PROVIDENCE, RI -- A day after Governor Carcieri warned in his State of the State address of painful budget choices ahead, dozens of union members have flocked to the State House to push their agenda.

Specifically, the group -- a combination of the labor-backed Campaign for Rhode Island's Priorities and the Service Employees International Union -- wants the Assembly to reject the governor's plan not to use the federal stimulus package to plug Rhode Island's budget hole. Carcieri instead wants to use the federal funds to help cut the state's corporate income tax.

"President Obama and Congress are working hard to throw a life raft to the states," said Peter Asen, spokesman for the Campaign for Rhode Island's Priorities. "And the governor seems to want to let us drown."

Union members filled the State House rotunda this afternoon, just before the regular House and Senate sessions began. They wore stickers that read: "Don't steal our stimulus. No more tax cuts for the rich."

"We want to be sure we blanket the whole building," executive vice president of the New England Health Care Employees Union, Stan Israel, told union members as they prepared to distribute fliers to lawmakers.