Gov.-elect Lincoln Chafee will hold a daylong budget summit next month to kick-start discussions of how to close Rhode Island’s $300 million projected deficit for the fiscal year that starts July 1, WPRI.com has confirmed.

The tax-and-spending conference is tentatively scheduled for Friday, Dec. 17, but that date isn’t official yet, Chafee spokesman Mike Trainor told me on Tuesday. The presenters and participants will be “an interdisciplinary group” that will include legislative leaders and fiscal experts, he said. The event may be held at URI’s rustic W. Alton Jones campus in West Greenwich.

Chafee frequently said on the campaign trail that he would “fix the budget mess” if elected governor, and he blamed local aid cuts at the state level for rising property taxes in cities and towns across Rhode Island.

“The highest priority that Gov.-elect Chafee has is to address in a meaningful way is the systemic budget deficit that we are facing,” Trainor said. “That’s job one.” The new administration must submit its proposed budget to the General Assembly by early February.

New budget estimates released earlier this month project that Rhode Island’s $7.8 billion budget has a nearly $300 million shortfall for the state’s 2011-12 financial year, exacerbated by the expiration of federal aid from the 2009 stimulus law. Even larger deficits are projected in the fiscal years after that.

News of the budget summit comes as Chafee continues to put together the senior staff who will join his administration in January.

Chafee has picked Patrick Rogers, his campaign chairman and longtime ally, to serve as his chief of staff and top legal adviser, Projo.com reported this morning. He also tapped Stephen Hourahan to be his senior adviser, a new position, and Claire Richards and Joseph “Kenny” Alston to be his executive counsel. Richards and Alston will report to Rogers.