By JIM BARON

PROVIDENCE — With the state mired for months in a recession that is just now hitting the rest of the country — its 8.8 unemployment rate is tops in the nation — Gov. Donald Carcieri wants to assemble elected officials and  leading economists, business, labor and community leaders for an economic forum right after the November election.

The purpose of the forum, the governor’s office said Thursday, is to develop short and long term solutions to pull Rhode Island out of the economic doldrums create jobs and stimulate economic growth.
“As the state and the nation continue to face difficult economic times, we must intensify our efforts to improve the Rhode Island economy,” Carcieri said in a written statement. “The challenge of the next few weeks is how we, as leaders, put Rhode Islanders back to work, advance Rhode Island’s economic recovery, and ease the burden on taxpayers.”
Saying that “we need to better understand what is broken if we are to fix the problem,” Carcieri said he is calling together the state’s top business and labor leaders, policy makers and academics to work with my office to identify the root cause for Rhode Island’s historical pattern of being the first to feel a national recession and the last to pull out from economic downturns.”
Carcieri said his goal is to identify a clear set of priorities and initiatives to help advance the economy and noted that some of the initiatives developed as a result of the forum may require the General Assembly to return to the Statehouse to take immediate action.
“We cannot wait until January to have this discussion,” the governor asserted.
Larry Berman, spokesman for House Speaker William Murphy, said House leaders will attend the forum “to see what the ideas are and see if they are beneficial before we decide whether to come back. We will take it one step at a time.”
The governor will meet this morning with the Small Business Administration, economic development officials and small business owners to address the immediate concerns of small business community. “Small business is the foundation of Rhode Island’s economy,” he said. “We need to find ways to give our small businesses access to capital, reduce the cost of doing business, and encourage job growth.”
The economic forum is scheduled for Thursday, November 6, 2008 at the Rhode Island Convention Center.