Lawmakers will be asked to vote on a $7-billion state budget in four days. And an intense campaign against the fiscal 2008 spending plan is under way.

The battle involves powerful unions, the fate of local schools, and a governor who dipped into a depleted campaign account to produce a radio advertisement blasting the General Assembly’s reluctance to lay off 1,000 state workers.

“My fellow Rhode Islanders, as you may know by now we are experiencing the most serious fiscal crisis in recent history,” Governor Carcieri says in the radio ad that began airing yesterday. “I need you to call your state rep or senator and demand that they pass a responsible budget. The economic future of our state depends on it.”

The advertising costs $8,500, according to Tony Bucci, the governor’s volunteer campaign finance director. Carcieri had just $4,396 in his campaign account at the end of March and hasn’t had a fundraiser since January, but Bucci said the “checks continue to come in.”

“We’re trying to get the message out,” Bucci said. “We can only accomplish this with the people of Rhode Island.”

House spokesman Larry Berman said he fully expects the governor to veto the legislature’s budget proposal, which closes a looming $300-million deficit through a combination of spending cuts, tax increases and one-time fixes.

Carcieri spokesman Jeff Neal said it was too early to say whether a veto was necessary. “There is no doubt, however, that Governor Carcieri has grave concerns about the House Democrats’ short-sighted plan to balance the budget by raising taxes, using one-time revenue sources and shortchanging local schools,” Neal said.

Teachers’ unions have also come out swinging against the Assembly’s spending plan, which eliminates a 3-percent across-the-board increase in state education aid. Legislative leaders have called on the unions to shoulder some of the burden by renegotiating existing contracts.

The National Education Association reacted with a $10,000 radio advertising campaign urging the Assembly to rescind Senate bill 3050, passed last year, which lowered the maximum annual increase to a community’s tax levy to 5.25 percent this year and will reduce it one-quarter percent per year until 2013. Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Paiva Weed, prime sponsor of the tax-cap bill, said through a spokesman that there are no plans to repeal the act.

That leaves many school districts in a difficult position this year. The decision to freeze state education aid in the House budget proposal means local districts will receive $19.4 million less next year than Carcieri recommended.

“It’s the perfect storm we have all talked about,” said Peter McWalters, Rhode Island’s commissioner of education. “Districts are really struggling right now, because they can’t go back to their tax base and ask for more money. The legislature did warn them again and again (not to count on a 3-percent increase), but that doesn’t change their dilemma.”

State law requires communities to provide “an adequate education,” according to Department of Education spokesman Elliot Krieger, and allows school committees to file complaints in the Superior Court when they believe they have been shortchanged. School advocates such as Tim Duffy, head of the Rhode Island Association of School Committees, said he expects the lack of state aid to prompt several court challenges this year.

Some of the rising school costs are tied to teacher contracts, but some stem from factors beyond district control, McWalters said, such as high-cost special education and out-of-district transportation.

“This perfect storm is a conscious decision on the part of the legislature saying to communities you have to go reopen your [teacher] contracts,” he said. “But realistically, can you do that all at once with 36 separate districts?”

Nine districts have teacher contracts that expire this summer: Burrillville, East Greenwich, Exeter/West Greenwich, Foster/Glocester, Jamestown, New Shoreham, North Kingstown, Providence and Tiverton.

Steve Smith, president of the Providence Teachers Union and a state representative, called the cuts “devastating,” and said without the extra money, Providence will have a hard time moving its struggling schools forward.

“You can’t have it both ways,” Smith said. “The General Assembly can’t say it costs more to educate urban youth and that property taxes aren’t the best way to fund education and that education is a priority — but then not fund it.”

THE EDUCATION AID FREEZE will hit urban districts hardest.

Several suburban districts prepared their budgets assuming they would get no additional money next year. But some urban districts that receive far more money from the state to run their schools, say that losing the 3-percent increase has punched a hole in their budgets they do not yet know how to fill.

Providence, for example, will lose more than $5 million, receiving $94 million instead of $99 million from the state.

Woonsocket hoped lawmakers would find even more money for schools, as they have in past years, and estimated the state would provide the city with a 5.25-percent increase. Officials there are considering eliminating athletic and music programs and teacher assistants, according to Supt. Maureen B. Macera. The district may also revise its walking requirement, which determines how far students can live from area schools to qualify for busing.

Warwick already slashed $5.4 million from next year’s budget, but was counting on a 3-percent increase from the state. Now, Warwick schools must go back and cut another $1.1 million. School officials are frank: they have no idea where the money will come from.

“Three months ago, I said I knew we were going to get caught short and here we are at the eleventh hour with no backup plan, forced to make crisis decisions,” School Committee member Paul Cannistra said.

One option is closing Potowomut Elementary School, which would save Warwick nearly $1 million annually.

East Providence is also considering tough alternatives to close a potential $3.7-million deficit, including merging the city’s two high-performing middle schools.

School and town officials are also trying to change the teacher contract, which expires next year. East Providence is the only school district that pays 100 percent of teacher health costs. It also pays teachers $5,200 a year if they get their health insurance through a spouse.

Central Falls is especially hit hard by the decision to level-fund state education aid next year, said Supt. Fran Gallo, as it is the only district that depends entirely on state and federal money to run its schools.

“For us, I can only say that the decision really gives us a very dismal outlook for any kinds of supports for our programs,” said Gallo, who took over as superintendent this spring. “We will be taking extreme measures to maintain fiscal integrity.”

Gallo plans to talk to the school board tonight about possible cuts, including athletic programs and an alternative school program. She said she was prepared to receive less than a 3-percent increase, given the state’s grim fiscal outlook, but was caught off-guard by the severity of the cuts.

SEVERAL SUBURBAN DISTRICTS assumed they would get no additional money and prepared their budgets accordingly, including Barrington, Burrillville, Narragansett, Newport, North Kingstown and South Kingstown.

Newport never added $353,000 that the governor’s budget included, said Supt. John Ambrogi.

“We didn’t budget for that kind of an increase because we believed the state was in dire financial straits. Everything we read indicated that to be the case,” Ambrogi said. “Our people who represent us in the legislature were saying there would be no additional state aid coming this year.”

South Kingstown didn’t count on receiving $312,000 in additional state money for next year, as proposed by the governor. The district has kept its budget balanced by eliminating a middle school team, increasing class size for several elementary classes and reducing the district’s budget for materials and supplies, said Supt. Robert A. Hicks.

However, Hicks said he hopes lawmakers will add funding for students living in group homes.

With reports from staff writers Kia Hall Hayes, Gina Macris, Cynthia Needham, Alisha Pina, Richard Salit and Randal Edgar

jjordan@projo.com