News

Below is a selection of news articles highlighting advocacy efforts led by Ocean State Action.

Bill would revamp state's tax structure

01:00 AM EST on Wednesday, January 30, 2008

By Timothy C. Barmann
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — Two Rhode Island legislators said yesterday that they will introduce legislation that would make sweeping changes to the state's tax structure by raising taxes for the wealthiest Rhode Islanders in order to give property tax relief to middle- and low-income residents.

Rep. Arthur Handy, D-Cranston, and Sen. Paul E. Moura, D-East Providence, said the Economic Growth and Fairness Act, which they plan to introduce in the next few days, would also raise money to help close the massive state budget deficit.

“We really need to recognize that the tax system is broken,” Handy said in a news conference at the State House. “It's only getting worse every year.”

The bill would “rebalance” the tax system, “creating equitable distribution of the tax burden,” Moura said.

The bill is being supported by the Campaign for Rhode Island's Priorities, a coalition of labor unions and social-service organizations.

News of the legislation was given a cold response by Governor Carcieri's spokesman, Jeff Neal, who said the governor believes that Rhode Islanders are already “taxed out.”

“Raising taxes even higher would undermine economic growth, thereby making it harder to raise revenues necessary to the state going forward,” Neal said.

Larry Berman, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Gordon Fox, said Fox was willing to look at the various proposals once the legislation is introduced and the governor's 2009 budget is released later this week.

He said, however, that “right now, [Fox] does not support raising any taxes.”

Greg Pare, a spokesman for Senate President Joseph Montalbano, was noncommittal about whether Montalbano would support the measure. “I don't think anything's off the table at this point,” Pare said.

The bill seeks to reverse tax policies that have, according to Handy and Moura, shifted more of the tax burden to those who can least afford it — low- and middle-income families.

“We need a tax structure that keeps in mind the fact that the poor can't pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than those who make more money,” Handy said.

Moura said he aggressively supported some of those tax breaks. But in hindsight, he said, some of those decisions were made “without the appropriate analysis.”

“We've done a lot of tax cutting in the last 10 to 15 years,” he said, such as phasing out inventory taxes and creating tax credits to promote research and development, film and television productions and preservation of historic structures.

“All this cutting contributed to where we are today,” he said.

While the bill was not available yesterday, Moura and Handy described how it would affect several types of taxes, and how those changes would affect people at various income levels. About 90 percent of Rhode Islanders, they said, would pay less state taxes, mainly because of a new 15-percent property tax rebate. At the same time, the overall tax bill for the other 10 percent — the wealthiest state residents — would increase.

Here's how the plan would work. The bill would roll back some of the tax breaks that have been enacted over the past few years. It would restore the state income tax to the level it was before it was reduced in 1997 to 27.5 percent of a taxpayer's federal tax liability. The current rate is 25 percent.

It would also eliminate the flat income tax for high-wage earners, instituted in 2006. It would restore state taxes on capital gains, the profits on the sale of stock and other investments. Handy and Moura said that about 74 percent of all people who claim capital gains in Rhode Island make $200,000 a year or more.

And finally, the bill would impose a new 2-percent gross receipts tax on accounting and legal services, and limit the amount the state makes available in the historic structures tax credits to $40 million each year.

The new taxes would raise $346 million a year, according to a report prepared by the Campaign for Rhode Island's Priorities.

Of that amount, $180 million would be used for property tax rebates. Another $20 million would be used to increase state aid to education by about 3 percent. And $4.8 million would go toward increasing the state's refundable earned income tax credit.

That leaves about $141 million that could be used to address the structural budget deficit as well as to restore some of the services that were cut to save money.

Most taxpayers would see a reduction in their overall taxes, the report said. For example, a Cranston couple filing a joint tax return with an annual income of $51,498 — the state's mean income — would see a reduction in taxes of $419. That couple would receive a $598 property tax rebate, but that would be partially offset by an increase in income and sales taxes.

Though Rhode Islanders would have to pay sales taxes on some services that are not now taxed, the bill calls for reducing the state's sales tax rate from its current level of 7 percent, to 5.5 percent, over a four-year period.

