Report Inappropriate Comments

Today’s $350 milllion unfunded OPEB, over $400 milllion if you don’t discount since we have no assets, is the next Police/Fire 1 pension plan of the future. History will repeat itself, but conditions are going to be much worse with all the other hundreds of million of dollars in unfunded liabilities that are not recorded in any financial report.

And those liabilities are associated with the failing sewer and water infrastructure in Warwick. The department heads gave estimates just for water repairs that the city needs $20 milllion a year for the next twenty years to stop catastrophic failures.

One of the 2 main water pipes under route 95 has failed. City is running on borrowed time. It’s not if a major failure will occur, it’s when.

Sewer infrastructure repairs (40-50 year old pipe) will cost just as much as water. Where are all these funds going to come from?

Not only are property tax hikes going to be needed but on top of that massive water and sewer hikes.

Today the reports indicate that Warwick should be contributing $25 milllion a year into a OPEB Trust fund. We put $0 into it. Max tax increase provided $8.5 milllion a year.

This amount is growing exponentially each year the city fails to fund OPEB. Today over $10 milllion is being paid out of the budget for retiree healthcare.

That amount is growing at An unsustainable rate each year.

So if you believe that the stock market is going to continue to perform as at has for the last 10 years without a major hiccup, and that 16 years from now the city will have an extra $25 milllion to spend, keep mind we need $25 milllion today and ever year for the next twenty years to cover just for OPEB costs,

It’s nice to be optimistic but it’s also prudent to be realist.

City won’t last as it is today under the provisions of all these benefits, existing debt and infrastructure failing over the next 16 years, on top of the potential hundreds of milllions in new general obligation bond debt being considered by the city to pave our roads and possible build a new $180 million high school.

I guess I would be hopeful that everything will work out if I was a city employee. However I just don’t see this working out without major restructuring of benefits.

One thing that many people are doing in the city and I plan on doing it myself is use my feet and leave the city once the city slips into the death spiral and to a point of no return.