We learn of the budget summit – neither date nor location firm at this point – from Ted Nesi over at WPRI 12.

Gov.-elect Lincoln Chafee will hold a daylong budget summit next month to kick-start discussions of how to close Rhode Island’s $300 million projected deficit for the fiscal year that starts July 1, WPRI.com has confirmed.
The tax-and-spending conference is tentatively scheduled for Friday, Dec. 17, but that date isn’t official yet, Chafee spokesman Mike Trainor told me on Tuesday. The presenters and participants will be “an interdisciplinary group” that will include legislative leaders and fiscal experts, he said. The event may be held at URI’s rustic W. Alton Jones campus in West Greenwich.

My first reaction was to ask whether tax payers would be invited to the summit. Then it occurred to me that we might be just as well represented by some of the following facts in 72 point font at the front of the room for participants to keep in mind – or eliminate – as they contemplate solutions. (Did I leave any out?)

RI’s sales tax 19th highest: “Race to the Top” of Education Excellence, Not National Sales Tax Ranking
Tenth Highest (Combined Local and State Tax Burden) is High Enough
“Minimum” Manning (and Other Unfunded Mandates) Means Maximum Property Taxes: Give Cities and Towns the Tools They Need to Control Their Budgets.
Grow the Pie: 42nd is No Climate to Do Business In