Immigrants speak out
01:00 AM EST on Sunday, January 20, 2008
By Thomas J. Morgan
Journal Staff Writer


PAWTUCKET — Racism and xenophobia are contributing to a Rhode Island social climate in which immigrants are regarded as the villains, speakers at a pro-immigration rally said yesterday.

“We build walls for people who have to leave their country for economic reasons,” said Gladys Gould of the Providence Presbyterian Church, one of a number of organizations that took part in “Unite for Fairness,” held at the Pawtucket Visitors Center. “You don’t see them going after the Irish. The difference is, the police will stop us because of the way we look. It is all about race,” said Gould, a native of the Dominican Republic.

About 90 persons attended the rally.

Gould said, “This is a nation of immigrants. It’s part of our history. But immigration trends have changed in the last hundred years. The global economy, driven by U.S.-based corporations and free trade agreements like NAFTA, has created a new reality in immigrants’ countries of origin. These agreements have hurt workers on either side of the border and have created conditions of poverty and urgency for people to migrate.”

“I think it is time we talked about what is the Rhode Island we want to be in and live in,” said Ellen Gallagher of the International Institute, in Providence. “We think it’s a Rhode Island that values communities and all Rhode Islanders, including immigrants.”

Gallagher said that many immigrants do not understand that if their spouse is a U.S. citizen, they might be able to acquire legal status or citizenship for themselves. “Unfortunately,” she said, “due to serious backlogs in processing immigration and citizenship applications, many people seeking legal status have been unable to achieve this goal.”

Patrick Crowley, of the Rhode Island National Education Association, said, “The real problems in Rhode Island are about job creation, not immigration.”

He said immigrants in the Ocean State pay taxes, invest in real estate and contribute to the state’s economy.

“And yet there are unscrupulous employers who use people’s immigration status as a means to exploit workers and abandon wage and hour laws. For a strong Rhode Island, we need to enforce our state’s wage and hour law, not take federal immigration law into our own hands.”

Ivette Luna, of Ocean State Action, said Rhode Island “is filled with fear and anti-immigrant ideas.” She said “statements of hate” are frequently expressed on talk radio shows.

“The people on the hill,” she said, referring to the state government, “are feeding into anti-immigrant statements. The key is education. We need the true facts. It’s all about human. We all are people. We are all immigrants. An injustice to one is an injustice to all.”

Poll shows health care reform is desired by voters

January 7, 2008

By Marion Davis, Contributing Writer

Providence Business News

A newly released poll commissioned by Ocean State Action, an advocacy group with a special interest in health care, shows a strong sense among Rhode Island voters that some kind of government-initiated reform is in order – but what that should be is less clear.

The poll, designed by a Northeastern University researcher and conducted in late October by Brown University 's Taubman Center for Public Policy, found health care was a major concern among the 410 registered voters polled, with 27 percent naming it as the top item they want government to focus on, and 24 percent naming it second.

The poll also found that while an overwhelming majority of the respondents had health insurance – 90 percent of those under 65 – one-third (32 percent) were either “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about losing it. In addition, 22 percent of respondents said their share of medical costs had increased “a lot” over the last year or two.

And respondents felt strongly that Rhode Island 's health care system is in trouble: 15 percent said it is “in a state of crisis,” and 55 percent said it has “major problems,” the poll found.

Cost and access both seem to be substantial concerns, with 87 percent of respondents saying they care about the latter. Even more, 96 percent, said they care about controlling health care costs.

Policymakers considering cuts to RIte Care, the state's Medicaid program for children and families, to close the state budget gap, might want to take note: 67 percent of respondents said continued support for RIte Care is “very important,” while only 5 percent said it is “not too” important or “not at all” important.

The poll results were equally clear on the private sector's ability to solve the system's problems: Only 16 percent said insurers and providers could fix the system without government intervention, while 68 percent disagreed with that notion.

An overwhelming 84 percent of respondents agreed that health care “is a right that no one should be denied,” and 64 percent agreed health care reform is a “moral issue.”

But what shape the reforms should take wasn't as clear. The poll found support for a wide range of measures, including expanded government programs and employer and individual mandates – all components of the Massachusetts health care reforms – as well as tighter regulation of insurers and financial rewards and penalties to encourage healthy lifestyles.

