Governor Carcieri on Monday afternoon announces cost-cutting moves, including 12 government shutdown days over the next 10 months.

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

PROVIDENCE -- Rhode Island will shut down its state government for a total of 12 days and withhold millions more in local aid to help plug a growing budget hole, Governor Carcieri announced Monday.

The plan calls for about 80 percent of the 12,970 state employees to stay home without pay on 12 specified dates between now and the end of the fiscal year in June — a shutdown plan that amounts to a 4.6-percent pay cut for most.

The majority of the days will fall on the dates immediately before or after major state holidays. They include the Friday before Labor Day, the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, to name a few.

Carcieri said those days were selected because they represent times that the fewest employees work and when state business transactions are generally light.

Critical services, including 911 operations, state police patrols and prison guard rotations, will not be affected by the plan. The state’s colleges and its university don’t plan to close either, though they will be required to trim their budgets by $4.3 million, the equivalent of what they would have saved had they participated.

“For Rhode Islanders, there will be inconveniences; for state employees there is sacrifice. I am asking everyone’s patience, understanding, and awareness that these steps are unavoidable if the state is to live within its means,” the governor said at a Monday afternoon news conference.

He reminded state workers that they are lucky to be employed.

“We all have jobs, good jobs with good benefits and, right now, a lot of Rhode Islanders don’t,” he said. “I think it’s one of those times when we all have to put our shoulder to the wheel and figure out how we help the state get through this.”

Carcieri said he and his staff will take the same pay cut as other employees.

If all of state government agrees to participate, the unpaid days are expected to produce a total of $17.3 million in savings this year.

The shutdowns are part of a multipronged plan to produce $67.8 million in unspecified cuts required by state lawmakers in the budget they passed in June. The state is also facing a newly disclosed $65-million shortfall for the year that ended on June 30.

While the governor can shut down state government on his own, he needs legislative approval for a second piece of his plan: withholding the last $32.5 million in promised car-tax reimbursements to cities and towns, which are already reeling from the elimination of a $55-million revenue-sharing program earlier this year. In short, he wants the lawmakers to restore to him an authority his predecessors had until 1996 to withhold money they have appropriated for a specific purpose.

Fellow Republican Robert Watson, the House minority leader, denounced Carcieri’s bid for power Monday, saying it would “take the decision-making process out of the public domain and put it behind closed doors.”

For the average Rhode Islander, the soon-to-arrive shutdown days could cause headaches. Registry of Motor Vehicles offices will be closed. People will not be able to visit their probation officers, or sign up for unemployment benefits, food stamps or welfare on a shutdown day.

But RIPTA buses will run. The airport and the state landfill will remain open and the state-operated schools –– including the School for the Deaf and Davies High School –– will also stay open.

At the state prisons, Corrections Director A.T. Wall said about half of the 1,380 employees will still be required to work, including corrections officers with direct responsibility for guarding inmates, as well as other essential workers. All others will be given an unpaid day off. That includes the state’s entire parole and probation staff, and Wall himself.

State police Col. Brendan Doherty said the Department of Public Safety has a similar staffing plan in mind.

At the state’s colleges and its university, the savings that will come in lieu of days off are not yet ironed out.

But acting Higher Education Commissioner Steven J. Maurano said shutdown days just aren’t feasible. “We’ve got students paying tuition who expect to have a building, and a classroom and a professor or instructor in front of them and we would be doing a great disservice to them,” he said.

The offices of the lieutenant governor, the general treasurer and the secretary of state have all agreed to participate in the shutdown. The attorney general’s office says it cannot make a decision until it knows whether the courts will be open or closed, though a spokesman said it is likely that the office will take part.

Less clear is what will happen with the other branches of government. Neither the courts nor the General Assembly have said what they will do.

RHODE ISLAND is not alone in ordering shutdown days this year. Close to 20 states have reportedly considered the option, with California and several others already implementing widespread closures.

It would not be the first time Rhode Island shut down most government operations in a financial crunch, either.

In 1991, amid the state’s devastating credit-union crisis, then-Governor Sundlun ordered 10 shutdown days, or a so-called “furlough program” by executive order, to help avert a $222-million budget deficit. His order also resulted in the layoff of about 540 of the state’s then- work force of 19,700 employees.

State unions went to court to try to block the shutdowns, arguing breach of their contracts.

But the Rhode Island Supreme Court rebuffed the unions’ bid for injunctive relief, in a 1991 decision that raises questions about how much better luck the unions might have today in blocking Carcieri’s actions.

Sundlun shuttered much of state government for two days, forcing most state workers to take the equivalent of two unpaid holidays. But the threat of further shutdown days was averted by a subsequent pay-deferral agreement between his administration and organized labor.

Carcieri said there is no agreement with unions on any compromise this time around. He acknowledged that his shutdown proposal was not necessarily fair to all employees since some would get paid, others would not, and nobody would have the opportunity to recoup the losses.

But the unions, he said, refused his administration’s offer to even talk about the kinds of concessions offered to state workers in 1991.

Still, labor leaders said they were angry at how Carcieri’s decision was conveyed to them. According to one union official, Salvatore Lombardi, he and the other presidents of Council 94, American Federation of State, Country & Municipal Employees, the state’s largest employee union, were meeting with administration officials Monday morning about the prospect of shutdowns when word came down that the governor had already scheduled a news conference to discuss his 12-day plan.

“While we were negotiating, they bombed us,” said Lombardi. “This is outrageous.”

During that same gathering Monday, Council 94 president J. Michael Downey said, the local presidents voted to stand by the terms of their contracts and refuse to negotiate any further concessions. “We will be in court for a restraining order as soon as possible,” Downey said. “Then, we will file grievances.”

Carcieri spokeswoman Amy Kempe said news of the shutdowns should not have come as a surprise to anyone, least of all the unions. “We have been in continuous conversations with union officials for the past several weeks. Time is quickly passing us by,” she said. “The state could not afford to wait another day to set this plan in motion.”

Designated shutdown days

Friday, 9/4/09

Friday, 10/9/09

Friday, 10/30/09

Friday, 11/27/09

Thursday, 12/24/09

Friday, 1/15/10

Monday, 2/15/10

Friday, 3/12/10

Friday, 4/2/10

Friday, 4/23/10

Friday, 5/28/10

Friday, 6/11/10

State Budget Savings

12 shutdown days: $21.6 million

Medical benefit savings: $3.04 million

Consulting cuts: $5.2 million

Operational cuts: $8.9 million

Cuts in aid to cities and towns: $32.5 million*

Total:

$71.24 million

* Withholding 4th-quarter motor-vehicle excise tax payment

kgregg@projo.com