The Chafee administration is notifying scores of private lawyers doing contract work for the state of Rhode Island that it will cut their legal fees by 15 percent on March 1, reports the Providence Journal. The memo is the first demonstration of Governor Chafee's promised effort to head off a potential $295 million deficit next year by cutting spending.
State government spent more than $2.32 million on legal fees in 2009, which was the last year for which the state had complete numbers on Wednesday. The state-run Economic Development Corporation spent another $640,800 that year. Cutting these fees by 15 percent would have saved the state a potential $444,428.