A full 75 percent of respondents said businesses “over a certain size” – the actual size wasn't determined – should have to offer insurance or pay into a government fund, and 58 percent of respondents said all uninsured adults should be required to buy insurance if it's affordable.

But asked whether they would pay more taxes to ensure all have health care coverage, 49 percent said yes, 41 percent no. And the Massachusetts plan itself still generates uncertainty: 28 percent of respondents said Rhode Island policymakers should use it as a model, 16 percent disagreed, and 56 percent were either neutral or didn't know.

Health Insurance Commissioner Christopher F. Koller, who has been briefed on the poll, said it shows “broad support” for some kind of reform, “but the devil is in the details.”

Asked whether momentum for reform is building, Koller said to some extent it is, but it's hard to decide whether cost, access or quality needs to be addressed first, or whether all three can be tackled at once. And in the current budget environment, he said, there's little chance of an actual coverage expansion – not one that builds on government programs.

Koller said he expects the R.I. General Assembly to consider several reform measures this year, but “I don't think you're going to see a comprehensive proposal that would raise taxes to provide subsidies for low-income people.” His own focus this year, he said, will be on changes to the small-group market, but he's not planning any major initiatives.

Lt. Gov. Elizabeth H. Roberts, meanwhile, does have an ambitious reform agenda, and she's enlisted everyone from Koller to health care industry leaders to business and consumer advocates to help her put together a package. She said they are considering components of reforms in Massachusetts , Vermont , California and other places, plus local ideas.

Yet whatever happens in Rhode Island this year, Roberts said, it's likely to be more of an incremental change than a dramatic overhaul.

“One of the things we need to do is build on the strengths of what we have now,” she said. “I don't think people are ready for absolutely radical change. … [And] I'm fine with that, but we need to start moving because, as it says in this poll, inaction is not an option moving forward.”

DHS proposal to trim RIte Care rolls draws criticism

01:00 AM EST on Thursday, December 13, 2007

By Steve Peoples
Journal State House Bureau

Ted Almon , president of the Claflin Company, speaks at a news conference yesterday to protest the proposed cuts to the state's RIte Care program

The Providence Journal / Bill Murphy

PROVIDENCE — Ann Marie O'Hagan would have rather been at work. Yet she found herself stuffed onto a wooden bench inside the Capitol Hill Health Center yesterday afternoon surrounded by people she did not know. They were doctors. Businessmen. Lobbyists. And labor union leaders.

O'Hagan is a 36-year-old single mother from Pawtucket . She works 40 hours a week at Dunkin' Donuts.  But the crowd that packed into the waiting room of the small health center yesterday was there for her.

She is among nearly 18,000 low-income Rhode Islanders on RIte Care who may lose state-subsidized health insurance under a proposal released by the state Department of Human Services last week. Governor Carcieri has yet to endorse the plan, which would save the state more than $22 million next year as it struggles to close a budget deficit projected as high as $450 million.

“I understand that this is a very tough time for this state, but it is also a tough time for families like mine,” O'Hagan said, in between deep breaths, from the makeshift podium at yesterday's rally to protest the proposed cuts. “I know that without RIte Care, times will be a whole lot tougher for all of us.”

She said that her children, 8-year-old Marina and 10-year-old Nick, may also lose health-insurance coverage under the DHS proposal. Altogether, there are more than 10,000 children who may be affected.

“Without RIte Care, and having a child with asthma, I know I would spend most of my time in the emergency room, instead of at work trying to provide for my family,” O'Hagan said.

Andrew Snyder, a doctor and president of the Rhode Island American Academy of Pediatrics, said that O'Hagan's case would not be unique.

“Going backwards to a less-insured population is actually the worst form of taxation,” he said, noting that less preventative care would lead to more missed work and more high-cost emergency room visits. “It flies in the face of every study on health-care delivery, where the more insured the population, the more primary care providers per capita … the less the cost to the system.”

The proposed RIte Care changes would reduce eligibility for parents with incomes under 185 percent of the federal poverty level ($31,765 for a family of three) to 133 percent ($22,836 for a family of three). The department estimates that 7,396 adults would lose coverage.  Current law allows for subsidized health care for children in some families, even if the parents don't qualify. The department has proposed cutting eligibility for children in those families earning up to 250 percent of the federal poverty level ($42,925 for a family of three) to 150 percent ($25,755). An estimated 8,501 children would lose coverage in such a scenario. Another 2,000 children of illegal immigrants would be cut as well.

