By JIM BARON

PROVIDENCE — Gov. Donald Carcieri waited until the close of business on the last day of the 2009 budget year to sign the 2010 budget into law, while at the same time denouncing it as “a short-sighted scheme with narrow political goals.”

Carcieri said he did not veto the $7.7 billion tax and spending plan because he was afraid the General Assembly might not return in time to overturn his decision. 
“I had the option to veto this ill-conceived budget,” the governor explained, while acknowledging that it was passed by overwhelming margins in both the House and Senate. “A veto would have required both chambers to return to override it before July 1. It appeared highly unlikely that they would have returned, leaving us with no budget. As governor, I was not willing to risk forfeiture of this money and the potential of creating an enormous additional burden for our taxpayers.”
“My signing this budget is not an endorsement of it in its entirety,” Carcieri wrote in a message to the House of Representatives in which the word “not” was underlined. “I had intended to allow this budget to become law without my signature, however it was delivered to my office too late to do so. In am signing for this reason: over forty million dollars of state funding, plus hundreds of millions in federal funds are at risk if the budget does not become law by July 1.”
Carcieri declared that “this budget is not good for Rhode Island in the long run,” and he said he signed it “reluctantly.”
Sen. Daniel DaPonte of East Providence, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, rejected the governor’s rhetoric.
“I’m sure the governor would have liked to have gotten his way on everything, but that’s not life,” DaPonte said Tuesday after the Senate completed a special session to mop up unfinished business left in the wake of its unexpected early recess on Friday. “I feel it is a budget that is fair and equitable, given the circumstances that we are dealing with.”
On the other hand, he said, “the governor’s budget was a moving target from Day 1; we received 40-plus amendments to it.
“I note that the governor finds the spending cuts to be a challenge,” House Finance Committee Chairman Steven Costantino of Providence said in a written statement Tuesday, “and I hope the Administration is up to it. We have to stay on our path to our goal of a competitive tax structure that encourages economic development and does not impose further burdens on hard-working Rhode Island citizens.”
“I’m pleased to learn that the governor has signed the budget,” Costantino added. “We did not increase broad-based taxes and we further reduced spending from the governor’s March proposal, which at the end of the day was $125 million out of balance.”
In several instances, the governor seemed to praise the General Assembly with one hand, while swatting it with the other.
“I commend the House and the Senate for their courage in pressing ahead with pension reform, despite the overwhelming pressure from organized labor,” Carcieri told the lawmakers. “However, we need to do more to secure our retirement system, and we must change to a defined contribution retirement system for new hires.
“Thankfully, this budget does not raise broad-based sales or income taxes,” he said, but added, “however, raising the capital gains tax to the ordinary income rate is discouraging to businesses, and eliminates one area where our tax policy was more attractive than our neighbors. In my opinion, the General Assembly wasted the chance to embrace new tax policies that would have encouraged job growth within our existing businesses and would have had great potential to attract new businesses here.”
“While the increase in the estate tax exemption to $850,000 was a move in the right direction, “he wrote, “it was not much more than a token.” Reversing course again, Carcieri added, “however, I do commend the General Assembly for continuing the reduction in the flat tax option to 6 percent beginning January 1, 2010.”
Carcieri criticized lawmakers for not including several of his proposals that would have given cities and towns more leeway in dealing with personnel issues such as minimum manning, employee benefits and other state mandates.
In a written statement, Senate Majority Leader Daniel Connors of Cumberland took credit for helping to save the RIPAE (RI Prescription Assistance for the Elderly) program from the budget ax.
Decrying Carcieri’s plan to eliminate the program at the end of this year as “a shortsighted proposal,” Connors said, “I was troubled by the proposal to eliminate a program that many Rhode Island senior citizens depend upon.”
Connors described RIPAE as assistance for low-income seniors in paying for prescription medications. “This is particularly important for those who fall into the so-called ‘doughnut hole,’ a coverage gap in the Medicaid Part D prescription drug benefit program that occurs after a threshold of about $2,400 has been reached and before about $3,800 has been expended,” he said. “The RIPAE benefit is also used by low-income seniors who did not qualify for Medicaid Part D benefits because they did not pay into the system when they were employed. In addition, the state receives rebates from pharmaceutical companies that participate in the program.
“There was no way I could vote in favor of a budget that disregards the needs of Rhode Island’s elderly,” Connors said.