By JIM BARON

PROVIDENCE — Declaring that another new Rhode Island courthouse is “unnecessary” in tight budget times, Gov. Donald Carcieri vetoed a joint resolution establishing the need for the courthouse, providing for financing of the $88.5 million project, and appropriating $100,000 for prep work at the proposed Smithfield building site.

The courthouse veto was one of four issued by the governor on Friday.
The veto stamp also landed on a bill that would require National Grid to enter into long-term contracts with generators of electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind, while guaranteeing the company a 3 percent profit for doing so.
That bill, sponsored by House Minority Leader Gordon Fox and by Senate President Joseph Montalbano, passed both chambers by lopsided margins.
Carcieri also wielded his veto pen on bills that would extend from one year to three the statute of limitations on violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1990, and that would forbid the use of radio frequency identification devices to track students in Rhode Island schools.
Long a foe of the courthouse project, Carcieri said in his veto message: “Rhode Islanders facing rising energy prices and deteriorating roads will find little solace in the proposed Blackstone Valley Courthouse.
“At a time when the executive and legislative branches were able to close a $425 million budget deficit and the General Assembly could only find $2.5 million in open space bond money, how does an $88 million ($140 million if one includes financing costs) courthouse receive the imprimatur of the people’s representatives?”
The governor suggested that such a project be put before voters in the form of a bond issue.
While he has been approached by members of the public on a variety of issues, Carcieri said, “Never, not even once, has any Rhode Islander — save a legislator or judge — ever spoke to me of the pressing need to build a courthouse in the Blackstone Valley.”
The governor acknowledged that some courthouses and those who use them “are forced to deal with cramped spaces, inadequate parking, peeling paint and other difficult conditions ... It is also true that students and teachers, state and municipal workers and people seeking marriage licenses or copies of their birth certificates deal with similar conditions.”
Carcieri noted that in the last two years the state has opened the new Kent County Courthouse and the new Traffic Tribunal, at a cost of over $83 million.
Craig Berke, spokesman for the court system, said Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank Williams, “thought he had the governor’s support for the project if he agreed to defer it for a year, which he did.
“The chief justice hopes the General Assembly will override the veto,” Berke said.
The proposed courthouse was originally slated to go in Lincoln near the Community College of Rhode Island. It became controversial when town officials and residents objected to siting the facility in a residential area that already sees heavy traffic from the college and nearby Twin River casino.
One of the principal functions of the joint resolution was to formally change the location of the courthouse to a site along Washington Highway in Smithfield, where town officials welcomed the project.
Montalbano, sponsor of the joint resolution, did not respond to a call seeking comment.
He pulled no punches, however, in a written statement attacking Carcieri’s veto of the renewable energy bill. “By vetoing this bill, the governor is vetoing a landmark economic development bill,” the Senate president asserted.
"The governor's recent approach to increasing the generation of renewable energy in Rhode Island,” Montalbano mocked, “is to issue a request for proposals for developers who might be able to build a wind farm, in a patch of ocean that they might get permits to build in, along a timetable that they might meet, and with financing that they might obtain. Like parts of his budget proposal, we'll believe the outcome when we see it.
“By vetoing this bill,” he said, “the governor might see some renewable energy produced in our state in the next decade, maybe.
"We have chosen a path that we believe will deliver concrete results in a measurable timeframe,” Montalbano said. “The legislation that the General Assembly approved and, unfortunately, Gov. Carcieri has chosen to veto, would hold National Grid responsible for meeting certain renewable energy contracting thresholds and provide a financial motivation for them to meet those thresholds. 
“Gov. Carcieri, of all people, should understand that businesses operate on profit. National Grid needs to be incentivized to align its goals with the public interest and the legislature's goals of decreasing our state's dependence on gas and oil. By vetoing this bill, the governor is vetoing the most significant clean energy effort in Rhode Island history.
Saying he was vetoing the energy bill “with much regret,” the governor explained that “unfortunately, I believe the legislation before me today fails to balance our desire to invest in renewable energy with the realities the ratepayers currently endure.”
Supporters of the bill acknowledged that it could cause an increase in residential electricity bills, at least in the short term, while the possible long-term effects on rates are not yet known.
Regulated public utilities, the governor said, make profits “as either a return for investing capital or taking risk or both. In this case, National Grid does neither, thus rendering any bonus unnecessary and unearned.”
Solar energy is expensive to produce, the veto message said, and “the requirement (of) 5MW of solar energy could cost ratepayers tens of millions of dollars more than other sources of renewable energy, not even accounting for the 3 percent bonus” to National Grid.
Fox also issued a response to the veto saying, "I am deeply disappointed that Gov. Carcieri has decided to veto legislation five years in the making that would have put Rhode Island at the forefront of the renewable energy economy.
“The clean energy sector is one of the few bright spots in today's economy and is well positioned to grow exponentially over the next decade. Rising fossil fuel prices, the economic downturn, the threat of global warming and our dependence on foreign energy is creating a perfect storm that is impacting the life of everyone in Rhode Island.  Part of our response to this crisis must be alternative energy sources. Wind, solar and other renewable energies can create jobs and increase our energy independence.”
Leaders of the House and Senate say they have not decided whether the General Assembly will return for a special session to override gubernatorial vetoes, or which vetoes might be subject to override.