And while the proposal would save the state $22 million for the fiscal year that begins July 1, it would also cut another $24 million in federal matching funds.

Ted Almon worries what would happen if $46 million were taken out of the Rhode Island health-care system. “The substantial total reduction in dollars flowing through is sure to have a chilling effect on an economy we are trying to grow, not shrink,” said Almon, the chief executive of the Warwick-based Claflin Company, a medical supplies distributor.

The General Assembly will ultimately decide in late spring which of the cuts proposed by Carcieri will become law. Both the governor and Assembly leaders have been reluctant to propose raising taxes to relieve the budget pressure.

Sen. Joshua Miller, D-Warwick, stood quietly in the crowd during yesterday's rally. “I think what we really have to look at is that we don't run into a situation like the 17-year-olds, where we have to reverse a law,” he said. Putting the ideological debate aside, he added, state leaders need to study the short-term and long-term fiscal impact of the cuts." (Lawmakers passed a law in July requiring all 17-year-olds be housed at the state prison instead of the Training School. The Assembly reversed the budget provision in a special session four months later after the projected savings and policy implications were questioned.)

Meanwhile, O'Hagan slipped out the back door before all of the speakers had finished yesterday afternoon. She had taken a half-day off from work to speak at the rally.

Her Dunkin' Donuts uniform was waiting in a friend's car in the parking lot. She planned to change on the ride to work.

OPED:   The American Dream in Rhode Island

01:00 AM EST on Sunday, December 9, 2007 Providence Journal

Karen Malcolm

RHODE ISLANDERS have a responsibility to recommit themselves to hope for our collective future and to a belief that the American dream can be possible for all in the Ocean State ; to strengthen the social safety net, rebuild the ladder to the middle class, and give every family and every individual the chance to get ahead.

On the radio and in the news we hear a lot about divisions in our state, about how we're separated by ideology, race, ethnicity and religion, wealth and opportunity. Our governor chooses to publicly exploit these divisions — pitting Rhode Islanders against one another through blame, judgment and accusation. In recent remarks he's attacked single mothers, condemned their children, and cast unfair moral judgments against low-income people. Rhode Islanders deserve better leadership than this.

But I was raised in Rhode Island and on a hope that I believe most of us share, not just for ourselves but for one another, the hope of a job with wages that support a family, affordable health care to stay well and to count on when sick, a dignified and secure retirement, education and opportunity for our kids, a hope in freedom and the American dream.

What makes all of us uniquely American is that we don't just want this dream for ourselves; we want it for one another. We want it for the kid who doesn't go to college because she can't afford it; for the worker who is wondering if he will have a job, or if his wages will pay this winter's heating bill; for the foster children who aren't sure where they will live next; and we want it for the children and adults living without health care.

When just one of our neighbors is denied the opportunity to achieve the American dream, our own dreams are diminished. In fact, thousands of us volunteer because we want to spread hope in this dream.

But today, here in Rhode Island , the American dream is expensive — and the cost is rising faster than ever before. While some have prospered beyond imagination, middle-class Rhode Islanders — and those working hard to become middle-class — are seeing the American dream slip further and further away and with it, their hope.

My bet is, you feel it. All of us are working harder for less and paying more for basics. For most of us, one income isn't enough to raise a family. Sometimes, two incomes aren't enough. It's harder — if not impossible — to save. Despite working hard, it seems that we're just barely getting by. In Providence , foreclosures are soaring because families desperate to achieve the dream of home ownership have been robbed by unregulated predatory mortgage lenders. Just in the last few days, the front pages of the Providence Journal have highlighted the hunger, homelessness, and record numbers of people with utility shutoffs — and even, devastating cuts to Meals on Wheels.

Charity isn't enough to solve these problems.

We don't have to accept this deterioration of the quality of life for ourselves, our families, our neighbors. We do not have to accept tax cuts that only benefit our most wealthy, while making the load heavier for working people. We don't have to be deceived by unfair attacks on union families that are fighting for livable wages without questioning the soaring compensation for those at the very top of the income ladder. We don't have to allow children to be denied RIte Care while for-profit insurers take millions out of our state's health care system. And we don't have to forgo safe and affordable child care or investments in our public schools without carefully scrutinizing the millions in special tax treatments given to multinational corporations.

