Quick! Can you remember the last consultant report to back a project here in Rhode Island that actually was correct? Sorry! That’s a trick question. I don’t think that there is one.

CONVENTION CENTER—The backers of this project said that the Center would not cost a dime. Technically, that’s probably correct since by the time its debt is paid off it’ll cost $780 million or about $789,999,999.90 more than the dime. Each year it bleeds red ink to the tune of $20 million.

CIVIC CENTER—The consultant report done by Ellerbe, Beckett to rehabilitate The Dunk was off by 31 percent. Some noise was made about suing the firm but that never happened. Could it be because the consultant was just marching to the drumbeat of the Convention Authority? The $62 million to give a facelift to the facility ballooned to $81.4 million followed by an “oops” moment of an additional $13.4 million. The Convention Authority and the consultants “forgot” to take in to account the fire code for such things as sprinklers and smoke detectors and the handicapped accessibility regulations. The Chair of the Convention Authority, David Duffy, stated, “We missed a few things.”

NARRAGANSETT BAY COMMISSION—The amount of red ink on this project could make the Red Sea blush. The residents’ average annual bill has soared from about $165 to $525 with no end in sight. The Commission overseeing the project has apparently decided to ask the legislature to have everybody in the state pay for the next phase of the project since it has become unaffordable to the primarily Providence residents.

PROVIDENCE PLACE MALL—Amid rosy projections that the Mall would create $109 million in new taxes and 2400 steady jobs by now, a May 2012 Yale University analysis concluded that the 1999 facility is still far from meeting the original public subsidy and that it has not provided an economic boost to the city of Providence. Query whether the momentum for online shopping will eventually torpedo the present revenue growth. Getting in and out of the mall’s garage continues to be   more difficult than solving the Rubik Cube.

PAWSOX STADIUM—Putting aside the laughable traffic study which concludes that there will not be any congestion problems if the stadium is built on the 195 land, the underlying report is a ghost study. Nobody is allowed to see it, yet “information” leaks out about its content, like how    much it will cost to move a shaft system for the Narragansett Bay Commission which the report allegedly pegs at 3 times less than the original cost years ago. No back-up is provided for its conclusion that the stadium would bring in millions of dollars beyond its cost. No figures are given for the relocation costs of the sewage system or just how much it would cost future tenants/owners to hook-up to a new site. A Holy Cross economist analyzed the assertions made by the owners and the ”floated facts” look like Swiss cheese by the time he finished.

Yet, one man wants the stadium and he happens to be RI Speaker of the House. Apparently, his edifice complex is all that counts. Look for another “consultant study” to justify another boondoggle. Rhode Island operates on fiction.

Arlene Violet is an attorney and former RI attorney general.