Wednesday, May 8, 2013
All six members present voted to approve the bill, which is on the full Senate calendar for Thursday.
All five RI Senate Finance Committee members present voted to approve Senators Marc Cote D-Dist 24 and Roger Picard's (D-Dist. 20) supplemental tax bill, S820, Tuesday afternoon. The bill, which would allow the City of Woonsocket to raise taxes beyond the four percent cap, adding $2.5 million to the base as part of the Woonsocket Budget Commission's 5-year-plan, is now on the Senate calendar for Thursday, May 9. "The supplemental tax will be raised by increasing the levy on motor vehicles and trailers by up to twelve and seven tenths percent (12.7%) and by increasing the levy on residential real estate, including residential properties with eleven units or more by up to four and six tenths percent (4.6%) for the city’s fiscal year 2012…
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Surpluses will pare down shortfall to $1 million, Thursday's hearing will address Budget Commission plan to impose contract savings.
When citizens show up for the May 9 Budget Hearing at City Hall at 6:30 p.m., there'll be a $3.6 million deficit and a plan to change expired union contracts to fit the Budget Commission's 5-year plan waiting for them. City Finance Director Thomas Bruce said Monday that thanks to the Budget Commission's decision to add $4.5 million to the Woonsocket School Department's budget over the summer, the city's $900,000 surplus was used up, leaving a $3.6 million deficit. An additional wrinkle is a pending $500,000 payment from Synagro, which runs the city's sludge-burning incinerator on Cumberland Street, which recently notified the city it had filed for bankruptcy. At Monday's City Council meeting, Mayor Leo Fontaine said he was in talks …
Monday, April 8, 2013
Measure passed unanimously during April 1 City Council meeting.
The Woonsocket City Council voted unanimously to ask State House reps for a bill disbanding the Woonsocket Budget Commission during their April 1 meeting, an action Town Council President John Ward said was regretfully symbolic. The resolution, which asks the city's General Assembly delegates: Representatives Stephen M. Casey (D – Dist. 50), Lisa Baldelli Hunt (D – Dist. 49) and Robert D. Phillips (D – Dist. 51), Senators Marc A. Cote (D - District 24, Woonsocket, North Smithfield) and Senator Roger A. Picard(D - District 20, Woonsocket, Cumberland), to introduce legislation to disband the Woonsocket Budget Commission. The resolution also asks for companion legislation to require the state to adequately and equitably fund distressed …
42.00287
-71.51371
Woonsocket City Hall
169 Main St, Woonsocket, RI
/articles/woonsocket-city-council-votes-to-disband-budget-commission
505492
/locations/9191323
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Document fails first stab at first passage with four members present.
Editor's note: This story was written in part using audio posted on Mywoonsocket.com's "In their own words" page, where a recording of the entire meeting is available. The School Department's updated $65,957,994 draft budget failed its first passage vote March 27 after some members expressed continuing misgivings about the Budget Commission's influence over the medical insurance ($7,101,838) and dental insurance ($508,145) line items. The figures, which represent about $1 million in savings, are based on the Budget Commission's anticipated deal with unions. The state-appointed body has instructed the Woonsocket School Department to use the figures in their budget planning. Committee Member John Donlon asked Interim School Finance …
Friday, March 22, 2013
Board added funds to some line items, set to vote on document March 27.
Editor's note: This story was written in part using audio posted on Mywoonsocket.com's "In their own words" page, where a recording of the entire meeting is available. The Woonsocket School Committee reviewed a tight $65,347,290 FY14 draft budget Wednesday night based on assumed health insurance savings imposed by Woonsocket Budget Commission. While presenting the budget, Interim Finance Director Ralph Malafronte noted the document was extremely tight, with few changes over last year's budget. He also noted it was less than last year's $66,643,181 budget. "But that's all tied to some issues that are under negotiation," Malafronte said. According to the Budget Commission's 5-year plan, insurance savings under a unified system is one …
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Two meetings with General Assembly reps lead to tax hike distributed across all residential classes.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the payments required for the supplemental tax. The supplemental bill will be due one month after its mailing. Break out your calculators again, and keep them handy - Woonsocket's General Assembly members have a new supplemental tax proposal that spreads the $2.5 million burden across all residential classes. Forget the Homestead Exemption reduction - car tax combo the Budget Commission approved Feb. 26. Instead, all residential property and commercial-residential properties with 11 units or more will each get a 4.4 percent supplemental tax bill due one month after taxpayers receive their bills. Vehicle owners will get a 12.5 percent supplemental tax bill: Residential: $1.42 per $…
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Budget Commission has received about 100 letters from retirees asking questions about the new pension, healthcare rules.