There is a better way. This is not a question of sacrificing economic advantages to promote a vibrant business climate at the expense of meaningful support for all Rhode Islanders. We can have both. But, we must be bold enough to take the steps needed to move our state forward. We must be willing to stand together behind the common purpose of reclaiming our hope in the American dream. It is a dream worth fighting for — for ourselves and for each other.

Visit www.prioritiesri.org to learn how you can stand with your neighbors to win back hope, opportunity, and the chance at the American dream for every Rhode Islander.

Karen Malcolm is the executive director of Ocean State Action

Groups attack tax breaks for the well-heeled

By JIM BARON, Pawtucket Times

11/02/2007

PROVIDENCE - Hundreds of special tax breaks for individuals and corporations are costing Rhode Island "untold billions of dollars," but the state has a handle on the total cost of only about 40 percent of them, a coalition of community groups charged Thursday.

The Campaign for Rhode Island 's Priorities called on Gov. Donald Carcieri to "take the mask off" what they call the "hidden tax expenditure budget" at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
"Special tax treatments cost millions in lost revenue in return for promised trade-offs of new jobs, housing or other economic benefits," said Karen Malcolm , executive director of Ocean State Action. "But there is no ongoing analysis of costs or of outcomes. We must examine these indirect spending programs to make sure we are not needlessly sacrificing other public programs that are proven to help Rhode Islanders work, learn and stay well."

The state's structural deficit, Malcolm said, "is costing real jobs, the livelihood of real people - hard-working public servants. It's costing public services and essential state programs that all hard-working Rhode Islanders need."

There are 212 tax expenditure programs identified in the Division of Taxation's 2006 Tax Expenditure Report, Malcolm said, and the division could only estimate the cost to the state of 40 percent of those, which she said totals $1.4 billion - and it makes no effort to determine whether the programs are good for the state.

Malcolm contrasted the $1.4 billion cost of just 40 percent of the tax breaks with the $770 million allocated for education in the current budget, the $232 million for DCYF and the $125 million allocation for the state Health Department.

" Rhode Island can no longer afford for this hidden budget to stay in the dark," she said.
In a letter to Carcieri dated Oct. 31, the group says "inadequate attention has been paid to the return on this hidden spending: Is Rhode Island receiving the benefits in terms of jobs, housing and other outcomes promised when these policies were enacted. Some of these spending programs could be very important, however, we are lacking the important details."

The letter asks the governor to staff the recently-created Department of Revenue Analysis, for which positions are funded but not filled; to estimate the spending, or lost revenue, resulting from 60 percent of the tax expenditure policies that the Department of Taxation was unable to address in its 2006 Tax Expenditure Report; and conduct a detailed analysis of the outcomes of the tax expenditures and preferences to document whether they are achieving their expected outcomes.
"We should not be spending our public money on special tax treatments if we don't know their values to Rhode Islanders," Malcolm asserted.

Carcieri spokesman Jeff Neal said the money appropriated to staff the Department of Revenue Analysis was used to commission a tax policy study by Ernst & Young to examine the state's tax structure. He said he had no more information about that study late Thursday evening, including when it would be completed.

But, he added, "even with whatever tax incentives are on the books, Rhode Island has the eighth-highest total tax burden of any state in the country."

Addressing the campaign directly, Neal said, "Unfortunately, this group's only answer to the state's fiscal and economic problems are the same ones they have given since the governor took office: to raise taxes even higher. The governor believes that it is our high taxes that is making it difficult to grow jobs and expand our tax base. From the governor's point of view, the way you raise revenue for the programs this group supports is growing the tax base and the way you do that is to reduce taxes and make Rhode Island competitive with our neighboring states."

Rick Harris, executive director of the Rhode Island chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, told the press conference that "if we are to survive as a humane and caring Rhode Island community, we must embrace that the purpose of government is to ensure the health and well-being of all those who live within our borders. That means maintaining and funding our social safety net programs so vital to keeping the business climate in Rhode Island healthy. And it means scrutinizing all aspects of how we spend our money, including looking at tax expenditures."

