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@jackiemama63:

In 2006 the School Committee developed a plan whereby $25 million in bonds would be borrowed and $5 million spent each year for 5 years to make all fire code and other capital improvements (roofs, boilers, locker rooms, auditorium) in schools throughout the district. At the time I believe a large percentage of every dollar spent by Warwick would be matched with state funds, making the repairs cheaper for the city, provided the borrowing and projects were completed by specific dates. That never happened.

During the 2006 election Warwick voters overwhelming approved of the borrowing. With the plans in place and the first phase of the construction projects ready to go to bid, the Mayor suddenly without warning suspended all future borrowing as a result of a serious financial crisis developing in the city. You may not recall this but during this time Warwick's bond rating was under pressure for a down grade from rating agencies because of the large liabilities on the books.

The Mayor could not guarantee that the city could pay the principal and interest on any new borrowing. So what did he do? He simply suspended it without any regard or plan focusing on the long term infra-structure repairs needed in the schools. That in my opinion is very poor leadership and if you recall resulted in one controversy over the failing Pilgrim roof back in 2007.

During that same time period retiree benefit legacy costs continued to explode and new local property taxes and car taxes continued to increase to pay for these costs and to make up for the cut in state aid to the city budget. It’s amazing that during 2008 and on, with the stock market crash and Warwick citizen's disposal income being reduced, requiring everyone to cut back, that city spending continued to grow to record levels each year even with the cut in state aid.

Local tax dollars to support city budget:

2008 - $67,056,675

2009 - $76,149,571

2010 - $78,525,638

2011 - $79,566,667

2012 - $93,836,460 ($14.3 million increase from previous year)

2013 - $96,383,368 (projected)

2014 - $99,568,368 (Mayor proposed budget)

Local tax dollars to support school budget:

2008 - $118,064,827

2009 - $118,064,827

2010 - $123,968,468 (federal stimulus dollars)

2011 - $125,010,374 (federal stimulus dollars)

2012 - $118,171,303

2013 - $118,644,632 (projected)

2014 - $118,644,632 (Mayor proposed budget)

What the Mayor and the City Council did was simply raise local taxes to not only offset the state cuts but to allow for increased city spending. From 2004 through 2012 the state reduced aid to Warwick by $15 million; however local property taxes were increased by $52 million, over three times the cuts.

Over that same period of time local tax dollars to the school department was cut. For example in the 2012 fiscal year alone, $14.3 million more in local revenue was all allocated to the city budget while $6.8 million or 5% of the school budget was cut. The Mayor and the council took the $6.8 million and allocated it to the city budget. If the school budget was simply level funded over the past three years the schools would have had over $20 million to make the fire safety and other capital improvement repairs without borrowing a dime.

But what did we hear every year from the Mayor and the city council leadership at budget time when the School Committee submitted a budget requesting more funds: "School spending is out of control". The strategy of the Mayor and some council members was to create this impression to hide the fact that in reality city spending was out of control and they did not want to tackle the elephant in the room associated with making reforms to control city employee legacy cost escalations.

The bottom line as you have alluded to is that a sustainable long term plan to meet the educational needs of our children is needed. That will require millions of dollars in investment by city leaders in the school system.

Unfortunately the current city leaders will never think long term and develop this plan because to do so will require major reforms by them to control spending associated with retired employee benefits. When over 50 cents of every new tax dollar allocated to the city budget over the last ten years, pays for pension and free lifetime healthcare for retired employees and less than 6 cents of every new dollar is allocated to non-personnel related city expenses, something needs to change.

It's time to elect new leadership in Warwick. I won't hold my breath on that to happen anytime soon.

From: Where’s expertise, long-range vision?

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