One other indicator of the state’s financial troubles is the relatively small $2.5-million bond issue on next week’s ballot for preserving open space, recreational and agricultural land in Rhode Island.

The figure is tiny compared to the only other bond issue on the ballot, the $87.2 million earmarked for transportation. It is also small compared to the $85 million Governor Carcieri originally announced he would support for cleaning up Narragansett Bay and preserving land. And it doesn’t compare well with environmental bonds of $70 million in 2004, $34 million in 2000, $40.9 million in 1989 and $65.2 million in 1987.

But supporters are optimistic because every previous open-space bond issue in Rhode Island has passed with at least 57 percent of the vote, and often with margins of 3-to-1.

By the time Carcieri was proposing this year’s budget, the state’s growing deficit was on the minds of all state leaders. Carcieri lowered his proposal to $30 million for the Bay cleanup and $5 million for open space.

But the House Finance Committee responded with a budget in June that had no money for either environmental issue.

On the last day of the session, state Rep. Donna Walsh, D-Charlestown, joined with state Sen. V. Susan Sosnowski, D-South Kingstown, to sponsor a bill restoring $2.5 million for open space and agricultural land.

Environmental advocates hope the bond issue will pass and the money will be spent to preserve farmland, because the state’s farm program is virtually out of money. This year, the federal government is offering $3 million to $5 million for farmland preservation in Rhode Island, but there has to be matching state money.

One example of how the money might be spent can be seen by driving past Chariho High School in Richmond. The school is surrounded by large turf fields. The state helped preserve those fields by buying the development rights last week to the 486-acre Tuckahoe Turf Farms.

If the current bond issue passes, it is estimated that it will cost the state about $250,000 annually and each taxpayer about 25 cents annually.

plord@projo.com