House doorkeeper Frank DiPaolo Jr., right, is honored by Speaker of the House William Murphy for his 102nd birthday. Murphy led the chamber in singing “Happy Birthday” to DiPaolo.

The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch

PROVIDENCE — After an opening day that saw West Warwick Democrat William J. Murphy sail to a fourth term as House speaker and Newport Democrat M. Teresa Paiva Weed elected as Rhode Island’s first female Senate president, state lawmakers braced for Governor Carcieri’s unveiling tonight of his “hard-choices” plan for plugging the state’s $357-million current-year deficit.

Full details won’t emerge until Republican Carcieri addresses the public at 7 p.m., during a block of radio talk show and TV time.

But while a spokeswoman for the governor said he had not yet finalized his deficit-avoidance plan as of late yesterday, sources close to him said he has been considering a mix of spending cuts and revenue-raisers, including a possible hike in the state’s $2.46-a-pack cigarette tax to the $2.51-a-pack level in Massachusetts, an increase in the gross premiums tax on health insurance companies and the doubling of assorted Registry of Motor Vehicles fees.

As recently as Monday, he was also relying on contract savings, unfilled vacancies across state government, unspecified state and local “pension reforms” and “deferrals,” a $90-million-plus cut in municipal and education aid to the cities and towns, and unspecified reductions of almost equal magnitude in social-service spending to plug the hole.

As a consolation prize for the cities and towns, Carcieri considered renewing the annual GOP push for repeal of certain mandates, such as the use of school bus monitors, and nudging the communities into statewide purchasing, food services and transportation contracts.

In a brief appearance at the House speaker’s rostrum yesterday, Carcieri drew rueful laughs from the lawmakers when he told them he was “thrilled to be over here and have you all back [because] misery loves company.” On a serious note, he said his “fear is that we are not out of this by any means.”

“They are not Republican problems. They are not Democrat problems. They are Rhode Island problems. We are all in this together,” the governor said.

In his own acceptance speech after fending off a token challenge from House Minority Leader Robert Watson for the speaker’s post, Murphy sounded similar themes. “As a body, we must make difficult choices this year that will be unpopular. We cannot wait for the federal government to assist us. Help from an economic stimulus package would be great, but we cannot rely on it as we continue to address our structural budget deficit,” he said.

Murphy did not let the governor’s office off the hook for the size of the looming deficit, saying: “The overspending that we have seen for decades by various departments has to stop.” But he also put the cities and towns on notice that this “is a time of shared sacrifices by all,” and he promised that lawmakers would work with them “to review unneeded mandates that have been placed on our cities and towns in past years.”

His biggest applause line from both ends of the political spectrum was this: “We cannot and must not try to tax our way out of this economic downturn.” “We have our work cut out for us,” echoed Democrat Paiva Weed. “Our state and our nation are in the midst of an economic crisis … Job losses, layoffs, company closings, foreclosures and rising rents have left many facing decisions they never thought they would have to make. Can we afford our prescription drugs? Can we afford to fix the car? Can we afford to pay the bills?”

At the state level, “significant changes must be made and [proactive] policies implemented to address these complex conditions,” she said.

Paiva Weed did not lay out an action plan, but promised to “work to create business-friendly policies … [to] attract new companies to the state,” while growing “the businesses that are here already in Rhode Island.” She also talked about the need for an education-financing formula.

With all of the state’s health and welfare programs potentially on the chopping block, and hearings set to start later this week on a Medicaid waiver aimed at shaving millions off the cost of what it is now — but would no longer be — a guaranteed government-paid health insurance program, she promised to “remain committed to addressing the needs of our most vulnerable populations — particularly our elderly, our disabled and our children.”

A one-time chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Paiva Weed became the first female majority leader in the state Senate after the abrupt 2003 New Year’s Eve resignation of then-Senate President William Irons set in motion the elevation of then-Senate Majority Leader Joseph A. Montalbano to the presidency, and she took his place. Montalbano’s defeat at the polls in November set the stage for her next leap.

(She won the presidency with the support of 35 of the 38 senators, and was sworn in by Maureen McKenna Goldberg, the acting chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court.)

A sense of urgency permeated yesterday’s opening-day ceremonies.

“Tomorrow, the work begins in earnest,” Paiva Weed said. “Both the Medicaid waiver and the supplemental budget present challenges that we will need to face as a Senate and we won’t have much time. We’re going to really need to hit the ground running.”

On the House side, lawmakers reintroduced and committees — not yet named — posted hearings for tomorrow on a slew of bills that Carcieri vetoed last year.

One measure would repeal mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug crimes. Another calls for the automatic destruction of the record of any crime for which an admitted criminal has been given a “deferred” sentence, regardless of the nature of the crime and the age or criminal history of the offender as long as he or she stays out of trouble for five years. In recent years, the kinds of criminals receiving such sentences included accused stalkers, embezzlers, an admitted accomplice to a gunpoint robbery, one of the admitted coconspirators in the Lincoln bribery scandal and at least one child molester.

But yesterday’s session also had the mood and feel of a reunion, with heaping tables of food in the House and Senate lounges. The offerings included bowtie pasta with mushrooms, broccoli and chicken alongside roast beef and seafood salad sandwiches from the popular Providence eatery Pot au Feu. Murphy intends to pay for the House spread out of his campaign fund; the Senate food tab will be split between taxpayers and campaign funds, according to a spokesmen.

Before the session got under way, more than 300 people gathered in the State House rotunda for a prayer vigil, praying for the state’s lawmakers and leaders to govern “with wisdom and compassion.” The vigil was organized by the Rhode Island Interfaith Coalition, formed this past summer to serve as a faith-based voice to fight poverty.

With reports from Cynthia Needham and Randal EdgarOn TV tonight

Governor Carcieri tonight at 7 will present his plan to deal with the deficit. His address will be carried live on Channels 6, 10 and 12 and WPRO-AM radio.

With an unemployment rate of 9.3% and the state facing a budget deficit of $357 million for the current fiscal year, newly elected Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed says she and her colleagues at the General Assembly need to …

kgregg@projo.com