Thursday, February 14, 2013
Board to discuss how to assess bills to add 4.5 percent onto 2012 levy on Tuesday.
Editor's note: The total $14.5 million deficit figure comes from the $10 million cumulative deficit, combined with the $4.5 million the Budget Commission added to the School Department budget in 2012, bringing schools up to $66.9 million. After months of audits and meetings, Woonsocket has a five-year plan to solve its $14.5 million deficit, including a smaller supplemental tax increase added to the base than proposed last year. The "more modest" supplemental tax would add $2.1 million more to this year's budget, a 4.5 percent increase on the 2012 tax levy, said Tax Assessor Chris Celeste. He noted the city has already taxed up to the state's 4 percent increase limit this year. At the Feb. 4 Budget Commission meeting, City Finance …
Friday, February 1, 2013
Savings through concessions will be city's first, biggest hurdle in multi-faceted plan.
Editor's note: The total deficit figure comes from the $10 million cumulative deficit, combined with the $4.5 million the Budget Commission added to the School Department budget in 2012, Finance Director Thomas Bruce said, bringing it up to $66.9 million. The City's $14.5 million deficit can be dispelled with union concessions, cost cutting and a "deficit reduction legislative package" including a smaller supplemental tax than proposed in 2012, said City Finance Director Thomas Bruce. If most of those elements don't fall in place before June 30, the deadline for sending out tax bills, Woonsocket will find itself in the same boat as last year, when $12 million in state aid had to be advanced by the Budget Commission to keep the School …
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Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Law currently calls for unfunded liability to be paid off in five years.
The Budget Commission reviewed an initial 5-year budget plan Tuesday, voting to analyze it to see how taking 30 years to pay the $42 million unfunded pension liability instead of five would affect the numbers. One thing was certain to members: Woonsocket can't afford to pay it off in five. Any change to the 5-year plan will have to be followed up by a change to state law, said Jennifer Findlay, CPA and state-appointed financial advisor to the Budget Commission from the Division of Municipal Finance. During the meeting, Findlay explained that state law requires, in the event the city falls behind on its payments to pensions, that they make it up in five years. From the 2011 report, Pension and OPEB Plans Administered by Rhode Island …
Monday, December 31, 2012
Here are the stories that got the most attention this year
The year is all but over, with a lot of newsworthy and interesting stories in the City on the Move - here's a list of the top 10 most popular pieces of news to appear on Woonsocket Patch: Anthony Lescarbeau's death while fleeing Woonsocket Police - Attorney General Peter Kilmartin's office and the RI State Police are still investigating a fatal crash June 14 caused when Anthony Lescarbeau, 33, fled Woonsocket Police during a traffic stop. A claim filed by attorney Ronald J. Resmini on behalf of Lescarbeau's three minor children alleges police acted on misinformation in the pursuit. 2 - City Council OKs 13 Percent Tax Hike - The ill-fated initiative failed without the support of local legislators, who said the city needed to focus more on…
Friday, September 21, 2012
Tricia Mallozzi recommended by review committee comprised of city, school, state officials.
The Woonsocket Budget Commission approved the hiring of Tricia Mallozzi as the School Department's new financial controller Thursday afternoon. The apparently inadequately executed duties of the financial controller position, resulting in the lack of accurate tracking of School Department spending, has been blamed for much of the disarray of School accounts. In March, City Finance Director Thomas Bruce told Woonsocket Patch the school department had not balanced its checkbook since last July. Business Manager Stacy Busby left in Februrary after it became clear the surplus she'd assured officials of was actually a deficit. The city's $15 million cumulative deficit, according to City Finance Director Thomas Bruce, comes from a previous $8…
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Monday, September 17, 2012
Commission cautions citizens to be ready for a long haul, with a supplemental tax.
During Thursday's Budget Commission meeting, Budget Commission member Peder Schaefer told a sparse group of spectators the panel had made progress in figuring out how to fix Woonsocket's projected $15 million cumulative deficit. Actually fixing it is going to take a little while longer than some might expect, though. "We're not going to get there this year," Schaefer told the audience, which seemed nearly equally spread among citizens and Department of Revenue representatives. "That doesn't mean you can't get there over a period of years,' though, Schaefer said, "We're making good progress in knowing what we need to do to get there." Also, Budget Commissioner and City Council President John Ward said citizens should not expect the …
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Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Challenger says local legislators should be more involved in the city's affairs.
Michael Morin, Woonsocket native, president of the firefighter's union, son of former WHS principal George Morin and Ann Morin, said Rep. Lisa Baldelli-Hunt's (D-Dist. 49) recent votes have been out of touch with the city's best interests. In fact, Morin said, many of the city's state representatives seem distant during Woonsocket's crisis. "They should be involved in what's going on in the city and they're not," he said. But Morin, a firefighter since 1987, said he decided to run against Baldelli-Hunt after a recent vote tabling a measure to reverse a 2006 tax cut for people making more than $250,000. "I think the straw was her flip-flopping on the tax equity bill," Morin said. The bill, H-7729, was included as an amendment to the …
Friday, August 3, 2012
Commission members answer Council's questions, take suggestions.
The Woonsocket Budget Commission met with the City Council Thursday night to take questions, briefly discussing an Aug. 16 public hearing about the School Committee's June request for a RI Department of Education (RIDE) takover. Though RIDE has not responded to the request, Carolyn Dias, RIDE's chief of fiscal integrity and efficiencies, has stepped in to aid the department in straightening out its proposed budget. Commission member Council President John Ward observed Dias has led the budget presentations to the Budget Commission since she began helping the department. After the meeting, he said RIDE seems focused on helping the district straighten out its budget proposal first. "I think they haven't formulated a response yet," Ward …
Monday, July 30, 2012
Sequino: Most of savings in budget likely to come from benefit negotiations, supplemental tax will also be necessary.
The Woonsocket Budget Commission met briefly this morning, discussing how to lay the groundwork for talks with the city's unions, where Chairman Bill Sequino says the bulk of the panel's cutting will take place. Once those talks (which will likely begin next week) are finished, Sequino said, the Commission will also have to work to pass a supplemental tax bill. Both cuts and increased tax revenue will be required to solve the city's deficit, Sequino said. "It can't be one or the other," Sequino said. The savings will have to focus primarily on benefits for the city's union employees, he said, since there is little to cut from the city's budget and the school budget, in the final review stage, is largely finished. On Thursday, Sequino …
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Friday, July 20, 2012
Judge dismissed case challenging fairness of state funding formula.
Woonsocket's attempt to address one of the factors officials say led to the city's latest deficit — state aid which does not adequately help fund city schools — met a dead end last week when Superior Court Associate Justice Netti C. Vogel dismissed the case. The suit, Woonsocket School Committee, et al v. The Honorable Lincoln Chafee, et al, alleges the General Assembly has failed to provide adequate funding to meet obligations they've mandated during the last 15 years. Vogel upheld the constitutionality of the state funding formula in the decision without taking on the question of the fairness of state aid distribution to urban communities, stating it is not the court's place to intervene in General Assembly actions. In the decision, …
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Nelson Aldrich
11:15 am on Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Right you are Steve,how could we expect anyone who didn't see this train wreck coming to fix it? more ›