as well; the General Assembly has not yet acted on it.

– Steve Peoples, Journal State House Bureau

speoples@projo.com