State government may be awash in red ink, but Rhode Island taxpayers are still paying the rent on an empty office in Washington, D.C., that was once occupied by Governor Carcieri’s Capitol Hill lobbyist, a position that has been vacant for more than three years.

The office space, in the coveted Hall of the States Building, at 444 North Capitol St., NW, costs the state about $2,000 per month.

Republican operative and Carcieri policy director Tim Costa was the governor’s last Washington-based lobbyist. Costa left the job in 2005 to return to Providence to serve in the governor’s administration, where he still works.

Carcieri decided not to cancel the office lease because if the state did that, future Rhode Island governors would not get a chance to use the office, which is conveniently situated, said Jeff Neal, the governor’s spokesman.

“That office is in a building that is prime real estate, near the Senate office building [the U.S. Senate’s Dirksen Office Building], Union Station and the Capitol,” he said.

The state’s budget difficulties mean that the lobbying position is not likely to be filled before Carcieri’s term ends, in 2011, Neal added.

Many states have lobbying operations in the nation’s capital, according to the National Governors Conference. The NGA’s headquarters is in the Hall of the States Building.

The state is tying to negotiate a sublease with an entity that needs capital office space, Neal said. “In that way we could keep the lease in the long term and recover some of the costs in the short term,” he said.

--By Scott MacKay
Journal staff writer