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Fed up, you mentioned the standards listed under FSA for state intervention, and I explained that the city doesn't meet those. Now you're changing the topic.

Unless Judge Flanders has been appointed by the state to oversee Warwick's finances, his opinion is just that -- an opinion.

From what I read about his presentation, Flanders used Central Falls as an example; Warwick is nowhere near being in that kind of condition. The recent reval shows that the city had a good part of its residential property that went up in value (and thus can be taxed more). Central Falls had several decades of falling property values, as I recall, meaning it basically ran out of the capacity to raise taxes. That's why the state took over the schools; the city couldn't pay for them any more.

And if Warwick declared a "fiscal emergency," some state bureaucrat would tell the mayor and city council to address the problem by raising taxes and cutting services first, and then determine whether a more intrusive state intervention is needed.

Warwick has the capacity to fix the problems itself.

What it doesn't have right now is elected officials who are willing make the tough decisions.

That's not enough to justify the state taking over the city's finances, no matter what a retired judge might say.

You can call for the state to get involved all you want, but the result will be much, much worse than if Solomon and the council did the tough work themselves.