Gov. Carcieri signs RI state budget

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri Tuesday said he had no other choice when he officially signed into law the state's new $7.8 million dollar spending plan for the 2010 fiscal year.

The Senate approved the budget Friday and Carcieri signed it behind closed doors Tuesday afternoon, according to spokeswoman Amy Kempe. However, in a letter to House Speaker, Rep. William Murphy, Carcieri conveyed is displeasure with the budget.

“My signing this budget is not an endorsement of it in its entirety. 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," the letter said.

Carcieri said if he vetoed the budget, the House and Senate would have had to schedule a vote to override it and the spending plan would not have become law by July 1, putting more than $40 million of state funding, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in federal dollars at risk.

"As Governor, I was not willing to risk forfeiture of this money and the potential of creating an enormous additional burden for our taxpayers,” he said.

Carcieri said in addition to closing the budget gap, his original spending plan would have address ongoing budget problems that have plagued the state for decades. He conceded the General Assembly did make some tough choices, but said lawmakers did not go far enough in many instances, such as replacing the pension system with 401K-style retirement system. He said  he was also disappointed that lawmakers did not adopt any major tax reform or reforms aimed at helping cities and towns balance their budgets.