The Ocean State has stumbled into the national spotlight once again, this time for its status as the only New England state that prohibits gay marriage.

Political Scene learned that Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcast Network is planning a story on Rhode Island’s debate in the coming weeks. We spotted an unfamiliar film crew in the State House last week talking to outspoken liberal Sen. Charles J. Levesque, D-Portsmouth.

After poking around a bit, we discovered that CBN, which provides programming to stations in about 200 countries (in addition to a 24-hour “prayer line,” according to its Web site), also interviewed Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Tobin; the Rev. Bernard Healey, a lobbyist for the Providence diocese, and Governor Carcieri, an opponent of gay marriage, among others.

The governor’s press office did not note the interview on Carcieri’s daily schedule.

CBN was established nearly 50 years ago by televangelist Robertson, who has been a periodic force in national politics as founder of the Christian Coalition.

Following last month’s vote by the New Hampshire legislature, Rhode Island is now the only New England state that does not allow gay marriage.

Governor remains mum on plan to erase deficits

Governor Carcieri has not yet disclosed how he proposes to close the expanded $200-million deficit for this year and next.

With the General Assembly in its closing weeks, he has not held a news conference or released a detailed plan for plugging the additional $70-million hole in this year’s budget, or the additional $130-million gap in his spending plan for the new budget year that begins July 1.

But Carcieri is nonetheless on the radio touting his “FY2010 budget” in an ad financed by undisclosed donations to the nonpublic TransformRI.

The deficit has grown to a potential $590 million next year, but the governor’s message has not changed since he first unveiled his tax and spending plans months ago. He contends that cutting taxes “will create jobs and make Rhode Island the most business friendly state in the Northeast. … Rhode Island will become competitive with Massachusetts and extremely attractive to new and existing businesses.

“It will also keep more retirees here.”

“Government does not create jobs,” he says in the ad. “Government’s job is to create an environment for business to prosper. … With these new tax reforms Rhode Island will have a compelling story to tell, a story that will not only attract and retain businesses but will also keep our seniors from fleeing the state to avoid excessive inheritance taxes. … Call your state representatives today and tell them we need tax reform now.”

Carcieri is proposing a swath of tax cuts, including an expansion of the earned-income tax credit for the poor, a five-year phaseout of the 9-percent corporate income tax and an increase in the estate tax exemption to $1 million.

But the ad does not mention a key finding of the governor’s tax study panel.

To support the tax cuts without creating an even larger revenue hole, an estimated 110,179 tax filers would each have to pay an average of $1,261 more in income taxes. The vast majority of them are individuals and couples making less than $75,000 annually, as commonly used deductions for mortgage interest and local property tax payments are replaced with a new standard deduction.

Paul Dion, chief of the state Department of Revenue’s Office of Revenue Analysis, recently recalculated the numbers issued by Governor Carcieri’s tax-reform panel, based on the newest data from 2007. His findings showed that, if the panel’s proposals were adopted: 324,340 resident tax filers would see a tax decrease. The median decrease would be about $122, meaning half of the filers would receive a tax decrease of less than $122 while the other half would receive more.

But 97,817 resident tax filers would still see a tax increase. The median increase would be $188.

Asked again on Friday when the governor intended to unveil the final pieces in his state budget-cutting plans, his press secretary Amy Kempe referred questions to Anthony Bucci, the insurance agent who runs TransformRI. As previously reported, Carcieri, a Republican, closed his public campaign fundraising and spending account earlier this spring.

When contacted, Bucci said he could not answer the question, and did not know the answer and didn’t know why Kempe had referred it to him.

Stimulus puts young R.I. engineer in national spotlight

A week ago, most Americans had never heard of Wellington Hall.

Now the Providence engineer’s picture is on newsstands across the country.

Hall, 25, is featured in Fortune magazine’s latest issue, one of seven “Stimulus Hires” profiled after they were put to work with money from the Obama administration’s economy recovery package.

On the magazine’s glossy pages, he tells of being hired as an engineering intern at the state Department of Transportation while working on his master’s degree at the University of Rhode Island. His hopes for a permanent job were dampened by the souring economy and the hundreds of resumés from seasoned workers that flowed into the DOT. But when the stimulus money arrived, the agency put him to work as a full-time engineer, doing field work and customer service, all while he finished his master’s thesis on traffic roundabouts.

And just when he thought life was going really well a few weeks back, Fortune came calling. Seeing his face in a national magazine is strange, Hall admits. His colleagues can’t get enough of kidding him about his minor moment of fame –– “Here comes Hollywood” is a new favorite catcall.

But having a solid job in tough times makes it all worth it.

Advocacy group decries r4aises

It was not a packed public hearing, but the notion of big raises for select state workers in this economic climate drew sharp words last week from some corners.

Robert Benson, vice president of the advocacy group Operation Clean Government, called on Department of Administration Director Gary Sasse to withdraw proposed salary increases for the chief state medical examiner, deputy chief examiner and others.

“First of all, for these hearings to be announced with practically no notice goes against the idea of transparent and open government,” Benson said in a statement last week. “Where was it announced or posted? We feel Mr. Sasse is not operating in good faith when he schedules these types of hearings with minimal notice.”

Added Operation Clean Government board member Larry Valencia: “The governor is calling for mandatory time off for state employees to reduce spending … we believe it is irresponsible for these positions to be granted such large increases during a time of fiscal crisis in Rhode Island. With the state facing huge deficits, how can these huge increases be justified?”

Benson said, “We would like Mr. Sasse to take our complaints to heart: to better serve his customers, the hard-working taxpayers of Rhode Island, he needs to provide more time for public comment, and he needs to be judicious and apply fiscal restraint.”

The hearings on Tuesday and Thursday of last week centered on proposed salary increases for the chief medical examiner and deputy examiner; the executive director of the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency and newly created posts within the Coastal Resources Management Council of “marine infrastructure coordinator” at a starting salary of $64,563, and prevailing wage investigator(s),” at a starting salary of $37,460

Barring a last-minute turnabout by the administration, the hearing set the stage for a $17,000 raise for the chief medical examiner, Dr. Thomas Gilson, to what is being described as a “more competitive” $193,514 salary; a $4,130 raise for emergency management chief James D. Smith, from $85,220 to $89,350, and a boost in the starting pay for a deputy chief medical examiner from $150,735 to $168,956 for “recruitment purposes.”

There was no immediate response from Sasse.

speoples@projo.com