Speaker of the House William Murphy greets Father Bernard Healey, government liaison for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, at a House reception following yesterday’s session.

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The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch

PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island’s part-time lawmakers returned to the State House yesterday, opening the New Year and the 2008 General Assembly session facing crushing budget deficits this year and next that are likely to dominate Smith Hill discussion over the next six months.

Within minutes, lawmakers in the House and Senate were introducing bills to allow round-the-clock gambling at both Newport Grand and the Twin River slot parlor and track in Lincoln, and citing the state’s financial plight as a justification.

“I am extremely concerned with the state of Rhode Island as it is right now and the problems we face going into this year — far more than I’ve been in the other 23 years I’ve been here,” said one of the sponsors, Sen. Paul E. Moura, D-East Providence. “There is a sense of urgency.”

Yesterday’s abridged afternoon meetings of the state House of Representatives and Senate were largely ceremonial, and leaders from both chambers pledged to work with each other and Governor Carcieri to close budget deficits estimated at $151 million this year and $450 million in the next. The catchwords of the day were “tough choices” and “courageous decisions.”

“We are not here today to cast blame on anyone,” House Speaker William J. Murphy, D-West Warwick, said of the huge back-to-back deficits. “The time for finger pointing is over.”

He promised the House would “work cooperatively” with the Republican governor, the Senate and the sometimes-warring factions within. He also led off the House session with a promise to “get to work early to start resolving this deficit.”

“It is time for all of us to stand together and make some courageous decisions,” he said in an opening-day speech. “The time for politics will come soon enough. From January through June, let’s vow to put our political differences aside and seek common solutions.”

But his call was met with this response from Rep. Nicholas Gorham, R-Coventry: “I have no intention of shying away from politics in this building.

“To say that you can be apolitical in this building is to try to name a species that doesn’t exist,” Gorham said. “This is a political building. It’s going to be a political year. It should be. What we really need in this building is better politics, involving bipartisan work.”

A handful of bills was introduced on the abridged New Year’s Day session, a reflection of a widespread sense of concern among politicians eager to deal with the state’s financial shortfall. State law requires legislators to reconvene on the first Tuesday in January.

During a Senate session that spanned just 20 minutes, Moura submitted legislation to allow around-the-clock gambling at Twin River and Newport Grand on weekends and holidays. Rep. William San Bento, D-Pawtucket, did the same in the House, though he then withdrew his bill, saying he wanted it redrafted to allow 24-hour gambling seven days a week, along with other moves to expand gambling.

“I want to come out of the box and send a message today: let’s move; let’s get to work,” said Moura, who in an earlier letter to legislative leaders predicted that expanding the slot parlors’ hours could generate an additional $25 million to $30 million for the state. Neither he nor San Bento could document those numbers yesterday.

Newport Grand currently closes at 1 a.m. Twin River extended its closing time from 1 a.m. to 2 a.m. earlier this year.

The move has support in the governor’s office.

“I don’t have a problem personally with the weekend hours, 24 hours on the weekend, as long as the town is OK with it,” Carcieri said last week, suggesting there is more support in Lincoln than a Nov. 10 nonbinding referendum showed. (Sixty-five percent of voters in the special Saturday election opposed allowing 24-hour gambling at Twin River, and 60 percent voted against allowing the facility to become a full-fledged casino.)

“I’m not convinced by that vote. I’d rather hear the people come and in testify as to what I’m proposing,” Moura said. “This is not just a monetary issue that’s pushing me on this. I think it’s an issue of setting a policy on what we’re going to do with these facilities we have.

“Are we going to maximize their potential? Or are we just going to sit and wait until Mass. comes in and eats us up like Pac-Man? I don’t want to wait.”

Massachusetts Governor Patrick has proposed building three casinos in his state, although the proposal faces opposition in the state’s legislature. Concerned about the potential drain on revenues, Murphy has opened a door to a ballot question to allow full-fledged casino gambling at Rhode Island’s two slot parlors. Carcieri said last week that voters should decide the issue.

And so it went during a largely ceremonial day in which the lawmakers welcomed each other back, lamented deaths in their communities since they last met at an October special session, introduced the first bills of the session and then retired, in the House, to a steaming buffet of pasta with chicken and broccoli and penne with meat sauce that Murphy plans to pay for out of his campaign account.

Democratic Representatives Timothy Williamson and Patricia Serpa, both of West Warwick, introduced a bill to exempt the proposed Shipwreck Falls resort and hotel from an estimated $1.1 million in sales taxes during construction as an inducement to locate in their town.

Key lawmakers including the chairmen of the House Finance and Judiciary committees introduced a bill that would require confirmation by the Senate for all magistrates serving “at the pleasure” of the chief judges in the Superior and Family courts in return for 10-year terms. While these bills were assigned to committees, the House quickly passed a bill launching another study of the Veterans Home in Bristol, with an eye toward developing a master plan for the future direction of the facility, including the feasibility of constructing a new building.

There was little talk yesterday of specific budget plans suggested by Carcieri’s department heads in recent weeks that include cutting health-care coverage for more than 10,000 low-income children and freeing hundreds of nonviolent inmates from the state prison.

But, “I see the budget driving almost all of the policy decisions that we will make,” said Rhoda Perry, D-Providence, chairwoman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.

In his own speech, Senate President Joseph Montalbano, D-North Providence, voiced concern: “We have made a decision as a society to provide a safety net for those most vulnerable Rhode Islanders. A budget is more than dollar signs and numbers. It impacts real people — our neighbors, our parents, our children.”

One lawmaker tried to lighten the mood.

“It’s going to be rough. It’s going to be tumultuous at times,” said House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox, D-Providence, but “maybe with tongue firmly in cheek, Mr. Speaker, we can just adopt as our motto: It’s going to be great in 2008.”

speoples@projo.com