Carcieri skeds economic forum

UPDATE: Caprio announcement.

Meanwhile, General Treasurer Frank Caprio says he will be making "an important financial announcement concerning the state," tomorrow, at 10 am in his office.

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Struggles with economic development are a hardy perennial in RI, as I noted earlier this year, there's plenty of blame to go around, and steady efforts are needed to make progress. 

Still, isn't this a little late in the game?

From the gov's office:

Governor Donald L. Carcieri announced today that he will convene an Economic Forum to develop short and long term solutions to pull Rhode Island out of the recession, create jobs and stimulate economic growth. The Forum is scheduled for Thursday, November 6, 2008 at the Rhode Island Convention Center. Forum participants will include leading economists, business, labor and community leaders, as well as elected officials. 

"As the state and the nation continue to face difficult economic times, we must intensify our efforts to improve the Rhode Island economy," said Governor Carcieri.  "The challenge of the next few weeks is how we, as leaders, put Rhode Islanders back to work, advance Rhode Island's economic recovery, and ease the burden on taxpayers."

"I have asked our state's top business and labor leaders, policy makers and academics to work with my office to identify the root cause for Rhode Island's historical pattern of being the first to feel a national recession and the last to pull out from economic downturns.  We need to better understand what is broken if we are to fix the problem." 

The goal of the Forum is to identify a clear set of priorities and initiatives to help advance the economy.  Some of the initiatives developed as a result of the Forum may require the General Assembly to return to the State House to take immediate action.  "We cannot wait until January to have this discussion," continued Carcieri.