Rhode Island last week delayed payments to municipalities and pension funds so lawmakers would have more time to close a $220 million current-year deficit.
Gov. Donald Carcieri signed into law a measure that delayed $32.2 million of motor-vehicle tax payments to local governments, $20.4 million of contributions to the state employee pension fund, and $31 million of state and local contributions for teacher pensions.
The delay gives the state until June 15 to make payments that were due last Monday.
Earlier this year, the Republican governor proposed a $7.5 billion fiscal 2011 all-funds budget that would close a $405 million deficit. Included in that proposal were $161.3 million of cuts to local aid from the current fiscal year.
The state has been wrestling with falling revenue. Year-to-date general revenue in April was down $14 million, a 0.6% negative variance from the budgeted $2.2 billion, according to a cash report released last week.
The biggest variance was in personal income tax collections, which were $66.7 million below original year-to-date estimates last month of $781.3 million.
Part of the drop may be attributable to extensions granted to tax filers by both the state and the Internal Revenue Service after severe flooding at the end of March. Taxpayers were given until tomorrow to file their returns.
Carcieri estimated the flooding caused between $100 million to $200 million of damage.
The federal government has announced it will provide $45 million of disaster relief.
