MURPHY

Though Rhode Island House Speaker William J. Murphy says he didn’t know about a proposed tax break for a Pennsylvania trucking company, a Johnston lawmaker says that he told a federal grand jury recently that he spoke to Murphy in the waning days of the 2007 session about the legislation.

Rep. Stephen R. Ucci, D-Johnston, testified that he took his concerns to Murphy that Senate Finance Chairman Stephen D. Alves was purportedly opposed to the tax break because the Town of Johnston had failed to invest pension funds with Alves, a stockbroker. The legislation — which would have granted a $330,000 tax break to A. Duie Pyle for bringing jobs to Johnston — died at the State House in June and has since become the subject of an FBI corruption investigation.

Murphy thanked him for the information, but did nothing to move the bill along, says Ucci.

After The Journal reported last month that the FBI was investigating whether Alves abused his office by killing the bill, Murphy said that he wasn’t aware of the Duie Pyle bill during the session.

“I didn’t know Duie Pyle from Gomer Pyle,” Murphy told The Journal.

Murphy also defended Alves, a fellow West Warwick Democrat whom he has represented as a lawyer, in the ensuing firestorm that followed The Journal’s story, saying, “I would never abandon him.”

Murphy declined yesterday to discuss the matter. Asked if he or other House leaders have been subpoenaed, he declined to comment on “a matter under investigation.”

Ucci confirmed that he and another Johnston legislator, Sen. Christopher B. Maselli, testified to the grand jury in Providence two weeks ago, along with Jeff Britt, Duie Pyle’s lobbyist. Ucci and Maselli had told The Journal about their efforts to revive the bill, only to learn that Alves opposed it. Britt said that Alves told him he was angry with Johnston for not investing pension money with him.

Alves denies the allegations as “baseless.” He says that he wasn’t opposed to the tax break, but that Duie Pyle’s backers failed to lobby him in time. He opposed the measure in the session’s final days, he says, because the budget had already been approved and it would have thrown it out of whack.

The subject isn’t dead. Beyond the ongoing criminal investigation, part of a wider corruption probe of Alves and other public officials dubbed Operation Dollar Bill, the Duie Pyle legislation may be revisited when the Rhode Island General Assembly reconvenes today in special session. Ucci, Maselli and another Johnston legislator, Rep. Deborah A. Fellela, intend to ask that the bill be reconsidered, according to Johnston Mayor Joseph M. Polisena. But its prospects are considered slim.

Governor Carcieri yesterday called on lawmakers to approve the incentive for Duie Pyle, which has nevertheless moved forward with the project, calling the legislature’s failure to do so in June “one of the more disturbing outcomes” of the session.

The investigation of the Duie Pyle matter is, in part, an excavation of the often byzantine legislative process.

Last spring, Carcieri and Polisena announced that Duie Pyle, a large Eastern transportation company, would build an $11.6-million distribution hub and create 120 new jobs in three years, two thirds of them paying between $50,000 and $60,000. An analysis by the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation concluded that the jobs would generate $500,000 in state income-tax revenue in the first three years, plus $121,000 in tax revenue from the construction workers building the distribution center. In return, state officials proposed granting Duie Pyle an exemption from having to pay $336,000 in state sales tax on construction materials.

Last spring, the EDC submitted proposals for the Johnston project and another one, a medical-parts company moving to Charlestown, to the General Assembly. As the proposals moved through the legislative process, everything seemed on track, recalls EDC lawyer Robert Stolzman. The House Finance Committee held a public hearing on May 23, with no opposition or major concerns voiced.

When House Finance released its budget, however, the Charlestown company was in, but Duie Pyle was out. There was no explanation.

As Senate Finance chairman, Alves helps shape the budget that emerges from House Finance, in private meetings with his House counterpart, Rep. Steven M. Costantino, D-Providence. Their meetings are so secretive that the vice chairman of House Finance, Rep. Jan P. Malik, D-Warren, says that he’s not even allowed inside.

Costantino has not returned repeated calls from The Journal seeking comment on why Duie Pyle was cut from the budget. Alves says that he couldn’t recall whether Duie Pyle came up in his talks with Costantino.

After the House Finance budget was released, Ucci says he went to House Majority Leader Gordon Fox, who told him that it was Alves who was opposed to the Duie Pyle incentive. (Fox told The Journal that he couldn’t recall the conversation.) Shortly thereafter, Ucci heard from Duie Pyle’s lawyer, Joseph Rodio, that Alves’ motivation may have been his anger at Johnston over not investing $29 million in town pension funds with him.

That prompted Ucci to go to the speaker’s office the day before the session ended and tell Murphy what he’d heard about Alves.

“I wanted him to know, as the speaker, because I had heard that Alves may have had a problem with the bill for personal reasons,” said Ucci. “I was hoping he’d say, ‘Let’s move this thing forward,’ or at least give it more consideration. He’s the speaker. He had a good opportunity to eliminate any personal animosity from the debate.”

Murphy had “a shocked and surprised look on his face,” said Ucci. “He thanked me for the information” — but the discussion went no further.

The next day, during the marathon final evening of the session, Ucci says that he approached Murphy again, in the House lounge, and asked that the Duie Pyle incentive be reconsidered. But at that point, Murphy “didn’t want to consider any legislation — he didn’t want anything to do with Duie Pyle,” said Ucci.

Murphy declined to talk to The Journal yesterday, instead issuing a statement that the House Finance Committee, after a public hearing, determined that the tax break for Duie Pyle “was not worthy of further consideration.”

“If circumstances should change, the matter could be revisited in the future,” Murphy’s statement continued.

As for whether he or other House leaders have been contacted by federal investigators or subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury, Murphy’s statement said, “Unlike others, I will not comment on any questions involving purported court proceedings in the above-entitled matter.”

Maselli, the Johnston senator, says that he also tried to revive the bill, speaking to one of the Senate leaders — either Majority Leader Teresa Paiva Weed or Majority Whip Dominick J. Ruggerio — but was told that Alves opposed it. Ruggerio told The Journal last week that Maselli never came to him, and that no federal investigators have asked him about Duie Pyle. Paiva Weed refused yesterday to discuss any role she may have played, or to say if she’s been contacted by the FBI.

“I would decline any comment on a matter under investigation,” she said.

Nor would Paiva Weed say where she stands on Duie Pyle’s bid to have its tax break reconsidered at today’s special session.

“The session begins at 4,” she said.

mstanton@projo.com