Representatives Joseph Almeida, D-Providence, left, and Kenneth Carter, D-North Kingstown, members of the House Finance Committee, huddle during a House fiscal staff briefing to the committee on the 2009 revised budget.

The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch

PROVIDENCE — Speaking out for the first time since Governor Carcieri unveiled his midyear budget repair bill, House Finance Committee Chairman Steven M. Costantino yesterday called the proposal “a grim plan” that relies on “gambles and risk” and may not close the state’s $357-million deficit.

“This is extremely grim,” Costantino said. “We are set toward a catastrophe unless we act quickly. It’s also grim in the fact that many of the items in this budget are one-time fixes and gimmicks that are not tied to good budgeting practices, as well as some actions that realistically may not meet the timetable as set forth in the budget.”

Among those fixes: the sale of state buildings, deferred payments to the state’s “rainy day fund” and to victims of the Station nightclub fire and heavy reliance on President-elect Barack Obama’s forthcoming stimulus package.

The chairman said his biggest single concern is the projected $90 million in savings that would come from changes to pensions for state and municipal employees and teachers, including the introduction of a minimum retirement age of 59 and the elimination of the annual 3-percent cost-of-living increase for those who leave after April 1.

For that plan to achieve the necessary savings, administrators must start working on it by Feb. 1. That gives lawmakers less than three weeks to approve or reject the complex budget rewrite.

Costantino wasn’t the only skeptic. The entire House Finance Committee — whose responsibility it is to review the proposal –– was briefed on the particulars of the governor’s plan yesterday by the House fiscal adviser, Michael O’Keefe.

O’Keefe warned the legislators to pay close attention to details and be wary of proposed cuts that may not have been properly scrutinized to ensure the promised savings. “There’s a heavy reliance on items that the necessary research appears not to have been done,” he told the committee.

State budget officials for example, are unable to offer any estimate for how many teachers could retire by April 1. “It is very clear to me that at the time this budget was submitted, no one could answer the question, what happens in the classrooms on April 1?” O’Keefe said.

Likewise, he said, the proposed pension changes have not been legally vetted. “So now you have $90-million item sitting in front of you and you are not sure if it’s legal,” he noted. And it appears that no one has measured the financial consequences if lawmakers fail to OK that piece of the bill by Feb. 1, he said.

The fiscal adviser saved his most biting criticism for the plan to sell $16 million worth of state properties to Rhode Island Housing, an independent state agency. “[RI Housing] may or may not be the appropriate party, and more important, it may or may not be able to secure funding in current markets,” he said.

Laughter erupted from committee members as O’Keefe described the state’s plan to sell its land then lease it back for 20 years before reclaiming the deed, essentially rebuying its own land.

Their good humor was short-lived. Moving forward, lawmakers will have little room –– and little time –– to revise this budget and still achieve the savings they need to close the deficit.

“Are there other potential revenue options out there we could look at? There may be. Are there other potential expenditure cuts? There may be,” Costantino said. “It will be the committee’s job to decide which ones are acceptable and which ones aren’t.”

He and other committee members would not discuss specifics.

Today, the House Finance Committee will hold the first of a series of hearings examining the plan line by line. The Senate has not yet scheduled its own budget hearings. Once the committees make their recommendations, the plan must then be approved by the full legislature.

Costantino has declined to give a timeline for committee approval.

cneedham@projo.com