CARCIERI

PROVIDENCE — In an unusual move in a non-election year, Governor Carcieri has hit the radio airwaves with an ad that asks listeners not to be fooled into thinking the arrival of hundreds of millions of federal stimulus dollars will solve Rhode Island’s budget problems.

In an unusual twist, the state’s severe budget crisis has given Republican Carcieri the best chance he has had since taking office to make headway on his cost-cutting agenda, which includes major rollbacks in pension benefits for state and local public employees. At every budget hearing, Rhode Island lawmakers are hearing from union leaders and advocates for the poor that financial help is on the way.

In response, Carcieri went on air with an ad that begins: “This is Governor Carcieri. With a federal bailout on its way, some may think Rhode Island’s budget crisis will soon be over. But don’t be fooled by those who would ignore the real issues, and simply patch the budget with this newfound money. Such sudden windfalls may solve our immediate budget problem, but in the long run they will only make things worse.”

In what he calls his own recovery plan, Carcieri says he has proposed “real relief to our cities and towns — relief from costly unfunded mandates, minimum staffing levels and unaffordable employee pensions and health-care benefits. With less state money available, our mayors and town managers urgently need these tools to balance their budgets without raising your property taxes.”

While some savings are possible this year, even the governor’s staff acknowledges that most of his municipal cost-cutting proposals — which include repeal of a school bus monitor requirement — are unlikely to save enough to offset the mid-year state aid cuts of at least $74 million that he recently proposed to help plug the state’s own deficit.

But his ad says: “Let your voice be heard. ... Call your state representatives and tell them you support my plan to balance the budget. It’s the only real plan that our children and grandchildren will be able to afford.”

The ad is being paid for by TransformRI, an advocacy group of which Carcieri is the honorary chairman. He also has been the voice on previous radio ads for the group. And the message is not that different from the one Carcieri pitched in a series of recent newspaper interviews in which he said: “I hope we don’t need the stimulus money to plug the budget and if not, I’d like to see if there is some way –– that is if our revenues don’t fall off the table further — that we could use some of that money to actually phase in tax cuts.”

TransformRI has not disclosed the source of its advertising dollars, saying it is not a political-action committee in the traditional sense. It was created as a 501c4 “nonprofit corporation” by Anthony W. Bucci Jr., the finance director for Carcieri’s last reelection campaign, and two of the governor’s other financial backers, John Treat and Anthony Marouchoc.

The articles of incorporation filed in late April place the organization at the same West Warwick address as Bucci’s insurance company, A.W. Bucci & Associates, also known as the Bucci Insurance Group. It lists Bucci, Treat and Marouchoc as directors of this new organization created to “provide leadership and educate the public regarding responsible and growth-oriented public policy in the state of Rhode Island.”

Bucci yesterday said that the text was written by Carcieri’s communications director John Robitaille “on his own time.”

He said the ad began airing on Jan. 26, and has been booked to run for five weeks. But he refused to disclose how much TransformRI paid for the airtime, while acknowledging the “organization exists primarily to support Governor Carcieri’s agenda.”

It remains unclear how much Rhode Island may receive from the federal stimulus package, though the possibility exists that a recently approved Medicaid spending cap forged by the Carcieri and Bush administrations may shut out the state from a piece of the package.

This was the response from Patrick Crowley, assistant executive director of National Education Association Rhode Island, after hearing the Carcieri radio spot: “The governor’s so-called recovery plan was nothing more than a conservative wish list of proposals having very little to do with the economic plight of working Rhode Islanders. What the people of Rhode Island need today is leadership, not finger pointing or campaign attack ads.

“But more importantly, the people of Rhode Island need good-paying jobs and the stimulus package from the federal government is just the shot in the arm our state economy needs,” he said.

kgregg@projo.com