A small business owner, Finees Mendez of Rhode island Marketing & Advertising, said, "A quality business climate for me means predictable and affordable health care, quality education that produces a quality workforce and targeted, effective support of small businesses. To achieve this environment, we must look at all options and unmask the real costs and outcomes of this expensive hidden budget."

Group laments ‘misplaced’ war costs
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
By Tom Mooney
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and a coalition of community organizations joined together yesterday to criticize President Bush for his “misplaced” war priorities, which they said are financially draining crucial domestic programs.

Ocean State Action used a State House news conference to release a report, prepared by the USAction Education Fund, showing that the war had so far cost U.S. taxpayers $456 billion, and $10 billion more every month.

The coalition said that the state’s share of the war costs, based on the amount of federal income tax collected in Rhode Island, surpassed $1.8 billion — enough money to have paid for health care for almost 800,000 uninsured children.

The report, filled with cost comparisons of what the war money could be used for, also says that the cost of restoring federal education aid in Rhode Island for kindergarten through grade 12 — about $18.8 million — equates to about 82 minutes of Iraq war spending.

The war has “drained vital domestic programs of the needed investments that are required to support our young people, our elderly, our disabled and our hard-working Rhode Islanders,” said Karen Malcolm, executive director of Ocean State Action, a coalition of community, labor and environmental groups.

While President Bush tries to “define down success in Iraq” by saying the military surge is “showing some positive results,” said Whitehouse, “the real question for our country is: Is this misguided war the best way to spend these resources?”

Ten billion dollars a month “is an enormous amount that could be spent on education, that could be spent on health care,” said Whitehouse. “My personal view is, if we spent this money on education, 20 years from now, we would be a stronger America” rather than “pouring [it] into the marshes and sands of Iraq.”

Malcolm said it was important that the study be released yesterday as Congress prepares to reconvene and hopefully, she said, “reverse these upside-down policies.”

“It’s unbelievable President Bush has threatened to veto any spending bill that includes more spending for domestic programs,” such as children’s health, education and childcare — “programs that we here in Rhode Island prioritize as needed for a healthy and vital community.”

Not only is the war spending hurting domestic programs, said Whitehouse, but “many expenditures are counterproductive because they create enormous distaste and antipathy for America throughout the Arab world and throughout a good part of the rest of the world as well. And we’re going to spend a good part of a decade digging out of a hole that the Iraq war has dug for us.”

Next week, Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, is scheduled to testify before Congress on the war’s status. Whitehouse said he anticipates Petraeus “trying to be truthful” with his opinion, but also accepting of the Bush administration’s effort “to redefine the question, so it will be all about whether the surge has shown some signs of success.”

“It would be a disgrace if it didn’t show some signs of success. When you put 160,000 American soldiers [on the ground] and $10 billion a month, you better show some signs of success.”

But, Whitehouse said: “It’s the wrong question. And that’s why it’s important that we’re here asking, overall, does it make sense for us to continue in Iraq?”

tmooney@projo.com

Some last-minute jockeying for positions in state budget

01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, June 7, 2007

By Elizabeth Gudrais
Journal State House Bureau

Leaders in the General Assembly hinted that when next year's state budget comes out tomorrow, it may contain provisions to help shift drug-addicted prison inmates into treatment programs.

But the lawmakers stopped short of saying anything more specific. It was just one of hundreds of cryptic conversations taking place yesterday, as advocates flooded the State House in a last-minute drive to get their interests included in the budget.

"This is our house," former state Sen. Tom Coderre, who now advocates for recovering drug and alcohol addicts, told a crowd gathered in the rotunda. "We send the people here to represent us...Don't feel like your voice doesn't matter here, because it absolutely does."

Coderre's group, RI CARES - Rhode Island Communities for Addiction Recovery Efforts - held a rally to encourage lawmakers to find a way to pay for additional drug and alcohol treatment beds.

State prison officials have testified that 70 percent of inmates at the Adult Correctional Institutions have some sort of substance-abuse problem. Even the most expensive drug-treatment program costs just half what incarceration costs: The average per-inmate cost of keeping someone at the ACI is $39,000 a year. The treatment programs' annual cost ranges from $3,000 to $20,000, and people rarely stay enrolled in the more costly programs for an entire year.