There are 790 city retirees working out what static pensions and moving to either a uniform city healthcare plan or medicare will mean for their personal budgets, and most are handling that solo. Rosemary Booth Galloogly, RI Director of Revenue, explained the new pension and healthcare terms for retirees during a Feb. 25 meeting at Woonsocket High School. The changes are the retirees' part in the Budget Commission's plan to make up the city's $14.5 million deficit. Those changes are: Gallogly recommended that retirees organize and hire an attorney to arrange a binding agreement with safeguards and checks to make sure the city stays on top of its pension obligations in the future. "The vast majority, as far as I know, have not organized …
42.005089
-71.485196
Woonsocket High School
777 Cass Ave, Woonsocket, RI
/articles/many-city-retirees-on-their-own-to-navigate-new-pension-details
505160
/locations/9000211
42.00287
-71.51371
Woonsocket City Hall
169 Main St, Woonsocket, RI
/articles/many-city-retirees-on-their-own-to-navigate-new-pension-details
505492
/locations/9000212
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
One-time vehicle tax will raise $500K, Homestead drop will raise $2 million.
The Woonsocket Budget Commission voted yesterday to add $2.5 million to this year's tax levy with a one-time supplemental tax bill on vehicles at about 6.2 percent of 2012's bill and shrinking the Homestead Exemption permanently to 29.9 percent. The Commission voted to approve the new tax bills at about 4 p.m. in Harris Hall at City Hall. State law doesn't allow the city to keep the vehicle tax that high perpetually, so subsequent years will raise the entire extra $2.5 million annually needed to balance the city's books entirely from lowering the Homestead Exemption, this time to 27.5 percent. The move is a combination of elements of several options outlined by Tax Assessor Chris Celeste during the last Budget Commission meeting, …
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Pensioners asked to accept frozen payments, enroll in Medicare as third part of deficit fix.
About 200 pensioners and beneficiaries crowded into Woonsocket High's auditorium Monday to hear a tough choice: accept frozen pension payments and new health care or take their chances with a city bankruptcy. The 700-person capacity room (only 185 signed in as retirees) had few open seats and a handful of people standing in the back as Rosemary Booth Gallogly, RI's director of revenue, laid out the details on their part of the solution to the city's deficit, which also includes sacrifice from taxpayers (the new supplmental tax) and city employees (union concessions on healthcare). The retirees' part in the plan to make up the city's $14.5 million deficit requires: If retirees don't agree to those terms, Galloogly said, that would leave …
42.005089
-71.485196
Woonsocket High School
777 Cass Ave, Woonsocket, RI
/articles/woonsocket-retirees-offered-choice-between-new-pension-healthcare-and-bankruptcy
505160
/locations/8890733
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Suspended COLAs, switch to Medicare for retirees needed as part of city's 5-year plan to solvency.
"The overall financial condition of this city is severe," said Finance Director Thomas Bruce, and the solution involves bad news for Woonsocket's 780 retirees and beneficiaries as well as its taxpayers. On Monday, 3 p.m. at Woonsocket High School, the city and the Woonsocket Budget Commission will host an informational meeting to lay out the city's situation and retiree/beneficiaries' anticipated role in the solution. Among the pieces of bad news people can expect to hear, Bruce said, is the elimination of the 3 percent Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for retirees. According to a city letter sent to retirees and beneficiaries (see attached .pdf), Woonsocket's pension plan is critically under-funded at 56.7 percent ($58 million of a $98…
Mew
11:24 pm on Thursday, May 9, 2013
Memere, these two should have been voted out many years ago, they have just been sitting in the G/A collecting a great medical ins. and fattening up their pension. we never heard from them, they woke up and this is what they are handing Woon. residents. And watch out fior Baldelli Hunt, remember her brother the mayor??? His legacy to woon. is the CA CA plant on Cumb. Hill Rd more ›