Murphy

PROVIDENCE –– There have been no news conferences, public hearings, or conference calls.

Indeed, things have been markedly quiet on Smith Hill in the 10 days since Rhode Island government learned it was facing one of its worst budget deficits in state history. The relative silence continued yesterday, even as Rhode Island’s most powerful elected officials met for the first time to begin crafting a plan to fill a $357-million current-year budget hole.

Governor Carcieri yesterday hosted separate closed-door meetings with House Speaker William J. Murphy and Teresa Paiva Weed, who is expected to become Senate president in the General Assembly’s coming session. The participants afterward avoided disclosing the content of the meetings, although the governor could release a detailed budget-balancing plan by the middle of next month, according to his spokeswoman Amy Kempe.

“Everything is on the table. Every proposal and idea will be considered,” she said.

Paiva Weed acknowledged the state’s situation was “dire,” but refused to share her thoughts on how to address the situation.

“We’re all prepared to start working together,” she said after walking out of the governor’s office.

State officials have repeatedly noted that Rhode Island is not alone. At least 41 states are facing budget shortfalls in the current or coming fiscal years, according to the national Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

But the center found that Rhode Island’s current budget shortfall –– which amounts to more than 11 percent of state spending –– is the worst in the nation. The next closest state is California, where the budget gap equals 9.4 percent of its general fund.

Neither Paiva Weed, nor Murphy would rule out the possibility of holding a special session in the coming weeks to attack the problem legislatively. The part-time legislature isn’t scheduled to return until January.

But there would be little need to return early without a substantive proposal on the table.

Several state departments have already submitted tentative plans to cut staff that provides services ranging from protecting children in state care to regulating the local banking industry.

“We’re going to formulate a plan,” Murphy said. “Revenue estimates only came out a week ago; you aren’t going to go into special session the next day.”

The need to return early is largely dependent on the governor’s ability to secure a broad Medicaid agreement with federal officials, according to outgoing Senate President Joseph Montalbano, who also met with Carcieri yesterday. The governor says the “global Medicaid waiver” may save as much as $67 million.

“We’re close,” Kempe said of negotiations, which are in the “very last phases.”

The House Finance Committee will hold a series of public hearings targeting the budget dilemma beginning next week.

Chairman Steven M. Costantino said the committee would meet the following two Mondays, and will likely meet twice more in the week after Thanksgiving; the Assembly likely won’t make a plan to return until those meetings have concluded, he said.

Rep. Joseph A. Trillo, of Warwick, believes that action by one legislative committee is not enough.

One of just six House Republicans to survive the recent elections, Trillo called on the House speaker to convene an emergency meeting of the full House of Representatives.

“I implore the House leadership to schedule an executive session, which would be closed to the public, lobbyists and the press,” Trillo said, likening the meeting to a “brainstorming session.”

“You’re not going to get people to open up freely knowing they can be criticized by constituents, their peers, groups they have supported in the past,” Trillo said.

But the call for a closed-door session drew this reaction from Steven Brown, head of the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union: “Unbelievable.”

“This is the first time I’ve heard a public official label democracy a dangerous ‘outside influence,’ ” he said.

Trillo’s proposal even elicited pushback from his own tiny GOP caucus.

Murphy soundly rejected Trillo’s idea. “I will not violate the Open Meetings Law by having an executive session on the budget,” the speaker said.

Meanwhile, House Republicans held their own closed-door meeting with the governor on Wednesday.

Instead of laying out a plan for action, new House Minority Whip John Loughlin, R-Tiverton, said Carcieri talked about the magnitude of the problem, assured the legislators that his team was working hard and looking at options that, in the governor’s words, ranged at this point from “bad to horrible.”

Loughlin said the governor did not mention widening the reach of the state’s 7 percent sales tax, imposing a spate of new and higher “user fees” or levying a new toll where the interstate crosses from Connecticut into Rhode Island, as has been suggested.

Trillo said he expects a battle over new taxes in the coming weeks and months.

“The problem is, if we go down that road — and we may have to, hopefully we don’t — we face the possibility of more people who have to leave [Rhode Island],” he said. “We can put up tolls, but we can’t put up fences.”

cneedham@projo.com