"Let's reverse history," Coderre challenged lawmakers. "Instead of building more prisons, let's build more treatment centers."

Rep. Steven M. Costantino's exact words on the issue: "Hopefully, when this budget comes out, we can at least, do, possibly, something to help that situation."

Costantino, who chaired the Rhode Island Drug and Alcohol Treatment Association in the days before he was a lawmaker, was among the lawmakers RI CARES honored yesterday for their work on the issue. Costantino now chairs the House Finance Committee. He said intense budget negotiations continue, and will continue almost right up until the Finance Committee convenes to take a vote tomorrow.

The other lawmakers honored yesterday, Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Paiva Weed and Rep. Thomas C. Slater, who chairs the subcommittee of Finance that deals with human service programs, also shied away from giving details or even confirming that the budget will address the issue.

"While it may seem simple to say treatment makes more sense than incarceration," Paiva Weed said, doing something about it "costs, and requires an investment of, funds up front."

Lawmakers had a particularly tough task this year in closing the estimated $300-million deficit projected if taxes and state services stay at current levels. Just one day after the committee vote, the full House yesterday approved what is expected to be a major part of the solution: raising $195 million by selling part of Rhode Island's future payments from the national tobacco settlement.

With Governor Carcieri and some House members indicating there may be disagreement about how the state should spend the tobacco money, House leaders offered assurances that approving selling the bonds does not give the state carte blanche to spend the proceeds any way it pleases.

The budget released by Carcieri in late January represents a starting point for discussions. What comes out of House Finance tomorrow will be much closer to what the Assembly ultimately ends up passing.

The posting of the budget for a vote in House Finance means the Assembly will adjourn for the year in a matter of weeks. Already yesterday, lobbyists and lawmakers were scrambling to find out whether their wish lists are embodied in the budget, and whether their bills have a chance of passing this year.

In the hallway above the RI CARES rally, advocates waited for senators and representatives to arrive for the day's session, each hoping to bend a lawmaker's ear about adult education programs.

The governor's budget proposed adding $1 million to the $2.8 million the state is spending this year on programs such as adult literacy and high-school equivalency classes. A group calling itself the Rhode Island Workforce Alliance is lobbying lawmakers to keep this addition and to add $2 million more.

Outside, protesters with megaphones yelled slogans about preserving services for the working poor. They had convened on Atwells Avenue, on Federal Hill, and marched to the State House, planning to spend the night outside in tents. The coalition opposed a variety of proposed budget cuts, including privatizing food services and housekeeping at state hospitals and the veterans€™ home; cuts in services for young adults who grew up in foster care; and reductions in state subsidies for childcare.

Last night also marked the beginning of a series of long, tension-ridden floor sessions. Rep. Nicholas R. Gorham, R-Coventry, is known for raising protests on procedural bills, but those protests were longer and louder yesterday.

"Shut up!" Rep. Kenneth Carter, D-North Kingstown, bellowed across the floor to Gorham at one point.

As Gorham and others were parrying on the House floor, Minority Leader Robert A. Watson, R-East Greenwich, was demanding to be let into a closed-door meeting between the governor, the House speaker and the Senate president.

The meeting is held each year just before the Finance Committee budget vote, to go over each party's priorities one last time. Watson says he asks each year to be included, but the answer has always been no - until this year.

Watson said, and Jeff Neal, the governor's spokesman, confirmed, that Carcieri invited Watson in this year.

But the meeting, scheduled for yesterday at 5:30, was canceled yesterday afternoon.

Watson was under the impression the cancellation had to do with the fact that he was going to be there. "This governor has to support his Republican colleagues," Watson said. Speaking to a reporter, Watson said House Speaker William J. Murphy and Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano, both Democrats, don't want him there because "if I were in the meeting, I'd tell you what went on."

Neal said the meeting was canceled "largely for scheduling reasons."

"It's possible that a meeting could occur tomorrow, but nothing has been scheduled," Neal said.

Responding to Watson's comments, Murphy said: "I think there are times when there have to be meetings between myself, the governor and the Senate president."

He declined to be more specific, and added: "I've got a lot to do in the next few weeks, and one of the items on the agenda is not petty politics."

egudrais@projo.com

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