To the Editor,

Taxpayers in the City of Warwick will be facing massive property tax increases very soon. A fiscal crisis will eventually envelop the city that may very well require state intervention to rein in spending.

Small business will be especially hit hard, with new laws proposed by Mayor Picozzi and passed by the city council that place a higher tax burden on commercial property owners.

Seniors on fixed income may have to consider leaving the city when substantial portions of their disposal income are needed to pay unsustainable increasing property taxes.

The number of property, sewer and water tax delinquencies will skyrocket with page after page of tax sales listed in the local paper.

Mayor Picozzi in his budget address, hints at some of these concerns stating, “Chief among the challenges we are facing is the borrowing of substantial sums to finance the construction of two new high schools”. He notes, "this summer the city will begin borrowing for this project" and that “there will be significant interest and some principal costs associated with this borrowing". Yet he refuses to tell us how much that cost will add to our property tax bill each year.

The mayor goes on to state, “the whole effort and financial strategy to build two new high schools cannot work if the Superintendent and School Committee refuse to modify costs over the long term to reflect declining enrollment”. Yet Mayor Picozzi proposes a school budget with a $4 million increase in spending that is now at record levels. Why the mixed signals mayor? Level fund the school budget and force them to reduce spending in preparation for the construction of the two new high schools.

He also writes of his concern that student enrollment trends show a further reduction of 1,443 students to 7,033 several years before the new high schools are completed. That sentiment is a day late and a dollar short and should have been paramount in the decision to build the two new high schools in the first place.

The mayor’s sympathetic words to seniors and the promise not to “impose too great a burden on those who live on the financial margins,” should ring hollow when the fiscal 2025 budget increases spending by $9.3 million.

According to the Finance Director Peder Schaefer who testified at Monday’s budget hearings, it will take $13 million or more in new revenue just to finance the $350 million high school bonds. That amount alone on top of the average $10 million in new city and school spending over the past five years, could result in almost a triple maximum tax increase needed.

Council President Steve McAllister summed up his contempt for Warwick taxpayers when Barry Cook, president of the Warwick Taxpayers Association, was admonished for seeking answers to future borrowing costs, demanding that Cook keep questions related to “this year’s budget.”

Taxpayers opposed to this record spending and borrowing have repeatedly requested that the administration perform a long-term forecast that not only includes the cost of the new high schools, but also factors in all the other new spending required in the city and school budgets over the next five years.

That analysis would show what impact this new spending and borrowing will have on taxpayers’ property taxes. It will also allow all residents and business to calculate how much more they will be required to pay in property taxes and if they can afford to remain living and doing business in this city.

Actions speak louder than words. Too bad Mayor Picozzi did not adhere to this adage. If he did, many of these financial concerns would have been addressed years ago before he allowed spending to explode. Warwick residents would than at least know how much more their taxes would increase in future years.

Robert Cushman
Warwick

Mr. Cushman is a former Ward 1 City Councilman and member of the School Committee