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The mayor wouldn't know responsible government if it smacked him in the head. $1,000 bonuses are a slap in the face to taxpayers. I am in no way against the city unions, nor do I spend much time bashing them. However it would be foolish not to cite that part of the reason this city was in the hole to begin with was because of the lavish contracts city employees were given . The state has trimmed its workforce, reduced pension benefits, increased health care contributions in a massive way. This city has had zero meaningful reforms. The city's "pension reform" as the mayor calls it only effected new hires. Which means the actual reforms won't be seen for years and years.

On the school side yes the school department has a spending problem. The spending however is on the administration side, and the mayor doesn't have the stones to come out and say that. No one has a vision for education in this city. The vision of closing schools is incredibly short sighted. Sure the folks in favor of consolidation will say that is the reason we do not have all day K or a middle school model in this city. The truth is we have made no effort to implement either to this point, and to say that not consolidating secondary schools is the reason is far from the truth.

As far as his stance on road repairs the mayor ought to be embarrassed. If you took a poll of Warwick voters I'd imagine that a strong majority of them feel roads ought to be a priority. Roads are an essential part of responsible government. The people pay taxes and at the very least, deserve to drive to work everyday without having to worry about hitting a pot hole that costs them $200 or more to fix. For the mayor to say we should let the voters approve bonds...find me a voter who wouldn't be in favor of road repairs? Instead we're going to punt road repairs 3 or 4 years into the future.

The city council members who voted to sustain this veto ought to be out front and very public on why they made this decision. They owe a big explanation to the taxpayers of this city. The mayor should be ashamed of himself too. The political rhetoric he uses about "responsible government" obviously never entered his mind when he was taking $3.5 million out of the general fund. Taxes go up, the general fund gets depleted, the unfunded pension liability remains massive and unsustainable, but hey...at least city employees get their $1,000 bonus.