Advocates for the poor are among those who say they will bring their case for more money to the General Assembly.

01:00 AM EST on Friday, February 27, 2004

BY SCOTT MAYEROWITZ
Journal State House Bureau

PROVIDENCE -- Advocates for the poor, environmental protection groups, union leaders and city and town officials are gearing up for a fight.

While they acknowledge that the state's finances are extremely tight, the groups yesterday said Governor Carcieri has not provided enough money for their causes in his proposed budget and they plan to dig in and ask the General Assembly for more cash.

Henry Shelton, of the George Wiley Center, an antipoverty organization, said Carcieri's $5.946-billion state and federal spending plan "is very detrimental to low-income people."

"I think it is completely the opposite of the direction he should be giving," Shelton said. "It is breaking his promise not to balance the budget on the backs of the poor."

Nancy Gewirtz, the founding director of the Poverty Institute at Rhode Island College, said the poor would feel the impact disproportionately.

"They are being asked to sacrifice more," Gewirtz said.

For instance, she cites a proposed change in eligibility for subsidized child care. The move would push about 790 families who can now get child care for two children for $401 a month, Gewirtz said. Once they lose the assistance, that cost would jump to $1,215 a month, she said.

The majority of people using the program have made the transition off welfare and this change might put them back on, she said.

Gewirtz and Shelton also attacked Carcieri for making it one of his budget priorities not to raise the sales or income tax to help close a $192-million budget gap.

If the state were to reinstate some of the tax cuts made in recent years, Gewirtz said, there would be little problem financing programs.

But James G. Hagan, president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, said Carcieri is right to expect everybody to live within their means.

"The state is obviously facing a fiscal crisis and I think the governor is not Mandrake the Magician. He's trying to close a $192-million deficit," Hagan said. "I think the citizens and all of our small business are under financial pressure . . . and raising taxes does not appear to be a solution."

"There has to be some sacrifice by everybody, business and labor," he added.

James A. Cenerini, legislative affairs coordinator for Council 94 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees -- the largest state employees union -- said the governor is not taking the right approach to savings.

He criticized Carcieri for trying to use legislation to set a 2-percent raise for union employees at July's start of the fiscal year while also imposing a 7-percent copay on health-insurance premiums.

"We understand that the state is facing extremely difficult financial times, and in many instances in the past we have worked collaboratively with the state to address those issues," Cenerini said. But the governor should push for those changes "through the negotiation process."

"We definitely will be making our case at the legislature and in the public," Cenerini said. "We are going to wage our case very vigorously on these issues. It is not something that we are just going to accept."

Nicholas A. Oliver, director of advocacy for the American Heart Association's Rhode Island division, said Carcieri's plan to raise the cigarette tax by 75 cents is "shortsighted" and that the governor should not look at the tax as "a state fundraiser," especially when he is cutting smoking-prevention programs.

He said the Heart Association "applauds efforts to make tobacco products less and less accessible, particularly to minors," but is concerned that the tax money is going to pay for general state expenses, not health-related programs.

Oliver said the association will ask the General Assembly to approve the tax, but to earmark "a responsible" amount for tobacco-prevention programs.

Curt Spalding, executive director of Save The Bay, said he is pleased to see a proposed $60 million in environmental bonds on the November ballot but says "it falls short."

To stop nitrogen from going into Narragansett Bay, preventing another fish kill like the one that occurred last summer, Spalding said the bonds need "to be bigger."

The state's 39 cities and towns would also be hard hit by Carcieri's proposed spending plan. General revenue sharing, payment in lieu of taxes for exempt property, distressed community aid and reimbursement for the motor vehicle excise tax phaseout would be frozen at current levels. The only increase proposed -- a total of $750,000 split among the 39 communities -- is for library aid.

"It's going to be very problematic on the local level. The belt-tightening has been in existence for many years in many communities," said Dan Beardsley, executive director of the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns. "A key priority will be convincing the legislature that the need for increased aid to cities and towns simply has not disappeared because of the state's fiscal budget situation."

And for possible changes to the sales or income tax: "It is not on the drawing board right now," House Speaker William J. Murphy, D-West Warwick, said after Carcieri introduced his budget Wednesday night. "Hopefully it won't be, but again we have to go through this budget with a fine-tooth comb and at the end of the day, we have to make the best choices for the people of Rhode Island."

With reports from State House bureau chief Katherine Gregg.

DIGITAL EXTRA: Recap Journal coverage of Governor Carcieri's proposed budget for fiscal year 2005, browse the full text of the proposal, add your reaction and more at:

http://projo.com/extra/2004/govbudget/